Friday, May 22, 2009

Five


C: Because of our excellent parenting abilities (due to both nature and nurture, I'm quite sure) we gave the kid an awesome birthday today. 


 We really just crushed it all day long.  For example, I started by leaving the house...

M:  Actually, we gave the kid an awesome birth day 5 years ago, and I crushed it (it being your hand, Chris).  Today all we did was celebrate the big day, and in darn fine style, I'll agree. 

C: Back to India in 2009, yep, Ben wanted breakfast in bed.  Isn't that supposed to be the delightful respite of the worldweary and overworked?  He wanted an omelette with tomato, cheese, and peppers, and buttered toast--"Actually, jam, too, if you have it."  

M:  Ben specifically asked Chris to make his b-in-b, but deigned to consume my humble offering once he realized Dad wasn't going to deliver.  First though, he unwrapped his presents.  Actually, first he got into bed with me, lay still for about 40 seconds and then said, "Mom, can we wake up now?" and then ran directly to the presents waiting for him on the dining room table.  

C:  We even came through with the 'there is no way Mom and Dad will buy you that' present in the form of a 14" tall Transformer that goes from a helicopter to a deviously cackling robot with two swords and a cannon.  

(M:  Ben thinks the Transformer says, "Where are the auto parts?" and "Destroy the auto parts!")

C: I can transform it from one to another in under 2 minutes now.  No one else in the house can do it.

M:  After omelette in bed/couch and presents, plus a Skype to South Central Wisconsin (Hi Mom and Dad!) we set out for Krushnai Water World.  3 of us almost puked on the drive out there, but resisted the urge.  


(ed note: zoom the photo to see the Punubiquitous Guru Somebody cutout logo on the back of the car.  Humor requires translation of the Marathi: Do not fear, for I am always behind you.)

$17 admission and we were in!

C: I wasn't sure what to expect.  I once went to an amusement park above Manali, in the woods, that had A ride, and the people who got on it after us asked, "Why would you come here when you have Disneyland?"  Actually, India has Hubli Disneyland now, but w/o photographic proof you'll have to take my word.  

We'd looked up reviews online.  One, in Hindi, said "I have never in my life had as much fun as I had at Krushnai Water Park."  1 star out of 5 from that guy.  WTH?

M:  I also found this video...
  
C: Which made everyone a little nervous. Plus these things can be really 
packed, and have a lot of gawking people who wanna touch my kid.

It turned out really great. We loved it. I think, basically, no 
complaints, and lots of plusses. Caitlin and Ben each went down rides 
that were way too scary,



and were otherwise content to flop around in the kiddie pool. Like this:


Indian waterparks are a little weird: women wear pants, men wear 
speedos; dance music plays the whole time. Caitlin boogied in the 
wave pool with some other tweens to Punjabi hip-hop. Sometimes 
the water is a bit murky.

The other thing we noticed is that Indian people really know how 
to have fun. They laugh and joke with each other and just have a 
ball.

We really did too.



After another gutwrenching ride through semirural Maharasthtra and a nap for 
the birthday boy (and his Pops), we got down to serious transforming while Mrs. 
Nag Champion overcame adverse conditions to produce an awesome cake:


This is Ben's fiveness erupting through the cake.  That cake mix came all the way from America and made it up to $3 a box in the process.  It was magnificently tasty, as we found out after Shabbat dinner.  We universally agreed that Krushnai Water Park was the highlight of the week.  We then had the story of Ben's birth, and Respection of the Five Year Old: praise and compliments followed by our hopes and wishes for Ben for the coming year.   Ben hopes to put us all through a series of increasingly difficult soccer tests.  He also blanched at Caitlin's hope that he might learn to read and write, because "I can read. I can write."  

You know what happens next, right...?



This was followed by speedbath and Ben 10: Race Against Time.  Ben provided color commentary throughout, and was also delighted: "Mom, did you hear what that one alien called Ben 10?  He called him Benjamin!"

SOTM->Comfortably Numb = sleeping littles.

We get to do this all again next week with Caitlin!

Thanks to Ms. NC to playing along for a while with my lowtech adhoc nonpodcast idea. Sorry about the weird formatting for a bit just above here.  Night yall.

4 comments:

margaret said...

that was awesome! ben-dode, you have been on my mind all day today. i even sang happy birthday to you a couple times, and lucy clapped. i'm so glad you had a fun day.

m&c: happy birthing day!
lucy and enjoyed the video until in made her cry. she has pretty good sense. except for when it comes to eating french toast off the floor. i loved this post.

Unknown said...

this post made me laugh until i cried. i have to know what ben's so excited? to see in the first picture.

next i get to enjoy dinner with greensboro peeps who happen to be in the area for the day. i'm glad all of you had so much fun.

katie katie katie said...

Happy 5th birthday, Ben! It looks like you had so much fun at the waterpark, and your cake must have been delicious. (Hi to Caitlin too!)

Susannah said...

don't tell bubba, but nothing beats 4.