Travel Log Day 6 - 11/20/11

When you have an infant, a terrible nights sleep is to be expected.  The baby is tiny, needs a lot of food, and I can't blame a kid for being uncomfortable it was a lot more cozy in their previous environment.  When you have a nearly 5 year old child, waking every two hours is about the most miserable thing I can think of.  But, none the less, Drew decided sleeping was not in his cards and we were treated to his presence every two hours.

Two things happen when I am tired, and I mean really tired.  I have no patience and thus yell at my kids, and I feel like crap.  My wife I have no doubt feels the same way, but she is able to hide it better or some special mommy juju overcomes this.  The mommy juju sounds better so I go with that because then it isn't my shortcoming but rather I wasn't given the same tools as my wife to be an awesome parent.

After a brief breakfast that was nice, but rather old since it was the same style of breakfast 3 days in a row, we planned our day.  I attempted to get some lunch supplies at the Superwalmart, but was unsuccessful due to not having ANY sandwich supplies.  We still fed the kids their favorite Mac and Cheese and were off to my big idea for Dallas, The Lego Discover Center.

My kids and I are Lego fans, well I sorta indoctrinated them, but none the less they love Lego.  So last winter I took them to Legoland, and Legoland is just that, a LAND dedicated to the awesomeness that is Lego.  This was a natural step for us, going to what I thought was a "museum" built around Lego.

My boys were ready to go

Now once I got inside I came to discover that unlike Legoland which only sort appeals strictly to children still had some charm for adults like me.  Well any attempt to appeal to adults was gone here.  The opening tour was slightly intriguing to my kids, and bored me to tears, the first ride (which I knew with Legoland) was slow and methodical and boring to me, my kids adored.  The actual center is small, like think less than half the size of a normal grocery store, and while the movies they had were a tad different than Legoland were so-so to me, but they were amazing to my kids (even Eva).  Little did I know that the highlight of the entire afternoon there would be the Duplo area.  While this area was small it had Duplo (meh) but it had GIANT Lego Blocks.  Now if I could get some righteous Lego blocks like this I'd be in heaven.

Eva got her own Lego Chair

Drew helped me build a tree

In the end I can't deny that the kids had a blast at Lego Discovery Center.  I have been spoiled with the quality and refinement of Disneyland's ability to appeal to kids and adults alike, and while LDC (Lego Discovery Center) and Legoland do a top notch job appealing to kids they lack so severely in appealing to adults it is rather remarkable; considering I really love Lego a lot.

After this we discovered the mall (where LDC was located) and I remembered why I hate the mall from November to the end of December.  But not to be discouraged we had planned a dinner with Cristina's Cousins who were locals to Dallas and wanted to meet up with us at a restaurant for dinner.  

Two nights in a row meeting with family/friends was great.  We went to La Hacienda Ranch.  A little history I guess the owner of the place invented the frozen margarita machine which is now on display at the Smithsonian.  Having dinner with adults again at a fantastic TexMex restaurant was a blast.  The fajita platter was through the roof good and my wife enjoyed her margarita.  The boys got to play on "horse" and they even had saddle bar stools.

The boys loved the 25 cent horse

Our trip has 4 multi-night stops, Santa Fe, Dallas, Lake Charles and San Antonio.  If the latter two can get close to equalling the first two this trip will be an overwhelming success.  We loved Dallas and I would come back in a heartbeat, but next time I will have to hit up a football game.

The Advent Calendar

I wish I woke up with the singular splendor of wanting to open a piece of an advent calendar.  My boys are enraptured with the fun of opening the door of our Lego advent calendar.  Our morning begins at 6:30 to my boys running our bedroom, proud of sleeping till the proper time and proceed to ask me to get out of bed to open the door of the current day on the advent calendar.  Inside is a small trinket, a minifigure, or a small model.  nothing extravagant, or over the top.  If I am on my parenting "A" game I can usually facilitate peace as one of the boys build the model and the other watches, and if I am real good, they don't fight over playing with it till after I have had a cup of coffee.

I don't know when that goes away.

I knew a guy in college, let's call him George, George never seemed to make plans.  George always managed to have plans mind you, but he never committed.  After a while I decided Geroge wanted to know what was better out there, so as to not commit in case a better deal came.  I think George was an extreme case of what happens as we grow up, but George did what we most of us eventually do, and I think what most of us do to others.  We seem to decide that you can't get too up for something, enjoy a sandwich too much, or dinner, or a day at the park.  If you seem to have too much enthusiasm it scares people.  People become George to some degree.

