Cheap date

Me: "When we were at the beach yesterday, Ian was doing his best Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue poses in the surf. He kept yelling, 'Splash me, Mommy! Splash me!' while rolling around."Rich: "Sigh. I love my gay son."

We were originally just going to go for a bike ride. But then Ian wanted to ride towards the beach. Then he wanted to ride up the boardwalk to the beach. Then he wanted to walk down to the firm sand to draw in it. Then he wanted to walk near the water. Then his shoes were wet. And then he tripped and his pants got wet. At that point, in for a penny, in for a pound. He splashed all over and raced me in the surf's edge. We stayed until he was soaked to the bone.

He purposely put his head underwater when a wave came in while wearing his bike helmet. When he came up, sea water was pouring down his face and he was laughing with delight. This is the kid who flips out if I try to wash his hair in the bathtub.

When it was time to leave, he wanted me to carry him and his bike but physics don't work that way. We opted for him sitting on his bike and me pushing it home. It's a wonder I can type because my forearms are still sore. He agreed to letting me clean him up in the shower and put on clean clothes. He then snuggled up for spaghetti dinner while watching Spider-Man.

Since it got colder today, we opted to go see dancers instead of going back to the beach to catch pneumonia. Australia's Strange Fruit was performing downtown for free tonight and it looked interesting. We were not very well prepared in that we didn't have warm clothes or blankets, but we did have light jackets and his blankie and some peanut butter crackers for snacks.

I wasn't sure if he was going to like it, but the entire thing was only 30 minutes long and the price was right. He sat there in relative silence other than a few times he demanded my phone so he could take pictures. When it was over, he was willing to leave for dinner but kept asking about the dancers and where they were and when they would be back. He later told me he took soooo many pictures of the girl dancers because they were his favorite. Then he wondered why the girl dancers had boobs. I offered it was maybe to feed their babies and he assured me they had "baby dancers" too and that those were also girls and he liked them too.

The only way I could keep him from staking out a spot on the lawn for the 9pm show was to remind him how cold it is and to promise we can come back tomorrow. So Ian and I have a date tomorrow on the lawn at the corner of Bank and Charlotte Street. We'll bring warm clothes and blankets and dinner and watch the dancers again. He might even take more pictures. Afterwards we might walk to the mall to play on the indoor playground until it closes.

All this is to say that despite him being a NO factory this morning, hanging out with a three-year-old is pretty awesome. It's amazing all the fun we can have for free.