Camp Reed

Excerpts from Camp Reed:

Voices drifting up from the basement family room where Alison and Alex are arguing over what to name a new virtual pet on her Littlest Pet Shop game.

"Alex! I don't want to name him Alex."

"But I want to."

"No, Alex, He's a Boston Terrier. I want to name him Boston."

"Please, Ali? I want to name him Alex."

Editor's note: many of our virtual pets carry names of Alison's friends. Her two live fish are named Alison and Grace. Jenna (an earlier fish) sadly, bit it and Ali thought it was too sad to name the replacement fish after Jenna again.

"No. I want to name him Boston."

Alex apparently was at the controls and was quickly filling in the name: A-L...

"Alex, I WILL unplug this computer!"

"Awwwwww. OK."


*****

"Hey, Alex, I got in Big Trouble because of that stack of papers you knocked off the table."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?

"Well my dad yelled at me for like 40 minutes."

"Really? Wow. At least he didn't ground you."

"Yeah. Usually, he grounds me for like three days of screen time and makes me write sentences

"Oh my gosh. Really??"

"Well. That's for when I get a conduct cut. That's why I try not to get conduct cuts..."

****

In the car, Hannah was reading from Captain Underpants to Alex and Ali. She's probably gotten through three pages before they got antsy.

"Hey, Alex. Want to see the flip-o-rama in this book?"

"Sure!"

Flip, flip. Giggle. Giggle.

"Hey guys. I'm reading here," reminds Hannah.

Flip, flip. Giggle. Giggle.

Hannah and I agreed that her strategic error was in allowing them options.

****

They played on the woodpile for part of the afternoon, turning it into a wooded castle. They took turns playing King, Queen and Princess and jumping all around and from it.

At one point, Hannah comes running around the corner to jump for safety.

"I made it to the pastle. I mean the calace!" she shouted.

After that, they became pings, krincesses and peens.

***

We spent a few hours at the Indianapolis Childrens Museum and I camped outside each exhibit and let them have the run of the place. We've been there dozens of times and I'm pretty sure I've explored every corner of the dinosphere at least six times. It's great, but I opted to read a book while they got lost in time.

The entry way is different since we'd last been, and it wasn't well received. Used to, you walked into a huge, sunny room dominated by the famous water clock. Now, you enter into a still sunny but more commercial looking area where you buy tickets and can patronize the museum store.

"I don't like this," Alex said.

"Yeah. Me neither," said Alison.

I asked what it was they didn't like.

"It looks like it's for adults now," they agreed.

Once inside, they were OK, but I had to agree with them.

***

We started out the day attending a rally at the Statehouse where our legislators are fighting over the state budget. The rally was to encourage them to spend more on schools and less on other stuff.

Karin and Dale met us there. Hannah, at 10, was more inclined to at least pretend to listen than were Ali and Alex who were more focused on lunch.

It was strange to be there but not awful. It's good to see people involved in the democratic process and it's a great thing to expose kids to.

And we got to have lunch downtown...