Santa at Sizzler

Tonight we went to the local Sizzler's with our neighbors. Call it a pre-Christmas get together without all the cooking fuss. It was quite the bargain; dinner for my attractive wife, Jack, and myself for under $40.

We arrived just before five p.m., after the senior crush (which Sizzler's refers to as "Honored Guests" on their menu) and ahead of the regular Sunday night dinner crowd.

The food was good and the salad bar "endless." As we were finishing up, an African American man walked by with his family dressed in a red sweat pants, a red San Francisco 49ers sweatshirt, and a matching 49ers Santa hat. Jack said, "It's Santa!" as he walked past.

Jack wanted to meet him so we walked over to his table where he was eating with his wife and son, who was sporting an authentic elf hat. I said, "Excuse me, sir. My son wants to meet you because he thinks you're Santa."


He said, in a booming voice, "Well, well, well, does he?" and put him on his lap and asked what Jack wanted for Christmas. Jack became a little shy, but with some coaxing, said he wanted a light saber (although he pronounced it, "life saver") and offered, "General Grievous is a bad guy."

"Santa" asked if we wanted a picture and I snapped one after we walked back to our table. As we finished the photo, his son came over wearing his elf hat and we snapped another. It was a pleasant addition to our bargain dinner.

Pithy Responses

Jack has said some amusing things over the past few days. He's seen some commercials for kid's toys on the Cartoon Network and immediately responds with, "I want that!" Madison Avenue definitely speaks Three Year Old, I'm afraid. I'm impressed the way these commercials make some of these toys appear like the Funnest Thing Ever. One day, he saw back-to-back toy commercials and got overwhelmed; "I want that. I want that." Then he paused, looked at me and said, "I want everything."

Today, we told Jack that he was going to get a new baby brother or sister in June. My attractive wife asked him, "Do you think it will be a boy or a girl?" Jack replied, "It will be orange."

Jack Turns Three!

Jack turned three last weekend! I was especially happy to share it with him since I was in Iraq last year when he turned two and had to miss his first birthday due to an emergency at work. Granted, his first and second birthdays were pretty sedate affairs (only our neighbors participated). So my attractive wife and I decided to pull out the stops for birthday number three and initiate Jack (and ourselves) to the wonders of Chuck E. Cheese's.

We invited Jack's cousins and his day care playmate, Jay who is a couple of months younger than Jack. Plus some adult friends who we knew could handle it including neighbors Dewey and Day-Day, some friends from work and friends from my bachelor days.

Everything was highly scripted. We got to have "playtime" for forty-five minutes, each child getting a number of complimentary tokens for the numerous games. After playtime, were called back to the birthday table where we ate pizza. Then, Mr. Cheese made a special appearance for our party (and four other simultaneous celebrations) amongst much singing and dancing.

Jack got his very own chocolate cake with three candles. It was very festive. After singing "Happy Birthday" Jack bent over to blow out the candles and ended up slobbering all over the cake. (I don't think anyone but me saw that.)

Next, we cut up the cake and folks dug in. It was very entertaining watching Jack and Jay dissecting their respective pieces of cake. They both were the model of determination.


Next, Jack began opening presents. He made out like a bandit. The most entertaining gift bag, from Victoria's Secret, came from two friends from work.

We were having a ball when my attractive wife grabbed my attention and said, "We have six minutes to clear the tables." Huh? Apparently, our festive celebration had run its (paid) course and we were being shuffled off to a booth in the play area where we could continue our party. Where did the time go?

Jack and Jay took the opportunity to burn off their respective sugar highs in the playground area. In addition to slides, this venue featured "tubes" which spanned the whole play area. Jack disappeared into them and I watched him from the ground level. He went all the way around but came down crying after some kid apparently hit his face with their shoes. After a big hug and some kissing on the forehead, he was back at it. Still, that episodes seems to lends some credence to the fact that the police often are called to these establishments to break up fights between grown ups.

Jack and Jay next tried out some of the more terrestrial slides over and over again.

Flush with tokens, Jack got to try a number of the attractions like the "Jett Rider" which simulates riding a roller coaster. The ride features a video monitor for other kids to see who's riding.

Jack reacquainted himself with an ersatz Mr. Cheese on a car ride. Jack seemed to enjoy putting the tokens in the respective slots of the various rides than the rides themselves. Jack would periodically turn to me and say, "money?" Somehow, I don't think rewarding this type of activity bodes well for the future.

The party started at 1100 and we didn't' end up leaving until well after 1400. Jack had a blast.

