Saturday, October 22, 2005
Day 1 With Boy: So Far, So Good
by Tom Bozzo
Here is the thrillingness of my father-son time so far (spouse and daughter arrived safely in Dallas). Hold on to your hats!
- Target run for diapers, laundry stuff, more disposable sippy cups (Julia now uses them too), bigger onesies for Julia, etc. John hadn't been there in a Long Time to avoid the perils of wrangling infant and toddler in the acres of big-box parking; took our Halloween candy shopping like a champ. Even before the latest pharmacy shenanigans in Missouri, I had seen Target as Wal-Mart with plausible deniability for upper income diaper and laundry soap shoppers: Ugh. My natural urge to get out of there as fast as possible helps us avoid meltdown opportunities.
- Brunch at Marigold Kitchen, for which I maintain love equal and opposite to my feelings about Target, even though the menu could change a little more often and it's always darn near slammed when I'm there. Today, homecoming more than offset the gray and chilly weather, and the line was out to the vestibule. I know we're in very regular regular territory when one of the women who usually works the registers asks where the rest of my family is. John has his usual (pancake, sausage, fruit), I opt for the omelette with chorizo and roasted corn relish (after duck confit hash w/ poached eggs last week). Happily, we finish at the same time: No meltdown!
- Off to Olbrich Gardens to blow off some toddler steam. The warm-year-round conservatory is a reliable all-weather stop, but John initially wants to go no further than the gift shop, where they sell these zoo animal miniatures of which he's amassed quite the menagerie. I decline to get him an animal, suggesting that it's a special thing to do with Mommy. "OK." We head to the conservatory, where he's drawn to a large pitcher plant near a stairway. I explain that the pitchers lure and trap bugs, which the plant then eats. "No way!" "It's true." "No Way!!!!" Up the stairs. Three cents deposited in wishing waterfall. Hello said to large fish in pool at end of the water feature. Out of the conservatory: Second request for animal, denied without prejudice. We head out into the gardens. Having reached late October without a frost (which reminds me that I need to harvest the remaining basil soon!), there's still stuff in bloom. We run back and forth between the rose tower and the fountain jets in front of the tower many times. John gets wet enough from sticking his hand in the jets that parental intervention is required. Back and forth many more times. John offers to trade willingness to walk back to the car for a zoo animal. I counter with looking at a zoo animal, which is enough to get John moving. Insistent demands for an animal on the way back; "Not if you ask like that, big guy." The demand is eventually rephrased as a complete sentence beginning with "please." We settle on one hippo ($2) and one tiny car ($1). Could've been worse, though Mrs. Tweezers could fill me in on saying "no."
- Return trip home. Kickoff for the stupid Wisconsin game is an hour away, and I am not looking forward to running the gauntlet of pre-game partiers on Regent St. We pass a train on John Nolen Drive near the Monona Terrace, which a subsequent traffic light ensures we don't beat to North Shore Dr. A crazy dude in a Mercedes jinks under the descending gate, and I head towards the Beltline. John wants to see the train again, so we do a P-turn (Madison traffic engineering pretty much forbids U-turns anywhere you'd want to make one; there was also a cop there, too) and get a second look at the train — two Union Pacific locomotives pulling 25 or 30 hopper cars loaded with what looks like gravel. John is disappointed that there is no caboose. Now being pointed back towards downtown, I try a fairly direct route (Vilas, instead of Regent) which is probably no quicker, given the trade off of parking for drinking activity. One of the Marigold Kitchen chef-owners is standing in what I assume to be his driveway holding out a shingle offering easy-out parking. I resist the temptation to lower the window and ask about supervision of the last hour of brunch.
- Home: John clearly has pooped, and is clearly pooped, but still has some desire to fiddle with his Frickin' Thomas Engines. Also, I am to start work on the next Lego spaceship. Yes, Ming the Merciless! We head to the basement trainyard/shipyard for a few minutes. We head upstairs when he complains that the cat, sleeping in his actual cat bed and not a laundry basket, is bothering him. With a diaper change and a Thomas catalogue read in lieu of a pre-nap story, the morning is over at 2:06.
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Me, I 'm off to watch one daughter tend a bar and the other make friends instantly by wearing what has to be the most original (low cut by mommy's standards) shirt ever. Time passes very quickly for parents. Unfortunately.
I'm thinking of instituting a family-wide boycott of both Target and Walmart, but of course, I can only do that because we just got a membership to an unrelated Big Warehouse Store.
But the denial of prescription issue is rapidly getting so widespread that I'm afraid we're going to run out of drug stores and stuff stores. And I can't exactly buy my Halloween candy at Whole Foods...
But the denial of prescription issue is rapidly getting so widespread that I'm afraid we're going to run out of drug stores and stuff stores. And I can't exactly buy my Halloween candy at Whole Foods...
Nina: I'm thankful to have a few years to get ready for that...
Phantom: Unfortunately, the nearest outpost of the Big Warehouse Store that treats its employees well is almost 2 hrs away in Illinois, and it doesn't seem to make sense to get a bigger car to haul stuff back from the locations near Grandma's house in MN.
In our neighborhood, you probably could get away with a Whole Foods Halloween. Isn't the problem that we've all been conditioned to distrust treats that haven't been manufactured and pre-sealed for our convenience? A price, I suppose, of suburbanites not knowing which of their neighbors are psychos.
Phantom: Unfortunately, the nearest outpost of the Big Warehouse Store that treats its employees well is almost 2 hrs away in Illinois, and it doesn't seem to make sense to get a bigger car to haul stuff back from the locations near Grandma's house in MN.
In our neighborhood, you probably could get away with a Whole Foods Halloween. Isn't the problem that we've all been conditioned to distrust treats that haven't been manufactured and pre-sealed for our convenience? A price, I suppose, of suburbanites not knowing which of their neighbors are psychos.
Well, also that it gets expensive buying Halloween candy at Whole Foods. We get over a hundred trick-or-treaters here in good weather.
I wish we had some of those lovely looking chocolate Elmo-and-truck cookies to hand out, though!
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I wish we had some of those lovely looking chocolate Elmo-and-truck cookies to hand out, though!
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