Gabe's Best Weekend Ever

Gabe and Norah got to spend last weekend with Nana and Poppa. While they were out there, Dad filled Gabe's time with awesome. They wore him out so completely that something new happened last night. He was still so worn out that, about 7:30, he came up to me, blankie in hand, and asked if he could go to bed.

Fortunately, Dad had his camera with him the entire time and was able to document the weekend.

Poor Norah, however, didn't get as much camera love. It will be nice when she starts to like things as much as Gabe does and we can FINALLY stop feeling like she's being neglected in favor of Gabe's love of doing things. I know we similarly "neglected" Gabe when he was that age, because small children just don't NEED all that much to keep them entertained, but I know that I at least still feel guilty.

Anyway, here's how it all shook out.

Gabe got to visit the fire department in Cunningham. It's not a BIG fire department by any means, but it had pretty much everything that Gabe needed to experience the awesomeness. He got to dress up . . . .

And pretend to drive the brush truck (I don't think they have a "big" fire truck there, just the smaller ones as brush fires are mostly what they deal with) . . . .

And pose on the front . . . .

And then pretend to fire the hose.

Then, to make matters awesomer, he actually got to hold the hose while they turned it on.

I'm guessing they turned it on at a very low volume. Gabe's a strong guy for his age, but I don't think he's quite got the mass to hold a fully gushing fire hose.

After the fire station, Dad and Gabe drove around a bit and checked out the new section of highway that is being built out there. While they were doing this, one of the deputies from Kingman stopped to talk to Dad. So, in addition to getting to pretend to be a fireman, Gabe also got to talk to a police man, look at his car, and he received a little "officer in training" badge that he's been wearing on his coat since we got home. Sadly, no pictures of that stuff.

This was all Saturday, mind you.

Sunday, then, before we got out there to pick them up, Dad helped Gabe set up all of the "Armies" that Gabe has become recently obsessed with. I must admit that I have mixed feelings about his army fixation. I know a lot of it is just being a boy. He doesn't actually play war with his armies. As far as I can tell, he just likes the fact that they are little people of different colors. He likes to stand them up in opposing forces, and then sometimes he runs them over with his cars. But he doesn't have them shoot at one another.

He IS starting to gain a fascination with guns, though. While we were in Dillons yesterday, he had a minor melt down when I told him he couldn't have the Nerf dart gun they were selling there--not necessarily because I am such a pacifist that I refuse to buy him guns (I know that if I try to convince him NOT to like something, he'll just like it all the more, so I might as well just give in to his whims and let him decide what he wants to like and dislike on his own instead of trying to unduly influence his decisions in one direction or the other). Mostly I just don't want him shooting Norah in the eye with something until she's at least old enough to realize that she can pick something up and bonk him on the head with it in retaliation (and old enough to explain to me what happened so I know who to be madder at). Plus, he'd just lose all the darts in five minutes and it would all be a pointless waste of money.

Anyway, here he is setting up all of the different army guys that Mom and Dad have left over from our childhoods.

Oh, and one other note on these guys. See the pink ones mixed in there? Does anyone else remember those? The M.U.S.C.L.E. Men? I'll let you follow the link to remember what the acronym stood for. I LOVED these guys. Ben played with them a little, too, but they were mostly my thing. I never had them all, but I had a lot of them. I particularly enjoyed setting them all up and then shooting them down with a disc gun (the best projectile weapon for children EVER). Gabe inherited about 1/3 of the guys while he was out there--Dad sent them home for him to play with, so now I have them back in my life again.

Which hasn't been all that great. I stepped on one of the little thorny ones on the dining room floor yesterday and nearly cracked my skull as I flailed around in pain. Another childhood memory dashed against the rocks of the painful reality of adulthood. Sigh.

Eventually, he created what he called his "rainbow" army there on the bottom. Dad renamed this his "Don't Ask Don't Tell Division." But, as you can see, Gabe's clearly more interested in setting these guys up and looking at them than in actually depicting or reenacting great battles of history. Nonetheless, when we went to the library last night and it came time to pick out a movie, all he wanted was an "Armies" movie. Obviously, they don't make those for preschoolers. I was tempted to show him Saving Private Ryan or Full Metal jacket to try and get it out of his system early (I think I could have also shown him In the Army Now with Pauly Shore and gotten the same "eternally turned off by the subject matter" effect, but they didn't have that one at the library--thank god). But I opted instead to get 20 Trucks again (which, if you have a small boy to watch it with, I highly advise it--it has one of the absolute worst opening songs I've ever experienced in my life, and Gabe LOVES it, which makes it all the better in terms of reducing my time in purgatory).

And, finally, the one picture of Norah from the weekend. Standing by a chair, holding Lulu. But, then, that's kind of her thing--standing in one place holding onto something. She's developing my riveting personality, I'm afraid.