May 11, 2009

A Day with Caleb

Caleb and I recently spent the entire day together one day last week with just the two of us. We were in Alabama visiting with my mom, so she kept Andrew for me.

I let Caleb plan the day.He wanted to spend the morning at the Bass Pro Shop and the afternoon was for ice skating. Oh the things you do for your children.

For almost two hours I pretended to enjoy the Bass Pro Shop. Caleb sat in every boat and on every 4 wheeler. We rode the glass elevator over and over and studied how they worked. Caleb tried to convince me that he needed a paint gun, but I compromised with a water gun. During check out the man behind me was holding a pink camouflage shirt and Pro shop mug for a Mother’s Day gift for his wife. He’s probably still in the doghouse today. What was he thinking? I’m surprised he didn’t get some beef jerky to go with it.

After the Bass Pro Shop I talked Caleb into lunch at Somer’s Place, my favorite restaurant in Montgomery, so I could fill up on crab claws—without a doubt, my favorite food.

Then we went ice skating at the mall. Caleb has always wanted to ice skate. He really wanted to see the Zamboni in action, so I called the rink the week before to find out the Zamboni schedule. It usually only runs when the mall is closed, but the man offered to run it just for Caleb prior to our skating session. He even let Caleb sit on it!

I knew how ice skating was going to go. Caleb is a perfectionist. He gets so mad if he isn’t good at something the first time he tries it. I kept telling him that no one is good at ice skating the first time they do it. He didn’t believe me. He thought he could do it.

Meanwhile after I got my skates on I had a panic attack. I’m almost six feet tall before putting on my skates, and it looked like a long way to the ground if I fell. You know you are getting old when you start worrying about breaking a bone when you fall.

Here’s how it went:

Lap 1 took 15 minutes to get around the the rink (and no it isn’t a big rink). Caleb fell 4 times. He had a meltdown half way around the rink that involved screaming, “I am totally never doing this again”.

Lap 2 took 10 minutes with only two falls.

Lap 3 took 5 minutes with no falls, but he did still have a death grip on the railing. He did complain about my not falling down. It wasn’t a good idea to see the Zamboni before we skated since the ice was so wet. Caleb was wet from the waist down.

Then he was done. We paid twenty dollars to go around three times, but I didn’t mind. I just wanted off of the skates. Caleb still says he’ll never skate again.

Despite the ice skating he still enjoyed the day. Caleb is at such a great age to hang out with, and he is so proud to be out alone with mom. It’ll break my heart when he is too cool to be seen out on a date with me!