Babypalooza

Amanda is back! Alleluia!

But we had a great time. Here's the rundown:

Thursday: brought Alastair to work. We have helicopters, warplanes, anti-aircraft guns, and tanks on display around the facility. It's like a little-boy playground. While here, we rode the bus (endless fascination!), saw several firetrucks, visited the day-care where he spent 3 months of his life, watched & listened to the elk, and met all of my coworkers.

Friday: back to the State Fair. He'd had so much fun on Monday last week that I thought we'd do it again. This time Evelyn met us, and we watched racing pigs ("I see fast pigs!") & stunt-dogs, watched people ride the drop-zone ride, petted all of the baby animals, "drove" the tractors, and Evelyn & I shared a bag of fried Oreos (bizarre side-note: I got my fried goodies in a bag, which guaranteed messier-than-necessary hands, so I asked for a plate; the European dude behind the counter told me that I couldn't have a plate because they're for $5 items; I told him I'd given him $5 for the Oreos, and he just gave me this blank stare; eventually his coworker handed me a 2nd bag, as if that somehow made sense).

Saturday: Farm! We went to my mom's farm. Alastair got to pet the horses, ride a pony, drive a tractor, operate the fork-lift arm on the tractor, sit on an ATV, pet the bunny, and talk to the turkeys. Mom displayed her remarkable capacity for responsibility by not only allowing him to steer the tractor, but also to drive it on a public road. Granted, it was only about 60', but she got us out there and then started telling us how dangerous that part of the road is. Then she refused to wear her seat-belt to or from lunch, telling me some story about a woman who'd been trapped in her seat-belt for 8 days. Yeah? Well there's a reason why that was news, lady, and it's not because it happens every day.

Anyway, we had a really great time on the farm, and Alastair is still oohing and aahing over his tractor ride and the pony. He's positively beside himself over the goats and sheep at the fair, though.

Sunday: MINIs on a Ferry, II. My intention had always been to take Alastair for this, since he would get to ride on a big boat with lots of "Daddy cars". As it turned out, though, Ed & Leigh volunteered to take him for the whole day (and night!), and I didn't turn them down. It would have been tough on the little guy to have him in the car for over 3 hours without any real point to the drive, and without any place to let him run around.

We didn't set the record this time: only 65 or so MINIs showed up. But we still had a lot of fun, and it was far better organized this year (not to mention the weather: 85 & sunny vs. 45, windy & rainy).

Monday: Not so great. I started the morning well enough by getting Alastair's ceiling fan mounted. It's not wired yet, but I wanted to make sure everything was there before doing the wiring. I've been putting this off for a solid 2 years. But that was pretty much where the fun ended (and it wasn't all that fun). Alastair was very good right up until lunch, which was about 45 minutes after I picked him up.

Thereafter we just got on each other's nerves. It was a sad end to a great weekend, but I think we were both just really tired. He did get his first trip down Riverside Dr, though, and didn't seem too bothered.

So I'm beyond delighted to have Amanda back, but I really had a (mostly) good time with my Little Man. He's a great guy, and a real trouper.