It's Such a Perfect Day, I'm Glad I Spent it With You (HOL 45)

House of Laughter 45

I’m starting to think that we have a really cute kid. Don’t get me wrong, I always thought Isaac was cute, but I’m his dad. He could have a third eye, and a horn growing out of his forehead and I’d still think he is cute. There is no way I can be objective. Neither family nor friends (well maybe Alex Wayne) would tell us directly if we had a butt ugly kid either. But complete strangers tell us how cute he is almost daily. I think it is time to start entering him into pageants.

Nancy got a surprising shock from daycare this week that almost put her in tears. In the next two weeks, Isaac will be moving into the toddler room. I think it is pretty exciting. I think of him less as a baby now and more as a little kid. He also clearly told one of his teachers “No!” the other day. Nancy is not looking forward to the “No” stage.

This morning, Isaac and I went to the Natural Science Center. It was his second trip, but his first one where he could walk. This makes a huge difference. In a stroller, he is a passive observer. Now that he is walking, he is getting into everything. When we first arrived, we watched a huge kinetic sculpture for a few minutes. It is a large metal and wire system of tracks, bells, trampolines and loops, that sends a ball down a seemingly random path every few seconds. Unfortunately, we had just missed the traveling exhibit about monster trucks. They do have an exhibit about money but Isaac wasn’t at all interested.

The next exhibit was very cool though. It was all about insects. There were large fiberglass bugs everywhere, and the best part was that we got to see a Madagascar hissing cockroach give birth. The museum is undergoing some badly needed renovations, so the petting zoo was moved inside. Isaac petted a ferret, and sat on my lap while we watched five tortoises eat their lunch. The big hit of the day though was the dinosaur room. They have stegosaurus and triceratops skeletons and a life size model of a T-rex. The T-rex was Isaac’s favorite. He stood at the dinosaur’s feet and stared right up at it. It would periodically make growling noises, but Isaac never flinched.

In the afternoon, Nancy joined us and we drove to City Park in Burlington, NC. City Park has a few small amusement rides, a carousel, and a train ride. When we first arrived, I approached a family, and told them that this was our first time, and asked where we bought the tickets. The family was just leaving and handed me enough tickets for all of us. The three of us rode the train and carousel. Isaac rode in a truck convoy ride. There was an airplane ride that Nancy was a little leery of, but I convinced her it would be fine. There were seatbelts, and the child controlled the height of the plane. Since Isaac couldn’t reach the controls, his little “Red Baron” plane just taxied in a circle for three minutes. Everything was fine until two thirds of the way through the ride, all of the planes extended to their full height (about 15 feet up).

Nancy was not amused. Isaac seemed to love it. He also did all of the slides on the playground, even the tall spiral slide. He would get off and try to climb back up for another ride. Wow, he can be a lot of fun. Now I just have to get him to mow the yard.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt

Best Picture Ever

This is one of my favorite pictures. I have it on my desk at work.

Rhythm and Bruise (HOL 44)

House of Laughter 44

Now that Isaac is walking around, he actually needs a helmet. Nancy got a call from the daycare yesterday that Isaac had fallen and will have a large bruise on the side of his head when she picks him up that afternoon. Sure enough he has a large bluish black spot over his left eye and temple. Otherwise he is fine.

With school back in session, Isaac is on a pretty regular schedule. This is good in that he now sleeps through the night every night. The bad thing is that I know that I have exactly two hours to see him from the time I get off work. We hang out in the morning some as well, but most of that time is spent trying to keep him from eating garbage while I shave and eat breakfast.

I started saying “No!” loudly whenever I catch him doing something he shouldn’t. I then pick him up and move him to something that is okay for him to do. Last night, Nancy and I were trying to eat dinner. He kept coming over and trying to play in our food. I would say “No!” loudly and firmly, and pick him up and put him over with his toys. (Isaac inherited a surprisingly large collection of beer coasters from me. He may not ever recognize Elmo, but he will sure know the St. Pauli girl.)

