Hey, Mystere!

We are back from Las Vegas, and the kids had a great time, although not for the reasons I expected. I had imagined that they would be completely captivated by the spectacle of it all - the grandeur, the gold-plated everything, the comic excess. But I guess I hadn't really thought it through in their eyes. And in their view, it's the small stuff that counts - a comfortable hotel room, a great pool, some screen time, and good eats.

We made the wise (pats self on back) decision to stay at the Venetian, where we got a very nice suite in the newest tower, and where the entertainment was family-friendly, or at least rated PG. Each night the harlequin dancers and stilt-walkers paraded through the lobby with music and dance, scattering beads and rose petals for the Carnevale celebration. And each day we could watch the gondoliers paddling their boats and singing arias through St. Mark's Square.

As one perk of staying in our tower, we had use of an exclusive pool area that was like a series of Greco-Roman baths. Instead of one big pool, there was a smattering of small pools winding among gardens, statues, and topiary.

If we had been anywhere else instead of Las Vegas, the pool(s) might have been the singular attraction. But as it was, there was so much else to do, we had to limit our time to get in all of the non-pool activities.

So of course we saw the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, the fountains at Bellagio, the volcano at Mirage, and we rode on the monorail all up and down the Strip. But we also stretched a little further to see not one but two shows; Cirque de Soleil's Mystere, and the Popovich Pet Comedy Theater. Mystere was, of course, spectacular. If only it hadn't been at 7:00 at night after a long day of swimming and walking in 100-degree heat. Zach must have said, "Wow!" at least 65 times before falling dead asleep in his seat from sheer exhaustion before the final act. The next day, the pet comedy show was extremely lowbrow, a sort of Vaudeville act with cats, dogs, and geese, but the kids thought it was just funny enough to keep them occupied for a little over an hour.

Most of the time we slummed it, food-wise, with quick picks from chain restaurants or the food court at the Venetian. On the last day, we met my cousin Anne at the Bellagio buffet, which was a great choice for the kids because Luke could load up on bacon while Zach was able to sample everything from mussels to miso-mushroom soup. "The people who built this restaurant must have had a lot of energy. And a lot of ideas," mused Zach.

Added bonus: If we hadn't been with Anne, we wouldn't have known to go just around the corner from the Bellagio garden to find the world's biggest chocolate fountain. Who gets to drink from the fountain, the boys wanted to know. Luke and I decided that maybe it was a prize on one of the progressive slots. So instead of a big display reading $1,064,584.92 and counting, the display would just say "Chocolate Fountain" and whoever won the jackpot would get to step inside the glass doors and drink up.

Gambling? Well...I've gotta admit, this is one of my favorite kinds of vacations: You lounge around in the sun all day, then go back and shower, then get dressed up for dinner and a night out. Except in this case we couldn't both go out. Dave realistically knew that if someone from our family was going to gamble, we would be better off if it were me, so he sent me out two of the nights to do my best at the slots. So I lost a few bucks on the penny slots, but it sure was fun getting there and I sure looked good doing it.

Will we go again? Absolutely. And just to clear things up for the skeptics, it is a fun place to be with the kids - and now that they're old enough that we don't have to deal with strollers, diapers, pull-ups, or naps, our enjoyment has increased exponentially. Pros: Plenty to do and see; fancy hotels and pools made for giddy fun. Cons: Extreme heat in the summertime, extreme crowds once you get closer to the weekend. So you just have to balance it all out.

I'll leave you with some of Luke's more sanguine observations about the city. This is a kid who is not easily fooled:

On whether the cloudy sky was real or an illusion in St. Mark's Square: "Uh, Mom, I can see the holes where the lights go."

On viewing the city and surrounding desert while flying in: "Where do they get their water supply?"

On seeing the tracts and tracts of development around Las Vegas: "If all of the houses look the same, how do you know which house is yours?"

On visiting the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood: "You know, this looks nothing like Hollywood."

Synapses firing

Zach has a speech therapist named Iris who comes to our house, and when she gets here, they make up a little schedule of what they are going to do together. She has a whole bunch of icons of all different activities (trains, painting, Legos, etc.) and they pick the activities and velcro the icons onto a timeline to map out their time together. On Saturday, Zach noticed that she had an icon with a picture of a glass of juice, labeled simply, "Juice." I believe Iris uses it as an icon to denote a snack break, like when a kid takes a break and has a cup of juice. But Zach interpreted it to mean, "Time to make juice." So he gleefully added "juice" to the schedule, and when the appointed "juice" time rolled around, Zach got out some cups, some oranges, and the juicer. Iris was embarrassed and apologetic that they were making a mess in the kitchen, but at the same time she was clearly delighted at his charming interpretation of the "juice" icon. Apparently this is the first time a kid has ever been inspired to make juice when given "juice" time. You know that book "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie"? Zach is totally the mouse in that book. Give him an idea for a project and he will take the inspiration and run with it.

