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.