Minky & Me

This morning, due to yesterday’s snowfall, we felt so cooped up that Layr suggested taking Minky to Chuck E Cheese. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea with my most likely broken toe but I went along.

If you had asked me three years ago if I would ever have an occasion to step foot into a Chuck E Cheese – wait, if you had asked me six months ago, even – the answer would have been a big fat NO!

I am always skeptical of things that are geared toward children. Barney: awful. The Wiggles: silly. At the school I’m working at the kids have these kid dictionaries which I find somewhat ridiculous (though I do recognize their necessity in some instances). I guess my point is that I don’t believe children need to have things dumbed down or made sappy for them.

With that said, I certainly couldn’t have imagined I’d ever enjoy Chuck E Cheese but once again I was humbled by motherhood. There were all these small rides for the two year old set. Minky’s eyes lit up when she rode the teeny tiny carousel. They had one of those crawley tube things attached to the ceiling that Minky dragged her sister through several times. Even the goofy show they put on was fun. And the pizza wasn’t all that bad either.

Friday afternoon I waited for Minky to wake up from her nap while I read in my bedroom. I kept hearing a noise that made me think she was up. I listened in the hallway for several minutes but heard nothing. I went back to my reading. After a bit I heard tiny feet scampering across the den floor. Minky had climbed out of her crib! She did it again today. I was lounging on the couch with a throbbing foot (see below) when in she came, just as pretty as you please. She has tried to climb out a few times with my help but hasn’t been brave enough to attempt it alone.

Minky has also let all of us know a few times recently that she was going downstairs but would be right back. At Layr’s office recently Minky told two of Layr’s coworkers, as she left the room they were all in, “Goodbye, Charlie. Goodbye Annaliese. I’m going to work.” Yesterday she assured Rocky and our faux-dog Lucy that daddy would be right back. Daddy had gone outside and the doggies stood at the door crying for him.

Today a big glass bottle of salad dressing fell on my foot and really hurt my toe. It is a nasty shade of blue. It had stopped hurting for awhile but is now hurting again. Yay, just in time for bed.

I also want to make note of tonight’s closing of the Palace Entertainment Complex in Saugus. Larry worked there in its heyday when he was just three years out of school. They had a mechanical bull that they’ll be auctioning off on Tuesday, along with other disco paraphernalia. Layr broke his wrist riding that bull and he’s telling me now as I’m writing this that he, “was the in-house bull riding champion.” He also supervised Hot Legs competitions, Miss Tropicana Bikini competitions and midget wrestling. When asked how he felt about himself while working there he said, “I wanted to run screaming from the place after the midget wrestling.”

This weekend Minky tried her hand at some finger painting.

An excerpt from a journal I kept right after Coco’s birth.

sun | 2.9.04
there are some things i don’t want to forget about coco like how small she is. she fits right in the crook of my arm. my hand is as big as her head. all of her clothes just fall off of her which makes her look cute and silly at the same time. then of course my favorite thing is how she bleats like a lamb when she cries.

This photo was taken tonight at Minky’s birthday dinner. I asked her to smile.

Layr just said to me, “what a honey [Minky]. Good job, Susan. Though you contributed no genetic material as far as I can tell, you’ve contributed in other ways. Childbirth, for instance.”