With a rare free Saturday this past weekend, we drove up to the Milwaukee to visit the Driscolls! Tommy and JJ hadn’t seen each other since we both moved from South Bend, Derek and Rob wanted to watch the ND-Navy game together, and Kathy and I had plenty of catching up to do on our pregnancies and all sorts of interesting mom-type conversation!
Friday night was a nightmare (the good thing about visiting friends with kids the same age is that they totally understand when your child screams for a solid hour and keeps everyone up past 11 pm), but Saturday was totally worth the pain! They took us to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in downtown Milwaukee, and the boys just went to town with all the great exhibits. Tommy loved all the cars and trains he could climb into; JJ was entranced by all the ball-related exhibits. Of course they had to take some time at the little train set, too. I’m wondering if there’s such a museum around Chicago…otherwise, we’ll definitely be taking a day trip up to Milwaukee again some day when I’m about to lose my sanity at home!
In the little kid section of the museum, Tommy played with teacups while they played “I’m a Little Teacup,” pulled muffins out of a tin while listening to “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”, and wound a mouse around a clock with “Hickory Dickory Dock” playing in the background. I’m pretty sure there was a sophistocated explanation for why nursery rhymes are so great, but it basically inspired me to get out some of our books of nursery rhymes because I think he’s ready for them now!
Tommy and JJ had so much fun playing together. It’s so great that basically all boys from 18 mo-3 yrs have an obsession with cars and trucks and trains. Entertainment is easy! I credit early Indian Lakes play dates with JJ with Tommy learning to sit up and roll over. Maybe some of JJ’s mad verbal skills (he knows his alphabet and a ton of animals and sings all sorts of songs) will rub off on Tommy, too!
And as a great ending to a great trip, look at what we paid for gas just before the Illinois border! Those of you who live in reasonable parts of the country might not see how amazing that is, but I paid SIXTY-FOUR cents a gallon more at my last fill-up in Chicago. Yay for Wisconsin gas prices and Hillsdale-ND-Wisconsin friends!=)