Thursday

Pretty soon -- August -- Jack's going to start going to daycare on Thursdays, too. I'm getting busier with work, we've got a new baby on the way, he enjoys school, and one day he'll be going 5 days a week anyway (sigh). Because of that, I can feel my Thursdays with Jack starting to dwindle, and I thought I'd keep track of everything that we did this past Thursday. It's two days later, but it should be pretty close...

Getting up: I hear Jack calling for his Daddy, and it's about 6 a.m. (which is usually as late as we get), so I head in. Jack's sitting up in bed, holding his current favorite sleep toy the baby Dragon, talking to it, which he does some time. He looks up at me. Smiles. "Is it morning time, yet?" I say, close enough. Jack jumps up out of bed, announces he stayed in bed, announces he had a bad dream (it's hard to know whether this is true or not; he says it like it's no big deal, or rather like he doesn't completely understand the concept; maybe he just heard us talking about one once), and then runs over to play with his pirate ship. Just one of many presents he had little to no interest in when he first got it and now, a year or more later, plays with regularly. "Are I going to school today?" he asks. No, you're staying home with Daddy. This sounds fine to him and he continues playing. I tell him he can stay in his pajamas, which he prefers (not allowed on school mornings), we change his diaper (not poopy), brush his teeth (something he's more interested in now that he has Thomas the Tank Engine toothpase), and head downstairs. Mommy has drifted in to say Hello and gone downstairs to make coffee, good job Mommy.

First breakfast: Jack's first breakfast is usually some kind of fruit (raspberries, blueberries, cantelope) and cereal, either Cheerios, Shredded Oats, or Puffins. These things go in cycles. Might have been cantelope, he's been on a kick lately. Depending on when he eats it -- I can't recall if we watched Maisy beforehand or not, possible -- he is either mildly hungry or very hungry. When he's very hungry he sits quietly and just shovels the food in. That's always nice.

Second breakfast: At school they usually have waffles or somesuch at 8:30, so I try to give him breakfast around then too. Again. He usually takes to it, whether it's waffles or (in this case) scrambled eggs and bacon. He's particularly fond of the bacon today. Scrambled eggs can be hit or miss; sometimes he'll eat his and mine. When I make fried eggs he eats the whites but doesn't like the yolks. Last week I ate four over-medium yolks and he ate four whites.

Home Depot: The movers lost our crib hardware so I've been trying to match it, and it's taken me a few trips. Home Depot with Jack is interesting; they have a nice racecar cart that he enjoys, but it seems like it was designed for much wider aisles than Home Depot's. We squeeze by other shoppers and I give him random things to play with (socket wrenches, drill bits, circular saws....no, just kidding) while I look for the right sized screws. Naturally, I'll end up going back on Sunday anyway, but at least Jack had fun.

Train Station: Jack likes to go look at trains; he started doing it with his grandpa. Oddly, it's kind of a love-hate thing; he likes seeing the trains, but he's also a little afraid of their size and the noise, so he doesn't like to get too close and sometimes not even onto the platform. We're there 15 minutes and see 3 trains, and then it's time to go.

Playground: Then it's off to the playground, which Jack insists on even though I can see he's getting tired. I don't think we ever see the same kids there, and it's always a little different. Once there was some kind of head start graduation thing going on and we left; it was so crowded I was worried that I -- I mean, Jack, of course -- would get trampled or something. Once it was a little cool with a threat of rain but still okay, and we were the only ones there. You just never know. Today there are a few kids, and Jack sleepwalks around a little and then perks up. We go on the big teeter-totter, and he laughs happily, and we ride the motorcycle and sidecar type of thing; that's fun. It wouldn't be a trip to the playground if Jack didn't 1) stare at some other child for a few minutes, or 2) ask to climb on some dangerous looking ladder that I ultimately relent and then have my heart in my throat the entire time. But, a good time is had by all.

Lunch: I keep Jack awake all the way home -- if he falls asleep in the car it's hard to move him without waking him up and screwing up the nap -- by offering him raisins or poking his foot or whatever. It's only about 2 miles anyway. Lunch is yogurt, cheese, cherries, and a little turkey, which I think he eats a bit of between shoveling in cherries.

Nap: We read his favorite stories these days (Personal Penguin and Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, both by Sandra Boynton) and lie down together for a few minutes ("Daddy, lie down with me. Stay a couple minutes. Just a little bit.") I sing a couple songs, and if he asks for one I don't know -- which happens, Mommy and apparently school have different songs -- he says, "Just a little bit," so I make something up which uses the title of the song he's asked for. Usually he stops me: 'That's Mommy's song." Allrighty then.

Driveway: He has a good nap, and when he wakes up we go play in the driveway. Sometimes this is basketball, but lately it's been worrying ants with sticks. I might have mentioned this before, maybe even last blog. I tell him not to hurt the ants, because I'm soft that way, and mostly we just watch them and occasionally he pokes at them with a stick. The ants are a little faster than Jack so it's mostly okay.

Yard: We hit the baseball around, off his tee-ball set. Sometimes he looks into the Big Kids yard; nothing doing. Haven't seen them much lately, maybe they're at camp or whatever it is kids that age do in the summer.

Dinner: Mommy is home, and we usually have something easy on Thursday, because we're both too beat to do anything major. For the life of me I can't recall what we had, just two days ago. Hmm. Hot dogs were Friday....maybe pasta, I dunno.

Bed: Mommy puts Jack to bed, because Daddy needs a break from Jack. And that's pretty much Thursday, more or less, these days.

I'm going to miss it.