Playing with the Boy

Xander and I have been doing pretty well on our own, although we both miss Mommy.  One thing that has really changed is that Erin is no longer around to do all the cooking.  Erin is a wonderful cook and I am a pretty uninspred cook, so she has taken this on in the Lewis houshold.  I have to admit to being a little apprehensive about having to cook for Xander.  I haven't really had a good understanding of what he eats all day, since I'm usually only around for dinner.  I'm happy to report that I seem to be a quick study.  I've fed him breakfasts and packed him his lunch for daycare and all seems to be going well.  Dinners have generally gone pretty well too, with only one exception.  A couple of nights ago we had flank steak over a bed of spinach, green beans and rolls.  Xander didn't get the spinach, since he doesn't really like it, but I figured the rest would go over well.  He really likes green beans and is usualy a fan of steak.  Dinner was a total flop.  He wouldn't touch any of it.  He isn't usually a very picky eater, but apparently this was just unacceptable.  Oh well.  All of the other meals so far have gone over great.  Tonight we had pasta wheels with meat sauce and he had 4 servings, it was a hit.

We have had lots of play time.  Xander has gotten really good at throwing/bouncing the ball so we have played lots of games of "catch" (he throws, I chase the ball and give it back to him).  We have played with blocks and built towers, played on the slides, gone up and down the patio steps a hundred times, mowed the lawn with his toy mower, and of course pushed his wagon all over.  Today we even got to go swimming.  I swam a few laps first while he played in daycare and then we swam together for a while.  Xander loves to drink water from both his bath and the pool, so it was no surprise to me when he picked up the watering can and started drinking from it.  It was a big day for him and after a while he curled up on my shoulder.  I asked him if it was nap time and he nodded yes.  We headed for home and before I had even turned out of the parking lot he was asleep in his carseat.

After nap we headed to the airshow at the local airport.  Xander adores planes and is always excited when he hears one and sees it fly overhead so I figured that he would love it.  I was both right and terribly wrong.  There were a number of planes on display, and I think that Xander understood that these were airplanes that he likes seeing in the sky.  It was a little hard to get him to focus on the planes on the ground though because there were so many planes flying around, he was always looking up to see them.  We headed over to the runway to watch some of the aerial acrobatics, and they really were amazing.  It is incredible to see planes flip and tunble through the air, yaw sideways while buzzing the run way, and fly straight up until they stall and come sliding back down on their tail.

After the acrobatics shows, out came the military aircraft.  First an F/A-18 Hornet showed off its stuff.  This plane was really loud and Xander didn't care for it at all.  The pilot was impressive and made ample use of his afterburners as he buzzed the crowd, creating a stupendous roar.  Poor Xander was terrifed.  The plane made a number of passes, but I figured we could tough it out for alittle while.

Unfortunately next up was an F-16.  He started his show out right with the afterburners blazing all the way down the runway.  This plane was deafeningly loud.  After his first pass, I realized that we were done, I packed Xander up in his stroller and we ran for it, with the poor guy wailing the whole way back to the car.

Xander settled down as soon as we got the car and got the doors closed so it was quiet.  All in all it was a lot of fun until it got too loud.  When and if we do it again, I will bring ear muffs for Xander, I tried ear plugs but it was hard to get them in his ears well enough to be effective, and he kept pulling them out anyway.

-Jake