our week: the condensed version

the groucho marx glasses were in cole's christmas stocking, but they weren't a big draw right away. they were deemed scary and he wouldn't wear them, but after rediscovering them in his dress-up suitcase the other day he thought twice. he told me "scary" again, and then elaborated, "scary eyebrows". ah - that helps! once i told him that they were wacky and supposed to be funny he reconsidered and spent the next 10 minutes staring at himself in the mirror...

we've been pretty busy lately, just doing random things, taking advantage of the free olympic activities and acting like sightseers in our own city. i love a crowd - oddly i really like big street crowds but i hate it if someone stands too close in the grocery store line - and we've just been out in it, mingling, wandering.

last week we hit up quite a few of the pavilions, live city yaletown (during the day - no exciting pm concerts for us), granville island and sochi house, and my favourite - both days of the colbert report taping. it was across the street from us and it was pretty much perfect for attending with kids. when we first got there on the first day, we lined up along the left side of the stage at about 9am, just before it was set to start - the latecomer side, evidently, because folks on the other side had been waiting, some since 2 am. love it - waiting patiently in a line like canadians to enter an open field. ;-) anyway, when security said everyone could go toward the stage we rushed too because apparently i have no sense. with a toddler and a stroller we found ourselves third back from the stage, surrounded by colbert fans, folks wearing bear costumes and others toting signs.

it was fun - and warm. if you find yourself lacking for company or warmth or wish to remain vertical while not exerting much effort, just go stand in a tightly packed crowd! we lasted about an hour there before i sensed the "plan" was not the best one for the long haul and did the walk of shame - "excuse me, excuse me, baby carriage coming through, we're trying to get out, sorry, sorry, i think i ran over your foot, sorry, yes we're all muddy, sorry" etc. people were overwhelmingly nice about it - hey, wait until you have kids, grouches, and see if that means you never want to do anything cool again! we watched the rest of the set-up and taping in relative comfort and with the amenities of the wood chip playground nearer to science world, with a great view of the stage and much less of a feeling that we may be crushed.

we've also been just enjoying this sunshine - i love winter sun and summer rain - go figure. it's been great to get to our favourite parks along the way to official olympic fun. i tried to knit cole a red hat, but it didn't turn out super well... it's too small and as he moves it keeps inching further up his head. but it's red!

by the way, i love how someone with a magic marker gave that horse particularly aggressive eyebrows. it makes me laugh every time we go to ride it, which is often.

if you have kids and are planning on coming downtown, i'd recommend the robson square area. there's the constant entertainment of zipliners whizzing by overhead, a tumbling act called circus west three times a day with a big area in front of the stage for kids to sit in, and its next to the ice rink. just watching the skaters is fun, but there's also the mascots on ice show. (full schedule) we've hit it all a few times after cole's afternoon nap, getting there around 4:30, watching street performers on the gallery end of the square and then the 5:00 circus act followed by a half-hour of space-guarding by the rink for the 6:00 show to get a front-0f-glass space. and not a bad half-hour either - there's the zamboni and skating warm-up, so something to keep the kiddies entertained while you wait.

it's been worth it - of all the stuff we've done, cole obviously loves this the most and he has gone and gotten himself crazy for the mascots. "sumi, come here!" - so cute to see the kids going berserk like it's jim morrison come back to life. they put on a cute show and then go around hugging all the kids. plus - get this - because all this kid-friendly mayhem wraps up by about quarter after six, it's dark so you get to feel like you're wandering out in the crowds late at night! fun! :-)

so this week we're just out & about again, seeing what we can see.