On Again, Off Again, Vacation Version

Well hasn't this been a fun, fun week of vacation. Monday had us at Six Flags, where everyone is to be thrilled by all the amusement offered. Micah, however, was not as amused as he could have been when the family split up. In fact, a 5 minute screamfest ensued in which I had to physically restrain 70 pounds of distraught determination while the rest of the park looked on. After that screamfest, Micah decided to have a pretty good day. Which, THANKGOODNESS.

Yesterday we were at the beach, and following Monday's unexpected disaster, I expected the worst. True to childhood, we were shocked at the wonderful day we had.

So today, I figured we had the Big Bad Ugly out of the way and were good to go. I mean, the family was going to stay together, and we were simply going to see the Statue of Liberty from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. It's a state park. It's free and open space to run. There is water, and the boy loves water. There was a playground, and a very long bridge to run on. It was an instant win-win situation.

Except it wasn't.

If anyone out there has the good day/bad day code for kids, please get in touch with me ASAP. I'd be willing to trade a kid or three for it, depending on what day we're talking.

Micah did not like Liberty State Park. And when I say he didn't like it, I really mean that he was skeeved by something in a very major kind of way. He was so skeeved, in fact, that he didn't even want to play on the playground. (That was our "yeah! A destresser for him so that we can get on with our day!" card.) He did not want to walk along the bridge. He preferred to hold someone's hand. (That is as out of character for him as it is for cows to fly.) He fussed and stressed, and stressed and fussed, until we turned around to walk back. You could feel the relief rolling off him.

Seriously, people? THIS is scary?



But this evening as we gave ourselves a walking tour of Princeton, Micah was thrilled nigh unto death. Thrilled, even. Nigh unto death. And while I, too, was enthralled, I just didn't realize that awesome architecture was that exciting to an 8 year old boy.

There is no rhyme or reason with kids. I think that is the only given in parenthood.