I see why parents don’t want to raise their voice at children. I want him to be happy, and it would be a lot easier to just give him some food off of my plate. Thankfully whenever I feel a twinge of guilt about raising my voice, I think of the hundreds of little darlings I’ve seen at restaurants, stores, and museums who walk all over their parents. When I raise my voice, Isaac gives me a pitiful look, and then sensing that it has no effect on me, goes back to playing.

We took Isaac to his first football game last week. He seemed to enjoy most of it, but kickoff was right about when he normally takes a nap. He napped through most of the third quarter. Football is one of the few television shows we all watch together. Last year when Nancy and I would yell and cheer for the Panthers or Gators, Isaac would get startled and cry. He seems to enjoy it now and cheers along with us.

Right now his two favorite toys are a farm puzzle, and a plastic cube that my sister gave us. He takes all of the pieces of the farm puzzle, stuffs them into the cube, empties the cube, and repeats the process.

For the last few days, whenever Isaac sees a cat, he says the word “cat” (There are enough of the damned things around our house.) This is pretty consistent, so I think he actually associates “cat” with “small black and white furry thing that leaves dead birds at our back door”. I think for the history books, “Cat” will be the first word. (Sure he said “Duck”, but that was with much prompting, and he was probably just mimicking. “Cat” comes on it’s own with no provocation.)

Strength and Honor
Big Matt

Children's Museum (HOL 43)

House of Laughter 43

We finally took Isaac to the children’s museum. He seemed to enjoy himself. He enjoyed the “Grocery Store” section. He loaded baskets with bread and then emptied them, and would fill them again. He got to do his first “Ball pit” as well. He was a little nervous at first, but then set to the task of dumping every ball out. Nancy and I kept shoveling them back in.

There were some obnoxious children there. A three year old got into the ball pit with Isaac, picked up a ball and hit a much smaller baby in the head with a ball. I gave his mom the “I hate you” look. She just said “That’s some good aim!” I said “Real Cute Kid” as sarcastically as I could. She took her little darling to another area to play.

Isaac has said a few new words. His teachers at daycare tell us that he says “Block” and “Dog”. I’ve heard him say “Cat” and “Cow”. Unfortunately, the only word that he says perfectly is “Shit”. He will sit and play and say “Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit”. Nancy is mortified. I can live with it. I don’t know where he heard that word. Probably Dora the Explorer.

Nancy and I had a bit of a parenting disagreement today. Isaac really enjoys climbing on things. Generally I let him, Nancy does not. I walked into the bedroom, and Isaac was standing on his rocking chair. Nancy laughingly scolded him. I asked her “Do you really not want him to stand on the chair?” She did not. I told her that I didn’t care if he did and I would enforce that rule when she wasn’t around, but if she said “No”, she couldn’t laugh and do it. I was expecting an argument, but instead she said I was right.

I just wanted to document this one incident of “rightness” for the ages.

Our daycare has a new policy for flu season. As soon as you arrive to drop the child off, you have to wash your hands and the child’s hands. I don’t know if this is just until they pass inspection, but it is a bit of a pain. I arrive, dressed for work carrying a boy, diaper bag, and bottles. I juggle the bottles and bag while I try to wash Isaac’s hands in a sink that is about two feet tall while not soaking myself (not an easy task since Isaac loves to play in water.) I’m pretty sure the daycare workers are laughing behind my back.

This last story is so cute, I would hate it if someone else told it to me, so just skip ahead to the end. In the mornings, Nancy leaves about 7:15. I lie in bed while Isaac cries for about 10 minutes (I try to console him, but I’m still half asleep myself.) This morning he stopped crying, and was playing quietly on the floor. I dozed off for a minute and woke up to a little hand tugging on my right big toe. I looked at the foot of the bed and saw a blond head and two smiling brown eyes just visible over the mattress. He would tug at my toe for about a second, and they look at me and laugh. It’s hard to be grumpy when you wake up like that.

Strength and Honor
Matthew Cravey

P.S. It turns out we left our wagon in St. Augustine. If you are going to be in the area any time soon, let me know.