WAT'S ON our minds?

For a moment walking out the door, I reveled in my geekdom and wondered who Hyrum will want to role play in the future and what roles he will ask of us.... Will I be Sam, Aragorn, or Gandalf to his Frodo? Han, Obi-wan, or 3P0 to his Luke? Which of the Justice League or the X-Men or Starfleet officers will we be? ... or should I be working on my rim shot instead?

Hyrum has added quite a cast of characters to his list of acting credits. He takes on several roles every day now, announcing rapid fire who everyone is and insisting that we call him by his new name every time we speak to him. Also new this week, he announces "I am Hyrum for a minute" when it's time to change his diaper, and then he reverts to his alternate persona when he stands up again.

We were very interested during our parent-teacher conference to learn that, though he'll talk about these people and pretending to be them, he only ever goes by Hyrum in the classroom. If he decides to playact with you, it's apparently an honor.

Some of the newer roles I didn't mention in the last post:

Hyrum -- Daddy -- Mommy -- (source)
Pablo -- Tyrone* -- Uniqua -- (Backyardigans)
Tyler -- Aubrey -- Jacey -- (kids in his class who hugged him for his birthday)
Margaret -- [her dad] -- [her mom] -- (friend at church)
Sister McCallister -- just Daddy -- Sister McCallister's Mom* -- (nursery leader)
Kermit the Frog -- TBA -- TBA -- (Muppets)
Joseph Smith Sr. -- Joseph Jr. -- Oliver Cowdery -- (church history)
Rolf -- Capt. von Trapp -- Lisl -- (Sound of Music)
Flick -- Dot -- Princess Ada -- (A Bug's Life)
Buzzz -- Tom Nook -- "the cat in the dark" -- (Animal Crossing)
Buzz Lightyear -- Rex -- Woody -- (Toy Story)

He's also doing more announcing who he will be on a certain day or under particular conditions:

"If Mommy wakes me up, I will be Kermit the Frog."
What if I wake you up?
"I'm Buzzz and you're Tom Nook."

His birthday card was signed by all of us!

*Incidentally, I had to fight to get the Tryone role. He was casting me as Uniqua and Mommy as Tyrone. It took part of my cunning and all of my persistence to convince him to switch us. I get enough female roles as is. I was a touch concerned when he wanted me to be Mary Poppins until we were watching it together. We saw "Feed the Birds" and then "Let's go Fly a Kite." During the latter song, Mary looks out the window as the children go skipping off, her face full of love and longing. It was at that moment that he happily pointed and called out "That's you, Daddy!" ... Okay, I'll be your Mary Poppins.

*Also incidentally, he's never met Sister McCallister's Mom, but he assumes she must have one. Further incidentally, he has a really hard time saying Flick's name properly, so if you overheard him, no, he's not cursing at us.

This ... is a phone. This has been the international symbol for "phone," "call me," and teaching your children proper telephone etiquette for generations. It makes good sense. You've got an ear piece and a mouth piece and you teach your kids not to confuse the two. Would you stick your pinky in your ear and talk to your thumb? Of course not!

This is a phone.


"Nyuh-uh, Daddy. This is a phone. Phones are flat. You play games on them. Hold your hand like this and talk into your palm. Why would you talk into your fingers anyway?"

Well, you've got the basic idea anyway. Thanks for calling, son.



Translation: Hyrum talked to the hand for the first time this week. His first call was to his daddy. :)

One of the joys of having a little one is getting to know your Disney movies even better than you ever thought you knew them ... because now you can commit literary analysis on them or try to force your way in with logic. This is less magical, but restores sanity.

In Mary Poppins, Mr. Banks sings a short song/talk as is his wont expressing his dissatisfaction with Poppins' outings. Titled "A British Bank" it is one of Hyrum's favorites from the movie. In the midst of Banks' comparison of a household to a bank, Poppins sidetracks him into believing what he wants is for the children to accompany him to work the following day. It's a very clever piece. Poppins' lines are particularly clever, comparing bankers to "a thousand ciphers neatly in a row." Delicious.

Banks' chief complaint however is unusual. He recites the outings the children have gone on to this point, which I can do from memory by this point:

"In short I am disturbed to hear my children talk about having tea parties on the ceiling. I ask you -- having tea parties on the ceiling! Consorting with race horse persons and questionable outings of every other kind.
*sung*
If they must go on outings, these outings ought to be
Fraught with purpose, yes!, and practicality.
These silly words like ...    [Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious?]
*aside* Yes, well done. You said it.
*sung* And popping through pictures
Have little use! Fulfill no basic need! ..."

