Father's Day Blog III

Happy Father’s Day Bob! Below is my annual Father's Day blog - favorite memories from emails and IM chats that Bob sends me throughout the year. Click here for installment one and here for installment two. 

 We read books (not library ones) and Matt made us each read separate books and alternate reading pages.

He made me take pictures of his trucks lined up in the living room while he posed on the couch and then wanted to look at the pictures of himself. We played tea party in the bath.

When we left my work Matt fell asleep before we even passed 171 and then slept until about 5. I also took a nap from 3:45 to 5.

Matt's best friends at karate are "Jack, Bill, and Buzz Lightyear".

The Easter bunny is a "fat Pepper girl". He also said "the Easter bunny didn't talk to me" which is true.

 Matt just arrived with a blanket over his head, telling me he is spooky.

Matt took one of our extra pillows to bed and he said he needs it for when he comes into our room tonight to sleep.

He's here already. "Dad I'm sneezing so much" (after one sneeze). He's here with every blanket and stuffed dog he owns.

He also told me at bath time that he would like to wear underwear to bed. I told him the 3 of us would talk about it and then he cried that I had to carry him to dinner because he broke his feet.

           

I covered Pepper but only because Matt burst into tears when I told him we were going to let her get rained on.

Matt told me "Diesel the girl" visited today (Hazel). We played post office. There is a large pile of crinkled construction paper on his art desk. That was the wrapping paper for the "packages" we mailed.

Matt asked if we could go on our trip "this evening". I told him 5 more days.

"Those are mad thunderstorms," Matt.

One of Mamie's kids came over to show Matt a giant beetle he caught. Not an Asian Longhorn Beetle thankfully. He calls you "Jessie Porsche" and he is "Buzz Lightyear Stickers". Stickers for Lighting Mcqueen and Porsche for Sally

Just went to check on Matt and he is sleeping on his floor. which was not where I put him to bed.

Came home and took apart your camera then threw it away.

At dinner when he wanted more milk, he told me he was a "thirsty thirsty hippo".

When it came time to pick up and he was annoying. He wanted his Spiderman happy meal toy to help put each thing away, which was going so slow that we would have been there till 10PM

He insists on staying up all night so that Jesse will take him to The Claw's birthday party when she gets home.

Matt was good tonight. He helped me put up the new light fixture in the laundry room. Actually he mostly rode his scooter around in there.

This morning, I think he was in the hallway waiting for the alarm clock because as soon as it went off, he came running and said "oh is that our alarm? “

Matt just snuck into our room. His giggling gave him away

Matt's here again. He can't find spider man.

We mostly played sequence which took forever because he insisted the mailman truck would deliver the colored chips.

It’s kind of funny to think I took Matt to Patriots when he was 3 months old. He was so tiny and just a blob who did nothing.

He saw a cut on my thumb and asked what it was. I told him it was from working outside this weekend. He said "oh did a chipmunk come and try to give you a hug?"

Thomas and Hiro played cash register. I wasn't allowed to touch the cash register, only the trains could and they congratulated each other for playing the games well.

He colored and made some goodbye cards for Marin and Andrew. The one to Marin says:

I like to run and play tag and hide and go seek with you. And trip and fall down. That's our game. I drew a picture of Maine for you. And there is ice." The one to Andrew says: "I like to jump up in the sky with you and fall down and jump. And monster truck crush cars and space ship toys. I like your toys and want to say "no that's mine!". I like all your toys"

He said he needed to go to bed so he would have energy to think about Boston tomorrow.

We have a weird kid! He told me he hasn't slept good recently because Hiro talks to him at night.

When I got there he was playing cars with another boy that Matt wants to come over for a playdate. He doesn't know his name, just that he wears a white shirt.

Matt is reading books in his room by flashlight, he picked up your love of books.

We went to get stamp. Zurg came too. Oh first Zurg called Buzz Lightyear on the phone to tell him he was going to the toy store.

Ms. Joanne said they had circle time and each kid was introducing himself and he introduced himself as Buzz which she thought was very funny.

At home we had to let Zurg out of the garage to go to school (he goes to night school).

You got a Victoria's Secret coupon book in the mail which Matt called "boobies and bums" and said "don't tell Jessie we like bad words".

