Time to Waste

Mike had to work so Donny and I squandered the first day of our 3 day weekend. Did'nt get much done at all but we had fun doing it.

Donny found my hat and that was the theme for most of the day:





Then we ended the day (Donovan's day that is) with a bath outside in the copper laundry tub. Soaking wet, my kid has a Louise Brooks thing going on:

My Son, Quasimodo

Whew! Busy day despite the rain. We went to Phipps because they plied us with Gargoyles. For the past few years or so, Phipps has been fitting in a goth-themed show every few months. I like. I like alot.

Here are photos of what Donovan did today--run around, pet gargoyles and play the piano. For him, that's a perfect day.

Full Plate

We packed alot in today, Donny and I. First I dragged him kicking and screaming to the Children's Festival in Oakland. Belly Dancers, rock walls, balloon animals and what does my kid want to do? Play with gravel.

Sigh.

We got annoyed with each other so I sat with him on a bench in that little "parklet" for about 15 minutes and then tried again to get him over to see the drummers. That was'nt going to happen but the Mary Schenley Fountain was on and he very much liked that. They made some major repairs to it last year (or the year before) and now its in excellent shape and its bronze turtles are happily spitting for another season.

After he insisted on dipping his elbows in the water a few times we went across the street to the PNC Carousel. I've got mixed feelings about this carousel, mainly the whole PNC part of it. Still, they were having free rides today and after Donovan had said no to it about 8 times he started crying as we were walking away, so we got in line.



It was his first ever merry go round ride and he got to ride a big eyed baby seal:



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He liked it alot. So much so that he was very confused when the merry go round stopped. He did not want to leave his new best friend, The Seal, so we got immediately back in line. And for a kid who's never been particularly whiney, he kept whimpering, "I want the seal. I want the seeeeaaaaallll!" Of course someone else had taken the seal and there's a 45% chance I bodychecked this lady who was trying to put her kid on the giant rabbit. She gave me the right of way, however, so Donovan got to ride the bunny. Which he is still talking about hours after the fact:





Back home for a nap (for him, not for me, unfortunately) and then to meet Daddy at Whole Foods, with a stop on the way to buy hooch. While we were there, Donovan made another inanimate friend:





Finally, at Whole Foods, we found the kid some sunglasses. He is very excited to have them--so much so I had to strongarm them off of him to get the pricetags off the lenses.




And to think: one more day in the weekend!

Vinegar Tom and Giraffecow

Donny asked me to draw some of his stuffed animals.


I did and it started reminding me of something:



I'm inordinately proud of myself.

Long Term Implications of Decorating

The thing about Oakland is that you have Universities with their students and faculty, and you have Western Psych, with current patients in the hospital buildings and many former, indigent patients living out on the Oakland streets.

About 15 years ago I was walking to work and stopped to check the progress painters were making on a little row of about 5 very sweet Victorian houses—not mansions, just little working class houses that an otherwise heartless realty/landlord company had bought up. Standing a little away from me was this painfully thin, dirty and dusty old man. He had a shock of unwashed white hair going every which way, no teeth. He also looked like he’d been smoking so long his skin was starting to fossilize. He, too, was watching the painters, who were working with a bunch of different colors all at once—purple, blue, ochre, pink. The guy started to walk away and then stopped in the middle of the street and yelled at the top of his lungs, “THOSE ARE FAIRY TALE COLORS!!!”

Why bring this up? First, I saw a pink and blue house today and heard that guy’s voice in my head. Second, what is Donovan going to remember about his childhood? Not so much factually but what likes/impressions is he going to carry with him? Whatever life had done to that old man in Oakland, and it did look like he’d been thru a mangler or two, there was something left in him that saw those colors in those tones and clicked. I wonder if he was picturing books from his childhood in his mind. I’ve gotten a few beautiful volumes of children’s poetry from the 19teens, 20s and 30s off of Ebay and he was right: those were exactly Fairy Tale Colors.

We will be redoing Donny’s room fairly soon and I know we need to Big Boy it up a little bit. I am also cognizant of the fact that he is a boy. But would a few Fairy Tale Colors be such a bad thing?

Next Stop: Henry Cowell!

Donovan can be hard to wake up in the mornings. I usually coax him awake by asking him questions and his first answers are always noes, which translate to, "NO stop trying to wake me UP!"

Today he was particularly hard to rouse but as I was poking him at talking to him I saw his eyelids flutter open and he looked at the radio. "Do you like the music?" I asked him. He thought a moment and then whispered, "Yes." Of course the exact song that was on my iPod is nowhere to be found online but here is the theme to the soundtrack the piece was from. It will give you a rough idea.

Fun at the Funeral Home

Happy Beltane, everyone!

I unwisely planned today to be the first official Day of Potty Training. I'll be polite and leave out details but I will say that the boy did pretty good.

That being said, potty training is not really a show you want to take on the road so we spent most of the lovely afternoon indoors. I figured after his nap he'd want to run around outside.

Not Donovan.

I'm not sure what was wrong but he woke up from his nap screaming and crying and it literally took an hour and a half (and two glasses of ovaltine) to calm him down.

Here is a list of all the things we missed out on today between potty training and post nap surliness:

* May Day Festivities at the Waldorf School
* Opening day of the Gargoyle Themed flowershow at Phipps
* Guerrilla Sunflower Seed Planting day at the Civic Center
* Big May Day parade RIGHT IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

Sigh.

I finally managed to manhandle my child into shorts and shoes, trundle him on a 54C and we met Mike at the Philly Steak place where Mike and I had sandwiches and Donovan ate fries and raisins and banana chips. Mother of the Year Award, here I come.

Things got better after the fries when we went across the street to Freyvogel Funeral Home to see the fountains. I love those fountains and so does my son. By the time we left, all was right with his world. Now he's in our bed with Mike, watching the prerequisite selection of Donny Videos on Mike's phone. Then he'll go to his bed and Mike and I will eat chips and dip, listen to the podcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! and have a couple of drinks.

If that won't make the crops grow, I don't know what will...