Think about that complaint. He is not worried that they are living in a fantasy world and out of touch with reality. He is not worried that they are lying to him. He is not worried that they are on drugs. He is worried that having tea parties on the ceiling is not useful.

That the Banks character is one with his priorities messed up to the n-th degree few will question, but it strikes me that he is surrendering a great deal of rationality and logic. He accepts that these things actually happened. Compare this to the Poppins character in the original books who practically yells at the children when they remind her of the things they saw and did. 'No, that most certainly never happened,' she avers. 'How dare you speak such nonsense!'

On the other hand, this really says that there is some hope for this Banks fellow. If he can accept tea parties on the ceiling and riding merry-go-round horses on a race track as possible if not useful, he may yet come round.... round the bend into insanity, that is. Whither he goes.

The sequel to "Donald Duck in Mathamagicland"

For our church Christmas party, each organization was supposed to come up with a song or a sketch or something to perform. As I told the elders, I LIVE for this stuff. So I was put in charge of coming up with a sketch. I pitched several ideas and the one that stuck was a parody of The Princess Bride. I got my food policy textbook off to the publisher by Thursday and wrote the script. The main players rehearsed it that night and we performed Friday. So the fight scene is completely impromptu. A friend recorded it and put it on YouTube. Sorry for the background noises of children, but you can hear us pretty well for the most part. The video is below the fold or linked here.

Joy has been doing an advent calendar with Hyrum this month based on an article from The Friend magazine. Each day it asks a question about the nativity and they read a scripture from the New Testament to answer it. We've already mentioned Mario interrupting the story. Saturday the question was: "Who did the king send to find the baby Jesus?" Hyrum answered, "Mario!" ... Sorry, Mario, but your Savior is in another manger!

Hy and Joy have also worked up a new rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Joy has come up with eight days so far, but Hyrum only cares about the first two: two Mario and Luigis and a Buzz Lightyear coloring book.

Click to enlarge
(part 1, a bit more serious)

Joy picked up Pinnochio for Hyrum at the library. We've been watching it briefly in the morning. Yesterday he decided that putting on too-big shoes (mine) and his Bob helmet (yellow) turned him into Pinnochio. Then he told Mommy that she was Jiminy Cricket and they danced around. It was a lovely morning activity.

So now there are four people he tries to dress up as: Buzz, Bob, Woody, and Pinnochio. 3/4 require him to wear boots and all require a hat.

Mommy reports that she can't find my church shoes anymore....

My parents (Pop and Boo) are really nice. They flew us out to California this month to spend a week and a half with them and to take their grandson to Disneyland. He went last year as an infant, but this time we spent a month or more prepping him for rides and characters, and he has an actual memory now to enjoy it with.

My mother is magical. She has a lot of childlike love and excitement in her. So she had a lot of great ideas about how to make this trip particularly magical for Hyrum. It is no coincidence that almost every ride (or walk between rides) if I asked Hy who he wanted to be with, the answer was Grandma "Boo."

We drove to Disneyland on Labor Day Monday and made a short pit stop at an outlet store along the way. A little later we parked so Pop could bring his mother some medicine and we were joined by a visitor....
A 2 and a half foot tall Mickey Mouse! Hyrum fell in love and showered him with kisses. He thanked Grandma Boo as a fast friendship was forged. (I would love to post the video, but it's too long and blogspot is complaining.) He held Mickey on his lap the remaining hour to Disneyland, slept with Mickey, and carried Mickey over much of Disney [more than Daddy expected but less than Mommy promised] the next several days. Mickey cheered him when he was sad. Mickey played with him. Mickey spoke and sang with him. All was Mickey.

Mickey was a major attraction for the park's other guests too! A lot of parents wanted to know where we got him and how much (grandparents are wonderful things). Kids' eyes widened and jaws dropped. Several asked their parents if that was the Real Mickey. Some families took pictures of us! We were a genuine attraction. When Hyrum met Mickey in person, he gave live Mickey the doll Mickey. He kept coming back to Mickey later, interrupting other people's turns with Mickey if we didn't hold him back.

