Yesterday, while largely a very stressful day for me (one of those cases where five hours just set the tone for the rest of the day, despite my best wishes), was quite possibly the best day Liam has ever experienced. Look at it from his perspective: First thing in the morning, he’s off to vbs where he gets to dodge naptime and play with other babies and munch on Kix cereal all morning long. Then, after a too-short nap at home, he’s off again to have lunch with his mom, brother, aunt and cousins. And there, he samples a buffet like no other he’s ever sampled. He had scrambled eggs, hashed browns, sausage, strawberries and funnel cake. The kid was in HEAVEN. After that, a relaxing afternoon at home with mom and dad, getting to rip it up in grand fashion around the living room (we NEED a BABY GATE). That evening, falls asleep in the van only to wake up on papa’s shoulder amidst the greatest place he’s ever seen in his whole 11+ months of life: Toys R Us.
We’ve never taken him there before and we were killing some time and decided to scope out some of the baby toys, for present ideas for Liam’s first next week (DO NOT WANT). Liam came awake and took a look around at the aisles and aisles of toys and I swear to you he actually gasped. You know that intact of air babies sometimes do when they’re laughing? It was like that, but more STUNNED than amused. He was immediately charmed. He laughed and clapped at all the toys we showed him and showed a particular preference for stuffed animals. He would squeal and throw his arms out and hug these stuffed animals, all the time laughing like a maniac. It was the funniest damn thing I’ve ever seen.
After that, we met my sister in law and her husband and her kids at Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. Harry was rapturous and Liam was agog at all the activity and bright lights and screaming children. He got his first taste of pizza, but could hardly concentrate on it for all the gaping he did at everything around him. Kile and I walked around with him, let him ride on some of the kiddie rides and whatnot. He LOVED that. He also had a great time throwing empty soda cups around like a maniac hopped up on speed. That was when I glanced at my watch and noticed it was 9 o’clock. That’s at least an hour past his bedtime, if not two (probably two, considering the long day he’d already had at that point). It was another half hour before we could finally tear the boys away from all the fun. Predictably, Liam conked out in the van. And despite my predictions, he stayed asleep when Kile laid him down upstairs in his crib and didn’t wake up once all night. Maybe that was him thanking me for such an awesome, fantastic day.
