Football

- On Sunday we occasionally throw soft mini-footballs around the living room. Jack brings one out and we start throwing it back and forth. When he catches it, he looks as proud as you can imagine. Kate sees us, and also wants to play. So we bring out a second one, and get her involved. And then Emily comes over. This can continue for about 10 minutes or so. It's kind of nice.

- Jack drew me a picture of a guy with a 4 on his shirt. (Even though the 4 is backward.) "I drew a picture of Brett Favre for you, Daddy."

- Last night I was working and he brought me in small picture he drew. It's a football, with a little guy drawn on it. Wearing a 4 jersey. If that doesn't ease the pain of watching a heartbreaking overtime loss on TV, I don't know what does.

Present Stuff

A quick rundown of some present stories....

- Jack and Kate played "Elefun," a game with an Elephant shooting butterflies into the air for kids to catch with nets. Emily: "Jack, why do you have all the butterflies and Kate doesn't have any?" Jack: "Because I'm REALLY GOOD AT IT!" Later, Jack lets Kate catch some, which is usually them landing on the floor and her bending down, picking one up, and placing it in her net. "My GOT it, Daddy! My GOT one!" They continue to catch them, noting the colors each time. "I got a red one!" "Green! Green!" Later in the afternoon, Kate said "Elefun! Elefun!" on more than one occasion.

- Kate played with her dollhouse while a few feet away, Jack set up the Mousetrap game. Jack sang "Jingle Bell Rock" throughout. This continued for a while. Emily and I wept with stunned happiness.

- I walked into Jack's room yesterday morning and he was modeling his superhero cape over his pajamas.

- I changed Kate's diaper and as we went to leave the room she said, "My dog! My dog!" We collected her stuffed dog off the shelf. "MY dog!"

- Kate busies herself at her kitchen. At the sink: "I wash mah hands," she explains. She brings me a cup of water. Over and over again.

- Kate and Jack both got K-Nex sets from Aunt Robin. One is age appropriate for Kate, the other for Jack. Of course, she likes his set, which makes dinosaurs. This morning we made some, and she continued trying with his set again this afternoon. It was very frustrating to her though. After dinner I was in the kitchen washing dishes and heard her alone in the living room (Emily and Jack were upstairs) saying, "I can't DO this. I can't DO it." I walked out there, and she sat in the midst of a pile of green dinosaur blocks. I helped her, and she made me a waffle in her kitchen.

Christmas Eve, Christmas

Christmas Eve

Dropped the kids off at school. Kate often wants to get her waffle or yogurt out of her lunch herself. ("Me do it. ME do it!") Jack quickly disappears amongst his friends in his room, playing superheroes or somesuch.

Picked the kids up at school. (half day) They were singing -- well, Jack's class was, and apparently Jack was shaking bells -- but there was nowhere to park and I dropped Emily off but got there too late myself. Will leave earlier in the future.

Went home and put the last sticker on Jack's advent calendar, the Christmas tree. Gave them lunch, put Kate down for her nap. Wrapped some presents. Got Jack's help making tags for Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins. Nana and Baba showed up. Aunt Linda and Grandma showed up. Jack and Kate are quite fond of Aunt Linda. They played with musical instruments and read books.

Jack and I wrote a note to Santa. Jack drew a picture of Santa on the note.

We all went to church. Kate wore a beautiful red Christmas dress, Jack in a nice red sweater. Jack sat with his cousins, Kate sat with me. For a while she was fine drawing in a pad, then she wanted me to draw. "Make face," she says. "Make face, Daddy." So I drew faces for a bit. When I stood, she sat at first, then stood on the seat, then I held her. It was past her bedtime so there was a point when I thought she'd sleep; she clung to me and was very heavy in my arms. But then she'd see someone she recognized and get interested, or hear music, and talk a little, and wake up.

The kids were called up for the children's sermon. Jack headed up and I was told that he'd take Kate up, but he was already gone when I put her down, so Emily walked her up. All the kids sat up front and listened. I could just see Kate, and she'd stand up and wave every so often. Sit down again. Then, big smile, stand up, wave. Pretty funny. Jack raised his hand to respond to a question about Christmas. I didn't catch the question, but his answer was "presents."

At the end we lit candles. Kate was intrigued. Jack wanted to hold one, then didn't. I said it was OK.

We went home. It was late and I didn't read Jack stories, just lay down and we talked about Santa coming. Emily had found noradsanta online, which tracks Santa's sleigh as it travels across the world. Jack enjoyed it; they checked it again right before bed. He had just been to Ireland!

Christmas

Kate woke up making noise at 5 a.m. We put her to bed an hour late, she wakes up an hour earlier. It's bizarre. Jack also woke up, we heard him go in the bathroom, not exactly being quiet. At 6 a.m. he came in, I think Kate slept off and on, he probably watched his clock.

We made coffee and finally let the kids go downstairs. Got a lot of "Wows" from Kate as she saw her Fisher-Price kitchen. (Kate-size.) And Jack's Hot Wheels Dinosaur Trick Track. (There were Wows from Baba and Daddy too.) We played with it for a bit, then opened stockings. And then Jack noticed his Bionicle, and Bakugan, and showed me how to play with them. We opened more presents. Jack had breakfast at some point, once we reminded him.

At some point he went up to his room with some new toys to play. Didn't want Kate playing with them too, I think. Granted some of the new toys he brought up were hers.

I went into his room and saw him playing with this little windup monkey. He was sitting watching it spin in circles, and he'd wind it up and do it over again.

The next morning, this morning, I heard him wake up around 6, go to the bathroom, go back in his room. Then we heard him playing with his toys. Then the voice of Optimus Prime, and the WooWooWoo of the siren. Around the third time, I said, OK, that's got to stop. I went in. Jack was there, just blissfully happy, playing with his new toys. Optimus Prime, the little train cars that spelled out "Jack", the Bakugan. Happy.

Big Brother Jack

More and more these days, Kate wants to play with her big brother. She can say it now: "Big brudder Jack!" In the mornings she sees him and lights up: "Hi, Jack!"