The magic only increased with the next gifts from Pop and Boo: Buzz and Woody pajamas. He knew what it meant the moment he put them on: "I'm Buzz!" Once again, other children stopped to look and point at Buzz walking amongst them. The best part of being in his Buzz outfit was that he got to meet Woody, Jessie, and Buzz while wearing it. Buzz wrote an extra long dedication in Hy's autograph book. Hyrum was pretty much in awe and wanted to stare at Buzz and Woody as long as they were in sight. Looking at this picture, Hyrum got very excited and told how he and Buzz "match." They have a walking garbage can at Disneyland (named "Push") who talks to guests, and it talked to Hyrum too, asking him if he were Buzz Lightyear and "I thought you were taller." Hyrum asks to wear his Buzz or Woody outfit every day ... or everyday he isn't asking to be Bob the Builder. The Mouse ears I got him have become Buzz's helmet. Technically, the Buzz pajamas are from Pop while Woody is from Boo.


Hyrum also scored a pair of "Smurf-colored glasses" from them. When he puts them on with the shaded Mickey side on, he looks around and declares that everything is "dark" and hurriedly opens them again. His favorite way to wear them is with one dark Mickey on and one off. Combined with the Mickey ears and a couple other Mickey paraphernalia he got, he's quite the walking advertisement.






Pop has always been one of Hyrum's favorite people. Pop is the Promethean Bringer of Technology after all. He also takes Hyrum to character breakfasts. Pop fought with Captain Hook to defend Hyrum and Joy. Pop is the Buzz Lightyear ride champion.



Magical Grandma also has a magical popcorn popper at her house. We warned Hyrum the day before we returned home that we were leaving. He said, "Stay with Pop and Boo. Make popcorn."





Is there anything you would like to say to Grandma Boo and Pop, Hyrum?
"Pop and Boo make popcorn. Then it's time to go to sleep. Thank you for Disneyland."

I've always liked horses. From afar anyway. Used to draw them, like the unicorns. I thought it might be nice to ride a horse someday. Last year when I got some birthday money from Grammy, I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do more than get some horse riding lessons. That's the first time it ever happened. (Thank you, Grammy!) So I planned on it.

I didn't get around to it until July. I'm doing English style riding. It was kind of weird the first time, though I wasn't scared of the horse. Second time was okay - learning a little bit more. The third time I started feeling a little bit comfortable riding. That's good.

When I get there, I groom the horse: I brush its face and legs with the soft brush, and with the coarse brush I brush its mane and its back and its tummy and its tail; then I have to pick and brush its feet (this picture) - it only has shoes in the front, so I don't pick the feet that don't have shoes, but I brush all of them - you only pick around the shoe and not the inside of the foot (called the frog); and then I put on the saddle and my helmet; and then we put on its bridle - I put the bridle on on my own for the first time. And then I ride the horse. I lead it out, walking on its left side, holding the reins with my right hand because all their horses are trained as if people are right handed. And then I ride the horse. And I bring it back and groom the horse again, clean up after it if it poops (which she hasn't let me do yet: if he pees you have to bleach it and all this kind of stuff). And then I give him treats! While I'm grooming him the second time, sometimes he sniffs at me cause he expects to find a treat, but I don't give it to him until after I'm done grooming him.

The biggest problem I had last time I rode, my feet kept trying to go farther into the stirrups and you're supposed to keep the balls of your feet on the stirrups so your heels can sink down as far as possible - helps with balance.

I'm learning that you have to look where you want to go, not at the ground or at the horse - keeping my arms at an obtuse angle. And I'm kind of excited that next time I will get to ride a different horse - not the gentlest one.

After having horse riding lessons three times, I would counsel anyone who has horse riding lessons to not skip a week. It's been going well. It's interesting: it's not all dreamy and floaty like I thought it would be; it's some hard work. And that's the reason you shouldn't skip any lessons because every week you gain some more muscle. I could see progress between my second and third lessons because I hadn't skipped a week, and didn't between my first and second because I had to skip one. When I tried posting, I actually got my bum off the horse this time. It was amazing. This time I could almost do the half-seat ride while last time it was ridiculous.

It was funny - this list time when I was done riding the horse, I felt like I was trying to get my sea legs back. I didn't feel like the ground felt quite right, like there should have been a horse beneath me instead of the ground. Does that sound like a convert? I dunno. I'm probably not going to have any lessons beyond my fourth for a long time.

So it's nice to have a little dream come true. It's nice to have Derrill and Hyrum come and watch sometimes. And I don't know if I'll get back to it or not. Might be kinda nice to know a horse all of its life and then ride it, might be kinda cool, but ... I never know if I'm in for that kind of work. Maybe once I've had all my kids I'll know.