Matt kept saying to me tonight "show me the car fax".

When we got home, he told me he had so much fun at the special day at Friendly's so it was worth it.

He said, “This spaceship smells funny. It smells like pineapples"

He was playing Legos with Ben when I got there. I thought he said they were making a "sewer" but later at home he was playing Legos and I realized he said "shooter" because he made a gun so I told him no shooters.

We got a toys r us ad in the mail that had lots of trains in it. I was looking at it during dinner, and he noticed "gasp....MISTY ISLAND ENGINES!!!!!!!!!" Then he looked at it for about an hour. I think he is still looking at it with his flashlight actually, I can hear him.

He told me a story about Dash and Bash going to jail for causing an accident, and Murdoch came to get them out and they all went to the airport.

Miss Joanne  told me how when they put their frog magnets on the pictures of how they feel today, matt likes to put his frog upside down on the face that says he feels silly today

He had a bath which at the end he said "that was an awesome bath" probably because he splashed me so much.

One day he quietly told me he would like to run into my arms when I get there and have me pick him up.

He put on a magic show where he said abracadabra and made a lot of things "disappear" under Banana Who

When I got there they had lined up all the chairs and were playing school bus driving to Mcdonald's.

For dinner he asked me "please can you put a blanket on my hot dog". I didn't really know what he meant and he said "like when we watched sports" so he meant pigs in a blanket.

When I picked matt up, the boys were playing super heros. There was a lot of lazers and falling on the floor and rolling around going on. Matt dramatically ran to me and fell to the ground and pretended he couldn't move.

I needed a little break from reading and asked him to tell me when it was 6 3 0 on the clock. The next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 7:15 and he was asleep under the covers next to me in bed along with all his iron men under the covers with me. I tried to wake him up to get his jammies on but he said "no I'm playing".

"5 Guys! I had been thinking about that all day at school!" --- Matt upon seeing the 5 Guys bag in my car (I had stopped on the way home). We are so alike... both thinking about 5 guys all day.

At home he was very angry that the baby is taking so long to get here so we looked at pictures of when he was a baby. He was very mad he wasn't wearing diapers when he came out of you.

When I got to school, Matt and CJ were drawing maps of how to get to each other's house.

 He shot his hockey puck at the basement door which didn't really make me happy

but he seems excited about hockey so that's good.

When I picked Matt up he told me he went potty 100 times at school and Ms. Joanne confirmed that was true.

At home we played hungry hippos and candy land. candy lane went on forever

every time he moved, he insisted on making his piece dance and sing about dancing, “dancy dancy dancy dancy dancy” 

He also made up a song about ah 1 ah 2 ah 3 ah 4 put banana who in the refrigerator and mix her all up

They were watching Star Command when I picked Matt up. Ms Joanne said he was basically reciting the movie for the kids.

As Matt told me, meenie minnie mo, cut a scissor, there you go.

He did a lot of swords tonight. making swords out of blocks. drawing swords.. magna doodle swords. no matter how many times I told him I hate swords

Matt keeps calling me to ask questions, but not real questions, “Dad I have two questions. did you know the sun comes up in the day and the moon at night?”

There is a trio block robot waiting to scare you when you open the door. He may be a friendly robot, not really sure but he is waiting for you.

Matt was too busy "relaxing" in his bed to get up. I guess he really loves that bed.

He asked me to draw him a picture of a hockey player and Buzz Lightyear saving the world: 

Keeping Our Day Jobs

The yard project is still underway and on Saturday our old deck was taken down. I imagined the course of action would involve sledge hammers, and then a gust of dust as the crooked posts collapsed under the weight of force, but no, that was not the case at all. The process was very organized with Bob Sr. removing one piece of wood at a time, Bob removing the nails from the wood, and Mike stacking the wood in a neat pile to be recycled for a sandbox. The only chaos that ensued was when Mike and Bob were moving the grill off the deck and the propane tank rolled away and crashed into the corner of the newly repaired shed. It was then discovered that I had misplaced the key to the shed lock.Oops!

The weather was perfect for a hike on Sunday. We walked around the cranberry bog

“I need smaller feet,” he told us as he stuck out his arms for balance while walking across a tree branch. 

Next we walked to the outdoor shop which was giving kayak rides to kids.

