Dancing Rabbi Johnn

John enjoys watching the Chabad telethon as much as I do.

Day One at Play School

John started pre-school last week.  I like to call it play school like Caillou does since all they do is play.  Oh well, here's his first day at Plymouth.

He's a Bit of a Planner

We headed to Costco today to pick up some provisions.   We had to visit the "coldee" room to get the fruit.  He even had to sample the strawberries because he used to getting samples wherever he goes.  That's John's favorite place at Costco aside from the bakery.  He wants a blue ABC cake from Costco for his birthday next year.

John decided that we were going to eat at the Costco restaurant.  He loved eating there a couple of weeks ago with Maureen and Grammy.  Sure enough, he said that he and Nicholas would have a pizza and a smoothie and that Maureen and I would have hot dogs.  Do you think we followed that menu?  We sure did.  Who can resist the great prices at Costco?  It's a madhouse, but it's well worth it.

I asked him if he wanted to throw his birthday party at Costco since he likes it so much.  He said, "That's silly.  You can only have birthdays at houses or parks."

Play School

Thursday was John's first day at Play School, sorry Pre-School.  Caillou calls it Play School, but it is actually Pre-School.  When he woke up, he was quite excited and told me that he was going to school, but he didn't know what he was going to do.  Maureen had been reading "Llama Llama Goes to School" to prepare him for it.

Things went quite well.  He was happy to be at school, but he did start to tear up when Maureen was leaving.  The school director sat him on her lap and he was just fine.  He said that none of the kids talked to him, but then again, he didn't talk to any of them.  When Maureen came to pick him up, he was doing puzzles at a table with his other classmates.

 Maureen promised to take him to a special lunch after school.  I thought they were going to go to Village Pizzeria and ice cream on Larchmont, but they headed out to Tony P's instead.  They shared the caprese sandwhich that John loves and they watched the boats for a while.  There was no side trip to the Ritz Carlton this time.  Oh well, next time, as John says.

They even made a stop into Maureen's old stomping grounds at St. Anastasia.  Apparently, John was trying to answer the Kindergarten teachers questions even better than some of the students.

Someone Is A Little Sick

John's had a bit of a cold since last week.  He's in the final stages; however, his nose is very runny.  Consequently, he needs to wipe his upper lip clean.  Unfortunately, he's done it so much that it is quite sore right now.  I found him on the floor 15-minutes ago putting the bandage on his upper lip.

Two Big Events

This week was a watershed week in John's life.  He sat on the potty and finally made a small deposit (both solid and liquid) and his teacher came over for a visit.  I think it'll be a while before he's completely into sitting on his potty and doing his business, but he seems quite excited about starting school next week.

I'm tempted to post a photo of his potty, but I think that may be pushing it a bit.

Natural History Museum

Sunday, we decided to broaden our horizons and visit the Natural History Museum near USC.  I hadn't been there since I was in the first grade and there was a Muppet Exhibit, so I didn't really know what to expect.  Since it was going to be hot, we knew we'd be in the fine functioning air conditioning for the better part of the morning.  As a special treat, John's godparent's joined us with their two sons, Little Brow Dylan and Matato (that's what John calls them).

There are many things to see at this museum.  We started by going to visit the "Meet and Greet with the Animals".  On display, we were able to see a desert tortoise.  We just kept calling it a turtle because Nicholas kept on screaming "TURTLE!!  TURTLE!!!"  He wanted to touch it, but we were advised that it wouldn't be a good idea.  I had no idea that their shells carried salmonella.  Let that be a lesson to you.  John was a little to scared to touch it even though he said he wanted to.  That's ok, there's plenty of time to grow out of that.  We even visited the Hall of Insects.  John was quite entertained, but Nicholas was a little creeped out and Maureen was just plain grossed out.

Next, our reservation for the dinosaur exhibit was on.  Good Lord, it was a madhouse in there.  You couldn't walk without bumping into another visitor.  Needless to say, the boys weren't terribly impressed with the exhibit (they are still a little too young).  While we were waiting for the Lopez family to join us, we were resting by a window that overlooked the Rose Garden.  At the center of said garden, there is a large fountain.  After John saw that, all he talked about was seeing the fountain.

After lunch, we made it over to the Rose Garden.  John was in heaven because he knew he was close to his fountain.  He loved running around the garden until he reached the fountain.  When he got there, he just wanted to run around the perimeter of the fountain.  He did four laps before we told him that it was time to go.  He wasn't very happy with that because he wanted to stay.  He did get a rose that he really liked.  That calmed him down.  His brother took that rose and played keepaway for a minute or two while John had a minor melt down.  At that, we knew it was time to head home.

 Sure enough, both boys were out in their car seats within 5-minutes of getting into our car, but not before we drove by the fountain one more time.

Tony P's in the Marina

It was such a lovely weekend, aside from the heat.  On Saturday, we headed out to Marina del Rey for lunch and a walk by the boats.  

Quit taking pictures

As usual, we headed to Tony P's for a nice lunch.  John and Nicholas just love to eat there.  Well, John will eat the food and Nicholas will just each the french fries.  We sat right on the water, so John could see all the boats coming and going.  It was quite a treat.  I'm sure all the other diners enjoyed every time John exclaimed, "A BOAT!  A BOAT!"  For the record, he had some of Maureen's capresse sandwich and some of my hamburger.  Truth be told, he loved Maureen's sandwich.  If we just fed him tomatoes and cheese, he'd be as happy as can be.

Let's go to the pool

After lunch, they headed down to take a look at the boats while I paid the bill.  John never understands why we need to pay the bill.  I wish life were as easy as he thinks it is.  In any event, as we are walking down the way, we come across the Ritz Carlton pool area.  Normally, the door is locked, but on this day it was wide open.  John just walks in like he owns the place and starts looking around.  He loves that hotel.  He loves it even more now because he knows that there are a few waterfalls and a large fountain at the entrance to the hotel.  That boy has champagne tastes.