Today, Jack was an amazing little man.
Jack and Mommy went to the Farmers’ Market in Brentwood. There are two major highlights for Jack – the “Boom Boom Bap Guys” and the “Splashing Mountain”. The Boom Boom Bap Guys are a jazz trio (I think they’re called the Big Fat Swing Company) from the local high school. They play sax, piano, and drums (hence, the Boom Boom Bap). Jack loves to watch them play. The only thing he loves more is splashing in the fountain at the end of the street. Somehow, he thinks this is the Splashing Mountain.
At the Farmers’ Market, Jack listened and did not whine. He generally asked please (though he did need to be reminded). He ate several samples – half an apricot, some green pluot, a smidgen of sweet potato pie, a strawberry. When we got to the middle of the street with the Boom Boom Bap guys, he sat in rapt attention while they played a particularly good song. (They were joined by a girl saxophonist today.) Jack hopped out of his stroller and walked over to the sax case to give them $1.
The only glitch of the day occurred when we headed for the fountain. It’s on the corner, and the way the market is set up, you can’t get onto the sidewalk if you have a stroller, because the stalls are in front of the sidewalk. Jack ran for the shortest path, and I called “I’m going around.” I thought he heard me, but apparently not. Because as I got around, Jack wasn’t on the other side of the fountain. I freaked out. I yelled his name a couple of times. Then I looked, and he was in the road (blocked off for the market, so no danger) looking very worried. I called him again and he saw me, and he ran over, so happy to see me. I told him I wasn’t letting him go the fountain by himself anymore.
At the fountain, he listened very well, dunked his feet, didn’t splash too much (again, he needed a couple of reminders). He ate about 1/4 piece of “pizza bread” (foccacia) while dunking his feet. When it was time to go, he didn’t give too much lip. He wanted to walk, which he did nicely, mostly holding my hand. He helped me pick up a potted plant (to help Grandpa plant tomorrow). I told him he could keep walking to the car, instead of getting into the stroller, if he stayed on the sidewalk. And he did! He’s actually really good about not going in the street.
Because he was such a good boy, I told him that we could share a cookie. (The woman at the sweet potato pie stall thought Jack was so cute, she gave me one for him – a tea cake, to be exact.) I told him to get in his car seat and he did immediately. When I told him that we were going to share the cookie, he initially whined, but when I explained the “bite by bite” method of sharing, he was OK with that. Mostly, he didn’t want me to cut the cookie in half. He actually did pass the cookie to me while I was driving.
He was very talkative on the drive home. He talked about how he wanted to go home and play. I said he had to nap. “No nap! Wanna go Daniel’s party.”
(Our neighbor’s son graduated high school last night, and they had a party for him today. Jack was convinced it was Daniel’s birthday, and Jack was going to get a cupcake.)
I told him he had to take a nap before the party, but we could read and play for a little bit when we got home. At some point, he stopped talking. I looked back. He had his cookie half way to his mouth and was sound asleep. He dropped the cookie, woke up, took a bite, dropped it again, and went back to sleep. He stayed asleep as I got him out of the car, up the stairs, and into the crib.
He napped for 3 hours. I napped for 1 hour, then spent 2 hours making new LiveJournal icons for myself.
When Jack woke up, he was mostly good, although he didn’t want Daddy. He’s very into Mommy these days. Max was able to take Jack downstairs while Mommy got ready to go. Jack drew Daniel a picture, and we all went over to the neighbors’ house.
Jack got to see Buford, the neighbors’ nice pit bull. Throughout the course of the night, he also got to see the other 3 pits, who are generally nice but don’t really get kids, so I held onto him while they were out doing their business. Jack was very nice to the dogs, and really loved playing with them. He talked about how one of the dogs, a pit named Ivory, was in “time out” because she “wasn’t being nice”. He kicked a soccer ball, and I ended up coming over here and getting a few toys for him.
Jack ate half of a corn cob, and tried the fried chicken. He just wasn’t into it. He had a nice amount of fruit and a bit of rice as well. He got to run in the sprinklers for a few minutes, but we had to go home before cake.
When I was putting him to bed, I told Jack that tomorrow is Father’s Day, so we have to be extra special nice to Daddy, and tell him how much we love him. Jack said, “I love Daddy. I love him.” I said Daddy would love to hear that, and he said, “I love him.” So that was extra sweet.
Hopefully, he’ll remember to be extra special nice to Daddy tomorrow.