Later that afternoon Matthew made another Build A Bear as a treat for being good. He chose to make a panda bear. On our way home he chatted to him about his vegetable garden and movie collection, before deciding his time was better spent counting to 100.

I always imagined that four would be my favorite age of his and I must say that so far it has been.     

Thank You Really Much

 Grandma took us to a really cool children’s museum which was once an old firehouse. Each room was furnished with a different theme and there were tons of hands on activities. We all had a blast. “Thank you really much," Matthew said to Grandma when we were leaving.

Matthew and I made homemade wheat pancakes for breakfast the next morning. We spent the rest of the day playing outside, doing a painting craft, and catching up on yard work.

Make Way For Ducklings

This has been a soggy and gray spring. Originally the plan was for the seven of us to take trip to the zoo, but on Monday the forecast called for scattered showers so we changed our plans to a trip to the Children’s museum instead.

Earlier that morning Matthew went off to school and Bob accompanied me to an ultrasound appointment.went great. It went great. Samantha weighs an estimated four pounds and two ounces. The tech said she already has some fuzz on her head too. We got to watch her opening and close her mouth too.

After the appointment, Bob went back to work, and I picked Matthew up from school. We met up with our friends for the planned trip. Lucky for us, our friend Lori was able to borrow a giant Mercedes from her family’s dealership which fit us all (three adults, three four-year-olds, and an eleven month old) in. The kids thought it was the greatest thing in the world and made a racket each time we went though a tunnel or under a bridge.

The museum was a lot of fun. Matthew bounced from room to room with his buddies to try as many activities as possible.

Four!

Matthew turned four today.

He already has these ideas in his head about sleepovers and tasting chewing gum.

“Wake me up at noon, when everyone gets here,” he told us the night before his birthday party.

Instead of sleeping until noon Matthew decided his time was better spent awake. “Today I am a little four and tomorrow I’ll be a big four!” he announced. The three of us spent the morning playing and getting prepared for the party. Eventually it was noon and people started to arrive.

Bob and I didn’t see much of Matt or each other during the party. Matt spent a lot of time outside with his friends, and Bob and I were busy being attentive hosts to all of our guests. The party went by fast!

The memory I’ll treasure most from the day was when we settled in to read books before bedtime. Our neighbor had given a set of books geared towards teaching young children to read. Imagine our surprise when Matthew began to read the first book out loud to us, taking the time to sound out words that were unfamiliar to him. We didn’t know that he could do that yet.

The birthday fun was not over yet. I still had to decorate cupcakes for his school. Matthew had requested hockey cupcakes.

Tonight Bob, Matthew, and I had our own birthday celebration. Bob brought home food from one of his favorite restaurants and after dinner he opened his presents from us. Then the three us went to Friendly’s for ice cream and spent the night relaxing and playing with his new toys before tucking him into bed.

Tower Of Tinga - Disney World Trip

“Today is a special day,” Matthew announced to passengers while our plane was landing, “It is my first time on a plane.” People laughed the same as they had when we were taking off and he exclaimed, “Whoa!” as the plane climbed higher is the sky.

He informed me of three things while we waited in airports that day. One was that the sign in the bathroom stall was “weird”. The sign prohibited the flushing of tampons down the toilet and he pointed it out to me, “No flushing ChapStick down the potty?” Secondly, he reported that once we got home my belly would crack open and his sister would come out. Lastly, as we waited for Bob to get the keys to our rental car he told me, “I’m shocked to be in Disney.”

Throughout the vacation the three of us could all agree that we were shocked to be here and on that same note we never wanted to have to go home.

The next morning we went to Magic Kingdom in time to line up at the gates before it opened, and passed a sign for The Tower Of Terror on the way there.

“That’s the Tower Of Tinga!” Matthew exclaimed. “It’s a scary ride!”

We don’t know how he knows about the ride but he seems to know a lot about Disney that we didn’t teach him. One day he summed up the plot of the movie Bambi which neither of us has seen with him before, “It’s the movie where his mother gets dead and he makes new friends” and during our monorail ride to Magic Kingdom he looked out the window to the castle and asked, “Is there a princess in there waiting for a kiss?”

