Riding in cars with children

Kristina and I go every Thursday to West Junior High to play hoops with our regular group of guys.  Sometimes Niko joins us, and last Thursday, Katarina (Nina) wanted to come too.  I happened to be leaving from home, not the office, so we all go in my car together.

As we pull up to the school, Niko says "There is it Nina....BASKETBALL" pointing at the Jr. High.  

Nina, without missing a beat says "ooooooooooo it's basketbally!".

There's like a hundred of these a day.  We cannot keep up, and will likely not remember a fraction of these gems.

Despicable Dad

"Gunnar sure has some powerful puke" said Niko.

Yup,  He sure does.  

With the girls and their mommy at a bridal shower, we spent a "Boys Day" taking the dogs for a walk in the woods, then a little "Challenge Golf" with the Duarte's.  The "Challenge" being not so much in the course, but in trying to impart some sort of  'putt-putt etiquette' to our young charges.  It's difficult to putt with players walking in front of your line, 'shooting' their balls all the way to the hole like a little hockey player, or wandering off into other players holes because of the waterfalls, pirate ships, or other more interesting decorative features. But all in all, several holes-in-one were carded, and ice cream was awarded to all of the crew.  In fact, it was so exciting that shortly afterwards, Gunnar and I (much to Niko's chagrin)  retired for a great "Sunday-falling-asleep-watching-golf-and-baseball Nap"  Niko's displeasure was expressed with a symphony of whines, and the pressure was now on to finish "Boys Day" with a bang.  Bumper Boats and Go-Carts? Nah. Drive-in Movie? Hmmm... Kind of far to get to one of the Last Remaining Drive-Ins.  How about a regular movie guys? Despicable Me?! AWRIGHT!

So it's 545 the show's in an hour, I call Lynwood for Pizza and they're running an hour wait.  First minor snag.  "We'll grab pizza after the movie, guys...Gunnar? Gunnar?....." G-Man is down.  Rolling on the floor down.  "Daddy, my head hurts..." Second snag. Uh oh.  If G-Man is down, we're out.  "OK Gunnar, if you want to go, we have to leave now.  If you're not OK, we won't go.  But we have to leave now if you think you're OK to go the movie."  So he drags himself off the carpet (literally), we load up with Mike & Ike's and Twizzlers, and head off to Randolph cinemas.

There are some things in life that you can see coming but have no control over.  In basketball you're caught flat footed and your man gets that crucial step by you - you know you're beat.  You knock a glass off a table and it falls, in slow motion, out of your grasp to shatter on the floor.  Or the unmistakable coughing gurgling sound of your child about to vomit.  Which of course I hear just as we hit the on ramp to the highway, Gunnar's head is bobbing as his trademark mane is whipped by the breeze through the open car window.  No way this stuff is going OUT the window.  I should mention this is Daddy's 'new' (new to me anyway, and impeccably detailed) car, and the back seats were probably never used by the former owner.  Oh yeah.   Puke Soup all over the leather seat.  Niko to his credit doesn't budge.  He's like the guy in The Thing when Kurt Russell does the blood experiment and the blood in the petri dish jumps out of his hand and runs away, then turns into a pre-historic ice monster.  Scared of what's going on, but too scared to make a fuss about it.  So I tell Gunnar we're headed home, but ask should I pull over first.  He says yeah, and so over we go off the breakdown lane onto the grass.  Niko sees me exit on the highway side and now thinks it might be a good idea for him too.  I give him a Michael Corleone "NO!! NEVER!!" with a finger point for emphasis as I get my ass out of the way of traffic.  I get Gunnar out and now it is Pulp Fiction and I feel like The Wolf when he gets the call to clean up Vince's car with the dead body, brains and blood: we got clothes covered with stuff, stuff all over the seats and not much time.  His shirts gotta go, so I pull it over his head, wipe his face and arms and see how he's feeling.  He's more bummed about missing the movie at this point, so I take his shirt and get all the 'big stuff' out of his seat with it.  Shorts are soaked too so those come off.  I give him my shirt so now he has a dress and no pants, but he's drier and we can get home.  I get back in and get us out of the breakdown lane safely, and we're headed home.  "Time for Plan B, guys", as I turn around at the cloverleaf.

Gunnar is now whining about missing the movie, and I tell him as delicately as I can that even in this enlightened age, no movie theater is going to let us in with me shirtless and him pantless.  That doesn't go over well, and by the time we pull up in the driveway he gets out of the car, closes the door and states "WORST DAD EVER!"

