A Father's Day Weekend

Oh Strep. On Thursday we discovered Bella is suffering from Strep, not just sunstroke from 3 full days at the pool. By Saturday, we suspected that Pamela might have it, as she passed out for a few hours then crawled off to sleep early. So today, Father's Day, we got to see a Minute Clinic... The quick test was negative, the long test will come back in a few days, and Pamela was back on the couch.

No matter - while Mother's Day is often about "making things easy for Mom", Father's Day is always all about Dad and Kid Action. And action we had: A visit to the Apple Store AND Guitar Center! Lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. And what is Father's Day without a Pixar Movie?

The original plan was flawless:
Step 1 - watch Toy Story 1 and 2 with the kids on Saturday. Watch Isaac's reactions. Can he handle it? YES HE COULD.
Step 2 - Get reserved seats for the 3:55 show at the Icon theater. That way we can walk in at the last minute after the loud scary previews and just watch the movie.
Step 3 - Pamela is on Isaac duty in case things get too scary.

What with the strep, step 3 sort of fell apart, so I left her on the couch and proceeded with the plan, bringing both kids: There were two points in the movie that were just too much for Isaac: One was the sad clown's story, the other was the incinerator scene. I spoil nothing - but these were definite dramatic peaks of the movie, and I had Isaac yelling "I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!". So I took him down to the hallway, and told him what was happening in the movie and that everything was going to be ok. REALLY. And I got him back in the theater and back on my lap. By the end he was laughing and cheering, loving how it all turned out.

I will not spoil the movie for people here: Everyone who liked 1 and 2 needs to see this. It is brilliant closure to the story, and a powerful story about growing up. Of course tears were streaming down my cheeks as the credits rolled... absolutely incredible. I do plan to see it again - but I'll leave Isaac at home. Bella was a champ by the way.

After a dinner of grilled cheeses on the back porch, it was off to bed. I got Isaac ready for bed and cuddled him until he was asleep. Then into Bella's room, where we read 1/2 of a Magic Treehouse (Earthquake!) and she was so tired she nodded off shortly thereafter. Holding both my kids as they fell into slumber was a magical way to end father's day.

And even better was knowing I'll be in town all week - no sneaking off on Monday morning with them asleep. This will be a good week.

Images:
1) Last night before bed, Isaac and Bella both had me pushing them on the swingset. Bella challenged me to push Isaac's swing ONE HUNDRED TIMES. I accepted the challenge, and she counted every swing, but by the end, she had adopted a crazy opera singer voice and was singing each number with a little vibrato trill at the end. I almost didn't make it to 100 I was laughing so hard. Isaac was just in the swing zone. Silent, serious, happy.

2) An image I love: When I do one of my absurd jokes with Bella, she does a fabulous "straight man" reaction: Her face gets stony, her mouth turns down in a slight frown, and she fixes me with a look and narrows her eyes.

3) Isaac has picked up an interesting vocal tweak recently. He's extending vowels into extra syllables: The word "eat" has become "ee-yut", "Please" become "Plee-yus", "good" is "guh-wood"... I'm not sure where it's coming from, but it's cute as all get out. He's also experimenting with big words: "suppose", "eventually", and "probably" are inserted into just about any sentence.

4) Bella with her iPod: She's got to the point now of asking me to add songs to it: Last week she asked for the Spice Girls "Wannabe" - she's been singing it around the house. This weekend, it was "Owl City" who makes very earnest synthpop with kid-friendly lyrics. She goes to a happy place when she's listening to music.

I just want to have in the internet record: My kids are very cute.