The opening of Magic Kingdom was worth the half hour wait in line. Characters arrived on a train to the front of the castle where we were welcome in the form of song and dance.

Once the gates opened our first destination was Tomorrow Land where we went on the Space Ranger spin ride, the first three of six times that day.

“I hate you Zurg!” Matthew shouted each time he shot at Buzz’s nemesis. At the Buzz Lightyear themed gift shop located (conveniently) at the exit of the ride he picked out a Buzz laser toy, “This is mine because I’m Buzz Lightyear and I saved the day.”

Next Bob and Matt rode a car around the speedway. At the end of the track the car in front of them had shut off so they were instructed to bump it to push it to the exit area. They told me it was exactly the same as the movie CARS when Lightning McQueen backs up to push The King over the finish line.  

We went on the People Mover after that. Then it was time to stop for a snack where Matthew saw a walking and talking trashcan. For the most part he is well mannered, so Bob and I were surprised to see him walk over and kick the trashcan.

“I asked if he wanted to play Buzz Lightyear,” he explained once we scolded him. He then made things right by going back to hug the trash can. 

We met Buzz Lightyear next. For the rest of the trip Matthew refused to allow any other character sign his autograph book. Buzz’s stamp which to Matthew was a ceremonial marking between space rangers is on the first page.

We saw a couple shows, Monsters Inc Laugh Factory and a Mickey Mouse 3D show. “Remember when Donald Duck came out of the screen?” Matthew asked us on our second trip on the People Mover just ten minutes from the time we saw it.

Three more rides we went on were It’s A Small World, Pirates of The Caribbean, which was my favorite from when I was a child, and the Jungle Cruise. That night we stayed for the firework show. When they played the song, “When you wish upon a star” I asked what Matthew was going to wish for. He told me he was going to wish for Disney.

“Tinkerbell made a wish for me to go to bed at nine-three-three,” Matthew said when we were leaving the park. We took the ferry back to the parking lot which was not cold or crowded as I thought it might be when Bob suggested it.

The next day we went to Hollywood studios. The Toy Story Mania game drew the largest crowd there but we managed to ride it twice. Matthew discovered that he enjoyed maps as much as his dad and for the rest of the trip the two of them separately consulted their maps before we would go to the next destination.

“I make rules that are not on the map,” I said to Bob hurrying him as he stalled to eat Combos while we are walking into the 3D Muppets show. Official snack stops complete with hand sanitizer are the jest of these rules that I spoke of.  

Many of our destinations had to do with loud explosions having to do with fire; Indiana Jones, the Studio Backlot Tour, and Lights, Motors, Action. We were worried the fire would scare Matthew, often reminding him that it was only for a movie. “Ohh, movies,” he said in awe rather than fear during one particularly big explosion.

We ate lunch at the official Pizza Planet and then found seats to watch the Pixar Parade. “I love you Buzz!” Matt shouted as he passed us.

We met Lightning McQueen and Mater that day as well. That night we stayed to watch the laser show Fantasmic. To our dismay Matthew insisted on wearing a poncho due to the light mist of water which hardly sprayed the audience during it. Speaking of princes, I asked everyone what their favorite memory of the day was while writing things down to remember for this blog and Matthew said, “You can write, I love you.”

“Mommy?” Matthew asked me during breakfast the next morning, “What is this place called?”

“Disney,” I answered but he shook his head, his face thoughtful. “Florida? Number 106?”

“A hotel,” he answered his own question.

We headed off to Sea World that morning. I was looking forward to this all week because it has always been my dream to touch a dolphin up close. Matthew and I got to feed them while Bob stood a safe distance away with the camera. We also fed seals and high fived sting rays.

Matthew rode his first real rollercoaster. “I really don’t like this,” he said at first to Bob. “This is a little bit scary.” Then finally, “That is awesome!” They went on three times. 

We went to the Shamu show next. “I see their underwear!” Matt giggled when the whales jumped out of the water.

“Everything has gone according to our plan down to the minute,” Bob told me on our way out of the park.

“He wasn’t happy before because he didn’t know me yet,” Matthew said hugging his new stuffed seal he named Mickey.

That evening we did some shopping at Downtown Disney before heading home to catch a few hours of sleep before our early flight home the next morning. 

We could not have asked for a better vacation.