the boy is growing up

i've learned that jack is way more adventurous than i give him credit for. now this is the kid who has been uber-cautious since the day he was born -- irritatingly so! getting him to try anything new or even slightly scary-looking is usually impossible. he's the kid who shows up at the open gym and hangs back and observes all the other kids flailing themselves from ropeswings and bouncing like maniacs on trampolines for 45 minutes THEN decides it's okay to try something. this would be fine if open gym didn't last ONE HOUR. anyway, whenever we find out about something kid-oriented happening around town (circus, carnival, show, etc), we have to do a little song-and-dance to convince him it's something worth doing. then he changes his mind about 50 damn times. i know kids can be indecisive, but sometimes i think his indecision is a serious problem! i think he wants to try new things but is truly afraid. this worries me and makes me sad, because i wonder if i've done this to him. i mean, he was our first, and we were definitely the freakish first-timers watching his every move and never letting him do anything with any pain-potential. yep, more guilt for the pile. but after yesterday, i think he's slowly coming out of his shell.

yesterday my sister and i took him to king's dominion for a little spring break fun. when we first started talking about it i expected the usual trepidation, but he seemed pretty into the idea from the get-go -- the right commercial can work wonders on a kid! as we entered the park and saw all the people and rides i expected some hanging back, but jack bounded in with an eagerness that really surprised me. even after we encountered someone in a gargantuan dora costume (her head was fucking HUGE), he seemed unphased! now jack's dislike of anyone dressed up as any kind of character is legendary. this is actually one of his fears i totally understand -- i find them creepy, too! at least we won't have to worry about any horrific trips to chuck e. cheese's. heh.

we ended up going on the scooby doo haunted mansion ride and the kiddie rollercoaster not once, but TWICE. jack was definitely a little freaked out about entering the dark haunted mansion at first, but he enjoyed it enough to ask to do it again! and the rollercoaster was really tame, but you have to consider who we're talking about here. jack's been known to want to get off those lame "rides" in front of the grocery store. all in all, i consider this trip to be a total breakthrough. we had fun! and he was good -- like good good. like listening-to-me, holding-my-hand-when-i-asked-him-the-first-time, eating-his-lunch-and-not-fucking-around good. it was kind of surreal! *sniff* i'm so proud of how he is growing up.

oh, and the weather was fucking unbelievably gorgeous -- sunny skies and almost 70! by all rights, a pretty fantastic day.