From the Father Dude:
Jake is quite a character, and today he took every opportunity to surprise me.
This morning, we started off our day with some reading exercises, and then Jake decided we were going to the park for soccer. He didn't want to miss a chance to play outside in the sunshine. Never mind that the wind was blowing about 30 mph and it was about 40 degrees... This was looking better than an Alaskan spring and he wanted to be outside in it!
We played until we both froze, then headed back for a late morning breakfast. We played rat a tat cat (Jake stacked the deck twice when he dealt while I worked on food and cleanup, ensuring a couple of easy wins), then it was back for another round of soccer.
Again, we played until we were too cold. Back to the house for a little refresher, reading up on our star wars, and figure out what to do for the afternoon. With a check in from the rest of the family that would be joining us later in the afternoon, and finding out that we would be postponing our trip to see the white tigers, Jake instructed me to head back to the park for round three of soccer. By this time, I figured out that it was best to make him do most of the running. The sun had begun to warm us up, but only enough to drop back to single sweatshirts. Tired and cold again, we headed back to the house. We were about to head out on a mission to find a bakery across town, when I spotted a link on yelp that mentioned a newly opened Great Harvest bread store just down the street from us. Score! We headed that way immediately. Jake found a slice of pumpkin chocolate bread to his liking, as did I. Got a couple of sweetbreads and headed back.
Can you guess what Jake wanted to do while we waited for Dan, Carol, Chris, and Sam to arrive? That's right... Back to the park for more soccer. In all, we probably spent three hours at the park.
With the rest of the crew joining us, Jake then put on his Mr. Charm face, and went to work showing off his talents with Legos, reading, telling jokes, and engaging everyone. Needless to say, he was happy to have a new audience. He helped prepare salad for dinner, and, while we were preparing dinner, he managed to work on a Lego project and watch Fantasia.
Having skipped lunch (his standard pbnj, that is, opting just for strawberries and pretzels), he let his appetite shine, devouring beans, salad, and a bratwurst. While he was eating, Sam offered Jake a cookie. He turned her down, and said he couldn't have it yet since he "hadn't finished the food on his plate". Yes, he was doubly rewarded for that one.
No, our day didn't stop there. We all headed down to the strip, in an effort to check out the Bellagio conservatory (display being replaced tonight, No luck) and the fountains (very good). Sam took the lead and we managed to check out a few blocks of the strip before little boy needed us to part ways. Jake and I made it back home in time for a couple of stories and he was in bed with lights out before eleven. Not much before... But every minute counts.
Not to be left out are a couple of highlights from conversations I had with jake while driving tonight.
As we were driving on the freeway, merging with I15:
"Daddy, is this the highway?"
"Yes it is."
" I know. I can tell by the sound of it. Can you drive really fast here?"
"uhhmmmm, well, faster than the road we were just on."
"Go really fast!"
"Why?"
"Because then the policemen can come and pull you over and take you away. And then they will leave the car with me and I can drive it really fast!"
"uhhh, can you drive?"
"yes! I have a driver card!"
"where did you get that?"
"LEGOLAND!!"
There you have it. Master driving taught by Lego.
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