Pee-pee and really long train! Wow!

It was a rainy day today, so I thought I would blog a tip for my fellow fathers for rainy days.
If you have a Chapters near you, check it out. There is a Chapters near us, in Vancouver, that has a nice Thomas the Train Engine track and trains set up in the section where the children's books and toys are. This is the Chapters at Broadway and Granville. What is great about this set up is that you can pick up some books or magazines and read them while your child/children play with the train set. I did that with my son today, and it worked great. He played with the trains contently for almost two hours with minimal need for my intervention.
My book and magazine reading was only interuppted by his need to go "pee-pee" and for him to show me his really long train. (Oh, and a couple of times when the really long train came apart and some minor repairs were in order).
My boy loves to play with other kids and build really long trains, so this was the perfect spot for him today. Since I like to read, it was the perfect spot for me too. I had to practically beg him to leave, he could have stayed there all night. I wouldn't have minded staying longer myself, to read some more, but of course we had to get back for dinner and beddy-bye. So to convince him to leave, I bought him a book and told him we would go home and read it. That worked nicely, although I only condone such actions when absolutely necessary :-) ...but he played really nicely anyways, so I thought he deserved a new book... I have to admit, it was a book that I have wanted to get for awhile too. I will write about it in a future post.
So, check out what your local Chapters or bookstore have to offer for kids. The children's section of your local library also may have something similar. If they do, and you like to read, you are in for a rainy day treat!
Until next time,
The blog blogg daddy

A Raging Sea of Pink and Turquoise

I am bruised and battered... to give my wife a break today, I took our son to the Adventure Zone at the Granville Island Kid's Market in Vancouver, BC. Boy oh boy an Adventure it was!
I had been there before, so kinda knew what I was getting myself into, but the last time I was there the moons must have been aligned in my favour, because not too many kids were there. That was not the case today, unfortunately.
There must have been some preteen girl's party going on, because the Adventure Zone was swarming with them. The birthday cake must have had speed in it too. I got climbed on, trawled over, kicked, punched, pushed, body-checked... you name it.
I made several attempts to hold them back while my son climbed, because they would have marched right over him given the opportunity. At one point, he was climbing up a narrow passage and I was blocking them from coming up through this passage until he got up safely. I felt like Will Smith in I Am Legend, with all the hungry Dark-seekers at my feet, grabbing at my legs, trying to climb up around me or over me. It was a raging sea of pink and turquoise.
What is the point of all this you ask? Well, I learned a valuable lesson in perseverance... I was prepared to leave after about 5 minutes of these shenanigans, but my son was having such a good time that he wanted to stay. Surely enough, after about an hour, the girls were worn out and left, and we had most of the place to ourselves. In the end I was glad that we stayed.
My conclusion: Adventure Zones like this are great on days when they are not too busy or the kids are about the same size as your kid. But on busy days, they can be quite the challenge!
Well, I am off to go nurse my bruises now!
Until next time, hope you are getting enough sleep,
TBD