The other night, we finally made it to the Olympic Park for an evening at the Paralympic Games. (Special thanks to Sharon and Chris for the tickets!)

It was a bit of a mad rush to get there – Mommy had to rush back home to pick up the boy from the daycare, then get back on the train to the Olympic Village, all while Daddy slogged through another day of training for his new job before rushing to the train to meet Mommy and Nyan at the park. The place was heaving with people, but getting through security and the various ticket checkpoints was remarkably fast and efficient. We didn’t see too much of the park, as the place is sprawling, but we did get close to the Stadium, the “Orbital” (that weird red metal sculpture that rises a couple hundred feet into the air), the water polo stadium, and – our destination for the night – the Aquatics Center. 

We met up with Myra, Mark, Bernie and Ollie, who had been there a while already, and cheered on the swimmers. It was great – the swimmers themselves were inspiring, and the medal ceremonies were pretty cool too. The biggest wild card going in to the night was how Nyan would do – he’s usually pretty tired after a full day of nursery, and we feared he might be cranky, not to mention lack the patience to sit in our laps during the event (strollers weren’t allowed into the building).

We needn’t have feared, since there were plenty of women in the stands with us, and if we know one thing about Nyan Thomas, it’s that he loves the ladies. Right behind us was a mom and her daughter – daughter was maybe 20, mom about 50? – and next to them was a youngish couple. Nyan turned on the charm nonstop, and the mom/daughter combo were smitten. The daughter had a small Great Britain flag she was waving, and happily handed it over to Nyan when he reached for it. He waved it for a few seconds before handing it back to her. (Sharing – that’s a new thing for him; more on that in a future post). As for the mother, well, let’s just say that after crawling onto mommy and daddy’s shoulders to get closer to the mom, he eventually tried to climb into her lap. We were a wee bit embarrassed, but the woman didn’t mind one bit and in fact welcomed it and held the boy for a few minutes.

And the youngish couple sitting next to mom-and-daughter? The girl happily flirted with our little man, while her beau looked on a bit peeved, I thought. Dude – don’t worry. Our boy ain’t gonna steal your girl. (Or is he?)

Eventually exhaustion got the better of the boy, and he started getting extra wiggly; we could tell he was fading fast, so we left around 8:45, half an hour before the events wrapped for the night. He fell asleep almost as soon as he got into his stroller, and slept the entire train ride and walk home.

All in all it was a really fun evening, and we’re really glad we went – not just for the experience ourselves, but particularly so the boy can one day say he was there. Not that he’ll remember it of course; but we took a few photos and videos to help him remember. Here, some pictures; below that, a great little video of Nyan Thomas showing off yet another new skill: clapping!

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