Few things really ruffle my feathers like a slight on my Fatherhood, and I reply with "Plan B - CANCELLED!".  We need to shower him up, and it being summer, Niko probably hasn't showered in a week or so either, so in he goes, too.  I get them both cleaned up in record time and now Gunnar is contrite.  "Dad?  I'm really sorry about my behavior" he says.  I reply with, "OK Gunnar.  I forgive you".  And no sooner is it out of my mouth than he comes back with "Can we still have Plan B?"  Little bugger.  I wanted to take them anyway, and I check all the area movie times.  A show starts in Braintree in 10 minutes, and Braintree is 15 minutes away.  "LET'S GO!!" and we race to the car and bomb up Route 24.  "Dad! You're going too fast!" says Niko, and I tell him about the 'Fundamental Speed Law', leaving out the 'proper' part.

As luck, speed and light traffic would have it, we make it into the theater as the movie starts, and catch what we all thought was a hilarious take.  At the end, as the credits roll, both boys lean over in my lap and hug me.  Then Gunnar tops my day with "Dad...I love you.  You're the best Dad ever!", and I watched the credits to Despicable Me through teary eyes hugging my boys as hard as I could.

August 1, 2010 Wilson Lake

So after hearing Gunnar rumbling around in the early morning hours, I was able to keep some semblance of my sleep on.  But when you hear one of the dogs bark, you pretty much have to revele to make sure your not sopping up a pile of pee or worse.  Of course Duke was only really interested in chasing chipmunk, but he and Bronco relieved themselves and followed me back inside for their breakfast.

I decided to bring my laptop down to the lake and read the Globe.  The lake in the early morning is special sometimes.  This morning dew soaked spider webs hang from the ladders and boats.  The lake is like glass, with steam rising off it as it gives up its 75+ degree warmth to the cool night.  I see a dull reflection of the 3/4 moon still high in the sky, and a family of ducks works its way down the shoreline looking for their early morning feed of shoreline berries.

But this morning I was treated to the sight of the loon family  - mommy, daddy and baby loon - preening and feeding not 50 feet from our dock.  The adults were grooming pretty intently, as junior tagged along behind.  Then I watched as mommy went under near the shoreline, and snagged what appeared to be a worm, and feed it to junior.  Junior is now preening, waiting, floating, waiting for more food.  Too large for the 'back rides' he (or hopefully she) is now full fledged floating member of our Lake community.

Niko

People sometimes call Niko "Eric Jr.", and when I look at him I do see myself as a kid.  He (usually) wakes up so happy, and says things like "The world is full of fun!" or something silly and happy that makes me smile.

This weekend up in Maine he went through the wringer.  First he had a little bloody nose, which really doesn't faze him anymore, and doesn't usually require any parental intervention.  Then the kids all came running out to the deck saying he had blood on his face, which we immediately thought was a reprise of the bloody nose.  Then he walked out on the deck and looked like something from an old fashioned pro wrestling match.  Blood was POURING down his face and it turns out while they were in the tent in the girls room, Nicholas Duarte hit him in the forehead with a MagLite.  One butterfly bandage later, he has a matching Harry Potter scar to the one he got from the bed when he was younger.  Mosquitoes love him and he ends up looking like a pincushion with all his bites.  Then as the kids are tromping around in the woods, he comes out and says "Daddy I got a scratch", which is about 7 inches long and bleeding.  Of course I forget this when I sunscreen hm up at the lake later, and he starts screaming like a banshee (how do they scream, anyway?)

Anyway, I remember when I was little and I would hold my Dad's hand or how he would muss up my hair and call me 'Babuchka" or "Tiger", and being with Niko at this stage of his life really takes me back to that time of my childhood.

...and he starts July with a bang too

...walks into gymnastics (late) and the instructors are on the floor stretching with the kids.  he is moving slowly, waving his hands and arms like Karate Kid.

"These are my lethal weapons"

And we're pretty sure if Gunnar comes back as a rooster, he'd look like this

Gunnar Man June 2010

I'm driving the triplets to "gymnastics" camp (which is actually a bunch of kids running around bopping each other with foam toys), and Gunnar is asking about houses and mansions.

"Is Housey (our old house) a mansion?"
 
"No.  Housey is a house."

"Is the Big Blue House (our new house) a mansion? It's big like a mansion."

"No.  Big Blue House is big, but it's not a mansion." (unless mansions are extremely messy, I could have added).

"I want to lay in my pool at my mansion with my Ninja-trainer-agent and count my money."

Uh huh.  that's the Gunnar man for you.