Walk Around

Most weekday mornings, one of us has the opportunity to spend about an hour alone with #4 before we take him to preschool. We walk alot. We walk at the Botanical Garden. We walk at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. We walk in the fancy Whole Foods and eat free samples. But most of all, we spend a lot of time walking at the state capitol.

We have been very blessed by the fact that our preschool is located right across the street from the Capitol. All four of our kids have grown up walking the halls, rolling down the hills and playing in the sprinklers of this beautiful state treasure. Lots of times the preschool teachers will take the kids over to run and play on the west lawn and they even bring a wagon to roll down the hill. We are so lucky.

So anyhow, back to the morning adventures...

Our #4 loves to walk at the capitol. He knows by name many of the rooms (Senate Gallery, House Chamber, etc., etc.) We go into the chapel most mornings just to check in. The guards are very friendly with him because most of them recognize him. He opens new doors and is always trying new hallways. He and JC even found a staircase that takes us down below the rotunda.

This morning we were trying a new (to us) staircase and we ended up on the Speaker's hallway. #4 peeked in a half open door that was the entry to a gigantic beautiful kitchen. While he was checking out the kitchen, I was reading a newspaper that was sitting on a table outside another door. A man in a suit came up to me (now keep in mind, we are the only people on the floor) and said that this is the speaker's newspaper. As if I was gonna take it or something. It was very comical!

We try to read all of the markers on each statue. This morning we were reading one about World War II. His is really listening to what I am saying and then he makes a comment that he noticed that there are lots of statues for that war. I say yes, and he says he thought that World War II was a game. I say no. Then he says, 'was the bad guy a robber?' I say 'kinda, yes.' We talk a little more about the bad guy and how our army protected us and our country and other countries that we are friends with. And he says 'Was the bad guy kinda like the bad guy that took Frosty's hat?' I just smiled and said 'your right-he was kind of like that mean man.'