Date morning

Want to see a photo of Benjy?  To marvel at how much he’s grown?  To see his beautiful eyes and his silly grin?  Yeah, me too.  Unfortunately, he won’t let me photograph him anymore.

My muse!  My reason for buying my first camera 3 years ago.  No longer willing to be my model?!!  TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES!

So, instead you’ll have to imagine.

You’ll have to imagine how FANTASTIC he was on our date morning last Saturday.

Since the move, Benjy and I have had a bit of a rough time.  Phase Two Benjy is back (the tantrum-oriented version of his normally very sweet self) and has awesomely coincided with the arrival of Phase Two Henry- a point on which I’ll elaborate tomorrow on Henry’s birthday.  And at the moment, I’m operating at a ZERO TOLERANCE level for whiny, complaining, tantrum-throwing children.  I am pregnant, I am sleep-deprived, I am busy, I’ve been subbing with five year olds- seriously, Benjy, hush.

So, when he throws a tantrum (he recently threw one because I made him walk up the hill, refusing to push him in the stroller.  No joke, 20 minutes.  He followed me around in the store shouting “You’re so mean!  You don’t understand me!  I don’t want to play with you anymore!”  He continued his tantrum outside while we waited for the bus.  I made him stand apart from the other passengers while he screamed and ranted.  I tried giving him a hug, he pushed me away and screamed, “You’re so mean!  I don’t like hugs, and you hugged me!  You’re so mean!”  I told him we wouldn’t get on the bus until he stopped screaming.  He finally stopped, we continued on our way), I have very little pity.  I don’t shout at him, but I get snippy.  I roll my eyes and announce, “Enough.”  It doesn’t really work to end the tantrum, but nothing really works, and at least I don’t totally lose my schmidt.

Anyway, so things have been rough.  I needed a good Benjy experience, and knew that a date would do the trick.

Benjy chose to go swimming for our date, so we packed up our suits and headed to the best swimming hall for kids in Helsinki- Mäkelänrinne for those interested.  Back when we were city rats, it was a 15 minute bus ride to this gorgeous swimming facility.  Now it’s roughly 45.  Nevermind.  Nevermind.

We went swimming.  And by swimming, I mean I sat in the baby pool while Benjy went down the little water slide a gazillion times with his adorable water wings and watched him float with those little “air tanks” strapped to his back.

Then we went in the steam sauna.  I told him it was like we were in a cloud, so now he calls it the cloud sauna.  We took turns walking from one end of the steam room to the other, demonstrating how hard it was to see each other in the cloud (no worries- we were the only ones in there).

Then- the true highlight- we dried our hair with the blow dryers.  Benjy thought it was the COOLEST THING EVER.  He liked looking at himself in the mirror from all sides, checking how awesome he looked.  Later, when we were walking to the bus stop and the wind was blowing his hair, he said, “Oh no!  I wanted to be handsome!”

THEN- we went to McDonald’s, where he ate Chicken McNuggets, some of my fries, apple slices, AND half of an M&M McFlurry.

AND STILL THEN- we headed into a clothing store to kill time before our bus came.  He chose a pirate shirt for himself and an American flag jumpsuit for the new baby.  Our kids are HAPPENING, let me tell you.

We returned from our date, having spent four incredible tantrum-free hours together.

This morning, on our way to daycare, he asked me, “Mom, when can we have our next date?”

To be asked out by your three year old is definitely the best feeling ever.

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