so lucky

Sometime last week we got an unexpectedly large package in the mail from our dear friends on the other side of the country. On the outside was a sweet little poem for us and our boys, and inside- this bike! Ari was thrilled beyond belief. It is currently set up as a tricycle, but can be adjusted into two different sizes of scooter-bike with a quick turn of a wrench. It's sturdy and speedy (Ari is happy to demonstrate this fact,) and wooden. We are all rather in love. Dorian is not quite big enough to zip around on it himself, but he gets to be entertained by watching his brother zoom past, which he seems to enjoy a great deal. We are hoping to have a chance to take it outside soon- when the snow has melted enough- (please melt. oh please.)
Indoors though, this bike has been facilitating plenty of fun pretend play. He rides to to the ice cream store (where an adorable conversation involving ice cream flavours and payment for ice cream and size of ice cream cones ensues,) and the train station and the restaurant and the hairdresser. I've actually discovered that I can get a lot done while he rides around his imaginary town so long as I am willing to play along. For instance, I am not just cleaning up, I am the noisy street cleaning machine, I am not just busy cooking supper, I am the cook at the restaurant making up his order. I even managed to comb out the tangles at the back of his head and trim his bangs this way, something he would have never let me do if it wasn't for the bike and the hair dresser roll I was playing. He even came back for a second cut saying "I like your voice, hairdresser." Though if you were to look at the uneven-home-haircut style I gave him in my hairdresser role, perhaps you would not be counting this one as a plus. Oops. Sorry kiddo.

But back to the bike, it is just so gosh darned terrific and we are feeling pretty spoiled rotten. Expect lots of future pictures of summer kid flying through grassy fields upon it's adorable frame. For now, here is one of Ping the duck catching a lift.

And while we are on the topic of luckiness- look how lucky this boy is and what the box the bike arrived in turned into. His Papa surprised him (and me too, he did this after I had already headed to bed) by transforming the box into a castle.
Complete with drawbridge, windows and rainbow flags (he is the teacher sponsor for the Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school where he teaches, so they are in good supply around here!) I think this castle is proof of what I have been suspecting for awhile now- that he might just be eligible for the best-papa-ever title.

All round, we are feeling pretty lucky. Now, off to make one of those giant mango chocolate ice cream cones my boy is ordering up.