Father's Day weekend finds us on the road for a quick trip down to
Fayetteville to visit Gram and company. We were originally shooting for
Mazarick Park near Bragg Boulevard but apparently the rest of
Fayetteville had the same idea. So we went a little further down the
road to Honeycutt Park which has definitely grown in the long years
since I lived in Fayetteville.
Now there is a pair of big jungle gyms and a community center and some
big baseball diamonds complete with announcer's booths. What I remember
was a few small playground items and the old ceramics hut that's now
behind the big community center. Those jungle gyms are really cool
and Nicholas had a blast leading whoever was chasing him on a merry
dash through the various obstacles.
After a ton of fun hanging out in the park (and trying to keep up with
Nicholas), it was time for dinner. Originally, we were going to bring
in some bird but decided on Mi Casita east of town instead. Ole! And
Nicholas decided to show how much he enjoyed dinner by conveniently
falling asleep on the way home... :)
It's become obvious for a while that we were going to need to upgrade
the trusty ol' family hauler for quite a while so today's fun included
doing some test drives of candidate vehicle. (Eagle-eyed readers will
probably deduce that this revelation came during the trip to Washington
for Alexander's surgery...you know the one where we're counting four
seats in the Escape to seat five people. Thanks for the assist,
Gramps!).
Test drives are fun...you know, the sort of fun where you're hauling two
car seats into a minivan in weather conditions that could be described
as VFR (visual flight rules) and hotter than {insert name of hot and
unpleasant underworld here!}. Depending on the model you're testing,
you can even have the added bonus of mooning the entire showroom (I'd
like to toss out a mea culpa to those customers at the Honda
dealer in North Raleigh).
Of course, when testing minivans with the drop-down DVD screen, you need
some test fodder if you don't want to be stuck with 1,001 Uses for a
Minivan promo material. So we slipped a copy of Bob the Builder
into the diaper bag to keep Nicholas happy whilst we meandered about the
greater metropolitan Raleigh area.
First up was a Honda and well, I've already apologised to their customers
once. It was surprising that the Odyssey would essentially rule itself
out of contention so easily and it wasn't just because my panoramic
posterior makes it a lot harder to install Nicholas' car seat into the
third row. We were quite surprised to find that there just weren't a
whole lot of LATCH (anchor/tether) positions in the third row. The only
one would could find was on the 60 part of the 60/40 split bench and
there wasn't one on the middle seat in the second row in the eight-passenger
configuration. Given that it's not uncommon for us to move five
passengers (two of which are in big car seats), that would effectively
rule out dropping the entire third row into the wheel well to create
cargo space.
So now it's time to visit Toyota and see what their eight-passenger
Sienna has to say for itself. We were pleasantly surprised to find
LATCH anchors for all three seats in the middle row and three positions
in the 60/40 bench in the third row (including one that is only on the
40 portion of the bench). And the second row is comfortable enough for
the five of us to go where we need to go and still have a ton of cargo
room when the third row folds into the floor. This particular Sienna
had the oversized DVD screen...nope, we'll take the regular-sized screen
because it's just not fun trying to use the rear-view mirror when that
big monstrosity blocks the view! Meanwhile, Nicholas is happily enjoying
his DVD (we didn't have any sound but he didn't seem to care).
So we finish driving and are duly impressed by the Sienna (and fortunately
the second row seat can be flipped forward to prevent any unwanted and
unintended reasons to hear Carolina Moon Keep Shinin') but now it's
time to head over to Triangle Towne Centre to let Nicholas run off some
energy and get some dinner. He actually falls asleep on the way home.
The next day, we're heading out to visit A Southern Season with
Grammy and let her get a feel for the Sienna and you just had to know
what the first question out of Nicholas' mouth was going to be as he was
being strapped into his car seat.
Bob?!?
The look on his face was priceless...he was looking up where the DVD
screen was in the Sienna expecting that the Escape would magically get
one there as well...and was somewhat confused that he didn't see the
DVD player there! We couldn't help but laugh at just how clever a boy
he was...and be sure that when it's time to go get the Sienna, it's
definitely going to have that drop-down DVD player. I don't think the
boy would ever let us forget the most important feature...at least
according to him! :)
Our big boy just keeps on growing day-by-day and he never stops amazing
us. Today was a special day filled with fanfare (no, really!) when
Nicholas went pee pee in the potty for the first time.
And this is no ordinary potty! No, technology has marched on from the
stark and utilitarian commodes we learned this vital skill upon to come
up with a super-deluxe model that actually looks like a king's throne
and whenever sensors detect something moving at the opening, a bit of
musical fanfare is provided.
Well, the fanfare bit is quite overrated and after five minutes gets
really tedious, particularly when little boys have the ability to set it
off multiple times just by the nature of things, if you get my drift.
But, design deficiencies of the porti-toilet aside, going potty for the
first time is remarkable...and the going rate for this trick is a brand
new car.
Wait...let me try that again.
BOB BARKER: Nicholas, come right up here to center stage...we
have a piddling game for you. And when you play it correctly, you can
win this fabulous prize. Tell them what he's playing for, Rod...
ROD RODDY (loudly): A BRAND NEW CAR!!! Yes, this four-door
beauty has all leather interior, automatic transmission, and California
emissions. And it can be yours, if the PEE IS RIGHT!
(OK, you're on your own imagining the pretty girls in bikinis waving in
the general direction of the car! :)
But seriously, this is an important developmental step and there will be
plenty of stops and starts before we really make the connection between
this really funny feeling and needing to have a seat to do ol' #1 or #2
(or both). So we'll forgive you in advance if you don't quite make it
to the potty in time and try to remember that it wasn't as easy for us
to learn as we're trying to tell you it is now. But I have no doubts
we'll be taking target practice in the toilet soon enough...kindly
remember that if you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe
the seat! ;)-
Nicholas and Elmo have been pals for quite a while. You get used to
Elmo's World and Elmo's conversations with Dorothy and Mr Noodle
and various and sundry things in his virtual house. And Nicholas really
enjoys visiting that world every now and then.
That's why he was a bit surprised when his first trip to the RBC Centre
(well, at least on the outside!) was to watch Sesame Street Live.
I'm sure that's going to make the inevitable conversation about how TV
is not real a little tougher down the road.
But, we saw Elmo and he was REAL...
They did a good job with this show...you couldn't help but be sucked
into a real Sesame Street episode. And they definitely knew the
target audience with a quick intermission through the show for the best
chance of keeping short attention spans focused on the show. Nicholas
was definitely in the zone...so much so that when he was asked at the
intermission where the characters went, he spent the entire intermission
shrugging his shoulders and asking where did they go?
The storyline revolved round two aliens who land on Earth and their
spaceship is subsequently disabled. There are several attempts to repair
the ship that don't quite work out so well...but unlike the average
dealership garage, they at least learned a bit more about the diverse
cultures that share this planet. Most of the time waiting for repairs
at garage, one is fighting desperately to get oxygen to one's brain.
All-in-all, an entertaining show and one that thoroughly delighted
Nicholas (even Alexander was enjoying all of the pretty colors and
lights...when he wasn't taking a bottle or sleeping, that is!).
Of course, the ship eventually gets fixed (after at least six attempts)
and they fly off to outer space. But if you use your imagination a bit,
you just might see them out there if you look close enough...