Last week? (or was it the week before?), I had the honor of taking my boys around for about 1/2 a day. It was an incredible experience, warming and filling my heart with memories that I will forever cherish. Since I like to keep things in chronological order, I won't comment yet on this pic.
I picked the boys up (WP and O'Mike) for those of you that have not met them. I had been told they had eaten breakfast, but I was soon informed by 'motor-mouth-mike' that 'he' was hungry. So, I asked what 'he' wanted to eat, and then both of them chimed in unison "chikzen-n-fries", no, not the most linguistically correct pair, that's for sure. So, we headed to Sonic, and sure enough, they each inhaled their extra breakfast as if it'd been a week since seeing food.
While surveying the Sonic landscape, O'Mike was telling me all about Bass Pro, as he'd recently been there, as if he was trying to initiate me on what to expect. He told me about the fish tank, about Santa, about the boats, about BigFoot steps in the concrete, about guns ~ it was all pretty amazing what his memory was parroting back for me, as if he was going to be my advance tour guide since he thought I'd never been there before.
All the while, WP just ate and smiled, letting little bro keep me engaged with stories of yore.
Pulling up into the parking lot, it was all these little guys could do not to rip off the car doors and beeline for the entrance. They were amped, live wired, and ready for whatever lie in wait. As I was walking in, O'Mike looks up at me and asks if I was going to shoot BigFoot if I saw him inside. I set aside his fears and tell him no, only if BigFoot starts attacking us will I put him down. That calmed his nerves as we had just finished a talk a few minutes earlier about my gun, and why I carried a gun.
A new land speed record was established, as we made it to Santa's workshop in under 2.0 seconds, this while doing the 100 meter hurdles.
The boys were immediately fascinated by a celebrity. #1 Nascar driver Jammie McMurray was in attendance (Bass Pro is his major sponsor), and he was shooting print ads with a model wife, and a model son. The model wife was young, blond, very attractive (just like Jackie, their Mom), and ever the casanova, he was striking up conversations with her. He didn't care that she was trying to work; he was trying to make his presence known too.
The model son could have been WP. He was groomed and pedicured with perfection, eyes gleaming, hair coiffed, and clothed in high fashion GAP, and a sweet, sweet boy. Well mannered, and 6 years old. He followed instructions perfectly, smiled when told to, looked up into his momma model eyes at all the right times, and make Jammie look like he was the perfect Dad.
It really was quite fun to watch the production go on, as there were a crew of 8 required for lighting, staging, and taking the photo's. We didn't know this was going to be happening, but it turned out to be an extra bonus for the boys. They played Nascar race cars with the model mom and model son for quite some time and really enjoyed it.
In between turns on the Nascar circuit, O'Mike was making moves on another young MissMeJeans beauty, whose name was Halie. 5'2", 88 lbs (maybe 80), exceptionally petite, blond, maybe 20 (max), and a gorgeous smile ~ which held O'Mike in a trance. Oh man, is this one going to be a player I tell you, or what. He knows how to work a room, knows how to talk to the ladies, knows how to get their attention, keep their attention, and make them swoon. He is going to leave a trail of broken hearts in his path. I see it now. He is 3, has the moves of Jagger, and has been flirting since he was 2. Look out girls, look out.
We were at Bass Pro a solid two hours, and could have been easily a solid four hours, as we barely covered 20% of the store. During that time, we had two trips to the potty ~ and in the name of decency, I'll not re-tell a funny story about one of those trips. Will and I played a new game of checkers, which we invented, and from which, WP, with his analytical powers of deduction soon took to, and legitimately beat me 5 games to 3 with our new rules for this game. It was pretty amazing to watch. Just to watch his face, see the intensity, watch the wheels spinning, see the focus, the determination, wow, this boy is after my heart with that focus and analytical mind.
While WP and I were in our rockers playing checkers, I tried on multiple occasions to keep O'Mike from fetching a pair of waders and heading for the trout stream. It took a team of security personnel, a kind elderly grandma worker, (and me), to keep him at bay, or we'd have been frying fish for lunch.
Then, it was back to Santa's workshop for another visit, and more one-on-one flirt time with Halie and O'Mike. She taught him how to hold the gun when shooting. She showed him how to use the radio remote for the mud track, and she took him to the train tracks to watch the chu-chu. That was boring to him, he told her he wanted to go shoot more guns, so they walked almost arm in arm back to the shooting area, and there he plied his trade for at least another 15 minutes of private time with Halie, as WP and I played the Nascar track.
WP told me he was hungry again, so I had to rescue Halie, and we were on our way out. As we were walking out, O'Mike looks up and says "Pappy, what is her name?", and I tell him "Halie". He immediately turns around and shouts (he didn't need to shout, we were only 10' away), "Thank you Halie!", and with a big smile and a wave to her ~ we were gone.
Now; about the picture.
Prior to arriving at McDonald's for more "chikzen-n-fries" which the boys had requested for lunch too, we had to make an unscheduled pit stop (Nascar speak) at Nini's. My phone was dead, and not having a car charger that worked, we went to get Nini's phone. While at Nini's place (I'm so glad she let's me live there with her), the boys were given a Sam's size bag of giant marshmallow's.
It took them 20 minutes to polish off the bag, and 80% of the marshmallow's were on their face, hands, hair, clothes, car seats, car windows, carpet, nostrils, ears, floorboards, and some even made it onto Poochie the poodle in the car next to us.
This picture is after WP had washed his face in the McDonald's sink (though he still looked like he was covered in the white goo). I couldn't get a good pic of O'Mike, as I could never get him to sit still or stop talking, so I just posted this one of WP. However, you will see O'Mike off to the side, as he is in his element. Note the little boy at the counter with his Dad. O'Mike took the entire lunch time introducing himself to this little boy and his Dad, and found out the name of his soccer coach, what color his blanket was, who he voted for on Nov. 6th, and he was inquiring to the Dad about his thoughts on the San Andreas fault when it was time to go. Man, can this little boy talk! Motor-mouth-mike, with the moves of Jagger, the looks of Cooper, and the confidence of Reagan ~ look out world.
What an awesome, awesome time I had. I talked about it with Nini for several days afterwards.
I love my boys. And up next, my girls! Last Friday was going to be my time with them, but that got shifted around, so look for my next blog about them soon.
Until then, Happy Birthday Nini Pam! I love you.
