Sometimes words don't do life justice

I've never been one for planning. It alwasy seems that if I plan something, no matter how big or small, no matter how much preparation is necessary, when it comes time to actually do whatever it is that I've planned, I'm not in the mood. When I was in my late teens Steph and I bought tickets to an Alice in Chains concert. I was so excited when we got them, and looked forward to it until about the week prior. The night we were supposed to go it seemed to be so much of a pain in the rear end that it was easier to not go. I still gawk in disbelief at my utter laziness. Unfortunately, this was not the last time something like this happened. It set the stage for a lifetime struggle with laziness. I am forever battling sedentarianism.
Sometimes, though, sometimes this battle is won. Sometimes not only is this battle won, but I have such a great time that I wouldn't replace the memory for the world. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I had decided to take the day off of work, to compensate a bit for the weekend that was spent on work. At the very least I needed sleep, because Nikolai had not slept well, and had woken up at about 3:00 am because of a mystery pain. He hadn't gone to sleep until 6:00 am, so he slept until 12:30 himself. We woke up and I really just didn't have the heart to take him in to daycare at 1:00 pm, when everyone else was just going down for a nap. It seemed especially unfair since I had the day off and could spend it with him.
On a whim I decided it would be fun for the two of us to go to the Boardwalk. He had never been, and I wasn't quite sure how he would take all the noise and stimulation. I figured at the very least we could walk down to the beach and play in the sand.
As it turns out, Nikolai absolutely LOVED the boardwalk. The minute his eyes hit the big blue roller-coaster he was hooked. It was difficult to explain to him that we couldn't go on that roller coaster because he was too small. I tried and tried but he just wouldn't accept it. By some miracle the people at the boardwalk were actually smart enough to design a roller coaster that small children could go on. It goes around in two fast circles up and down a bit and tilts some, but only makes two short rounds before it's done. It's small, the track is small, and the ride is short. Just perfect for him. He was thrilled that there was a roller-coaster he could go on, and was bouncing around in line (maybe it was the cotton candy, tough to tell), trying to run up ahead of everyone in line to get on the little dragon coaster. At first he wouldn't let me hold on to him. That disappeared after we rounded the first turn. After that he was fine with my holding on to him tight, and was asking me quietly "Can you make it go slower?" Mercifully, this little coaster is probably a 40 second ride. Someone was *really* thinking. I'm very impressed with their planning, ingenuity and implementation of this perfect little thrill ride.
On our way to the dragon, however, he was captivated by the airplanes. These airplanes are attached to big rods, and the whole thing rotates around in the center much like a caroussel. Of course when the gate opened he bolted immediately to the first yellow one. He was absolutely tickled pink (meow), and this being his very first ride I was nervous that he didn't understand that this simple little rope was all that stood between him and a lot of pain if he decided that he didn't want to be in the airplane anymore before the ride was done.
My fears were, of course, silly. He understood very well. After about the 12th airplane ride I decided it was time to expand our ride horizons. We went on to the Cars. After that we tried the Boats, he didn't like those so much. Maybe it had something to do with the boat's name, "SS Corndog". After that we tried these Pepsi semi's. And then we saw the beast. The dragon coaster. He was so excited, but once we were done with the ride he didn't want to go again.
I convinced him we should go on the beach and play in the sand, but in order to get there we had to pass the airplanes again.
About another 6 rides later I convinced him to go with me to the beach.
He had a lot of fun splashing in the waves. At first he was a bit fearful of them, as they are kind of noisy, but once he saw me in them he realized that the water would retreat and not just advance. We fashioned crude sandcastles in the wet sand. He buried his car. We discovered this really cool sandcastle someone had built and abandoned. It didn't last long.

By the time we left the beach it was nearing sunset, and after another 8 airplane rides I insisted we leave for home.

What an absolutely wonderful and perfect day.

Planet Plops

The other day when I was at the store I came across this "paint and build your own 3d model of the solar system". Given Nikolai's recent facination with flight and planets I figured I could paint it for him and he could play with it gently (i.e. tear it to bits). I got the thing last Friday, thinking I could paint it over the weekend. Unfortunately I had to work all weekend, and so the painting would just have to wait. The little Solar System model box sat on my night table until just last night (Sunday), when Nikolai noticed it was there and started chirping excitedly about planets and before I could dissuade him, he had the box in his hand, and while tearing it open so fast I couldn't interject was asking me politely "Could we open it, Mama?"
I had already assembled the "model" part by putting the planet hemispheres together and poking the little metal sticks to them and then attaching them to their little posts. All that was left to do was paint the spheres with the inadequate paint colors in the box. He tore it out and started plucking planets off. I guess this is why I bought the thing, but for some reason I was feeling really attached to the idea of the planets being colorful before he played with them.

it's a good thing that's not how it went.

Last night's bath was only made possible by the presence of the planets. The planets splashed, the planets rolled, the planets almost went down the drain. They're all little white boring balls of varying sizes, but it was more exciting to him than anything he's had in a long time.

I was able to confiscate the planets secretly and they're sitting on my desk with me now. I need to get these things painted somehow. Perhaps Sergio will help me.

oh how those teens decorate themselves

On the way to gail/work/etc this morning Melissa was playing peek-a-boo with Nikolai through the gap in the headrest. They were both having fun, and Melissa was smiling big. Nikolai commented:
"Sissy, you have a necklace on your teeth!"

Poor Melissa. As if it's not already tough enough to adjust to having braces.

this took me 2 1/2 hours

Three year old Nikolai outsmarts his mother

This conversation actually happened last night on the way home:

Mama: "Sorry, sweetie. We can't go to the big yellow toy store, because we have to go home now."
Nikolai: "We live in outer space!"
Mama: "No, we don't live in outer space, we live on planet Earth!"
Nikolai: after a short pause "Planet Earth is in outer space."

I have no argument for that.

The Curse of the Big Food

Poor Melissa. The other day we went to lunch at In Vino Veritas, and she was telling me she had a terrible curse. Every time she orders food from a restaurant it's an army sized serving. I chuckled and scoffed.

No longer will I scoff. She really is cursed. Poor girl.

Check out the size of this burrito she got at Maya:

Making halloween plans

I know it's only the 1st of august, but guided by my impressively proactive friend I started looking at halloween costumes today. I found some really cute ones. A little dinosaur that roars, a cute little doggy, superman. Tonight I figured I'd query Nikolai to find out what he wanted to be for Halloween, hoping we could accomodate it somehow. So I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, and he told me quite frankly that he wanted to be an easter basket.

After we finished rolling on the floor from that one we started to take a look at other things more seriously (scooby doo, dinosaurs, etc.) and jokingly Melissa said "How about a pink kitty, Nikolai!". As you can imagine from our issues last halloween this really hit home. Now he is absolutely INSISTING on being a pink kitty.

Get this:
Matt forbids it. I never thought I'd see the day.