This afternoon Jack came home from school, where he'd had a Christmas party, and received a Secret Santa gift. He opened it and it was a bunch of Tonka cars and trucks. He sat down to play with them.

I looked up and there was Kate struggling over to Jack with his big Digger, a truck about as large as she was. "Here, Jack!" she said, proudly, hopefully. "Here, Jack! Play with diggers!"

Heartbreakingly beautiful

Cleaning up Jack's room a bit this morning I saw a little decoration he'd made that I hadn't noticed before. A happy, cheerful Santa face he'd drawn, cut out, and glued to a Popsicle stick. Something about the little faces he draws; so sweet. On the tree, later on, I noticed a star ornament he'd apparently cut out and colored -- maybe Kate colored it. That got me choked up too. Must be the holidays.

Kate was playing with laundry this morning. She walked out into the kitchen with a washcloth around her waist. "Ma dress!" she said happily. "Ma dress!"

I can barely take it sometimes.

Friday blog

Jack puts on music. "I like No. 8." It's the "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" track from Charlie Brown Christmas.

Kate holds the Baby Jesus from the Playmobil Nativity scene. She bounces him up and down on the arm of the couch and looks at me, big smile on her face. "Baby Jeebus dancing!" she says.

Kate picks up a marker. I say to her, only color on the board, Kate. Not on your hand. Jack adds, "Or your stomach," something she did once recently. I say, that's right. Jack adds, "Or your forehead." Then: "Wait a minute, we don't have foreheads." I tell him they do. He says, "Why is it called a forehead? Maybe it's because you can put four fingers on your head." He proceeds to illustrate. Hmm, maybe.

Jack asks for water and a napkin, because he has hiccups. I say, Oh-kayy.......

I use a rag to wipe up spilled water.

Kate rips pages out of her Backyardigans coloring book.

"Can I have my second breakfast?" says Jack, which interestingly enough coincides with me wanting to have my first breakfast.

Kate comes up to me, dancing to the music. "I'm dancing! I'm dancing."

A minute later, she holds up the stuffed Molly doll. "Molly dancing! Molly dancing. Doo, doo, doo!"

I hang another Christmas decoration. Admiring it, I say, Merry Christmas. Kate: "Mewwy critmas!"

We make a Gingerbread train. Jack and I make it, while I do my best to keep Kate from destroying it and Jack from eating too much icing, which is the glue that holds the train together. We manage, although the picture on the box suggests a lot cleaner job than what we come up with. We're pleased. Jack eats more icing.

Education

We turned Jack's calendar page to December, and it was a character he didn't know - Martian Manhunter. I don't know the character all that well myself, but I know more than Jack does so I could pretty much say anything. Plus I knew he could fly and was strong and had some kind of beams from his eyes and came from Mars....OK, yeah, I know a little bit about him.

Anyway, Jack asked me to tell me more about superheroes he didn't know. So as I was putting him to bed I told him about a few. And then HE started telling me about Transformers, which I guess Teddy (from school) knows a lot about. And he went on to tell me about Power Rangers, which somebody else knows a lot about, and how the red guy can make fire or whatever to attack bad guys. It was all very interesting.

This part was funny.

"The Transformer Bumblebee can turn into a car....he's big, but he's slower than the littler Transformers." Pause. "Which is funny, because I'M bigger than Kate is, but I'm faster than her, too."

He stopped to reflect on this for a minute. I just laughed.

Gah, it's been 9 days!

Sorry about that. Maybe I'll blog about Thanksgiving at some point....

Kate's talking a lot these days. When I get her out of the crib, it's "Ma Fends! Ma Fends!" And I have to get all of her Backyardigan friends out of the crib. And then: "Bunny!" And, "Boofish!" (Bridgeport Bluefish.) And, "Elmo!"

We read books, and she keeps me up to date on what's happening in the pictures. Family sitting at a table: "Dinner time!" Monkey on a bed: "Monkey SLEEPING!" And big smiles at the news she's given me.

Kate dances in the kitchen like the letter Y, with both arms in the air and her feet together, smiling and swaying back and forth.

She carries a stuffed snowman around these days that Jack allowed her to have. "Thangyu, Jack!" She likes to hold him up, bend the brim of his hat back so his eyes are more fully exposed, and say, "See me! He see me, Daddy."

She sings along with me when I put her to sleep. "Take....out....Ball....GAME!...." And, "Misser Moon....MOON......pease.......down......me......HIDING.....na......TREE!"

I got her and Jack matching Christmas pajamas with monkeys in Santa hats on them. They love them, of course. Kate sleeps in a sleeper over her pajamas, but the other morning as soon as she saw Jack she remembered that she, too, had monkey pajamas on. So she said,

"Sleeper OFF, Daddy......See ma Monkeys!!!!!"

Stuff I want to write down before I forget it

Kate and Reanna played the piano at Ian's parents' house tonight, sitting on the bench together, Kate smiling as she plinked away. I sat next to her at dinner, and she said, "I payed peeno, Daddy." Very proud of herself.

I fed Kate pasta at one end of the table while she ate and looked around for the people she knew. "Papa!" And: "Mommy!" And: "Aunt Caffee!"

She was beautiful in a little pink dress and tights tonight.

On the way home in the car, she kicked a shoe off. "Help you, Daddy," she requested. Well Kate, I can't, I'm driving now. "Help you, Mommy-Mo," she said. She sometimes calls Mommy "Mommy-Mo," and knows she's being funny to do it.

We told her Nana and Baba were coming down for Thanksgiving. She said, "OHH!" and made a happy face.

She's been saying "Yook," a lot. "Yook, Daddy! Yook!"

Jack became quite attached to the 9-month old (Josh's) at the party, Ben. Ben was fascinated by Jack and wanted to touch his hair and face. Jack lowered his head and let Ben touch him and bat at him. At dinner, Jack wanted to sit next to Ben's high chair; it was very important to him. He got to.

When we were home, Jack said to Emily, "I want Ben to come to my birthday party."

