What he says, what I say

Daddy said, "They're having fun."

I say, "OMG!"

Cars 2

Mid week week last week, Disney's Cars 2 came to Dallas to promote the new movie. I still remember Big M watching this movie over and over again at 2 years old so I bought he might like to see life-sized Mater and Mcqueen. The event was at 1pm but school doesn't let out until 2:45. He has never missed a day of Kindergarten and school is almost out. I decided to pick him up early. The reason for the early kick up - " dr's appointment". Shhhh.

At the event, people started ligning up early so by the time we got there the line was very very long. An hour later, Big M was getting impatient. Little M had not made any noise but he was getting close. It was 95 degrees in full sun. Finally we just called it quits. We took a picture from the side and headed to the mall where Big M had more fun. Two words - Lego Store.

sleep-walking

We were all exhausted when we arrived at the apartment. The girls slept without a problem and I thought Curious George wouldn't have a problem either, granted he was too excited because of the 2 massive Legos Santa left for him here. At closed to midnight, while I was walking around the upstairs getting ready for bed, I saw out of the corner of my eye someone walking. I got startled since there was no lights on, just night lights. Curious George was heading toward the stairs. I grabbed him and called his name, but he barely glanced at me. So I held him firmly and I said kept saying it was Mommy. Finally, he stopped 'fighting' me. I had him pee and put him right back in bed.

It's the first time he has ever sleep walk, and it was a little scary because we're in a new place and he could have fallen down the stairs. I grabbed one of the wooden baby gates we have (thank goodness to Daddy for taking those with us!) and put it on the top of the stairs. Every night since then, I have to put that up. But there has been no more incident after that. Phew!

Speaking of Lego, we went to one of the malls around here today and went to a Lego store. Daddy promised Curious George a while ago that when he gets a job he would buy him a Power Miner Lego he had been asking for. Of course when we got there, Curious George got busy looking at other stuff.

One woman working at the Lego store greeted us when we walked in, eager to give recommendations I guess. She asked how old Curious George was, but when we told him he is nearly 5, she slowly inched away. I don't know why though. Maybe because she thought she wasn't going to get a big sale because there is not much Lego for 5 years old? How wrong she was. tsk tsk tsk Curious George doesn't have the patience to build a massive one at this time, but he does build them himself by following directions.

a major milestone for Curious George

Curious George's current favorite book is his cousin's Lego catalog. He brings it with him everywhere and 'reads' it and plans his future with it. It is falling apart and some pages are no longer attached, so sometimes we all must hunt for the missing pages. He points to the Legos and says he wants this for Christmas, and that for next Christmas and that one for the Christmas after and this one for when Daddy gets a new job. We tell him they are expensive and the mini Legos for about $5 he says he can get because he has money in his money bag (a coin purse I gave him). Some of them are hard to find so when I saw one of the ones he wanted, I bought it for him. He built it himself immediately! He has many other Lego but his has always asked for helped from his Daddy. But this time, he only asked for help a couple of times - once because he couldn't manage to get something attached, and the other because he got ahead of himself and skipped a step while looking at the direction.

This is a 64-piece mini off-roader Lego that could be built into 2 more other things. In fact, he has already broken this one and made something else.

balance bike - a bike without a pedal

A few months ago, we've decided to get Curious George a balance bike for his birthday. Balance bikes are bikes without pedals in order to teach little ones to balance. A bike with training wheels doesn't really do much to teach kids. Balance bikes run anywhere from $100 to upwards of $300. But since our family is now in the poor house, we have to do it the cheap way. We bought a $35 12-inch bike at Wal-Mart and Daddy removed the pedal. Actually, arriving at what size bike to get Curious George ruined the surprise. We measured his stance and went to the store, but that didn't quite work so we had to bring him in. And of course we couldn't get him out of the store without one. So with much negotiation, we finally just broke down and gave him an early present. Which then ruined one more thing - the pedal. He loved pedaling around the store, that when Daddy surprised him the next day with the bike with missing pedal and training wheels, all hell broke lose. And the fact that he didn't sleep well the night before made the 'hell' even worse.

But after the nap, we were able to convince him to try the bike without the pedal with the promise that Daddy would put the pedal and training wheels back on if he just but try first.

Here is what happened:

As a balance bike, he should be able to put both feet flat on the ground, so this is just a tad too high. But Daddy couldn't make it any lower. Still, he did very well. We are very proud of Curious George. This video includes me screaming with excitement about his little run of balancing so I had to cover it up with pretty music. :0) After about half an hour, Daddy finally put the pedal and training wheels back on, at which point, Curious George became a speed-demon.

Unfortunately, it rained the next day so we had to occupy Curious George another way. Here is Daddy and son bonding over Lego.

playing with the cousins

On Sunday we went to Water Country USA, but we had a late start since we were all absolutely exhausted from the day before.

Big Bro had an opportunity to play Lego with his cousins.

The girls looked on from the living room while Big Bro and cousins played in the hall way.
(Thing 1 left, Thing 2 right)

nothing like Lego to bring father and son together

We're not a fancy family. An afternoon at the Target's Cafe area is enough to make us happy, especially if it includes a little bit of peace and quiet. And there is nothing that keeps a little boy happy and quiet than his first Lego. And of course, there is nothing that can make Daddy happier than to have his boy be into Legos because "his Legos are my Legos". Right?

Don't worry girls, our day will come.

Happy Father's Day!