Today 'The Land of Jordan' went to Madison Square Garden for The NY Liberty's opening day game. Jordan has been to 3 other NY Liberty games but of course those happened in past seasons and she was obviously much younger and we'd have to leave by halftime if not sooner. Now that Jordan is somewhat 'older' she can grasp a few things we throw at her, like: "We're going to Amy's (it's Amy's b/c our friend Amy works for the Liberty therefore in my mind and I guess Jordan's too she has acquired an entire WNBA team) Liberty basketball game today" which is followed by her usual round of questions: "Jakey Bilotti go too? And Chasey too?" So after explaining that yes Jakey will be there, but Chasey won't be there, we are cleared to head into NY.Of course once you exit the Lincoln Tunnel the world becomes a different place. There are people everywhere, walking, running, biking, driving, honking ("Mommy, why beeping?" "Because that person is driving like they're still in NJ honey and this is NY."). It's funny watching and hearing what your child observes, that is until your child observes the man on the corner selling pretzels and your child starts flipping out in the car demanding a pretzel and your child won't/can't listen to reason b/c the pretzel man is right there on the corner practically dangling the pretzel in front of your child as you are stopped at a traffic light and can't move! Wait until she discovers the guy who sells roasted nuts!
Into The Garden we go. Jordan is pretty excited. She enjoys the escalator ride up. She enjoys seeing all the people. She claps when we get to our seats and she seems very in awe of the entire arena. Jordan's man Jake arrives and suddenly the world is such a better place for the two of them. They were VERY cute sitting next to each other watching what was happening on the court. And they seemed to be very into eating their Madison Square Garden pizza until.........nope, not the pretzel guy...........this time it's the man carrying the never ending supply of Liberty Dr. Seuss looking hats w/bags of cotton candy attached to them on this really long white pole that you can see coming from any part of the HUGE arena. As if that's not enough to get a kids attention, now, instead of walking up and down the aisles screaming, "COTTON CANDY HERE", they must have had a meeting on how to entice more kids and are now walking up and down the aisles screaming, "CANDY HERE, CANDY HERE!!!!!" Are you kidding? I mean come on! What kid is not going to want to attack that guy? And what kid is not going to bug the heck out of their parents for that CANDY? Sure enough Jake and Jordan stopped eating lunch and started flipping out for that CANDY.
We (the parents) stood strong for a good amount of time but at some point you lose your mind and start throwing ridiculous, just as bad diversions at the kids: "Who wants ice cream?" So back to the concession stand, again. Two small cups which contained very large amounts of dripping ice cream covered in sprinkles which for some reason wound up sitting on my lap and both kids (one on each side of me) begin scooping/shoveling said ice cream. Not a good situation.
And here comes that annoying hat/cotton candy dude again, "CANDY HERE, CANDY HERE!!!!" Suddenly the ice cream isn't all that.
Next on the list: popcorn. Yes, yes I know. Choking hazard. Yeah, well so is that really long white pole the cotton candy guy is holding which I wanted to shove down his throat to make him stop yelling about CANDY!
So yes, popcorn came next. And that held a level of happiness for quite some time.
At this point we are nearing the end of the 3rd quarter which I think is awesome b/c like I said, last year we never made it past halftime.
Just as the kids are beginning to melt the camera dude shows up! So I lift Jordan up above me and tell her to watch the big TV (the jumbo-tron or whatever that huge thing is called) and I start wiggling her and getting her to dance. She's glued to the big TV and suddenly she sees herself up there and she gets this HUGE smile on her face and I can hear all these people around me start cracking up b/c seriously, could she be any cuter? And Jake was up on the TV too. Soooooo cute. And when it's all said and done Jordan turns around to me and says, "More Mommy, more!!!" As if I control who & what goes up on the TV at The Garden.
So we leave our first Liberty game of the season and head back to Jersey. Our car ride home was filled w/Jordan's endless (not kidding) babbling about "Amy's LibERY" (not LiberTy, LibERY) "Mommy, you climb up steps, and you see Amy's LibERY?" "And Mommy, I climb up steps by myself and I see Amy's LibERY too?" "Ohhhh look!!!! It's Amy's LibERY!!!!" (a painting on the side of a building) "Ohhhh look!!!! It's more Amy's LibERY!!!!!" (a truck which had the Statue of Liberty on it) "Mommy I want more Amy's LibERY!!!!" How cool is that? My child likes women's basketball!!! Either that or she just likes all the crap we fed her tonight and just assumes she'll get that each time we go to see "Amy's LibERY".
And onto other non-basketball things.
Here are a few things we've been experiencing in The Land of Jordan:
- Jordan wakes up one morning, first thing she says to me is: "Mommy, Jakey has a peanut" which of course was really: "Mommy, Jakey has a penis". Interesting first conversation to start our day off.
- Teachers at Jordan's school have been telling me how the boys love Jordan. And how she will wind up w/a different boy each class just sitting and talking until the one day the teachers had to intervene when Jordan and I believe it was Justin were pulling their shirts up showing each other...............belly buttons...........?
- "Who that boy?" "Who that girl?" If we see someone we don't know.
- "My Mommy" as she's hugging my leg making it known to all that I am in fact her mommy and don't think you're getting a piece of me.
- We have moved away from the fake smile when she knows I'm annoyed or stressed out at her. Now we go with: "Mommy, you happy?" which of course is an awesome thing for a kid to say when you're about to lose it b/c it never fails to make me smile and in fact make me happy.
- We are still convinced that every single airplane in the sky has Bubby & Pop-Pop on it.
- Sadly Jordan has given up her obsession w/the show WORD WORLD. I feel a void in my life and continue to DVR the show b/c I'm in complete denial. I love that show. We are now intrigued/fascinated/obsessed with: GO DIEGO GO.
- I might have ruined my child by insisting we spend as little time as possible at home just b/c I can't sit still. Jordan tells me at least 4 times a day as we're driving towards home, "No home Mommy, no home!!!"
That's all from The Land of Jordan, for now!!! Hope everyone is starting off their summer in a good way.
