Spring Break, Take One...

or, Rain Day.

Oh my sweet fancy Moses, people. It's the first day of spring break. I've been dreading this day since reading Becca's post about her first day of spring break last month. And I assure you, it did not disappoint. While there were no tantrums (thank you, merciful universe), there were buckets of rain and a preschooler who insisted that I be his personal dancing monkey all. damn. day.

Thankfully we slept in--7:45a.m. Ahhhh, remember the days when "sleeping in" meant rolling out of bed just shy of noon? And lounging, reading the paper, doing a crossword puzzle and then meeting friends for brunch? Yeah, now it's having your almost 4 year old shove his ice cold foot onto your back before 8a.m. and say, "I'm ready to get up, Mom." But, you know, that's nice too, I guess. Right?

It started raining on Saturday. And rained all day yesterday. So I wasn't surprised to hear the rain on the roof this morning. But I knew as I rolled out of bed that I'd already blown it. You see, it was going to rain all day, and I had failed in my sacred mom duty of setting up a play date. A play date, any play date, would have broken up our day a bit, given Ethan something to look forward to before, something to recover from after. And play dates generally mean that I get some adult interaction as well. But having dropped the ball on the play date, I knew I was staring down the barrel of 12 hours, inside because of the rain, just me and the little man.

sad little water-logged trucks

Awe.some.

I considered hitting the mall as soon as it opened so Ethan could run around in the play area. But then my mind fast forwarded to Friday morning, the day we leave for Maui, and a vision of Ethan waking up with crusty eyes, a wheezing cough, a raging fever, or projectile vomiting. So I opted to stay away from the petri dish o' germs that is the mall play area.

I tried to get us out of the house--when the rain would abate for just a few minutes, or the sun would seem to be peeking out from behind a cloud, we'd gleefully head out to the car and drive to Target or the grocery store. "Yay!" we thought, "The rain is over!" But every single time, we walked out of the store and into an epic downpour. Fine, Mother Nature. Be that way.

By 3pm, I had run out of all things fun for us to do. And so, we journeyed to Toys R Us; because on rainy, play-date-less days, all roads lead to Toys R Us. They just do.

We left Toys R Us with a boat load (it seemed appropriate) of Play Dough and an Imaginex submarine. People, a yellow submarine. With two action figures that Ethan promptly named John and Paul. Because, well...you know.

We built Play Dough aliens, cooked Play Dough foods and then went on a pretend underwater expedition of our living room in the submarine.

This guy was my creation. I will see him in my nightmares.

Ethan's. We had a Play Dough creature foot shortage, so I had to take the feet off of my guy and give them to Ethan to finish his. What can I say? I'm a giver.

Much excitement over the Play Dough beasties.

Welcome to Ethan's Bistro. What can I make for you?

Some steak? (um. barf)

Or a fried egg?

We all live in a....

Not sure if this one is John or Paul...

...but I'm pretty sure the cat wants to eat him.

And then, at 5pm....wait for it....the sun came out. And? Our next door neighbors came home, making possible an 11-th hour play date! Outside! In the backyard! In the sun!

And that's when Ethan pitched forward in a little wagon his friend was pulling, fell to the pavement and bit the crap out of his upper lip. Nothing says "Happy first day of Spring Break!" like your almost 4 year old bleeding profusely from his mouth. Thankfully popsicles make everything all better.

He's covering his eye because "Mommy, that flash is huuuuurting my eyyyyyyyes!" Clearly, I was super sympathetic. Mommy needs a picture of your fat upper lip for her blog! You'll be fine!

Here comes the sun..doo doo doo doo