Mission Wednesday: Operation Distraction

Nicholas has been a little out of sorts the last few days.  A little cranky, a little restless, and a little short fused.  It all began with a great big surprise on Tuesday evening when we had to try on his Halloween costume that had just arrived in the mail.  I knew this was going to be a bad idea because it's so absolutely fantastic (Can't show pictures yet.  It would ruin the big reveal!) that I knew he'd never want to take it off.  But, I had to make sure it fit and didn't have any other choice.  Yep, I was right.  He LOOOOOOVED it and hasn't been able to get his mind off of it since I forced him to take it off that night before bed.  A normal parent would probably just let him have it but I'm sticking to my plan and keeping it boxed up for the next two months.  I wouldn't want him to wear all the exciting newness out of it and just view it as some old toy by the time trick or treating rolls around, now would I?  Well, I wasn't home the next morning when he woke up but I hear it was a meltdown of mass proportions.  Greg said he laid in bed crying for an hour begging to have it back.  That he neeeeded it.  I could almost hear his little heart breaking all the way at work.  So in an effort to keep the despair of his missing costume from ruining his day, I decided to keep him so busy he wouldn't have time to think about it.  I opted to forgo the nap yesterday afternoon and have a little fun instead.  First stop was the space park, which is his very favorite park in the whole wide world.  It looks just like a rocket ship and I have to admit, it's pretty darn cool.  After that, we raced home to change into our swimsuits and headed to the pool.  The whole place was deserted, which was so relaxing and enjoyable.  We even did a little swimming practice without his floaties on, which he handled pretty good.  Little by little, he will get there.  He was able to swim/tiptoe to me from the steps, which was about 4-5 feet or so.  I just tried to keep the motivation going by pumping him up and celebrating his success.  He liked all the hootin' and hollerin'.  And, while we were there he got to make a new friend with a great big toad who we rescued from the bug trap.  Little guy was just swimming his little heart out when we came across him but I highly doubt he ever would have escaped.  Once we scooped him out of the water, he just sat on the edge of the pool resting while Nicholas examined him.  It was really cute.  After swimming and getting cleaned up, Grammy and Papa capped off the evening with a visit.  In the end, I think I successfully kept my boy sidetracked with some fun activities.  (Well, I had fun anyway so I hope he did too!)  He was exhausted and ready for sleep when bedtime rolled around, which is always a good sign!  I just love days like that.

I would just like to add that this slide should be outlawed, or have a huge WARNING sign at least. 

It is so freaking fast that I blasted through it and burned the skin off my elbow in the process.  Ouch!!