Hyrum really loves cards. And he's watched us play board games that use cards and has wanted to play with us. There are a couple of games with cards we have let him play, and he fell in love with one of them:

Candy Land.

He discovered it in his room in a drawer that he had never opened before (and that we hadn't realized he could open yet - no longer baby-proof!). I think that's part of the magic - the game that appeared out of nowhere.

[I dub this picture: the blond Hyrum Weasley.]

So I told him what it was and he wanted to play it with me. So I got it out and we played. I tried to teach him some of the rules - funny thing to do with a 2 year old, I guess. And we went through the game twice using one little gingerbread guy and taking turns picking up a card. And he liked it and he said, "again again!" I said, "Maybe Daddy will play with us."

So then for Family Fun Time - that day or the next, I forget - Hyrum starts saying "Candy Wand. Candy Wand." It was Derrill's turn to choose the Family Fun Time activity, so I told him he'd have to ask Daddy to play it. He agreed, so we played again, and then he wanted to play it again the next night (his turn to choose), and Derrill reports that he has asked about it about half the nights when he gets put to bed. He points up to the game shelves that he can't reach and calls out that he can see Candy Land. "Candy Wand! Pway Candy Wand!"

And when he chose Candy Land for his family fun time activity, it was the first time he had chosen a non-movie for his family time activity, so I was pretty impressed. 1) That he was still interested 2) That it was not a movie.

A day or two later I was playing with Hyrum and he wanted to play Candy Land. I said okay and got it down and let him play with it however he wanted to while I went to do something else and let him play with it in his room. Because it did seem that he wanted to play with it in a different way than we wanted to. So I went back to the room to see what he had figured out, and he had started matching the cards. He had grabbed the blue cards first (the cards with the blue squares) and put the cards with one blue square together and the cards with two blue squares near them. When I came in, he was finishing that and had started with the green cards. This is not surprising since these are two of his favorite colors.

I was really impressed: with all the cards in Candy Land, how persistent he was in getting all of the cards of the same color together! since in the past he seemed to get distracted when working with too many cards at the same time. So he wanted a matching game while we were trying to play a board game. He also enjoys matching the candy cards to the pictures on the board, particularly the gumdrop and Mr. Mint.

Corning Glass Museum


A cup within a cup. Very ingenious.









In the section on Medieval glass you turn a corner to see a rounded stone arch and this stained glass shining on a very rare cup. Since they don't allow flash, my shot of the entire scene is pretty off. But the window turned out okay I think.



Another decoration where I'm most impressed by the angling of the shadows to make it look like four counter-cyclical sculptures.




Six Flags: New England has a rule about pictures. You can't take any pictures while on the ride, but you can from a distance. So most of our pictures involve Hyrum having fun.




Joy and Emie kept pointing to get Hyrum to watch the camera. By the end he finally decided he was having fun.





Hyrum's very first character hug. Granny knelt down just like we do, stretched out her arms for a hug, and up he ran. It was pretty magical. Thanks, Granny. You helped make the trip.






Hyrum's first solo ride was in their helicopter. We're not sure if he pushed the button or if the operator did to make it rise up, but he loved it. They wouldn't let grown ups on the ride, so our tall two year old got to fly solo. What a happy boy!





He also enjoyed riding in the bus... the bus that acted like a ferris wheel!









Tiger.










There are two or three areas for children to play. Despite us spending most of the day between them in the grown up section, Hy was remarkably well behaved and happy the whole day through. We all took turns sitting out while the others rode.








Hyrum and Daddy also got to fly together, but when we were in the air the plane kind of blocks your view of the cute one.

Hyrum's favorite ride was a pirate ship that not only swings back and forth, but also spins.

Far too many wonderfully fun, interesting, exciting, picture and note and blog-worthy things have happened in the last month so we've had no time to blog about ANY of them properly. Just a couple pictures of Hyrum to keep the grandparents mollified. ... And I still don't have time to do anything justice (I really wish more people had my problems) so here are some random pictures of our adventures this month. A faster way than trying to remember and comment on everything.

FINLAND - Derrill's work conference, May 14-16




An example of the architectural touches and colors that are everywhere (in the part of the city where I wandered anyway).






In the city hall (where we had dinner one night) is this fascinating interlocking finger statue.