Went to get Kate out of bed early this morning. Jack came in and asked if he could go downstairs. Before I could answer, Kate pointed at him and said "No!" It's something she does these days a little too much. I said to her, Kate, don't point at Jack like that. Kate said, "Oh. Hug? Hug." I lifted her out of her crib and she gave Jack a big hug. After the hug she said, "Nice!" (Another thing she says a lot these days.)

Jack said, "Kate, want to come in my room and read books? I can bring your hippo chair."

So they did.

Friday

5 a.m. Kate wakes up. She's been doing this lately. Not wailing, not unhappy and sleepy-eyed, but wakeful and calling for Mommy and Daddy. We've tried dressing her in warmer or cooler outfits, tried putting her to bed earlier or later....haven't figured it out yet. Today I went in and firmly said, "It's night time, go back to sleep." And left. She wailed for 5 minutes, then returned to babbling and stuff. Naps too long is one thought. Today I'll wake her up after a shortish nap and I guess we'll try putting her to bed later.

6 a.m. After lying in bed and maybe dozing a little over the past 45 minutes, I get her up. She's in good spirits, I feel unwell. We go through the morning ritual of her lining up all of her stuffed toys in the crib, then handing them to me one by one. "Aw-tin....Ty-nohne...Uma....Pabool....Sasha!" We lift the various Backyardigans out, then I get Katie out. I hear Jack getting up and shambling into the bathroom. As he's coming out, I turn on the hall light, surprising him with the brightness. Sorry, Jack. He rubs his eyes in confusion. We play upstairs a little bit, Emily and I taking breaks to make coffee, drink coffee, etc.

7 a.m. Coffee kicks in. Breakfast occurs. Both kids eat large bowls of cereal. I thrill Kate by discovering we do, in fact, have another box of Shredded Oats. "Dotes," she says happily. I say they can have cantelope after they finish their cereal to be sure they'll actually eat cereal, too. Kate finishes her bowl and drinks the milk in it and holds it up. "Done, Daddy! Done!" The girl is terrible at dinner time, but she's a pretty decent eater when the sun is up.

8 a.m. A mish-mash that includes TV (Backyardigans) and second breakfasts (first breakfast for me, second for them; usually waffles or somesuch). I'm working on my Saturday column when Jack brings me over an envelope of things and gives it to me. In it are little squares of paper on which he's drawn different things: a happy face, a monster, a kitty, a dog, a Mommy, a Daddy. About a dozen in all. "For you, Daddy." Awesome.

9 a.m. Kate is playing with dollhouse. "Help you, Daddy! Help you." Kate wants help, so I go over, and she's sitting the Mommy and Daddy at the table. "Help you, Daddy," she says. I help put the Daddy in the dinner chair. Kate beams. "It's dinner!" she says. Minutes later I'm across the room again and she heads into the kitchen, then back to her dollhouse. She's brought her own breakfast plate with leftover waffles out to the dollhouse. "Again, Daddy!" she says. The Daddy has fallen out of his chair, probably because his daughter woke him up at 5 a.m. and he's really tired. "Again, Daddy," she says. I tell her we need to get play food for them. "Oh," she says. She wheels the shopping cart of food over to the table. Then: "Daddy fall! Help you, Daddy! Help yoooouuuuu!"She feeds the Daddy a giant toy pancake. Better get him some coffee, too, Kate. She makes eating noises. Pretty funny. "Some? Some?" she says. Five minutes later, she's still loading up the tiny table with giant facsimiles of food. I check in. "It's dinner," she explains. The Daddy falls out of his chair again, knocked aside by a mammoth piece of bread. "Help you.....!" Kate wails. Then: "Daddy fall again!!!!!" A minute later, "Mommy fall again." Then: "I did it!" Then: "Daddy fall again." I could go on; the monologue continues for a while.

10 a.m. We decide to go to the library. Kate brings over her sneakers. "Sneakers? Sneakers?" I nod. She gets one on and hold up her foot proudly. "I did it!" she yells. "I did it!" Later, when one comes off in the car, I discover she's put them on the wrong feet. This happens, with statistical likelihood, about half the time.

11 a.m. We arrive at the library, me yelling at Kate every once in a while to make sure she's not sleeping. We go on up to the kids room and they run around while I try to find a good book for Katie. Jack picks out "Dino Hockey" for the second time. I try to talk him out of it without success. Kate plays with the puzzles; there's a turkey one that's missing the piece that's his head, which later strikes me as a little macabre. Anyway, we have fun and sign out four books, all of which I'm certain I'll be sick of within 2 days.

12 noon. We get home, eat lunch, and I put Kate down for her nap. Not as easy as you might think; she wants to stay up and play with Jack. Jack to me: "Daddy, isn't it time for Kate's nap? KATE, it's time for your nap!" Kate: "NOOOOOOOO. No! No nap. No....."

1 p.m. I put Kate down for her nap. For a little while she shakes the bars futilely, then gives in.

2 p.m. Jack breaks a toy, and holds it up for me to see. "Look, Daddy!" I say, "oh, it broke." Jack, in a deep voice, says, "Don't worry, Daddy." It's a little odd. Like he saw part of Mission: Impossible or something. Anyway, he fixes it. "Fixed it!" He's very pleased with himself.

2:15 p.m. Jack wants to play cars. And so off I go.

Attention seekers

-Kate puts on goofy plastic sunglasses with star-shaped lenses and stands at my elbow at the computer. "Seeeeee, Daddy. See me! Eyes. Eyes? Seeeeeeeeee."

- They had school pictures a couple of weeks back, and they came in yesterday. The company always gives them a little gift with one of their pictures on it; this time it was a little lunch pail kind of thing. Jack holds his up and looks at his, with a picture of him on it. "It's like a little mirror!" he said.

- Went to the playground today. Kate got hooked on climbing up the slide, then sliding down backward on her stomach. This was great fun to her. Later she moved on to the swirly slide. She climbed halfway up, and slid in a spiral down. "See me, Daddy!" she said. "Dad-day!" (Sometimes she yells "Dad-day!" Sometimes it's "Daddy-Doh!" It's more frequent for Mommy: "Mommy-Moh!") "See meeeeee..." and goes down the slide again.

