We had a pretty great end to our summer. After Jackie's last surgery in July, we decided to reward him by doing a bunch of special stuff that seemed to mostly benefit Tom. We took Tom to his first movie, we took both boys to a beach day in Michigan (Jack hates sand), we took both boys home to the State Fair (Jack doesn't really like a lot of food), we took both boys to another beach day at the Indiana Dunes and finally we took Tom to Six Flags. So, you're welcome, Jackie Boy!
The beach day in Michigan was nice. It was a few hours away and even though we left at the crack of dawn, we weren't the only people who thought it might be a good beach day, so by the time we got there it was packed. Tom took a little convincing to get in the water, but by early afternoon he was swimming without his floatie like a little fish. Jack was pretty happy to watch the world go by, but wasn't crazy about the sand, which is difficult in that the primary ground covering in a beach setting is... sand. What he really likes to be carried, and as is custom with our children he prefers his mother, so it was all fine by me. We had one scary moment where Tom and I went on a long walk down to a pier. It was really wavy, so we decided to turn around and walk back. I like to walk at the edge of the water, but Tom wanted to walk a little higher up in the sand. We were momentarily separated by maybe 10 feet, but he lost sight of me and he started crying and screaming "Daddy, Daaaaaaddy!" like in the movies when a parent is being hauled off to jail. I took the opportunity to run to him and scoop him up, also seen in many films and I'm pretty sure I saw a lady roll her eyes at me. Whatever, lady. You wish you could experience this emotional re-union!
The State Fair was good. Couple things about the State Fair:
It was like 105 degrees this year with the humidity and as a family we drank 7 lemon shake-ups.
Jack took 2nd place to some professionally photographed, gelled-haired 19 month old. I bet his name was Jacerton or Braxyn. I was not impressed.
For $20 worth of tickets, Tom got to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl once with me and Grandpa Greg and got to do the Scrambler once with Karen. I've done the math, and our ride per dollar is quite low.
Lastly, we took Tom to the diving show and to start they LIT A MAN ON FIRE and had him jump into the pool and Tom was totally nonplussed by it. Either he knew it was all for show, or we've got a Backdraft situation developing here. I'm gonna keep my eye on it.
The second beach day was way better than the first, and the first was an absolute delight. There was almost no-one in our area of the beach at the Dunes and the water was perfectly calm. It was so peaceful that Jackie fell asleep in the tent for like 45 minutes. We took Tom down in the water and threw him back and forth for a while, always ready to sprint out of the water at the slightest sign of movement, but it never happened. Such a great day. I hope we go back every year.
To end the summer, we took Tom to Six Flags for the first time. Work provided a cheap end of the season day, so we headed up there early and immediately rode a ride called The Condor. It went way way high and spun around and you could see the entire park. He loved it and after a full day of riding rides, it was still his favorite one and we did it again on our way out of the park. Other highlights:
"I didn't like the Batman ride because it was too dark and there were guys with shooters at the end."
"I don't like the coasters that go too fast."
"I don't prefer to wait in lines."
"I like blue cotton candy and blue Dip'n'Dots. Blue is a great flavor"
Six Flags was really fun. I think we'll try to do that once a summer as well.
Then Thomas officially started school. I was worried that 3 was too early for school but the structure has been pretty great for him. He's taking an art class, and working on his numbers and letters. Karen and I got to go observe and they run a really nice little school over there and he was well behaved and engaged and all the buzzwords that involved parents use nowadays. What's most interesting to me is to see how other kids rub off on him in both good and bad ways. Montessori groups 3-6 year olds in the same room. On the good side, he's learned a lot from observing others in how they color in the lines, follow the teacher's instructions, clean up after oneself. I haven't been able to pinpoint the bad stuff yet, but I'm sure we'll learn more about it at our first ever parent teacher conference next month. Thomas's school is the first place I've ever really been called "Mr. O'Connor" and as it turns out, when someone refers to me as such, it usually means I have to sign a piece of paper describing Tom and Trouble. Jack starts there in a month. If they've got papers to sign in the baby room, I don't think I'll be able to take it.
The fall has been (was?) nice too, but we had a wee problem with the plumbing again that feels like it stole multiple weeks from us. We did do a lot of fires and watching the boys eat and/or smear smores on their faces which is a pretty good way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We did our usual Pumpkin Patch places which were nice and Jack got to partake in the American Tradition of feeding a giraffe to ring in Fall Season. We had a great Halloween where we dressed up as Han. Leia, Darth Vader and R2D2. Yesterday we went sledding and shoveled the driveway and we head home for Thanksgiving in a couple days. Feels like the year is flying by.
Let's end with the best quotes and quick stories from recent memory...
Me: "Sonny, if we move, what kind of house should we buy?"
Tom: "Probably, one with a For Sale sign."
Me: "Thomas, if you can say everyone in this family's middle name, you can watch the iPad."
Tom: "Well I know Mom is Karen Marie. I know mine is Thomas Kenneth. I don't know biddy's middle name."
Me: "What about me?"
Tom; "I don't know... Is it Dee?"
Me: "Dee?"
Tom: "Yeah, Dad Dee O'Connor?"
Tom "Free school is free, but regully school costs money."
This time though, the award goes to Karen for this gem that we discussed on our way to one of our beach days...
Me: "If someone offered you one Target sized bag of plain M'n'Ms in one hand, and in the other hand was a bag with money, how much money has to be in the bag for you to choose it over the M'n'Ms?"
Karen: (takes a moment to think)... "Fifty dollars."
FIFTY DOLLARS FOLKS. Look I understand there's some ambiguity around the phrase "Target sized bag" but at the end of the day my wife has chosen some sized sack of plain chocolate candies over 50 US dollars. Mind boggling.
I love her too much. We love these boys too much. We definitely choose them over a Target bag of M'n'Ms.
