Imajine That

By K.J. Cardinal

Tiffany, Pete, Andrew and Natalie kicked off their vacation today by meeting Anna and I at this place in Lawrence called Imajine That. It's pretty much a kid's dream.

For $8.95 a child, you can spend all day on the second floor of this old mill turned kid's playland. They have everything from an elaborate jungle gym to a kid's grocery store and everything in between. Needless to say it was a blast.

I feel like it's been FOREVER since I've seen Andrew and Natalie, so it was such a treat to get to spend time with the kiddos... and Tiff and Pete too, of course.

I must say that Andrew is absolutely the nicest, most considerate little kid that I have ever seen. The entire day he was looking out for Anna by helping her up and down parts of the jungle gym, trying to encourage her to go down the big slide by herself and being gentle with the girls in the boucy house. Of all the amazing things about Andrew, I think that his caring and considerate nature (for Anna, in particular) is my favorite thing about him... followed closely by his love affair with Papa... that's just awesome.

Anyway, Natalie keeps her streak alive of getting exponentially cuter every time I see her. She was taking steps while pushing a grocery cart and lawn mower today, so it will only be a matter of time until that cutie really turns Tiffany's world upside-down when she starts walking :)

When we first got there, "Nat Nat" was acting shy with me and almost seemed to be frightened by the sight of me (insert joke here). But after about 15 minutes, she was her normal self smiling right away and flirting with me. She's so good natured it's scarry.

After spending a few hours in Imajine That, we ventured downstairs to Sal's for lunch. We had a great time, highlighted by Andrew eating his multi-color, fish-shaped, cheese raviolis with bright blue cheese inside.

We parted our ways after lunch. We headed home and the George's continued out to East Hampton to visit the prego Jenny and Rob. So many of our friends now are pregnant... it's unbelievable.

Anna's great day continued when we got home as we played with her Easter gifts from Andrew (sidewalk chalk and a bubble gun) before heading out for a long bike ride. We stopped off at the playground down the street first so she could hit the swings and go down the slide and then we were off for downtown.

We rode all the way down to Dairy Joy, but no, we didn't stop to get an ice cream. Then, we headed home.

On the way back, Anna was tapping me on the back saying and we had this conversation:

Anna: Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
KJ: Yes Anna
Anna: Night, night
KJ: Are you tired?
Anna: Sleep, sleep
KJ: Do you want to sleep?
Anna: No

It was a cute exchange the first time, but I got a real kick out of it by about the third time she pulled the routine. I was expecting her to just fall asleep in the bike seat, but she didn't.

I can't express how much Anna loves the outdoors. We were gone on our bike ride for about two hours and sure enough when we got back home and went into the house, she ran over to the front door and started crying and saying "Out, out". I've never seen a kid that likes the outdoors so much.

It was a gorgeous day, so I kind of felt her pain about heading inside... but I had a blog post to write... give a Dad a break.