Chasing Girls and How to Say Thank You

I took Jack to the park this morning. He quickly latched onto a cute older Asian girl who was running around the playground. Maybe it was her speed or the fact she was making funny noises but he wanted to chase her. He announced provocatively, "I'm gonna get you!" and proceeded to chase her around. She was about six or seven, long legged, and way out of his league. Still, it was fun to watch. She would let him get just in reach and then sprint off again. She would lead him to a park bench, sit and wait for him to get there before vaulting off again. Jack didn't seem to tire of the game which, I suppose, bodes well for his future social life in this department.

As I was walking around, I noticed something dark and plastic half buried in the wood shavings near one of the slides. I bent over to pick it up and saw that it was a car key fob, distinctly German in nature (either for a Volkswagen or Audi). It was just the fob and not attached to any other type of key chain. It looked old so I wondered if some parent had given it to their child as a toy.

I asked the first guy I saw if he had his car keys. He said yes and offered, "Wow, someone's gonna need that." I then re-acquired Jack, still in hot pursuit of the Asian girl. She was in the company of her younger sister, who was younger than Jack, and her father.

I walked up to him and asked if he had his car keys. He patted his sweat pants and said no, accompanied by a mild spasm of panic, as I offered him the fob. He took it, said a perfunctory thanks and walked away. It was like I had held the door open for him at the post office and not like I just saved his ass. Granted, he was trying to keep an eye on his younger kid but it doesn't take much to say a more genuine thank you. Some people.

Day-Day's Flashlights

Our neighbor, whom Jack calls, "Day-Day," loves to buy Jack flashlights. He finds them all over but mostly at a weekly flea market (Jack calls it the "free market"). They are very cool. In fact, I took two of them to Iraq with me. One was a small general purpose flashlight that used a series of small LEDs bulbs and the other was a small finger light with a Velcro strap that I attached to my body armor. Both came in very handy in numerous situations.

Lately, after his bath and final episode of The Pink Panther, Jack seems to have this burst of energy every night before actual bed time. The last few weeks, I've given up trying to wind him down and instead let him burn off this final energy of the day. Tonight, he had two of Day-Day's finger lights, one red and one blue, and was dancing around the room. My attractive wife turned off the light to heighten the effect. I thought this would make a good picture...

... but of course the flash on the camera kind of ruined the look I was trying to get. Next, I turned off the flash on the camera and got much better results!

Same maniacal smile but cooler light effects. :-)

The Pink One

For a while, Jack was mad about the show, Pinky Dinky Doo. Now, Jack is mad about The Pink Panther, the animated cartoon series which ran from 1969-1979. I vaguely remember watching these cartoons when I was a kid but it's been fun watching them with Jack. The Tivo is busy recording episodes on Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel. When allowed to watch television, Jack always asks for it.

At first, Jack couldn't say the word, panther, so he referred to the title character as, "the Pink One." There's also an unamed male character in many of the episodes who Jack refers to as "the White One," since he's colored white. I think Jack likes the show due to it's simplicity; there is little to no dialogue between characters in the episodes. While I suppose that's not the best for developmental purposes Jack nevertheless really enjoys it.

The White One and the Pink One
(Click to see the animation)

The half hour show sometimes features just Pink Panther episodes but sometimes they include episodes of The Inspector and The Ant and the Aardvark (part of the original series). The Inspector features a French police (okay, Sûreté ) detective who resembles Peter Sellars' Inspector Clouseau from the (original) Pink Panther movies and his inexplicably Spanish assistant. Jack doesn't hang so much with The Inspector. He's okay with The Ant and Aardvark though.

Tanny

I just finished my first week back at work which means Jack is back at Day Care for full days. I feel like a bad parent. Before Jack could talk, taking him to Day Care didn't seem all that bad; tending to him back then meant he was fed, properly clothed and kept close. Now that he's a small person, I feel bad that he spends all day away from my attractive wife and me. But it's the only way, I'm afraid, as we both need to keep our full time jobs.

We're lucky though because we have an excellent Day Care provider, Tanny, who runs her service out of her house. She chooses to care for only a few children even though her license allows for more. She and her husband never had children of their own so she became a provider fifteen years ago, first as a hobby and now as a passion. The many children she has helped raised over the years are her children as well. And her love for them is readily apparent. When Jack was less than a year old, I was amazed when I picked him up in the afternoons to find him quietly playing and happy. Tanny is a certified Baby Whisperer.

One of the reasons Jack likes going to Tanny's is his playmate, Jay. He's about four months younger than Jack but masses about the same weight (Jay's father is a big man). Jay and Jack love each other's company truly. When I drop him off in the mornings, Jay comes running into Tanny's living room and together they run to and from the next room. When I tell Jack we're going to Tanny's he says, "I'll see Jay!"

Now that Jack and Jay are nearly three, Tanny has introduced arts and crafts into their daily routine. Every other day or so, Jack comes home with some artwork he created using glue, scissors, cardboard paper and decorations. A picture of Jack's Thanksgiving Wreath was featured on a recent post.