I had the most wonderful thanksgiving weekend. We went for a veggie
thanksgiving lunch at noon and a traditional thanksgiving dinner at 3 PM. At
both places, Simone drove me batty. At the first place, she insisted on
climbing a very long and dangerous wooden staircase by herself and on
descending by herself. She would get very angry and scream 'No I will do it'
and 'Daddy you go there' whenever I would try to stand next to her as she
came down the stairs.
She also started playing with legos at the first party. I was surprised to
see her do that and started showing her how to put blocks together. I said
'Simone squeeeeze' and showed her how to squeeze the blocks together. Now I
know to go buy some legos for simone. we really have to retire 10% of her
existing toys to bring in some new toys. The more I think about it, we have
to retire a lot of her earlier toys to make room for more age-appropriate
toys.
Simone wanted to play with the two older girls, ages 7, and had no interest
in playing with the three toddlers. she fancies her self to be older. On the
way out, she saw the two girls doing gymnastics, and she insisted on trying
the same maneuvers.
At the second Thanksgiving she was a holy terror. There was a little boy
somewhat younger than her, and Simone did everything to push him down. She
tried many times, and even succeeded once. The boy didn't care though, he
didn't mind getting pushed down. It was cute to watch, Simone would rush him
like a football linesman, and he would go down, and come right back up. You
can even tell when Simone is going to push. She tenses her body up, crouches
a bit and strikes like a little cobra. You can easily pre-empt her once you
recognize the signals.
Simone made friends with all the older women at the party by singing songs
with them. It was a true Kodak moment but we have so many 'moments' that
neither of us thought to pull out the camera. One of the women, her husband
was in the area of 9/11 and so we were talking about 9/11 a bit. Simone
didn't eat any turkey, stuffing or anything else, and was so cranky that
Rashmi and I had to take turns eating.
Thanksgiving evening we drove to San Diego and checked into a pet-friendly
hotel called Hotel Solarna. My only requirement for hotels is that the room
be as quiet as possible. I was happy with the room. We watch TV so
infrequently that Rashmi and I stared at the TV like a pair of zombies for
an hour or so. Simone was fast asleep.
San Diego is a cute little town, with the airport right in downtown. It's
like San Francisco without the culture or the history . Like a Fresno with
nice weather.
The next morning we got up and went to check out a puppet show near Balboa
Park. We first went for breakfast and Simone was uncooperative again. There
was a miniature greyhound tied up outside and I and Simone spent a lot of
time playing with the dog. Simone had a bad habit of running away form us
and out on the sidewalk. Rashmi said to let her run, she would come back
when she realized no one was following her, but I could not take the chance.
Rashmi claims that I am over-protective, but I think I am not protective
enough.
The puppet show was OK, Rashmi enjoyed it more than Simone. Simone got
scared by one of the puppets and kept gabbling about it. We got back in the
car and went to Seaworld. We saw the Shamu show, Pets Rule, which is
Simone's favorite, and also saw the penguin exhibit. We left around 2 and
headed back to the hotel.
A bit while after we got back we decided to go for a swim. I have never seen
little baby Simone get into a swimsuit so fast. Off came the diaper and
clothing, and she put on the swim diaper and the swimsuit all by herself. We
grabbed a bunch of towels and headed downstairs. The pool was very warm and
inviting. We got in and we were the only ones in there. Simone is so silly.
She doesn't know how to swim, and threw major temper tantrums at the two or
three swim classes we took her to. So I have to hold her everytime in the
pool, and she moves around like she is crawling through water. She was so
happy, she screamed in delight in various tones, from squealing to cackling.
At times she sounded like a dolphin on crack. We swam back and forth many
times. We were then joined by a mom and her two daughters who swam very
well. Simone really likes playing with older girls but she was afraid of the
water and just looked at them longingly, hoping to join and play with them.
Simone had a bad habit of trying to get out of the pool and run on the
concrete. I had to constantly tell her to get back in the pool, or not to
run. At the end of the swim, she started to get cranky, and Rashmi called
out to her. Simone got out, and despite my shouted warnings, ran to her, as
I watched, my heart in my throat. She made it all the way to her Mom and
then slipped right onto her butt. It hardly slowed her down as she flew into
her mommy's arms.
I will always, always remember the joy in Simone's eyes when we played
together in the water. It is right up there with the time that I came home
from work and Simone was standing near the doorway and said 'Daddy Daddy
Daddy' and clapped for what felt like a joyous eternity.
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