Connor and Josephine are on big learning curves right now. Josie is taking steps and babbling, but still relies on the crawl and the point to ensure success. She has a little smile that is amazing and a guttural laugh when tickled. It’s not a fake, “I’m having fun with daddy laugh,” it’s a full on uncontrollable from the toes laugh. I love hearing it so much I actually have to limit myself so she can catch her breath. She is also becoming more and more aware of her surroundings. For example, Connor leads our mealtime prayers. If we don’t start soon enough after the kids are strapped in Josie puts her hands together and grunts. Judging by her size and appetite we think this is more to get the food moving rather than her devotion to the Word. Although she does love her children’s Bible.
Connor is working all the angles a three year old has. He is working on negative attention, victim status (Daddy, I need a hug), positive attention, proactive invitations (“Where you going daddy? Can I come with you?”), mild tantrums, not so mild tantrums, courtesy, and willful disobedience. Did I leave any out? These were all on display this weekend when we took the kids to Cabelas for the first time. For those that don’t know it’s a huge superstore of everything outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping, etc. It also has a snack bar, an aquarium, and a bunch of stuffed game animals in different sections in the store. And I don’t mean little tiny cuddly stuffed bears, I mean someone went out and shot a grizzly bear, took it to the taxidermist and stuffed it. Now make that times 200. Not all bears, there were lions, deer, an elephant, rhino (no Romney jokes), zebra, polar bear, armadillos, coyotes, foxes, wolves, antelope, you name it. And in the aquarium, there were bass and catfish as big as Connor. Josie loved standing on the edge and watching the fish swim towards her…they probably thought she looked delicious.
Then we played in the camping tents while Josie tried to turn a cot into a trampoline. That’s when we saw the shooting gallery. It was an old fashioned light gun gallery with all kinds of animatronic animals and other outdoor gear. Connor was scared to death. Ha, just kidding. He couldn’t pick up the gun and pull the trigger fast enough. Yes, we have a gun safe, relax everyone. So we bought some tokens and let me tell you that boy is quick on the trigger. I was trying to aim for him and he just kept reeling off shot after shot. He loved shooting the snake and watching it slither away, and then back again.
We got him away from the gallery and figured it was time to go when he almost took down an entire rack of fishing rods. Plus it was lunch time. Cabelas strategically placed an ice cream freezer just on the other side of the registers. Bastards. So Connor matter-of-factly said, “I need an ice cream.” We told him we’d go get some lunch and then maybe…but before that sentence concluded we heard a chorus of 20 different ways to ask for ice cream. He almost lost it, but currently responds well to, “Connor take a deep breath buddy. Calm down, tell me slowly.” So he took a deep breath. And said, very calmly, “Daddy, Mommy, I need an ice cream please. Please have an ice cream?!”
Well what can you do? It’s 12:15, we hadn’t had lunch, do you give him the ice cream? Of course not. So we said, “Connor, as soon as we leave the store we’re going to get some lunch then we’ll have dessert.” He might have mentioned that this was not acceptable and he was really looking forward to some ice cream. I’m summarizing the BAZILLION mentions and combinations of the words ice and cream he just ran through. Finally I thought I had him when I said, “Okay buddy tell you what, if we go someplace that has ice cream, you can have ice cream.” His amazingly quick response was, “Mommy can we go to a place for lunch that has ice cream please?” My boy. Josie meanwhile is just being sweet, but she’s clearly hungry too. So here we are at Dan’s Hamburgers. Connor and Mommy each get a milk shake. I’ll save you the entire conversation on the 10 (felt like 40) minute drive from Cabelas to Dan’s and how a milk shake is actually ice cream and how that was acceptable to Connor, anyway he got a shake. He even ate half of his cheeseburger and some fries and even an onion ring. Josie just pounded everything we put in front of her and was even rewarded with a few spoons full of ice cream. And by the way, she does the cutest thing with new foods now. She’ll stick her tongue out to taste something before she allows a full mouthful. Let’s just say, the ice cream passed the tongue test and within seconds she was pointing and saying “that.” My girl. And the ride home was nice and peaceful. Those kids were worn out.
All in all it was a pretty fun filled weekend with the kids. I can’t believe how fast they are growing up. One of my neighbors just posted that her kid lost a tooth. Then all the tooth fairy talk started going. Josie’s just about walking, Connor is debate captain of the pre-school. Connor, Josie, please stop growing up so fast. Daddy needs a hug.
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