57 Inches Tall

We had the angel boy-O with us last week from Wednesday thru to Sunday, and I gotta say, ooh my, he's growing up so, so, so well. Other than a few struggles come mealtime --par for the course when it comes to this kid-- we had a grrrreat time!

Thursday, the boy-O spent his morning watching The Incredibles in his dad's office, and then he spent about an hour n' a half over at my office, before he and I were to go claim his baby sister early from preschool. While I had to wrap up a couple work items, he sat at my desk and watched music videos via Yahoo Music. He first asked to watch "Circus" and he thought it was someone else, and was all impressed that I knew it was Britney Spears (now that was a funny moment). And when Beyonce's "Single Ladies" queued up next in line and began to play, he was all excited that he recognized it as the song featured the week before on the TV show, Glee, which we had actually seen as well, but only because it was after So You Think You Can Dance, which is the only TV show I ever make any successful effort to remember to watch, which means I may manage to catch it once or twice in a month. [SIDE NOTE: Oh, that reminds me! When the angel boy-O got in on Wednesday night, we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and we all watched So You Think You Can Dance together. We also managed to consume 4 bags of microwave popcorn between the 3 of us!] After Beyonce, I had to pump in my office with the door locked, so he then hung out in the office next door with one of my staff and I set him up with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Beat It" videos. He was delighted.

Once we got to the preschool, I showed him all the rooms in his sister's wing of the school, including the "stroller parking" room and her playground. I also showed him her crib there, and all the lil' cubbies they use for her for this and that. He got to meet her head teacher and a couple of the assistant teachers as well. When we were leaving, nodding with sound confidence, he declared the facilities were excellent. He was most impressed with the fingerprint scan required for entrance into her school. That night, we had a great dinner with uncle Jim and aunt Radeane - - I had to improvise with the breading for the pork chops. I had everyone taste them and confirm first that they were undeniably delicious before I revealed the mystery ingredient, graham crackers... I usually use Keebler's Club crackers.

Friday night we went to see the Toy Story double feature in 3D - - yeah, and lemme' tell ya, that was crazy! We were at the theater from 7:30 until nearly midnight!?! The best part was when they explained how the intermission would be handled, and my honey-man realized for the first time that we would be seeing not one movie, but TWO! Our baby sweet potato girl managed to stay awake for the first 40 minutes, and then, thankfully, she slept the rest of the time. And the boy-O, well, he was thrilled outta his mind, from start to finish, and as soon as we walked in the door, back home, he went straight upstairs, brushed his teeth, threw on his pjs and was out like a light.

On Saturday, the boy-O slept in until 10am, and I made a ginormous breakfast for the fam. My sister had been invited, but she scored a nasty infection by that time and had to pass on the offer. At 12:30pm, I had a baby shower to attend with the girlie, while the boys went off to play tennis together. For dinner, we had friends over and ordered from Pizza My Dear - - ridiculous name, yes, but their food? Oh my dear, oh dear, their pizza is sooo good! The "My Big Fat Greek" pizza is our favorite!

By Sunday morning, our sweet potato and I had both come down with something new - - both with low grade fevers. Before that, and some awfully bad wind sweeping through the Vegas valley, we had had plans to go hiking in Red Rock Canyon. Instead, we all laid low that morning, and the boys played some more tennis, and we all had lunch together before the boy-O had to catch his flight back to UT.

Somewhere in all that, he and I played Othello one time while I prepared dinner (must have been Friday night), and he and his dad played chess (think that was Sunday). And all throughout the weekend, he sang to his lil' sissy, and he even read to her a couple times, and he kissed and hugged her almost constantly, and he was sooo dang cute, I didn't want to let him go.

Oh and my favorite moment during his stay was when I made a quick run to Target to buy a booster seat, and I'd called home to ask my honey-man a question... See, I had heard an NPR broadcast earlier in the week about booster seats and the importance that kids under 80 lbs always use one when riding in a car. According to the NTSB, booster seats reduce the risk of injury by 59%, and because my family has lost TWO family members to fatal car accidents, I take accident statistics and car safety very, very seriously. Well, the angel boy-O weighs only a slight 62 lbs right now (he actually lost weight over the last 2 months), and he ain't terribly tall neither, so I was on a mission to purchase him a booster, and the poor lad was not at all thrilled about it.

Before heading to Target, I had tried to verify the height limit for booster seats via the NTSB website, but was unsuccessful, although I was pretty certain the boy-O wouldn't meet the limit anyhow. Once I got to Target, surveying allll the available booster seats they had for sale, the noted height limit was listed for five of the product descriptions. So, I called home to ask my honey-man to measure the boy-O's height, but without telling the boy-O what we were up to. Now, the angel boy-O didn't find this odd at all... maybe because we almost always measure his height when he comes to stay? And often in the past, I've called asking for his waist or inseam measurements when I've been out shopping for his clothes? [SEMI-RELATED TANGENT: He's a great lil' clothing shopper; real patient, not too picky, nor is he demanding at all; all very no-nonsense about it. It's actually a very satisfying experience. It's just that, well, sometimes he gets really side-tracked if we're in a store selling anything else but clothes, sooo, sometimes it's simply easier to go without him. And so far, whenever it happens, he's not at all insistent that he come along. END OF TANGENT] Anyhow, not until after my honey-man confirmed his height, did we tell him why I needed to know... He measures 57" tall, and the height limit for a booster seat so happens to be 57 INCHES, and so, I then told him I wouldn't be buying him a booster seat after all, and oh boy, was he soooo relieved! When he got home to UT, he even told his mom about it! Purty dang cute!