Daddy Day May 03, 2008

Yesterday was a good day.

I got to participate in a really cool program, called Wills for Heroes, that pairs up lawyers with police, firefighters, and paramedics to prepare wills for them.  I was able to do wills for two police officers, which was pretty cool.  Because I was scheduled to do that, I worked extra hours earlier in the week and skipped lunches so I could fit it into my schedule.  The other upside of doing that was being done with my day around 2:00.  I love early days.

My coming home early meant that Laura had time to go paint part of our still-fetal nephew's nursery like she'd been planning on.  Better still, it meant Daddy Time!

While I was at work yesterday day morning I was thinking about what I could do with Noah to have fun.  He's almost two-and-a-half now and I decided that it would be fun to take him to a movie.  When I got home he was napping and I wasn't sure I would make our planned showtime, but he woke up just in time and we zipped over to the theater to see "Horton Hears a Who."

We got our tickets in no time and we went inside to get popcorn and a drink.  All the employees thought Noah was adorable (he is), at least in part because he decided he wanted to wear his Mickey Mouse hat to the movie.  So there he was, wide-eyed and wearing Mickey Mouse ears in daddy's full arms.

I had his diaper bag in one arm that was also holding him and the bag of popcorn, while I held our drink and tickets in the other arm.  I know, you moms out there are thinking, "That's nothing, I carry all that and two bags of groceries!"  Be gentle though, I have no hips to rest him on, so your species is at a distinct advantage.

Anyway, I decided that wouldn't work because our theater was way at the end of the complex and was a long walk away.  So I put Noah down and gave him the tickets to carry, while I carried the rest.  It was super cute telling him where to go and watching him hand the tickets to the ticket-taker-dude, who also thought he was cute.  We moseyed our way down the hall, but when we got to a long, dimly-lit hallway leading to our theater, he stopped and said, "I scared."  He wasn't going to budge.  I knew we had to go through the sherpa routine again.  I took a big swig of our drink to make the situation less precarious (and knocked the top off the popcorn too) and scooped up the little turkey.  We got to the theater, picked out a seat, dropped off our load, and headed back out to score a booster seat for Noah.  I love the logistics of parenthood!

When we got there the movie had just started, which is good because I hate all the previews.  Noah got into it right away.  Every little creature that popped up on the screen was followed by Noah telling me all about it.  I told him in his ear that he needed to be quiet because others were trying to watch the movie.  I didn't really quiet him down, but it did ensure that every time some other kid made noise, that kid's words would be followed by Noah saying, "Be quiet."  Good thing it was a kids' movie and nobody minded the noise (or Noah's reproofs of the other kids).

Noah loved the movie.  He followed it the whole time, laughed, and mostly stayed seated, although not necessarily in the same seat.  When the movie got a little scary (at least by his definition), he climbed onto me and we spent the last 15 minutes or so cuddled on my chair.  The last part of the movie experience that was fun to watch Noah have was when you go to a matinee and walk outside into the sun and squint as hard as possible while still keeping your eyes open so you don't run into things.  He held my hand and looked down and away from the sun.  I can't describe how he did it because I don't write well enough, but it was cool.

Then it was dinnertime so we went to the mall to get some chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A.  He loves those things.  Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that he loves the dippy that he gets with them; honey.  We hung out and ate, wandered the mall and did some Mother's Day browsing.  Then we went to Jamba Juice, which Noah loves.

Jamba Juice was funny for a couple of reasons.  First, they gave him a little four ounce cup, which he tried to convince me was mine and the big one was his.  Then, after we'd sat for awhile sipping a juice on their little patio, we packed up to go.  I took the valve out of Noah's sippy cup so he could get the thick juice out of the cup and handed it over.  (We can't let him have their styrofoam cups when we're not right there with him because his favorite styrofoam cup pastime is putting holes in the side of the cup with his fingers.)  Once we got going in the car, he started complaining because he couldn't get any juice out of his cup.  He simply wasn't tipping it back far enough.  At first I tried telling him how to do it, but he wasn't getting it.  Finally, I had to reach back and grab it and give him an on-the-fly demonstration.  He got it.  Apparently though, the lesson didn't stick and by the time we made it home, I had given the same demonstration three times.  Once we got home he started to get the hang of it.  The best part of him getting the hang of it wasn't me not having to redo my little training, but the way he cheered himself after every success.  He kept exclaiming, "I did it!" every time he was successful at tipping it far enough to get some juice.  By the time the cup was empty, my hands were almost tired from clapping and cheering his success.  Super cute!

We hung out for a bit longer before it was bedtime and then I put my sweet boy to bed.  He was excited to read his scriptures (really pictures from the scriptures that we tell him stories with).  He reminded me about scriptures before we even got to that part of the evening routine, which is really cool.  I think it means what we're doing is sinking in.  I love it.

It was a good day with my good, little boy.  He's so sweet and is growing into such a big boy.  Lately he's been saying, "Dada great" just out of the blue.  How cool is that?  I love the baby times and the early toddler times, but right now I'm really enjoying the almost-two-and-a-halfs and all of the little rewards that come along with a boy who's starting to express his own thoughts, have his own successes, and even his own disappointments.  It was a good day.

P.S. After Noah went to bed, Laura got home and we hung out and stayed up way past our bedtime watching a movie and talking about finances.  The finances part doesn't sound real romantic, but it is.  I love when we work together on something and we work so well at it.  It draws us closer, and what's not romantic about that?

P.P.S  "Horton Hears a Who" wasn't too bad.  I actually enjoyed it and laughed at it.  I'm not sure how objective a reviewer I can be because it was so much fun being there with Noah, but even though it didn't have the same clever feel of a Pixar flick, it was fun.