- Jack likes to put his hands inside his sleeves. I vaguely recall that maybe I used to do the same thing? So his arms look like elephant trunks. And then he occasionally flaps the lengths of sleeves around. And then pulls his shirt up over his head, too. He was doing that tonight. "Mommy! OOOOOoooooh! Look at me, I'm a scary, googly monster! OOOOOOOOOOoooooh!" Then collapses in peals of laughter.

- We went out with our neighbor the other day; she takes great pictures of the kids. So we asked her to take our pictures for Christmas cards and the like. We went to the beach and she snapped about 200 pictures. Kate didn't smile much. Jack smiled too much. Hammed it up every now and again, all immortalized on film. All beautiful.

Shampoo

Took Jack for a haircut today. Afterward the barber always uses gel to give him a neat, sharp part and shiny look. It's pretty cute.

Anyway, later on I was sitting in the kitchen with Kate, who was snacking on an apple. I heard water running in the bathroom. Jack needs to be told to wash his hands and stuff, so I thought it was a little odd. It continued running for another minute or so. "Jack?" I said. "What's up in there?"

Jack walked into the kitchen. His hair was soaking, plastered onto his forehead. It actually had kind of a style to it, like some '90s boy band act or something. And it was hilarious. "Jack," I said laughing, "What on earth have you done?"

Jack said, "I didn't want to have to have a shampoo tonight. So, I washed my hair."

After stopping laughing and snapping a couple of pictures, I brought him into the kitchen and had him lean over the kitchen sink to rinse his head out.

Kate pushed a chair up to the sink. "My turn!" she said, and then, when I said no, "My turnnnnnnnnnnnnn......" (tears).

I let her help dry Jack's hair.

KateSpeak, Proud Jack

Kate's become a chatterbox lately, but a lot of it has a similar ring to it. She likes announcing she's done something, eager to share her little achievements, like putting on her shoes or picking something up that's tough to reach. "My got it!" "My did it!" "Got it!" "Yes!"

She's taken to carrying these AutoBlox cars around that were Jack's. They're really awesome toys. She can spend up to 20 minutes just taking them apart and putting them back together over and over again. (And on completion, "My did it!") One is bigger than the other one. She calls it Big Car. One is smaller. She calls it Baby Car. She'll walk around saying, "Big car...baby car....Big! Car. Babycar." The other day she carried them everywhere, upstairs, into the bathroom when it was time to brush her teeth. I got her out of her crib one morning and the first thing she said was, "Big Car? Baby Car?"

The guy next door has a giant (8-foot-tall) inflatable Thanksgiving Turkey on his lawn. How do I know it's a Thanksgiving turkey, you ask? Well, it's wearing a Pilgrim hat, obviously. Anyway, we visit it each day. Kate has taken to calling it "chicken." "Hi, chicken!" "Bye, chicken!" The other day she apparently corrected Emily when Emily called it a turkey. "No," said Kate, seriously, reproachfully. "Chicken."

Halloween brings candy, and Kate has developed a taste for it. (Shocking, I know.) At random times when we're in the kitchen, she'll come in. "Candy?" she says hopefully. Then nods, smiling, sweet. "Candy? Pease? Candy?"

She likes identifying things she knows. Like when she sees a picture of several dogs, or looks at refrigerator magnets of dogs. She points to each one. "Dog." Pause. Points to another one. "Dog."

"Dog."

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Went to the playground with the kids on Tuesday, they were home for some odd reason. There, Jack climbed up this ladder thing he'd avoided in the past, and carefully stepped over onto the jungle gym. When he got there, and was safely standing on the platform, he was so proud.

"I did it!" he yelled down to me, beaming.

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We were watching football last Sunday. Brett Favre threw a touchdown. I got excited: "Touchdown!" Jack ran over. "Chest bump!" he said. Me on my knees, him standing up, we chest bumped. It doesn't get old.

Halloween Parade

We went to see Jack and Kate's school's Halloween Parade today. We had to park half a mile away, so we walked up the sidewalk and saw his class already lining up. There was Jack, in his Black Costume Spider-Man costume, holding hands with a little girl dressed as Supergirl (I guess; it was no Supergirl costume I've ever seen, although it did have the S logo on the front), wearing some sort of gold Mardi Gras type of beaded necklace. Lots of kids had them, I'm not really sure what was going on there.

He pointed at us, and we waved and took pictures. Kate's class was further back in the parade. She was wearing her monkey suit -- literally a monkey suit -- and holding hands with Miss Dionne. Very cute.

We walked down the street, trick or treating at stores, me asking Jack every two minutes if he could see, him saying yes, then walking uncertainly along and pulling at his mask, me stopping him and adjusting it, then continuing on.

On the way back to the school he asked me if he could take off the mask. I said sure. Then he wanted to take off the costume. I said, let's wait until we get back to school.

Tomorrow comes actual Halloween, and I'm thinking maybe he should have gone as a Mummy. Granted, I would have looked extra silly in my Spider-Man costume if he wasn't the black costume Spider-Man, but....

Random stuff

- We carved our pumpkins on Sunday. I only cut my thumb a little. When they were happily glowing -- well, happily and scarily, we did one of each, so they look kind of like the theatre happy/sad faces image sitting next to each other -- the kids just admired them for a while. Kate put her face up close to one of them. "Hi, punkin! Hi.......punkin!"

- Picture day today. Naturally both kids woke up too early and Kate had a runny nose. Getting them dressed was horrendous, and I was certain somebody would trip in the driveway and end up with a bloody nose. Nope. I'm sure they'll be great.

- Jack and Emily decorated Halloween cookies on Sunday. (I did a couple, but I also had to watch football.) Jack made Brett Favre and Mark Sanchez cookies. OK, they weren't all Halloween cookies. He also made bats, a really cool ghost, and a haunted house. I made a Frankenstein monster.

