the little things in life

for the life of me, i will never understand what excites my children (and, for that matter, what doesn't.)  for example, a few months ago both liam and susanna had friends over to play.  i was getting ready to make lunch, and simply grabbed a notepad to jot down what they wanted. 

they were so thrilled that you would have thought that elmo himself had become incarnate and walked through our front door.  so i rolled with it, hamming it up as Waitress Sara, going over the day's specials, side items, beverage choices, and dessert offerings.  i then showed the foursome to the kitchen table, served them their meals, and made sure their every need was met.  (which is pretty much what every mom does day in and day out anyway, just without a made-up accent and hastily-scribbled nametag.)

for days afterwards, they pleaded for Waitress Sara to return.  worried that the novelty would quickly wear off, i informed them that Waitress Sara only works for big tips, and a party of four was the minimum required to lure her out of retirement. it was, all around, a huge hit.   

now, compare that to yesterday.  that afternoon my parents had just offered us a week's stay in orlando sometime next winter, and i couldn't wait to share the news with the kids that we're finally biting the bullet and planning a trip to DISNEYWORLD.

susanna immediately began jumping up and down and clapping.  but liam -- well, liam sat there, morosely, before shaking his head.  "no thank you," he said.

umm ... huh?

"liam, you'll love disneyworld!  why do you not want to go?"

"well," he replied, obviously scrambling for a reason in his head.  "well, disneyworld is in florida.  so we'd have to drive through north carolina AND south carolina AND georgia AND florida to get there." 

after saying a silent thank you to God for giving my son a gift of geography that i do not possess, i explained, "we'll probably split up the drive halfway.  i was thinking that we could stay with aunt mary in atlanta."

aunt mary is liam's favorite great-aunt, mostly because she owns a wii.  "oh!  great!"  he beamed.  and then, "but can i just stay in atlanta while you and daddy take susanna to disneyworld?"

determined to get to the bottom of whatever issue was behind his lack of enthusiasm, i delved deeper.  "but liam, we'll have the best time!  you know that so many of your friends have already gone, and they've all loved it."

"but i like to play," he responded.  and now i was really confused.  "i mean, i just don't want to go down there and watch those movies in the dark."

and finally, i understood.  our poor son equated disneyWORLD with disney MOVIES.  he thought that we'd be driving down to florida to sit in some big movie theater and watching disney movies all week.  (if you couldn't tell by now, liam absolutely detests movies of any kind.  i blame "up" for that.  dadgum pixar.)

so we spent the next half-hour perusing the disneyworld website, clicking on their interactive map and oohing and aahing at pictures of the rides, shows, parades, fireworks, characters ... he was actually smiling at the end, and i felt much better about starting to plan this vacation.  chris got home shortly thereafter, and i called him upstairs.  "we've got some exciting news for you!" i said.  "kids, why don't you tell daddy what it is?"

liam ran up to him, about to burst.  "guess what!"  he exclaimed.  "susanna's having a playdate tomorrow and so am i ... so mommy's going to be our WAITRESS!"