Luke's class has been working with iPads at school and he has an app on there called "BrainPop" that has all sorts of unusual science facts. We'll be having a conversation about something and all of a sudden Luke will jump in with some random yet detailed explanation of a science fact (black holes, for example) that is perfectly fitting to the occasion. Anyway, Dave was driving us all in his car today when some lady cut him off. Dave started to say, "What a stupid..." and I jumped in before he could get too far and said, "You know what? I feel sorry for her. Because for her to make a driving mistake like that, it probably means she doesn't have a lot of brain cells. And it must be really hard for her to make it through her life with not as many brain cells as other people." Then from the back seat, Luke announced, "If you built 15 Marriotts entirely out of grains of sand, each grain of sand would represent one synapse in your brain. That's how many synapses we have." This kind of stunned me and Dave into silence for a moment, until I added, "So I think that lady only had one Marriott." And we laughed all the way home about the poor one-Marriott lady who just doesn't have the brain power to know how to drive like a normal person.

Wrapped up

OK, let's see how quickly we can do this rundown...

Luke won the bronze medal at his karate competition. He overcame some initial nervousness and got more confident as he continued. He had to compete in one extra round as a tie-breaker, where he finally won out for third place. Is he awesome, or what?

Luke also had a great, fantastic, roaringly good final report card for 2nd grade. I am a little sad that this year is over because I loved his teachers so much and I think the feeling was mutual with Luke. (I emailed his teacher about his karate medal as soon as it happened, and then I had second thoughts because I realized I might be over-sharing, but she assured me that she was just as delighted to hear it as anyone else and she wants to stay in the loop.) Anyway, among the comments on his report card, I was tickled to see that the teachers were impressed with his growing confidence, especially "when he told the class about going to the restaurant and interviewing the chef."

As a special treat, Luke and I had a "date night" on Wednesday and I took him up to Burbank to see a special screening of "Brave" at the Disney studios. Usually at these screening events they're in a special room where there are no food or drinks allowed, but when you come out there's a nice little buffet or something. By the time the movie got out at 8:45 pm we were both starving and thirsty, so we rushed out of the theater to find...no food, no drink, nothing. (Cue sad trombone.) So we headed back down the freeway back home and stayed up extra-late, teenage-style, eating pizza until (gasp!) 10pm.

Luke asked me the other day, "Mom, did you know (our babysitter) Rose  has stayed up all night before?" and I said, "Yeah, that's the kind of thing you do every now and then in college." And he answered, "No - I was thinking about trying to start doing that this summer!"

Zach graduated from preschool. I think it was one of those moments where I was supposed to be wiping away tears or something, but all I could think was, "I am SO happy that he's finally finished with preschool." If I were more proficient with my new camera I would have a picture of him accepting his diploma. Instead I have a blurry picture of him walking away while holding the diploma. Here's one that's better anyway (thanks, Suzi).

In celebration of his graduation, Zach has taken up a new hobby. I don't have much more to say about that, except that I'm not really freaked out TOO much. He's not exactly a delicate flower, and he's pretty close to the ground, so that's as good a time as any to learn. Dave reports that after they bought the skateboard, Zach insisted on carrying it out of the store, held tight against his chest. And as they left, a teenage kid heading in to the skate shop sort of did a double-take at Zach and gave him a look like, "Dude, that's how I was when I started too."

We also have a new fish. At the second-grade mall (second-graders come up with an idea for a store and then everyone comes and shops at the stores with play money), one of the stands was a game to win goldfish. Long story short - it was a game that was set up to be extremely improbable to win, and the line was impossibly long, but Zach kept insisting that he wanted a fish. So we got to the front of the line and he threw four balls that missed the target, and the fifth and last ball made a bulls-eye, to the delight of the crowd. So Zach won a fish, named it Diet Coke, and we now have a sprightly little addition to our household.

The last thing is not really important but I thought I'd mention it just as a curiosity. The other day Zach was having a hard day and he was mad at everyone, and pretty much everyone was mad at him too. But somehow he managed to collect himself and get organized over at his art desk. He carefully drew three separate pictures of a person pooping on the potty. Then he methodically went up to each one of us and taped a picture to each of our backs. Somehow, once he did that, he was satisfied and got himself back into a good mood. Of course, Luke was not happy. Dave was...befuddled. But I just thought it was kind of cool and I asked him if I was allowed to wear the picture everywhere I went. I don't think that's the reaction he was hoping for, but nevertheless I saved the pictures. Because you never know when you might need to tape a person-pooping-on-the-toilet picture to someone else's back.

Completely starstruck

Last night when the boys and I went to vote, an election official was standing outside the polling place with solar viewing glasses. So we all got to do double duty - vote, and see Venus traversing the sun. Apparently it made a huge impact on Zach because this is what I woke up to this morning:

Even better, when he saw the picture of Venus and the sun in the paper this morning, he said, "Hey Dad, look - there's an ad for Venus!"

I gotta run because I'm going to Seattle today, but I can't leave without saying that Luke won first place in a karate tournament last week. He got an enormous trophy, and his teacher could not say enough things about his performance. I wasn't able to be there, but Dave has video, and he did a truly commanding performance - he was spot-on with every single motion. If I can pull it together I might try to post the video. Next stop for Luke: Karate Junior Nationals, here in L.A., on June 16.