- I sang various songs to Kate at bedtime tonight. Rock a bye baby, Mr. Sun, Eensy Weensy Spider. She seemed rapt with attention and happy, which I don't always get. She just had a little sweet smile on her face throughout.

I love Halloween, etc.

I love Halloween, for so many reasons. I love all the decorations, I love the themes, I love the costumes, I love the colors. And fortunately, my kids do too.

-Every day after school we go to look at the neighbors' decorations (on both sides). They touch and/or hug the big inflatable pumpkin snowman, wave at the big scary-looking bat (I think Kate is a little afraid of it, but she gamely approaches it anyway), say "Hi, ghost!" to the ghost.

-Jack is drawing ghosts, skeleton, bats, haunted houses. I'm attaching a picture; he drew all the pieces himself, cut them out, pasted them on his wall. I took them off today to scan them.

-I got him the Ed Emberly book of Halloween. We had lots of Ed Emberly books when I was a kid. We drew things from it last night. And this morning. And probably for the next week or more.

-I got Frankenberry and Booberry cereal at the store today. I never had it as a kid (and didn't care, I don't think). But the box looks so awesome I had to get it. (It was $1.88 -- are these 1970s prices? Or is it because it's so bad for you they're apologizing by at least not making it expensive?)

-We got Mr. Potato Head Pirate pieces (Emily found them somewhere), and decorated a pumpkin with them. The pumpkin has an eyepatch and the actual pumpkin has kind of a scar on it -- perfectly fitting. It's currently rotting in our living room, 'cause we poked holes in it and stuff, so we'll put it out on the steps soon.

-This weekend we carve the pumpkins, and I'll re-create the same goofy looking pumpkin I've done for the last, I dunno, 10 years or so.

-Jack and I have been to the party stores for Halloween decorations and kitschy things. Three or four times. "AGAIN, Dad?" "C'MON, JACK!"

- I got Kate an adaptation of the Backyardigans Halloween special. We gave it to her last night. She's been home and awake about 4 hours since then....I think we've read it 27 times. Kate loves the Backyardigans these days. She carries around all five stuffed toys, which used to be Jack's but he's moved on. And I say "carries around," to mean that they accompany her into the crib...out of the crib...into the living room....into the kitchen....she walks along slowly, with all of them clutched in her arms. "Pabool....Tawon....Sasha....Awtin...Unkwa" (Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, Austin, Uniqua).

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Other stuff, because I haven't blogged in a while.

-Kate's a little afraid of the stone gargoyle in our garage. She ran away from it the other day. Jack and I explained it wasn't real ...just a toy. "OH!" she said. "Toy!" And laughed. But she still keeps her distance.

-When I pick up Jack in the school playground, Kate immediately runs to this one bouncy thing and bounces up and down happily as I'm getting the details on Jack's day. "Did he nap? Did he eat? Was he too annoying with that Halloween book that has an evil laugh when you turn to the last page?" (Which he loves.)

-Kate got her first real haircut the other day. She looks beautiful.

Halloween Pumpkins

Nothing gets kids out of the house on a Friday morning like a trip to get Halloween pumpkins. Here's how it went....

9:45. Kids have had their second breakfast, I've gotten them both dressed, and Jack went to the bathroom. I get on Kate's shoes and jacket and get coffee for me and water for them while Jack gets his shoes on. It's important to get an early start so Kate doesn't fall asleep on the way there, forcing me to wake her up and thereby ruining her nap and everyone's day.

10:00. We're on the road and as we pass the Y I decide I really should stop and look for Jack's swimsuit, which he somehow managed to lose after swimming the previous day. How does a child lose a bathing suit? Anyway, there was nowhere to park, except deep in the parking garage, so I drove in and drove out. We have to get our pumpkins!!!!

10:15. We pull into the pumpkin patch parking lot. Kate is still awake, fortunately. I get her out and Jack eagerly piles out too. He sees the gift shop first. No! Pumpkin patch!

10:17. I've discovered wagons. It's a bit of a walk to the pumpkin patch, so I pile them in. Jack wants to sit facing Kate, which clearly doesn't work in a wagon with no walls on it. I sit him in it and plop her down with him. That works (see pic).

10:20. I haul them down to the pumpkin patch, resisting the urge to go too fast. Most of the time. They enjoy fast though, there is much laughing and giggling as wind whips in hair. On the way, we see all kinds of Halloween decorations...pumpkins stacked on each other to look like people, clothing filled with leaves to be people and dogs, fake eyes on trees, ghosts, witches, all that kind of stuff.

10:25. We're there! There's a big old tractor which immediately they want to climb on. They do. Jack climbs up, which is fine, as does Kate, which is mildly worrisome, but she's kind of a thrill-seeker. They sit in the seat and I take pictures. Jack looks like he wants the thing to move. Kate just enjoys herself.

10:30. I get them down to go find a pumpkin. After a few minutes I find the perfect one. Jack agrees. Kate is walking around trying to pick one up. They're all bigger than she is, essentially -- certainly heavier -- so it doesn't happen. Then she goes and gets her own wagon, seriously, and starts pulling it around.

10:40. I've found two pumpkins and am ready to go. I let them pick two small ones for themselves. Jack grabs his immediately, then backs away with it because there's a huge Daddy Longlegs spider. I reassure Jack calmly, all the while backing away myself because I've always been scared to death of those things myself. They're creepy. Kate picks out a little reddish pumpkin, a fine and unique choice.

10:41. It looks like rain.

10:42. We head back, me pulling the pumpkins and Jack pulling Kate. We say hi to the leaf people and such.

10:50. Back at the store to pay for our pumpkins. The two big ones are 30 and 20 pounds, which works out to about 34 dollars. No, really! Then I spy this awesome Halloween ghost made out of metal on a spring, that bounces up and down. Jack spots it too. "Can we get it?" he asks, as I'm looking at it, wondering if we can get it. I say, well, we'll have to put one of the pumpkins back. He runs outside to tip the wagon over. OK, not really, but he easily parts with his smaller pumpkin (Kate keeps hers) and I set aside Pumpkin No. 2, and we buy the ghost. And the big pumpkin, and Kate's.

