Boys' Weekend - Part Two

Oh man. I'm so exhausted.

Picking up where I left off yesterday, we left for dinner. Gamble had announced what he wanted for dinner early in the day. I hadn't believed it, so I wrote it off. I asked him again to make sure that he still wanted it.

So off we headed to Red Lobster. Which was just fine with me.

Just as they were seating us, the waiter asked if he'd had a chance to see the lobster tank. Well, we'd seen it a week before, and Gamble wanted to see it again. As we were walking up there, the waitress said, "And ask one of those pretty girls up there to pull a lobster out and let you pet it."

What? I've gone to Red Lobster now for like 30 years. I didn't know they did that. But sure enough, Kaori raked up a lobster and let him touch it. Let both of us touch it, in fact, since I'd never touched a live lobster, either.

We got back to the table, and we perused the menu. There it was, right on the kids menu, the thing he'd asked for. Crab legs.

Yes, he wanted to order crab legs.

And immediately I hearkened back to the feeling I had last week when he started going after the tail-on shrimp, and how I'd always gravitated to the market price crustaceans. Well, I wasn't going to say no.

But I did the smart thing as a parent. I ordered a plate of 30 tail-on shrip for myself, just in case he didn't like the crab. I'm a crab freak myself, and I figured I could always trade him.

When it came, he was excited about the crab cracker, and the cracking of the legs. He dipped his first piece in the butter and chowed it down. He seemed to be loving it when he asked me for some shrimp. He said that he liked it better than the crab, and offered me his remaining legs. It was so exciting just to see him try them.

And then we went to the Meijer at Golf and Algonquin. They were having a carnival in the parking lot, and I was taking Gamble. I bought a bunch of ride tickets, but then was kinda bummed about the 42" height limit to ride most of the rides, even the Merry-go-round. I found out that they were just kidding about the height requirement.

I guess carnies aren't the most reputable lot. In fact, the first one told me that for most of the small kids, they just want a parent to go on the rides with the child, and they weren't charging the parent. So I rode the Merry-go-round with him, and then I went down the slide with him.

But the third ride was the Dragon Wagon, a small roller coaster that I couldn't ride with him. He clambered in a little tentatively, but he quickly changed his tune. I remembered one of his Hi-5 songs, the Dragon Dance. As he was leaving the station, I sang out one of the lyrics, "Dragon will set fire... to your underpants."

And he rode gleefully, with a huge smile on his face. His eyes were huge and happy, and I couldn't have been prouder. I'm a big coaster buff, and I'm not altogether surprised he loves it. I could see him on the coaster, his mouth repeating the chorus, "to your underpants!" It only took him three times around to figure out that you were supposed to slap hands with the ride operator as the coaster moved past.

And he got off, and we walked around the carnival some more, but he wanted to go back. He ran over to the Dragon Wagon and was first in line. When he got to choose his car, he sat right in the front car. Someone next to me saw me cheering him on, and commented on how cute he was. We were both feeling glorious.

And after that we came home. We were both tired, and we argued at bedtime about where to take a shower and what to wear for bed, but other than that, it was totally a full day. And we had one day left of our boys' weekend.

He came in to see me crying at 5:30. His big comfortor had come off the bed and it's too unwieldy for him to put back on. I helped him out, worried that meant he was up for good.

Next think I knew it was almost 9:00. I never sleep that late. I bumbled out of bed and went to the living room. He was looking at family pictures and saying how much he missed Mommie and Random. I promised him that he'd see them today.

I got my shower, and we went to breakfast. Apple Villa again, at his request. This time, he had waffles, and I avoided being overcharged for meatsides.

We came home, and I put up a coat of primer in the corner of the garage. Then I put in the new vanity downstairs.

We went to Menards to return a part we didn't need, and then, since it was right next door, we went bowling again.

I have to say that Gamble has the best attitude when it comes to bowling. He's all jazzed when he gets three pins, and when he gets two out of three pins for a spare, he yells, "Yes!" not "Arrgh!" like me. We did a lot of high-fiving just for getting the ball down to the pins.

The second game was probably the worst game I've bowled since seventh grade. No kidding. In the ninth frame, we were tied at 85. Tied. Me and Gamble. He's three. And he had already bowled 85 in the 9th. What a mixed bag of emotions. Really, I couldn't believe he was only three and he was close to breaking 100. And here I was, tied. Was this really going to be the first time he beat me bowling?

I'll let you speculate as to how it turned out. I don't think there's any point in telling. We had a great time. And when I got a spare, he was the first to yell, "Hey, Daddie! You're doing great!" It's good to see the encouragement you dish out sometimes comes back.

So we went out to lunch at Portillo's, and then went to Border's to try to find a maze book. Do you know how hard it is to just find a book of mazes with nothing else that isn't too hard for him? We ordered steamers and sat there drinking them and singing and looking at a giant activity book (that had some mazes in it).

We came home, and I checked in on the two sinks I'd installed. Both of them leaked at first blush. A few more twists of the channel locks, though, and they seemed ok. Will have to keep our eyes on them. I collapsed into the chair to grab the laptop and write this out.

As I write this, Gamble just won his game of Wii Tennis. He's hilarious to watch playing it. His latest quote: "I won! I smoked both of them. Watch Gamble!"

Off to play. Mommie, Random, and Vince will be here in a bit...