Old McDonalds

Brady is a big fan of food from Old McDonald's, at least that's what he calls it. Not that we go there often, but in a pinch, I've been known to use the drive through. One day we were out all morning running errands no where near our house and needing to both eat lunch and kill about an hour before a scheduled play date. I remembered a McDonald's near where we were with a playground. Brilliant, I thought to myself, we'll get lunch and burn a little time before our next stop. We've not eaten in a McDonald's with a playground before, but I'm sure everything will work out well. If you've read many other stories on my blog, you'll remember that anytime I think I'm brilliant is not a good sign.

First we go to the counter and order our food, which goes well. We sit down and eat our food. Brady couldn't be better behaved. He looks longingly at the playground, but doesn't put up a fight about eating his lunch first. Now it is time to go play. Brady dutifully takes off his shoes, puts them in a cubby and races off. He gets to the two story tube-and-bubble-with-slides-type playground and quickly discovers that there are no stairs to get up to the top, but rather staggered landings, which are too far apart for him to climb. If only he was an inch taller. I start to feel really bad for him as kids that are not much bigger than him climb by him time and again. Brady doesn't mind too much and goes to play in the bottom of one of the tube slides - climb up inside the slide a few feet, slide back down, etc. At one point, inspiration must have struck, because the next thing I know, a pair of socks come flying out the end of the slide, and I can't see my son anymore. Next thing I know, I hear "Hi mommy, " and I look up to see Brady sitting in one of the clear plastic bubbles at the top of the two story structure, which has somehow just grown in height to what seems to be about five stories. How he climbed up the inside of that slide so fast, I'll never know, but he's happy and everything is completely enclosed up there, so we're good.

Brady plays for a while in the tunnels at the top of the playground, then a while longer, and a little while more. He's as happy as a clam in the tunnel, but seems apprehensive about the slide. We start running out of time, and he's not coming down. Kids pass by him and I ask him several times to follow them down the slide. No, he says. We really need to get going. I take a look at the staggered landings to see if I can climb up there. While the landings were too far apart for Brady, they're not far enough apart for my increasingly pregnant body. I consider climbing up the slide the same way Brady did, but that doesn't seem like it will work too well either. Multiple warnings of it being time to leave, and he's still not budging. I begin to look around at the other adults in the area and consider asking them for help. Most are grandparents, but one dad about my age looks promising. I decide to keep him in mind as a last resort as I couldn't imagine a conversation that wouldn't be incredibly embarrassing for me. I think to myself, Brady has to come down sometime, at some point he'll be hungry, then I remember that we just ate, so it could be a while. Brady is still having a wonderful time sitting at the top and smiling down at me. I begin to wonder if McDonald's has an official plan for kids who are "stuck" in their playground with pregnant moms who can't reach them.

Finally, in desperation, I decide I will tell Brady I'm leaving, walk away, and see what happens. I realize this could either go very well resulting in Brady coming down like I need him to, or very badly with a hysterical, crying child at the top of the playground that I still can't reach. Fortunately this story ends well. I tell Brady bye and begin to leave when I hear "No, mommy, wait for me." I turn around, and zip, down the slide he comes, laughing the whole way. As we're putting his shoes on, I ask him if that was fun. "Yeah," he says, "I do it again." "Some other time, buddy," I tell him, like when you're six.

Snow Day

So this is kind of old, but with the thought of snow coming this evening, it made me think of the good snow we got earlier in the year and how much fun Brady had making a snowman and playing in the snow. His aunt came over for the event and a good time was had by all. Here Brady is with his snowman, which he appropriately named "White."

At one point, it was decided that Brady needed to sled down the small hill in our yard. Unfortunately, we don't have a sled. We found that a trash can lid works just as good and Brady loved it. Could we be bigger hoosiers? Did I mention the trash can lid sledding took place in our front yard?

A Conversation

An excerpt from a conversation between Brady and I on the way home from daycare this evening.

Brady: Why dark outside?
Me: Because it's night time.
Brady: Why night time outside.

Insert several back and forth questions here involving the sun, moon, darkness, etc. All start with "Why." Moving on.

Brady: Why no snowing?
Me: I don't know, I guess God didn't want it to snow today. (We've been talking about how God made the snow, etc.)
Brady: Why God no want it snow?
Me: I don't know Bud, you're going to have to ask him that one.
Brady: Where God is?
Me: (Oh, gee. How do I answer this one without confusing him. Think quick, I don't think the everywhere is going to work) You know how we pray to God? That's kind of like him being there with us when we talk to him.
Brady: Where Jesus is?
Me: (Okay, maybe not the answer he was looking for. Let's try a different tact.) He's in heaven with God.
Brady: Oh. Where Jeff is?
Me: Who's Jeff?
Brady: I want to watch Cars at home.
Me: We'll see.

It amazes me how quickly he moves between subjects. I've survived my first theological discussion with my son and it gave me a chuckle afterward to think of how quickly he could make me sweat.

Bradyisms

Brady has said/done a few amusing things lately that I thought I would share:

When putting on fleece lined jeans for the first time this year, Brady's immediate response was, "Oooh, that's niiiice."

One Sunday morning, Brady announced that he was driving himself to church that morning. I asked him if he was taking mommy's car or daddy's truck. He responded, "No, I drive my orange car." Referring to this.











My response was "Good luck on Olive, buddy."

When asked what he wanted for dinner one evening, Brady responded "McDonalds." Then continued into semi-song "Had a farm, EIEIO. Moo moo here, moo moo. Cow." I guess that means he wants a hamburger?

For some reason at the moment, anytime Brady talks about, sees a picture of, or hears a dog, he yells "Dog" runs across the room and then slides on the floor like you would into home plate, feet first. There are so many things I don't understand about this - What is he doing? Why? Where did he learn how to slide like that?

And the first, but I'm sure not last, mortifying thing my child said: When opening a Christmas present of clothes, Brady immediately tossed them aside and said "I got clothes at home."