Two weeks ago in school Robby learned about the assassination of
President Lincoln. From the day of his first lesson on the topic, Robby
has been enthralled and hungry for all details concerning Abraham
Lincoln being "sniped" while he was at the theater. (He is also quick to
explain that they used to call it assassination in the "olden days.")
Since he was home all last week because of bronchitis and snow, we have
had ample time to thoroughly research Abraham Lincoln's untimely death.
Not being a history buff myself, I quickly grew weary of the topic.
However, his quest for details seemed never ending so I obliged and
helped with the research.
A few days ago,
Scott surprised us with tickets to tour Ford's Theatre (the place of the
"sniping") and the Peterson House (the building in which Lincoln
ultimately died). Robby and I spent the weekend brushing up on our
Lincoln facts in preparation for our big tour on Sunday. Excited about
visiting the actual theater, Robby was the first one up on Sunday
morning. It was a big surprised to see his eager little eyes peering at
me at 6:00 in the morning, but I was also happy that he was excited to
go on the tour. After all, I don't know many seven year olds who wake up
early because they want to spend the day at a history museum!
As
we were gathering items to take with us, I became increasingly aware
that neither Scott nor Robby seemed overly concerned about the bulk and
weight of their "necessary items." Of course they didn't care; it was
all being crammed into my purse! Because of the tablets, cameras,
wallets, bottles of water, and snacks, I was toting an extra 5 pounds on
my shoulder. Between the obscenely heavy purse, the baby weight, and a
new foot which is of a higher category (hence stiffer), I was
definitely struggling to keep up with the boys as they weaved through
the foot traffic to get in line for our tour. I finally gave up and
assumed my position in the rear, knowing that neither could begin the
tour without me. After all, somewhere in my abyss of a purse were the
tickets.
Scott and I anticipated being at
the museums for 90 minutes. Afterwards, we planned to eat at Lincoln's
Waffle House before taking the train to return home. Confident that we
would be home no later than 2:00, I had planned on spending the rest of
the afternoon cleaning the house. It turns out we had completely
underestimated Robby's museum stamina!
Robby
thoroughly examined every display. He carefully listened to the
narration on our rented audio sets at each exhibit. When he learned
something new or particularly interesting, we listened to the audio
narration twice. After awhile, Scott and I simply followed in tow as he
explored the museums.
I was happy that Robby
was comfortable approaching and asking his questions or offering his
observations to the Park Ranger tour guides. After a few interactions,
the Ranger tried to trip up Robby with some trivia. My little history
buff shocked him by providing the correct answers. (Did you know what
John Wilkes Booth's last words were? Apparently Robby knew that Booth
uttered "useless, useless" because he was staring at his newly paralyzed
hands after being shot in the neck.)
What
we thought would only last 90 minutes turned into a four hour Lincoln
fact-finding mission. I definitely felt the impact both on my amputation
and my pregnancy by the time we caught our train to go home. I was
utterly exhausted and acutely aware that my previously normal gait
pattern had morphed to an awkward waddle as a result of being on my feet
all day.
For my friends wanting to see the baby bump
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