Monday was President's Day and we headed over to Jersey to do some shopping. After grabbing some burgers (and photos) at Weber's Drive-In, we went to the La-z-boy store to buy a new couch. Zeeke sat in every chair in the joint and then started climbing into Ottomans and coffee tables. He particularly liked a coffee table with a hidden storage space and spent so long happily playing inside, like he was a magician with a disappearing box trick, that we decided to buy that as well. Afterward we hit the book store for more Yo-Kai Watch books.
Wednesday, while doing homework, Zeeke scolded Steve for mispronouncing "W" in Spanish. "Daddy," he said, "you used to be at the front of the line, but now you're at the BACK of the line! And Mommy's at the front!" But Steve got back in his good graces by making Google Translate's voice synthesizer say, "Sweet Baby Zeeke. Zeeke is a sweet baby."
Thursday, we switched our cable provider and suddenly got back all the kids channels that Zeeke hasn't gotten to watch for the past couple years (including one that plays new episodes of his beloved Yo-Kai Watch). While watching the commercials for their shows with rapt attention, Zeeke turned to Steve and asked, "Why does everything have to be 'extreme'?"
At art class on Saturday, Zeeke designed a superhero called Psychec X (sic): "The X is for darkness! But he's a hero!" He also designed Psychec X's headquarters: "When he wants to train, he goes to The Blank Room. Another room is The Aerodynamic Robot Map Room." (Upon further questioning, he explained that it's the robot cartographers that are aerodynamic, not the maps.)
Conversations with Zeeke:
"Daddy, if I get too hot all of my existence modules run out and I disappear forever."
"Ok, let's walk in the shade."
"That's a good idea, because all but ten of my twenty-hundred existence modules are really low."
"Phew."
"Yeah, it's actually really good, because I was about to disappear forever."
"And just so I know, if you do disappear, is there anything I can do to bring you back?"
"No, I'll be gone forever.... well, there is a way, but it's really hard!"
"I don't care how hard it is I'll do it! Tell me how!"
"Ok, well, you'll have to find the magic stone that's hidden and tap it against a rock sixty-hundred times and I'll appear back right on the other side of the rock and I'll walk around to where you are."
"All right, where do I find this magic stone?"
"Well, I don't know, but I can tell you a hint. You'll have to go to New York City where Zoe went and to Paris."
"Well, that will be a nice little vacation."
"And in each place you'll find half of the map and when you put the two halves of the map together one side needs to be in a cold place and the other side has to be where it's hot. And then the map will show you where to find the magic stone."
"All right, got it!"