11:00. Everyone is happy. It only rains after we're back in the car. We go back to the Y and search high and low for his suit, with no success. Going back to the car, we get rained on.

11:30. The ghost smiles at us from atop an end table.

Halloween decorations, siblings, etc.

Our neighbor has some pretty wild lawn decorations around the holidays, with Halloween particularly impressive. At the moment he has a huge black vampire bat with glowing red eyes on his fence, a huge carful of ghosts on his lawn, and a glowing orange pumpkin snowman, among many other decorations.

So when I get home after picking the kids up every day, we of course have to go see them. Every day. We walk over and walk around and around them, and Kate touches the ghost car, and Jack touches the pumpkin snowman, and they say hi to everything. I have to admit the bat thing is kind of scary, but not to them as near as I can tell.

Kate, in fact, says "Hi!" and "Bye" to it as we arrive and leave. And to the stone bunny figure on the guy's lawn (which is not, incidentally, a Halloween decoration; it's just a stone bunny).

The other night, Jack had gone upstairs for some such reason, while Kate was looking at the decorations out the kitchen window. And talking to them.

"Hi, Bat!" she said happily. A pause, as though waiting for it to answer. And then: "Hi, Bat!" Then laughter. "He funny!" she said. "He funny....." More laughter, from her and from me. Not, one presumes, the bat.

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The other day after dinner Kate was talking to herself. Her reflection, that is. In her spoon.

Normally she uses plastic spoons, but I had given her a real spoon. And there she was, sitting at the table, holding it, looking at herself.

"Hi, Kate!" she said. "Hi!" Pause. "Hi, Kate!" Then she went off on a little monologue, something about Mommy, I believe. She seemed quite happy to be having this conversation with herself.


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There are times when Jack doesn't want to be bothered with Kate. And other times when he's the sweetest big brother in the world.

Yesterday it was at the end of dinner, and Jack wanted mixed fruit or somesuch, and of course once he mentioned it, she did too. And I wanted Kate to eat more of her dinner, and wasn't having any of her "No!" stuff. And then she wanted more Orange Juice, and I wanted her to say Please. And it wasn't going well and she was getting upset and I was getting frustrated.

Jack, who was sitting in his spot at the table, leaned over to her and grabbed her hand, trying to get her attention. "Kate," he said gently. Then, plaintively, to get her to look at him, "Kate!" She looked at him through her little mini-tantrum. "You have to say 'Please,' Kate. Kate! Say 'Please,' to get more orange juice. 'Please.'"

Kate quieted down. She said please. She got more orange juice.

Today she found an Elmo coloring book in the car. She held it on the way home. Jack said, "Kate, do you want to color in that together when we get home?" She said, "Yes." And so they did.

Talky Kate

Kate's very talky these days. It's sort of like she didn't do it for so long, and she absorbed all these words, and now she really wants to use them.

Sometimes it's like she's reading a list of all the people she knows. "Nana Baba Jack Mommy Grandma Grandpa? Aunt Caffee? Daddy Mommy Jack."

I get her up in the morning and head downstairs so Emily and Jack can sleep a little bit more. As we leave the room, in the dark, she says "Mommy Jack?" Mommy and Jack are sleeping, I say. She says, "Ohhhhh. Mommy Jack sleep-ing."

She likes saying "Ohhhhh" these days. I hear her say it a lot to Jack. Jack's explaining how to throw a ball, or make something with Play-dough, or do a puzzle. "No, Kate, it goes like this." "Ohhhhhhh." It's awesome.

Another current favorite is her concerned, "Okay?" She does it when I cough. "Okay?" she asks. Sometimes concerned, sometimes it seems like it's a game to her. "Okay?" Like she's making a joke.

When really, she's just making me laugh, a lot.

birthday cake

Jack to Daddy, as Daddy finishes painstakingly icing the first cake he's ever made, for Mommy's birthday:

"Daddy, you know what would be REALLY special?"

What, Jack. "If we made a Pumpkin Pie AND a cake for Mommy!"

OK, Jack. Sounds good. Why don't you do that. "OK."

Pause. "But I don't know how to make a Pumpkin Pie!" I don't either, Jack.

Jack sighs. "Maybe we should just make a cake." Yes, Jack, maybe we should.

Pumpkin Patch and Apple Picking

Jack wanted to make a pumpkin project with bright orange envelope paper Emmy brought home from work. So we're cutting out little orange pumpkins, and I said to him, Hey, let's get a piece of black construction paper and tape them onto it. He was into the idea, so he got the paper and I got the tape. Then I got distracted, I'm not sure why, probably Kate going upstairs or somesuch. I saw his finished project. I had figured we'd just tape the pumpkins on flat, and it would be like a picture to hang on a wall. Jack went the extra mile with tape on both sides of the little pumpkins, holding them upright, creating a 3-D pumpkin patch. I mean, wow.

Along those sames lines, I drew a picture of the Hulk for Jack tonight. I was then helping Kate draw a picture (she said to me, "Hul! Hul!" so I drew her a Hulk too, and then she scribbled over and around it), while Jack worked on the picture. I looked over and he'd added a web-covered Spider-Man to the picture. AND drawn his own Hulk on another piece of paper, which kind of looked like a much cuter version of mine. It was neat.

We went apple picking today. Kate wanted to have an apple in each hand throughout. She kept eating them and then dropping one and wanting to pick it up, and then dropping the other one, and getting another apple...we went through a lot of apples.

After the apple picking we went to the petting zoo area, where you could feed deer and sheep and such corn. At first neither Jack nor Kate wanted to let the animals eat out of their hand. Jack kind of put it on the edge of the fence, dropping a lot of it on the ground. Kate threw corn in the general direction of the animals. "Here! Here, sheep! Here!" We ultimately got Jack to let them eat out of his hand. He laughed as they ate it. Kate ran toward the fence to yell at the animals, then ran back when they came over. At the sheep area, she climbed up the fence and stood a couple of feet off the ground. "Hi!" she said. "Hi, sheep!"

