Blocks

Quentin received two presents for Christmas with a little building in mind. He received some oversized legos and a nice set of wooden building blocks of different shapes and sizes. He's not big on the building part yet, but he's an expert on demolition. Future career possibly? I posted a short video of him doing his thing. We stack, he kicks over. Last night he just dumped them everywhere and then sat down on the floor and began swinging his arms wildly in an attempt, successfully I might add, to spread the mess as far as one could. Hmm, maybe this wasn't such a good present after all. You don't want to be the "friend" that introduces finger paint to our house. So, last night we began the "clean up is fun" phase.

It's pretty easy to sucker a kid at this age. You just plaster a big old happy grin on your face, get to work and introduce some "YEAH's! and SAAAAWEEEEEET's!" coupled with a high five here and there and they think this new game is awesome. At any rate he did a great job picking every last lego piece up off the floor and putting it back in its little container. It took about 49 high fives and 25 minutes, but success none the less. I couldn't believe it. If we can just get him to learn how to mop the floors we will be in business.

On a parenting note we think we have bribed one of his teachers to be a babysitter for us. I'm not sure what the going wage is but Carrie asked her this morning and she said, "standard." So, I'm like $5/hour does sound pretty fair. We'll see you Saturday! Apparently, she meant $10, the going rate in America. Oh, I see. If you figure you go out for 4 hours (dinner 1.5 hours, 2 hour movie, 30 minutes to get there) you're looking at a pretty hefty tab. I mean you figure $30 for the movie, $50-$60 for dinner and throw in $40 for babysitting and you, after waiting a year plus to finally go on a date with your wife realize you can't afford it any more. B.B. King is coming to town and he brought Buddy Guy. For those not in the know - Seriously!?!? I mean these two really are the kings of the blues and they are not getting any younger (85 & 74, respectively). But let me tell you they can still jam on that guitar. My sheltered wife has never seen them and a treat this will be, indeed, so we must attend. On February 7th the babysitter will be making her debut. We've spent the afternoon scouring the web for nanny-cams hidden in a teddy bear so I know she's not stealing my change. That will make for an awkward morning Monday at school. I can't wait to see what will be on that tape!