Stay back, I've got a water gun!

We celebrated one of the first warm days of 2010 by going on a family outing to 中央大街 Center Street! The outdoor pedestrian street is a favorite destination for people of all ages. Every time we go there, I'm surprised at how much attention we attract! Once we took a short break from strolling to take Kanyon's picture with a store's mascot dressed as a tiger. Before we knew it, we were the center of a group of 20 people and their cameras! Jeremy had to remind me of the 60 second rule: "Don't stand still for longer than 60 seconds unless you want to be surrounded!" Some of the attention is fun because I like showing off my kids, but it gets old quickly. Kanyon doesn't like it at all so we try to just keep moving!

Jeremy had a stroke of genius when he bought Kanyon a cheap "super soaker" water gun. We filled it with water and explained to Kanyon that it would be taken away if he squirted it at people. Surprisingly, he never once broke the rule, but he was tempted quite a few times. The water gun was just supposed to entertain him, but it ended up giving him a buffer from a few people that got a little too close. All he had to do was hold up his water gun and they backed away for fear of getting wet! One guy dared Kanyon to squirt his girlfriend, but Kanyon obeyed us and refused. I was impressed!

I was a little disturbed last night when Kanyon woke up at 3:30 am yelling "No people! No people!" I went into his room and he was a little distraught. Then he looked at me and said "There's no people in my home." I agreed and told him that only Daddy, Mommy, Corbin and Kanyon were in our home. That cleared up the problem and he went right back to sleep. I think he was having a bad dream about all the people who were pushing his personal boundaries during our trip to Center Street! He gets so much more attention than me or any other kid on the street for being the foreign child. Even though I get annoyed at his poor reactions sometimes when people want to take a photo with him, I am still learning to see the situation from his perspective and help him understand his own boundaries.