June 26, 2006

• I had some truly sweet time yesterday with Nathaniel. It was
  darling. I woke him up telling him that if he had a good attitude all day and
  obeyed really good (I know, great English) that we would go see the movie Cars
  after lunch. So he was on his best behavior all day. It was awesome.

   
  But the coolest times I had as a father came throughout the
  day:

  First off, Christy dropped us off at a Starbucks about ¾ of
  a mile away from the church I was playing at that morning. She went over to
  check out Paz Naz and their special needs programs (of which she has a funny,
  long story about). So after getting Nathaniel some milk and myself some water,
  we I walked from the Starbucks to the church, on the sidewalks of downtown Arcadia. It was awesome.
  There we were, holding hands in the early morning (about 7:45 AM) walking
  mostly in silence, observing the lawn sprinklers and bird chirps along the way,
  and looking both ways before we crossed the street. I really soaked it all in,
  ‘cause times like that are few and far between. I loved it.

  Then, when we got to church, Nathaniel watched Pixar shorts
  and our home movies on my awesome iPod while I rehearsed for an hour with the
  band. Now, if there was ever a time for an iPod, that was the time. It was
  great. He didn’t come up and bug me every few seconds wanting to do something,
  or go to the bathroom, or go get a drink, or to tell me he was bored—he just
  watched the magic movies on the iPod. I loved it, again. Although, the best
  part came when he was watching the home movies and singing along with the Clay
  Aiken songs in the auditorium loudly
  for all to hear. So funny. There was one time where we stopped to fix something
  in the rehearsal and there he was, “It’s gonna be a perfect day…” so loud.
  Precious.

  Then we hopped off to lunch at Souplantation (a winner every
  time) and then dropped off mom and Noah and ran back to the theater to see
  Cars. I got a free popcorn coupon but Nathaniel didn’t want any ‘cause he was “so full”,
  and frankly, so was I. However, about an hour later he sent me back out to get
  the popcorn. Sure, buddy, no problem. Well, Nathaniel loved it, and can’t wait
  to see it again. I, however, did not like it as much as I thought I would. Mike
  was right when he said it ranks somewhere below the Toy Storys and Finding
  Nemo, but probably above Monsters Inc, and A Bug’s Life (in the scope of Pixar
  films). I didn’t laugh as much as I was hoping, there was really only a few
  funny parts. On the upside, it did have a good message about not being
  self-centered—ok, that’s a GREAT message, but I just didn’t enjoy it that much. EDIT ADD: Let me add this, CARS by far has the most sophisticated, detailed, believable, and stunning animation of any film I’ve ever seen. Better than any other Pixar flick, better than any cartoon could dream of, and honestly, probably better than any live action film I’ve seen also. The animation and cinematography was top notch. Go see it just for that. It’s amazing.

  Nathaniel and I finished off the day by having some more fun
  times playing Nintendo together, and I finally beat Bowser (for the millionth
  time since the game came out in 1990) on Super Mario World (SNES).

  It was great.
  A proud day for a father, and a very memorable one, too.

   

  • 2:03 pm
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