We got the kids apple juice in little plastic things shaped like apples. They drained them greedily. Jack ate like he hadn't eaten in days, not just eating the ice cream on the apple crisp but the whole thing. Apple picking is hungry work.

After dinner we ate candy apples. Jack just wanted to lick the candy off the apple. Kate just wanted the apple part.

It was messy.

Kate's birthday

Kate's 2nd birthday was last Sunday. Here's about how it went.

- Kate woke up happy, talking about something or other, and we brought her into bed with us. Jack came in too. Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!

- Cereal and fruit for Kate. Backyardigans on TV. Jack's Big Music Show. Kate requests Backyardigans by saying, "Pablo? Pablo?" (Sounds a bit more like "Pabool? Pabool") She requests Jack's Big Music Show by saying, "Music? Music?" (This reminds me of how when Jack was maybe a little older than her, and we showed the show to him once and he didn't like it; something on it scared him. He said, sadly, "Don't like my big music show!"

- I decided I couldn't do EVERYTHING while Kate was napping, so I started setting up the decorations while Emily was out getting groceries. I got the extra leaf for the table out, then threw on the Backyardigans tablecloth. Kate's eyes got big. Of course, she didn't really understand that it was a tablecloth and not a wonderful blanket for her to walk around clutching, but eventually she came around. She knelt in the chair at the table and touched the different pictures. "Pabool! Tasha!" I hung streamers and pulled out the party hats, one for Kate, Jack, and me. Kate gradually laid claim to all of them, including ours, and lined them up on the coffee table. Shifted them a bit, lined them up again. She did this for a good 10 or 15 minutes, while I continued to hang streamers and "Happy Birthday" decorations.

- Jack and I went out to get balloons, wine, and I forget what else. Seems like we had a lot of errands though. I squeezed the balloons into the back of the CRV. I said, Jack, are you being squashed? "No, Daddy, they're barely touching me." I moved the balloons slightly.

- By the time we got back with the balloons, Kate was napping. We set up the balloons across the house. Jack asked about his gift bag. He was kind of focused on that, actually.

-Nana and Baba showed up. Jack showed them pictures he'd made for them. Football started!

- Kate woke up. I had thought she'd wear a dress, but apparently she protested. Polo shirt and little shorts. Very cute.

- Momentarily wary of Nana and Baba, who she hadn't seen in a few months, then came around. Talking up a storm at Baba. Often during the afternoon she'd command his attention. She did this by yelling, "BAH-BAH!"

- Cousins showed up, playing commenced. Then presents. A big hit were these "Tickle Me Elmo" furry hands, that had batteries and could be used to tickle, they'd kind of vibrate when you put them on. For a good 10 minutes, she played with them with Baba as he sat on the couch and she stood next to him. Wearing a hand, she touched him, it vibrated, and they'd both make a big "Ooooooooo" face, and then crack up at each other making the face, and then crack up at each other cracking up. Then she'd reach out the hand again, and it would start all over. It was absolutely awesome, I wish I could bottle it.

- Dinner, followed by birthday cake. Emily served Kate a plate of cake, which she ignored in favor of sticking her finger into the actual cake for icing and licking it off.

- I gave out gift bag toys. Wacky sunglasses were the biggest hit with Kate. She walked around wearing them, the lenses quickly broken out. She looked funny.

- Family left. We realized we forgot to give her her big present, a tricycle. Brought it out and pushed her around. She put her new stuffed Elmo into the basket. Jack played with gift bag toys.

- I washed Kate up, put her in her pajamas, read her a story, turned out the light. "Sun?" she said. I sang her favorite song these days, Mr. Sun.

-Good night, Kate.

Sidekick

Last weekend I had to go out to run errands -- get wine, pick up food. Normally Jack joins me on these little trips, but he was watching a TV show and exhausted, so he declined.

Kate piped up: "Me come!" It was a little new, but I said, well, OK.

We need to get your shoes on, Kate. "Otay!" She got her shoes. We put them on and headed down to the car. I started out carrying her, but she's been kind of into doing things on her own lately. "My walk." So, she walked. I was going to lift her into the car, but again, she's kind of independent right now. "My in." She climbed in.

At the liquor store, she was quite a charmer. She walked along holding my hand. Everyone looked down at her, smiles. Old guy with a beard crouched down to say hello. She's shy, normally, but I don't know, maybe she felt safe holding my hand. Smiled sweetly at everyone. Stood at my feet as I paid. I pointed out the parrot, brought her over to say hi. She pointed. "Bird."

Same deal at the pizza place. Heads turned as I carried her in. Smile and wave, girl, smile and wave.

We got home with the wine and pizza. Emily came down the staircase to meet us coming up. "Mommy!"

Last night, I was going out, and ordering pizza in. At around 5 I told Jack and Kate, I need to call and order pizza. Kate: "Me come! Me come!" She disappeared, then came back holding her sandals in her hand. "Me come," she said. I had to disappoint her by explaining the food was being brought to us this time.

In a couple of hours, she'll be two years old.

Burgers, Fries and Shakes

Opening night of football season, so we decided to get burgers, fries and shakes at a restaurant called...er...Burger, Fries and Shakes. Emily had to work late, so I left work, picked up the kids, and headed to the restaurant.

We got a place out front and I brought the kids in. First ones there. I ordered, and we had the run of the place. First Jack climbed up on the big tall chair. Then Kate wanted to, too, so I put her up on a big tall chair. Then Jack wanted to sit on one of the smaller chairs looking out the window, so he moved over there. Kate wanted to, too. I took a picture of them sitting in chairs looking out the window.

Jack asked where the burgers were. I lifted him up, way way up, so he could see over the pretty tall counter to the grill. Kate wanted to, too.