The roof of the dining, exhibition, cultural hall of the city hall. It was actually my least favorite dinner there - too many very unusual spices: I couldn't have more than a bite of the tomato salad and I was with a Hindu friend who couldn't eat the meat (oversalted salmon and beef) so I pondered what a South Beacher does when the only thing he could really enjoy is the bread....

NEW YORK CITY - For our 5th anniversary, Joy and I left Hyrum with Pop and Boo (Thank you!) and joined Steve and Emilee (thank you!) for a day in the Big Apple.



Attraction #1: The Statue. We had a lot of fun in line listening to the steel drum players, the trumpeter with a stereo system for accompaniment, the contortionist, and the proselytizers. Tickets to the crown are sold out months in advance, so we missed out on that. But I got to touch the base of the statue! Look for pictures of everyone posing as The Lady a bit later.




Miss Liberty's Book: July 4, 1776. A pretty good book. Have I mentioned I like my camera's zoom?





We wandered randomly around Chinatown. Each of us took turns choosing which direction to go when we came to an intersection. We explored stores, bought local foods, gave some grapes to a guy who was hungry, and had fun soaking it in for a little bit.




We made our way to Central Park where a family who didn't speak any of the 5 languages we speak took our picture.






Times Square. A more wretched hive of scum and villainy I hope I never meet. But we did explore the M&M store!




To the Subway!

We went to Six Flags: New England with my brother and his wife last week. They had free tickets for us thanks to their season passes, so we got to enjoy a nice day together at the park with almost no one there. The first advantage to the small crowds was that Hyrum got to meet the characters with no wait. Actually, they were vying for HIS attention!

His first character hug was Granny (owner of Tweety Bird), but Daffy scared him a little. We had neglected to introduce him to ANY of the Loony Toons characters before. But he liked Bugs. He ran right up to Bugs, gave him high fives all over the place, and lots of hugs.

He ran back and forth between Bugs and Scooby to give them hugs, and with no one else trying to play with them, he got their undivided attention. There was also some weird green alien/dinosaur/dragon that wanted a hug, but Hyrum said no.

We smiled a lot, proud out our Is-This-OUR-Son hugging all around, and said, "Yup, he's going to be ready for Disneyland!"

I am so glad that I got the sequencing cards. I let Hyrum choose the stories today and we only got to three of the 5 or 6 I had him choose.


The first story is of a boy going to bed with three different cards. The first card shows the sun in the window and the boy sitting on his mother's lap while she reads a story to him. The second card shows the mother tucking him into bed, kissing him on the head and added nice loving things she is saying. The last one shows the boy asleep in his bed with the moon in the window. I tell him the story and give him each card as I tell the story for him to look at and put on the floor in front of him.

After I told the story two times, Hyrum jumped up and ran for his bedroom saying, "Blue blanket". He came back with the blanket and laid down on the floor with the blanket over him. I figured out that he wanted the story told again and so we played the go to sleep game several times. When he had only slightly satiated on that game, I went on the to the camping story that he wanted next.

The last picture in the camping story is about sleeping, so I showed him that first. Then while he was laying under his blanket, I showed him the picture of the boy putting up his tent. Next, the boy and his daddy making food at the fire and then the boy sleeping in his tent. In an effort to play this story up. I took a star blanket that we keep in the living room and put it over the back of two chairs, saying "tent" and showing him the first picture. He was still laying down but looking at me with interest. he wasn't far from the tent, so I just tugged him a little closer so that he was under the tent. He did not like that idea and pointing to the blanket tent, said "no blanket". I took it down.

The third and last sequence story was even more successful or just as interesting to him as the first one. This story has 4 pictures. The first picture is of a clear glass and milk being poured into it. Then there is a chocolate sauce contain behind it with part of the milk chocolate and part white and a spoon is starting to stir. Next the milk is all chocolate with the spoon on in front. The last picture has an empty glass with remains of chocolate in it. I told him the story, then I realized that we had chocolate sauce and could actually make it. We did and Hyrum drank it and said again. We did it three times until he couldn't drink anymore. hehehe.

I was really happy to realize that though milk has no iron, chocolate sauce has 9%. Maybe it is a way to get iron into him besides the vitamin that I have been forgetting.

Part spring cleaning, part home repair and improvement, part insanity. We've been wanting to paint the house and I proposed that rather than planning a major offensive, we should play economist and ask what the next part is we wanted to improve. Hyrum's room (before shot). Definitely. Scratches on the white walls from about 4 different kids and their furniture.

