Connor and Daddy's week of fun! (and resting)

It is just Connor and me this week! Linda and Ian are away in NYC visiting Suz and having a great time sight seeing. The trip was planned months ago and Linda used a credit she had with expedia. I dropped them off at the airport Thursday night.

Connor got upset as Ian and Linda shouted goodbyes from the curb. But he cheered up with some tunes from my Ipod. Before we left fo the airport we explained to him that Mommy and Ian were going on an airplane. As we drove away I explained it again, this time raising one hand like it was flying and added airplane sounds. This has been repeated by Connor for last two days. "Mumy and Ian go airplane? Zzzzhhhooommm!"

This morning as Connor was cheerfully waking me up; I realized that I have never been with just Connor for more than a few hours at a time. It really surprised me that in his almost 3 years of life this is the first time that is just him and me on our own. It's a really great chance to hang out with him and get to know him. Yes that sounds weird as I am his father and see him everyday. But it is slightly different with just him and me.

The one little snag in all this is that I am had hernia surgery a week ago. It was laparoscopic surgery so the recovery time is relatively fast (two weeks). No heavy lifting or exercise at all. I am still really sore and a little bit paranoid that I have somehow ripped all of my internal stitches/netting stuff and will need to get this thing done a third time! I am probably fine and just being a big baby. I don't like being sick/ill/recovering. I heard from some coworkers that people get over this type of surgery really fast so I figured I would be as good as new in a week. Ha ha ha. I am not.

Connor has been great. No meltdowns or freakouts. I was concerned about watching him on my own and not feeling 100%. Thursday afternoon as Linda was packing/finishing up, all of us were pretty stressed out. He had multiple meltdowns and freakouts. I guess he got them out of his system for the time being. I have to handle him a little differently now since I can't just pick him and make him do what I expect him to do. When he is being defiant, I have been trying some humor and in general being just silly. Burping always gets a laugh. It is working really well. Maybe I could write a book on potty humor parenting.

I had lots of plans for Connor and Daddy week before this medical stuff happened. We were going to do some of the following-
- Lots of park/hiking/outdoors stuff/bike riding
- go to a spring training game (there are lots of baseball teams that train in Phoenix)
- AZ Science center
- Zoo
-Drive upstate

Most of those are out for this week. I still might try to get to a spring training game if I feel up to it. However Connor and I have been having fun just hanging out together. So far we have-

- Woken up really early! Connor is a very happy morning person!

-Listened to "The Hamster Dance" song every time we got in the car.

-Went for a short walk down to the end of the street and back. Woot!

- Played "Connect Four"... sort of. He likes to drop in ALL of the checkers and then sliding the thing to dump them out. This is followed by lots of laughing.

- Went to the park and played soccer. Sort of... I stood in one spot and gently tapped the ball with my right foot. Connor ran around and had a good time. He is getting really good at kicking it back to me. We also worked on stopping the ball. "Squish it like a BUG Connor!" And he did. More laughing.

- Connor has been my little helper, grabbing things when I ask (sometimes). I have been trying to rest as much as I can. When he gets thirsty, he doesn't just ask for a drink. He shows up where ever I am lugging the juice and his sippy cup for me to fill. "Daddy...JUICE!"

- Saw some classic cars. I spotted a bunch of guys gathering their classic cars on Friday night near a McDonalds that is close to Cindy's house. I think it was one of those once a month local car club things. So we stopped and looking around. Connor LOVES cars! He gets so excited. "WOW! CARS!"

We went over to Cindy's house after the car thing. Cindy is really cool and helping me out while Linda is gone. Connor of course played with cars. Trevor made lots of space/lightsaber noises. Annika reminded me that I had promised her a checkers game from last weekend. So we played and I lost... bad. She got three double jumps and one triple jump. Cindy would shake her head slightly each time I received a particularly smashing move from Annika. "Yeah... you missed a double jump there. Annika plays for keeps... I thought you played chess a lot." Connor and I headed home around 8pm and listened to "The Hamster Dance" again. He asked for Ian and Mommy the whole way too. "MommyIanairplane! Zzzzhoooom!"

I broke down and bought another DVD of Pixar's "Cars" this afternoon. Connor used to hunt down the last one we had and carry the disc around the house like a teddy bear. Needless to say it doesn’t play anymore. So we made popcorn and had a movie night. He gets seriously excited about that movie! Tonight he was even trying to repeat back some of the dialogue.

Bedtime was later than usual (9pm) but went very smoothly. We read a book, brushed teeth and sang a few songs. Ted the bear was put to sleep and covered in the blanket by Connor. "Ted asleep" As Connor put his head down, he said in his little voice "I miss Ian. I miss Mommy."

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Connor has been super talkative and very funny. We might try to get the park again and the library too. Nothing too active, just some fun stuff. But for now I am going to bed... Connor gets up early!

Chess

This blog is in response to my wife's entry Show and Tell. I already left this very long comment, which I figure is probably long enough to be a blog post on its own.

It was Ian’s idea that I teach him chess.

Linda started playing checkers with him a few months ago. Then I joined in. Linda and I had a few fun checkers games too. Some how the subject of chess came up and that it was a harder version of checkers. Ian was very interested and insisted that he wanted to learn chess and not play checkers. "Daaaddeee! NoOOO! I don't want to play checkers... I want to learn CHESS!" Linda bought us a chess set and I taught him the moves of each piece. He really enjoys it.

Usually we play without the kings and just see who can take the most pieces. He really likes that. Getting the king in checkmate is a little past him right now. He gets fixated on one piece at a time. The funniest thing is that he adds crashing sounds whenever he takes a piece. “SSSHHHHH CRASH!” Oh and he doesn’t just take the pieces… he knocks them over!I guide him through moves and always give a chance to think about what my next move will be. Often I just ask “What will happen to your guy if you move him there?” or “Are you SURE you want to move there?” He can often see what will happen to his piece. It is fascinating to watch his mind work. Sometimes he moves to a bad spot anyway, but that is how everyone learns. All that matters is that he is having fun.

I trade off guiding him to a win and winning myself every once in a while. It is important to have a balance between the two. Nobody wins all the time. Enough wins to keep him enthusiastic and a few losses to keep him humble. After each match we say “good game”. After we started playing, I tried to play online against the computer a few times to brush up. I got creamed every time. It was very humbling. I told Ian this and he responded “Daddy, you need to learn some COOL MOVES!”

Every so often he surprises me and takes a piece with a move I didn't see coming. The day he beats fair and square will probably be sooner than I think. Then he can teach me some cool moves.