Homecoming

Today was Micah's first trip to Philly to go to an event at Penn.  This morning Thea had her soccer game.  Another victory for the Ravens, even with three players out.  Next week they play the Blue Jays, against Thea's GoalFest teammate, Lauren - the winning streak may come to an end, because that little girl is a scoring machine.

Thea and I ran home after the game to pick up Micah and unload the muddy soccer gear and then we hit the road.  On the way we practiced saying "Philadelphia" with Micah, so when he saw the skyline he said, "Is THAT Phil-A-del-PHIA?"  He was very excited.

Homecoming events were already underway, so we went to the registration desk.  Many, many thanks go to the woman at the alumni registration who gave us an extra badge and scarf; I had originally thought that I'd just bring Micah, but Thea loved Homecoming last year so she wasn't going to let herself be left behind.

We made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the bookstore, which Micah, a lover of all things retail, really got into before we went to the Food Tent.   The best vegetarian chili, hamburgers, pasta.  Thea was into chili and pasta, Micah was into collecting pom-poms and practicing with the megaphones that were the table decor.

Then, The Button.  It's been a part of every trip to campus since Thea could walk, so now it was time to introduce Micah.  He loved it, promptly jumping to the ground from the highest point.  Twenty minutes later, they were still climbing, sliding, jumping and weaving in and out of the buttonholes.  Thirty minutes later, same.  Finally we made our way through College Green and up to the statue of Ben Franklin sitting on a bench, but no photo for our holiday card came out of it.  Thea wanted nothing to do with Ben, he's right up there with the Terra Cotta Warriors that were around the lower entrance of the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou in her book.  So we moved on to the trolley car at the entrance of the eastbound side of the 37th Street station where they entertained themselves for another 15 minutes.

Throughout this trip we had no spatting, no crabbing, no whining - if the Food Tent had had better chocolate desserts, it would have been a perfect afternoon.

When we got home, Thea wanted to watch a Pokemon DVD and Micah asked her if he could watch, too and 'snuggle with you and be cozy.'  It was just too cute, especially since Thea didn't balk and Micah wanted to stay glued to her.  They both disappeared upstairs with the DVD player and I didn't hear from them for over an hour. 

After dinner Micah and I were upstairs and an NJ Transit train went through with a very low rumble and Micah heard it because he asked, 'Is that a train going by?'  First time he ever acknowledged (to me, at least) hearing a train while he was inside the house.

Good day, all around.