The Baby Turtle

Kieran is our "creative" child. He's forever dreaming up all sorts of fantastic schemes and dragging us along with him in his endeavors.

This summer there was the lemonade stand, which we ended up supporting in the end...for his 4th birthday party he was determined to have a "Wizard of Oz" party at which he would be the Wicked Witch. For his last birthday party, he decided he wanted to have a costume party but on the day itself decided to wear a Peter Pan t-shirt and forgo any other costuming efforts. So his guests arrived in costume, and he was in a t-shirt and jeans.

We've had plans for various plays--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, etc.--and then there was the "love machine." Just this morning, as we were heading to the Farmer's Market, he pondered, "I wonder if we'll see Mara there!" (as if we'd ever run into her and her family at the Farmer's Market...)

His latest fantasy is that he wants to open a restaurant in the backyard. Apparently, it will not only have food, but he it will also feature live music and a motion simulator. He asked me the other day, "Mom, how do you build a simulator?"

The restaurant is to be called "The Baby Turtle," and he's drawn a wonderful picture of a turtle and hung it out in our front yard.

He's got a chef hired (one of his godfathers, Drew), and he's asking all the rest of us what we would like to do. I asked him if he is going to be the waiter, and he responded, "No, Mom--I'm the owner!!"

Tonight Mike made the grave mistake of telling him that he probably wouldn't be able to have a REAL restaurant, and he was completely devastated...tears, you name it. He stormed off and later came back to sit near me and sulk...and say "You didn't have to burst my bubble!!" Later he lamented that no one loved him...Mr. Dramatic. I tried to gently explain that to open a real restaurant, one had to operate in a real building (not the backyard) and have the health department issue permits, etc.

I suggested that we have his godparents over for dinner one night and we could "pretend" to do the restaurant and create a menu, etc., much as both Mike and I did with our siblings and parents when we were children. First he responded with disgust (especially when I told him that we couldn't very well invite friends over for dinner and then CHARGE them!), but later on in the evening he capitulated and decided that he could live with the idea.

Now if we could only persuade him away from his latest Halloween costume idea, which is to be a devil! Mike's already purchased him two costumes this year--Peter Pan and Batman--I think he knows his daddy is a sucker for his costume desires! But he has already outgrown those ideas. When Mike said, "Why don't you be an angel instead?" Kieran responded, "Dad, angels are GIRLS!" Yeah? Well, tell that to the Angel Gabriel. Where he got this devil idea from we'll never know. I'm just hoping a new idea replaces it in the coming month!