I try very hard to be a happy person, respond with a positive perspective, and walk with a little joy in my life.  But I hear from people after I respond with a resounding "Doing great!", "Woah try a little less coffee in the morning there."  As if I there isn't anything to be that happy about.  That "child" innocence becomes taboo when you age, and you really don't have to be an adult to have it happen, plenty of kids will start the attitude against happiness long before they pay rent and bills.

I guess Geroge sneaks up on us, a little bit at a time; or maybe it is just consumerism.  Right now my son loves to open any toy given to him as a present, regardless of size.  At the optometrist's the other day my son was incredible for the doctor, and she was so impressed with his poise she said he could pick two toys from the toy drawer.  His face lit up and I don't think he could have been any more elated.  It didn't matter that they were small simple toys, he didn't exam the quality or the brand.  He just saw new toys he didn't have and they were great; great because he got to play with something new.  Play with them he did too, with all his imagination and inventiveness he could.  I loved to watch him light up and think of things to do with the ball and car.  At some point though we as people will start to say to each other, "Dude, it's just a cheap ball and car, it's nothing to get excited about."

Thankfully we as a society have decided that children should not be subjected to this cruel plight, but kids pick up on it eventually and soon enough another's happiness doesn't matter and it is "okay" to minimize someones simple pleasures.

I think it is just that too, enjoying simple pleasures.  Kids have an innate ability to jump whole heartedly into life's opportunities.  That is refreshing.  I know many friends who move away from Southern California who crave an In N Out Hamburger more than anything upon their return.  If you watch them take their first bite, close there eyes and really enjoy that moment of satisfaction they become a kid, up until some sarcastic "older" person says "It's just a burger."  It is almost as if we lose the right to really enjoy things, because when someone does I think it makes the rest of us jealous that we don't have the same passion for life's moments that they do, so it's better to bring them back to our status quo.

I don't know when that pizazz for life's individual moments fade, and I really hope I am not the one to put out my children's unabashed zest for simple pleasures...I wish I could stop anyone from taking that away from them.

Lego Part 1

Raising kids, whether dealing with the nuance of seeing one's own blood, the quirks over jackets/pants/shorts or rain boots, or even just getting a hair cut dressed as a Spiderman can often baffle, and frustrate me.  Occasionally God knows you need something you just "get" from day one with your child, and 3.5 years into my parenting, I was lobbed a soft ball by the Big Guy.

Lego.

I was a Lego nut as a kid, and for whatever reason I got rid of them all, more likely my mom got rid of them when she moved and me the idiot college student didn't grab them before that.  But here I am 15-20 years removed from some of my finer building adventures as a kid and my 3.5 year old is jumping head first into construction.

See I never thought he quite got the building gene, he was ambivalent about mega blocks, and Duplo didn't really do it for him either.  To be honest building much of anything never really appealed to him.  But something happened last Christmas.  He was asking Santa for one thing and one thing only each and every day from Santa "I want Star Wars Legos"

I was sorta at a loss, see I love Lego, and I love Star Wars, but my son last Christmas wasn't even 3, could he even build with the blocks...I didn't want to just "impose" my interests on him, I really wanted to resist, but I bought him a small set, mostly because it had 4 storm troopers.  The present was a flop for all intensive purposes, but he loved it.  See without my help he couldn't build anything, and the mini-figures, while cool could frustrate him immensely because he couldn't put the blaster or any accessory for that matter in the guys hands.

So in order to build the model each time, or play with the guys he had to ask for my help, and I thought this made it a poorly timed gift.  Without fail though he would ask me to pull out the Legos and play with him.

We made it clear his 18 month old brother had to be asleep, but we would play Legos together and he would ask for my help to build, and I would teach him to read the directions and put the guys together like he wanted and he would play much the same way I would play as a child.  Little voices, dramatic falls, blaster sounds, it was like I was flashing back to my child hood.  I know that I very often was too "hard" on him while playing, focusing on building the set, following the directions, but kids have a funny way of blowing off their parents and my son is no exception, he ignores my bad recommendations with ease; thank God.

Looking back almost exactly one year ago, I can honestly say the timing couldn't have been better.  The toy while above his age was an activity he loved, but one that required my assistance, and now he is almost four, and can play for ages without me.  I love this independence, but I can think of a few times sitting with him, helping build and watch his imagination run knowing I was witnessing a miracle, a spark light a fire.  I am blessed to have had that time because as I write this now, his desire to get out the Legos revolves less and less about me sitting with him, and far more about the toy and playing.

 I'm glad I didn't just put them up for a year.