I sketched out a schedule for us to get it done this week. If all went well, we'd be done yesterday. If not, we'd have Monday to fall back on before I leave Tuesday for a work conference in Finland. We'd mentally plan on Monday, get paint on Tuesday, clean on Wed-Thur, put the first coat on Friday evening and let it dry while we played with the Petersons, then put on the second coat Saturday and Hy wouldn't know the difference.

Nothing went according to plan.

It all worked perfectly. (after shot of the same wall)

We did minimal planning on Monday. Tuesday was exhausting and Hyrum was miserable, so we didn't get the paint. We put him to sleep in our room and cleaned his room instead. Wednesday we got the paint and supplies and I taught Hyrum to say "Where's Mommy" when we couldn't see her anymore in the store. Thur we did a little cleaning but were definitely not ready, then we had to cancel playing as Hyrum got a fever. No painting on Friday, but Joy did prep work while I watched Hyrum.

Then in one great gasp of effort, we got the entire room painted twice on Saturday, spent a few hours out of the house, and put Hyrum to sleep in his newly painted room!

You'll notice in the shots that there's not much difference between the old white (left wall) and the creamy off-white "Homestead Resort Sunwash" we chose (right wall and ceiling). It's a little yellow and we're glad it's not more yellow, though a little darker wouldn't have hurt anyone's feelings. Eventually we'll paint some musical notes and a song or two on the walls, add a border, some nice stuff like that. The real difference is that the walls are clean and the scratch marks are concealed (well, mostly, but if you go looking for them, you get what you deserve).

We're also very proud of how we worked together on this project. We have such different ways of working on things that we still find it difficult to work on the same project. Usually we break things into smaller pieces and I do my part and she does hers and we put it together and it works.

Joy has been amazed all over the place that when she turned the planning and responsibility over to me (a leap of faith since she is the more detailed planner), she also managed to not feel overwhelmed by the project, which cut down on any communicated stress between us. I in turn let her decide many of the details without complaint which helped her feel in control too. I'd rearrange what we were doing that day and she would help us figure out how to get it done. It was a very good use of our complementary skills.

And it's done and it's happy.

Joy says about the happy weekend we had, "We had a lot of time on Friday night, in memory of playing with Steve and Emilee, for our date night we played two games at the same time. I think it was just as confusing, but it was fun. We rediscovered Carcasonne and Starfarers of Catan (2 player version). I'm looking forward to playing them again."

Hi there. Hy here.

Last week, Mommy and Daddy took me to CT to see Uncle Steve and Aunt Emie. The best part of being with them was their house is full of Mickey! They have Mickey Dance Dance Revolution and Mickey and Minnie figures and Mickey's autograph and probably even more! While Daddy and Uncle Steve worked, Mommy and Aunt Emilee took me to parks and let me do Mickey Dance while they played boardgames like they always do.

But then they took me to Chuck E Cheese. I was really excited. I couldn't stand to wait while they ate their pizza (blech - give me applesauce). I got to ride in all kinds of cars. I'm really excited right now about the green car up top. "Green" "Green" "Green" I keep telling Daddy while he types this.

I rode with Barney and Teletubbies. Who are they?

In this yellow car, they had a button I could push that didn't do anything! How cool is that? Most of the rides, I sat there and intently enjoyed them. It's sometimes hard for other people to tell because I look pretty serious when I'm concentrating on my fun, but Mommy and Daddy knew I was loving it. How? Because I cried every time they tried to move me to another toy, that's how! It was so much fun!!!!

I got to ride three rides with TV screens that bounce and shake with what is happening on the screen. It was like I actually got to ride the rollercoasters! [Daddy notes that the Millford Chuck E. is in a sad sorry state of repair - most of those rides gave a gentle back massage, but nothing like the turbulence we got at the Vestal Chuck E a couple years ago.] Mommy and Daddy liked playing a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball game. While they did that, I played with a ping pong paddle. Oh, they also had a whack-a-mole type thing and Daddy let me swing the mallet! That was cool.

My favoritestest ride, though, was probably the Merry Go Round. I liked looking at my cute, handsome self in the mirror. I just stared and stared all the way around.





Daddy followed me around and around filming, trying to get me to look at the camera. Nope, nothin' doin'! Finally, though, I was merciful and tossed him a bone. Daddy was pretty lucky to catch me smiling. He was reall happy and I'm enjoying seeing this video again now too. "Again. Again. 'gain again again again...."



Uncle Steve was really good at some of the games and he won enough to get me something. Betchya can't guess what it is!