Fully Five

Mal's birthday party was a lot of fun. We practically had Jump Street to ourselves, and his knee braces seemed to help him not to hyperextend his knee, as he is wont to do. Monday, we did chores and packed; and Tuesday, we headed toward Dallas for his birthday trip. Nana went with us, and we had a nice few days at Great Wolf Lodge (yay for super sales!), visiting The Crayola Experience and World of Peppa Pig.

I'd pre-purchased tickets both to the Crayola Experience and to the Legoland Discovery Center. First, it turned out that Mal got into the Crayola Experience for free since it was his birthday. Groupon couldn't/wouldn't refund my third ticket, but I forwarded it to my niece, who takes her son to Dallas fairly frequently to visit with his dad. THEN, the morning we were heading to the Lego place, Mal said he *really* wanted to go visit the World of Peppa Pig. He's been watching the television show again recently, and when I asked if he could only choose one, what would he pick... he picked Peppa.

Unfortunately, the Lego tickets were also non-refundable. Fortunately (unfortunately, I guess, but in our favor) the splash pad was waiting parts for a repair and due to that situation, I was able to get the money back. We happened to be at Peppa Pig during an off-peak time, so it ended up being a lot less expensive, and nearly empty. Mal played there for three hours. I think if they'd allowed re-entry, we could have spent more time later in the day. He loved it so much.

He had a thing the second day we went to the water park at Great Wolf where he noticed the big bucket dump before we walked in. The day before, he hadn't seen it... so in his mind, it wasn't operating the day before, but this day it was, and he did NOT want to go in. I got him inside, but he walked over to the kid pool and just cried. As I put my shoes away, I noticed an eagle-eyed lifeguard circling behind Mal, keeping watch until I joined him.

He was just standing there with his hand over his ears, sobbing, so my mom took him back out while I got my shoes. I didn't want him to leave terrified, though, so we tried one time. I carried him (ugh!) alllll the way to the back of the park, all the while he was crying, until we got to the one simply swimming pool they have. He ended up getting in and having a great time for an hour or so. I wouldn't have made him stay if he hadn't wanted to, but I felt like he'd probably be okay once he was past the bucket.

He has such big feelings and emotions. He cried as we left the hotel, as he does any time we leave a hotel (even after he's just visited Nana and Pappy at a hotel for a few minutes). He was a little weepy in the car for a while. But when we got home, he cooed, "Oh, house, I've missed you! I'm so happy to be home!" and went around and greeted the cats, and then the chickens, and showed his new toy his room.

And how he's a 5-year-old. Last year this time, he was saying that after he turned 5, he wasn't going to get any older. He was just going to turn 5 and stop. That seems to have died down over the past couple of months, as he talks about when he's 6... But last night, when we discussed that he needs to start trying to brush his own teeth with me there to finish up, he cried as I explained that I wasn't going to be brushing his teeth when he's 10. James had come into Mal's room for us all to chat as Mal wound down, and no matter what we discussed, Mal would only chime in every once in a while to beg, "Please still brush my teeth when I'm 10!"

I asked him if, when he was an adult and had moved out and was married and had kids, I was going to come to his house every night to brush his teeth. He said, "I'll never do that!" Moving out, that is. But since he wasn't going to age this time last year, I'm hoping that, by next year, he'll have at least tried to clean his chompers. Time will tell.