Block Party

One thing about living in New York, there is Always something to do. Actually, there's always about a million things to do :) But this weekend we had to go no further than our front stoop, as it was the annual Block Party. P has fond memories of the older kids spraying the bejeezus out of him last year when he attempted to join in on their squirter war (and yes, it is actually a fond memory, strangely enough). So he was super psyched for this year's festivities.

It started first thing in the morning with poster painting and bubble blowing. Then the bouncy house went up and all the kiddies went ballistic. It was up for over 2 hours and P spent almost all of those two hours happily bouncing or waiting on line to bounce. Minus the time for the vanilla snow cones a neighbor boy was selling (two were necessary for full hydration). Then the fire truck came and opened our fire hydrant for the kids to run through. They also helped the wee ones clamber all over their truck, little voices announcing over the megaphone "Welcome to 7th street block party. Yayyyyy!!!!"

After a couple changes of clothing and hours of wildness, we dried up to grab some groceries for the pot luck dinner (yes, we like to plan way ahead for things.) The little man promptly fell asleep in his stroller and snoozed his way upstairs and on through a nice nap. When he woke up he was ready for the water gun war taking place below.

E had returned from work and took him downstairs while I cooked. Apparently, P's sweet little turtle squirter didn't quite measure up to the water canons being carried in the street, so E took him down the block to "size up." He came back, happy as a clam, with the last water gun available in the neighborhood. After proudly showing it to me he went back down to join the fray only to find out.... his new shooter didn't shoot. It merely dripped. Crushed, he returned home to bargain over another trip to the store ... only to have the skies open up and the neighbor kids give up the fight for shelter. Ever optimistic, he took his turtle squirter down to the stoop and stood on the edge of the rain, waiting, just waiting for it to stop and the kids to return. It was truly heart wrenching to watch his optimism buoy his patience. The rain finally relented just in time for the pot luck to set up (mass quantities of novel foods totally trumped all thoughts squirter related) , and then started again as everyone served the food :)

P loves nothing more than a giant buffet of new and different foods, and venturing out into the middle of the street during a downpour to fetch these newfangled edibles was so exciting he could hardly contain himself. Watching the rain, we sat on the stoop while P squealed happily over each new morsel. The downpour turned to a drizzle and the reggae band set up for some dancing fun. P was in full swing of neighbor dad addiction by then and E and I spent the rest of the rain-free time pulling him off of other pals (aka sweet, but busy, dads). Its such a hard line to walk. Its fabulous he's so very friendly and social, its just unfortunate (for these dads) his focus is adults... often adults who already have their own kids to care for :) Its also unfortunate that through classroom segregation our society is so agist. (Our neighbor Anna came running over to her dad, asking for back-up because another kid didn't believe she was a second grader and only plays with other second graders.) Vertically socialized home schoolers tend to run in an ageless mass in a nice, natural way. But obviously, the logistics of this in an overwhelmed public school system are impossible to manage.

The brief, music filled dry spell ended and everyone ran for home. P wasn't quite ready for the day to be done, plus he had lost his plate of goodies in the downpour, so we put on our ponchos and puddle jumpers and waded through the flooded street in play search of stranded delicacies. Our plans for the Brooklyn Bridge fireworks had gone down the drain, but the day had been so full we didn't even miss it.