During our stay in Sacramento, we had something planned practically every day. After our fun-filled romp at Fairytale Town, we had a couple of dinners with my relatives. On Friday night, we had dinner with Great-Grandma Ichikawa and my aunt and uncle. Then on Saturday night, we had dinner with more of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was great to see them all, but I've got to admit it is a pain in my flat ass to take the kids out to restaurants.
A note to all of you soon-to-be parents: it is much easier to go out to eat when your kids are infants than toddlers. When your kids are infants, you just plop that car seat on a chair or leave the kids at the coat check. If they start to cry, you pop in a bottle, a pacifier, or a wine cork. But it all changes when your kids are toddlers. They're old enough to feed themselves, but they're not old enough to behave. Although my aunts initially commented how well-behaved Emma and Andrew were, they had to eat their words soon after because the kids went on a rampage. They wanted out of their high chairs. They wanted to go in their high chairs. They threw crayons on the floor. They threw tofu on the table. It was like crack cocaine was distributed to a room full of ADHD patients.
On Saturday afternoon, we were invited to my friend's daughter's birthday party. It had a cooking theme and it was really well-done. All of the kids got personalized aprons and chefs hats as well as their own cookbook binder. Emma and Andrew also received acetylene torches to make creme brulee, but after their eyebrows got singed, we took them away.
The one thing that has been noticeable about Andrew is that he likes to get into other people's business. At the birthday party, there was another parent who had twins. During lunch, they had their double stroller next to their table. As I was looking for Andrew, I noticed him standing next to the stroller blabbering to these parents. A minute later, Andrew had his hands in the stroller fiddling with the straps. A few seconds after that, Andrew had half his body in the stroller with his legs flailing in the air. This boy knows nothing about personal space.
On Sunday morning, we went with Lazy Grandpa and Great-Grandma Ichikawa to a Farmer's Market. Great-Grandma Ichikawa received a $20 voucher for the Farmer's Market, and when you're 94 you don't let anything go to waste. The kids didn't really enjoy the organic variety of vegetables and fruit, but they did like walking around touching the assortment of flowers and plants. What was especially great to see is how peppy my grandma is. She now walks around with a cane for balance, but seeing her trot around made Lazy Grandpa look especially lazy. In just under sixty years, I will be 94, and I hope to be just as peppy. And although Lisa is older than me, in sixty years she will be 132, and I hope she will still be able to iron my shirts.
We left Sacramento for Los Angeles on Monday morning. While we were all eating breakfast on Monday, I jokingly said that maybe we could stay for a few more days. Crazy Grandma Ichikawa put down her spoonful of prunes and said, "Oh noooo! Yoooou can go home toooday! Dat long eeeenuf! Bye bye!"
I guess even Crazy Grandma Ichikawa knows when enough is enough.
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