First Day: Rest of Your Life

Day one: Kindergarten

I wake Marco "Happy Kindergartener!"  He's all smiles.  And he thinks he's taller. 

Jeff tells him to get dressed.  Blank Stare.  Beeline straight to me

(Whispering) "Mooooom, tell Dad I have to wear my school suit."  To read: uniform.

"Oh, sorry sweetheart, you don't have to start wearing your uniform until Monday.  Today you have free dress."  (Two words that I never thought I'd utter past 1994.  Sigh.) 

"Wha, well, can I at least wear my new shoes?!"

On our way out of the house, "SEE!?  Mom - look!  I can reach the big lock now and I couldn't reach it before I was in kindergarten!"

He still didn't completely trust that he didn't have to wear his uniform to school.  "Are they going to look at me because I'm dressed like this?"

Nearly late for our first drop off, Marco made a quick transition into the classroom and we jetted for the parent coffee hour.  We immediately surrounded ourselves with our parent favs that we've picked so far.  I guess eventually Marco will choose his own friends, but for now we'll throw him together with the kids whose parents we like.  :)

So, here's our kindergartener:

The Happiest Place on Earth

They say Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth.  So, in our ongoing effort to make Marco like us and as a treat for kindergartners, we took him to Disneyland for two days on our way to this year's week in Catalina.

We were basically only in the park for four hours each day, but we pretty tackled everything we wanted.  Monorail front car...

Space Mountain - I love having a brave kid.

Star Tours - (screaming) "ARE WE REALLY IN SPACE?  THAT WAS SO FAST!"

Pirates of the Caribbean "Uh, are the pirates going to kill us too?  I didn't really want to go on this ride."

Buzz Lightyear - (x3) A fan favorite.

Dumbo - Zzzzzzz...

Matterhorn - (x2) Marco's favorite roller coaster "I'm not even scared of the abombable snowman from Monsters Inc."

Goofy's Roller coaster - Zzzzzzz...

Teacups - "Dad and I were spinning it so fast Mom, you were going to barf!"

Nemo's Adventure - "Are we really underwater?"

Autopia - "I'm a terrible driver because I've never tried it before!!"

Mickey's House - The house actually spit us right into line to see Mickey.  Marco was genuinely, excitedly nervous to see Mickey.  He hugged him with the gusto usually reserved for Santa.  After we left... "How come he didn't talk to me?"

Disneyland hasn't changed much in 15+ years except they added Nemo to the submarines and Johnny Depp to the Pirates of the Caribbean (you're hearin' it).

We also found time for swimming and the water slides at the Disneyland hotel.  It may have been his favorite part.  Next year, we'll vacation in Stockton.

 

I told Marco he could choose one toy in Disneyland and he BEGGED for a Pirates of the Caribbean sword.  After much tracking, we found this $6.95 gem.  It might be the cheapest thing in Disneyland.  Tough little spendthrift.

Since we stayed at the hotel, we got to get in an hour early.  Worth it.  There was no one there, hence the perfect obligatory castle pic.



 

But THESE were the favorite characters we saw.  :) 

 

Finally, Marco got to build his own remote control car in Downtown Disney.  Here he is building (with his sword obviously) and with his new car in it's "garage."

 

Synopsis: Marco liked it. That's the honest truth. When Grandma Cecchin asked how excited Marco was, Jeff said, "He liked it - he's his mother's son. But, he also went on all the roller coasters - he's his mother's son." 

We were so tired from our vacation that we needed a vacation, so we hopped over to Catalina Landing and headed 26 miles across the sea...

Summer Ball

On a summer-fun high, we decided in the morning to hit an evening Giants game.  I love summer!

We had great seats. Marco’s eyes were bright seeing his favorite players from TV and, of course, Lou Seal.  He couldn’t believe his good fortune that he got to eat a hot dog, peanuts and cracker jacks and spent the first part of the game tracking the cotton candy guy.  We told him he could choose a treat in the fourth inning and he was pretty panicked they’d run out of the four color sugar bomb that’s made for four 5-year olds.  Alas, they had enough for him. 

He was very disappointed that he didn’t catch a foul ball, but was thrilled that he was tall enough to slide the Big Guzzler! 

 

We spent an inning riding all the slides and our last two innings in the bleachers.  Always a man of the people, I think he preferred the bleachers because of all the yelling and the batters would “for sure hit a home run to the bleachers.”

Cold, windy, down by five runs, 10:30 p.m. and the top of the 9^th…. we packed it in.  “Why aren’t we staying until the end?”  Good fan. 

 Here’s the proof:

 

 

Ooh I wanna take you.

I feel good that Marco just doesn't know that not all five year olds jet off to Aruba for summer vacation. Nineteen hours door-to-door, red-eye flights, snacks at midnight, and football in the airport at 1 a.m. with our pilots, were all taken in stride by Marco. 

 

Pool time was a necessity in hot, hot Aruba, but we also found time for a quick Island tour, beaching, snorkeling, family beach baseball, eating, drinking, playing with wild iguanas, celebrating Taki's birthday, attending "kid's night out," and meeting plenty of new friends.  As an only child (both of us), I'm pretty proud of his ability to cruise up to any kid, throw his pool rings in the water and entice that kid into an hours-long game.  A little glimpse into his future... one of his new friends asked if he could Facetime with him after.  Ha!

 

He spent every moment possible in the water, barely glancing at me as I begged for a photo or for a wave from across the pool to let me know he was okay.  Once, he slipped out of my sight, so I swam over and found him bellied up to the swim-up bar with his hand up, "Excuse me sir, may I please have a chocolate milkshake?  THANKS!"  Yikes.

 

On our way home, I asked Marco his favorite part of the trip.  After pushing past his stock answer "I don't know," he added, "Well, it was just all so good.  But I guess it would have to be... doing handstands in the pool."  Worth it.

 Dressed up so cute.... until he accidentally fell in the pool.  Oops.

 Balashi brewery!

 

Thank you to the Romioses for a fantastic adventure!

RIP Nap

Jinx.

I wished the day would come when Marco would be tired for bedtime. A devoted napper for five-plus years, Marco's exciting, full and long days of Summer are wearing him out.

Ride all morning... swim all afternoon... his daylong train trip to the California Railroad Museum didn't get him back until 7 p.m.!  "I wanted to close the train curtains and take a nap, but my friends wouldn't let me."

Three DAYS into summer camp and he nearly cried himself to sleep on the couch.  He actually sobbed, "Maybe I need just a little nap."  Exhausted.

 

At least Marco and cousin Lucy have an agreement.

photo credit: Grandma pic after the Exploratorium