We got the food. Jack wanted to carry the shakes but I thought that would be a bad idea. We made our way out to the car, and home. Jack: "I'm so hungry. Hurry, Daddy! I'm so HUNGRY!" Not whiny though; enthusiastic. We got home, and Jack was first out of the car and starting up the stairs. "Let's GO!" Sorry Jack, I thought I'd unbuckle Kate from her car seat.

We go through what is an occasional, recent dilemma about where Kate will sit. She's tiring of the high chair, so we give her the option of sitting at the table, but then she wants to go into a different chair....yeah. Anyway, everyone's finally in their seats, all around the square table, and Jack and Kate have their milkshakes and I'm scarfing down my burger because I too am hungry.

Jack drinks his milkshake quietly. Kate is struggling a bit with the straw and then she figures it out. She gives us the "OOOOoooooooo" look as she tastes it. She's also started saying "Yay-uh!" for "yeah." It's like she has an accent. Pretty funny. I watch as she struggles with the straw a little more. She patiently waits for it to come near her mouth, then tries to get it, and it moves again. Funny. She finally gets it though, more milkshake. Big smile.

Jack has been quiet for a few minutes. Then: "I think this milkshake has made me sick." I reach over. He's basically polished off the entire 12 ounce milkshake in the last 3 minutes. Oops. I'm sure that will have consequences later.

"Is a milkshake ice cream?" Jack asks. Yes, we explain. It's basically like having dessert while you eat dinner. Jack likes this idea.

Everybody enjoyed their burgers (well, me and Emily, and Jack ate half a one, which is amazing for him, especially given all the shake he drank), fries (all of us) and shakes.

Especially the shakes.

Artists

Before dinner tonight Jack saw something and asked what it was, and Emily said it was for Mikey, since his birthday was coming up. And Jack said, I want to make a card for Mikey. And so he did. I was in the kitchen, and here's what I heard.

Jack: "I'm going to draw Mikey a Bionicle. How do you spell Bionicle?"

"I also want to make Star Wars. Mikey likes Star Wars. He's going to think it's so cool!"

"I made Mikey a picture of a gun. I know there's no guns allowed in the house. But, it's a Star Wars gun. (Pause.) Because Mikey likes Star Wars. (Pause.) It's a laser gun."

"He's gonna really like this. He'll be so excited."

"I want to put Abbey's name on the card too. How do you spell Abbey?"

Emily: "I don't think Abbey likes Bionicles and Star Wars. We should make Abbey her own card."

Jack: "OK. What does Abbey like? Does she like castles? I'm going to make a castle with a Queen in it. And a dungeon."

"This is the dungeon. How do you spell dungeon?"

Kate came into the kitchen. Big, hopeful smile on her face. "Goldfish?" No, Kate. Dinner's in 5 minutes.

Kate came into the kitchen again. Earnest, proud smile on her face. Holding up a piece of paper which she'd colored on with three or four different colors. Her artwork. "Mine," she said. Holding it up so I could see. Very proud. That's a great picture, Kate. Sweet smile from her.

She returned to the living room. I looked in after her. She was crouching down near Jack, who was still busily drawing. She wanted to show him her picture. "My picture," she said. Jack was oblivious. Emily: "Jack, Kate wants to show you her picture. Jack? Jack, please tell Kate it's a nice picture."

Jack looked up. "That's a nice picture, Kate."

Kate was happy.

Dancing after dinner

After dinner I often do the dishes, while Emily takes the kids into the living room to play. Sometimes we reverse this, but she gets home later, so whatever.

I turn on the radio, looking for music. And more often than not, I'll look up after a minute and there's Kate, standing in the kitchen, doing her little dance. Generally she keeps her feet in place and just kind of rocks back and forth and side to side, bending slightly at the waist and maybe -- maybe -- the knees. With a huge smile spread across her face. Not sure if it's because of the music, or because she's dancing, or because it makes me laugh to see her dance, or all three. Definitely, though, she's playing to a crowd of one, dancing and smiling.

Eventually we're all there, dancing after dinner. Me hand in hand with Kate, Emily with Jack, or vice-versa. Or all four. Jack's dance, when he dances alone, is a little different from Kate's. Currently it's kind of like he's the "M" in "YMCA" -- he stands feet apart, elbows out, hands dangling, with a tight-lipped expression, furrowed brow, like he's concentrating very hard. And then he picks it up and starts moving his hips back and forth, then waving his hands around ... a little like a street mime, actually. Then he breaks into a big smile and shuffles his feet some. Runs in place a bit. It's a very free-form dance.

When Kate takes her dance up to the next level, she jumps in the air. Not too high, or well, but she jumps up and down a little. Big smile. Momentary surprised look when she nearly loses her balance. But doesn't, and then more smiles. Smiles all around.

Sweet Kate

Kate can be a real handful -- dumping her food upside down over and over again. Or her milk, or her water. Getting so angry when you won't let her do something...for example, measure out coffee, or buckle herself into her carseat...that she screams and wails at the unfairness of it all. I can't count the number of times in recent weeks I've just picked her up and carried her somewhere, arms wrapped tight around her so that she can't thrash too much, ignoring her loud, angry protests. I'll admit it, sometimes she's more frustrating than I could have imagined.

All that is why instances like yesterday are so remarkable. I was in the kitchen and I heard a "BONK" and then Jack wailing. I went out to check and Emily was sitting on the couch with Jack in her lap; he'd hit his head on the coffee table or something.

I sat down next to them to help soothe Jack, who continued to cry. Kate walked over. Stood a few inches away from Jack, stooped a little, and tilted her head so she could see his face.

"Otay?" she asked. She put her hand out toward him, maybe she patted him on the knee, and continued to look earnestly into his face. Trying to meet his eyes. Again: "Otay?"

When he'd almost stopped crying, she then decided it was time to make him laugh. She did a little shuffle and made a silly face. Eventually, he stopped. He was Otay.

Author Jack, Determined Kate

Jack made a book at school today. When I picked him up he brought out this construction paper and white paper stapled book, with a dragon on the front -- modeled on a dragon I drew this very morning, it makes me happy to say -- and a dragon, castle, king, and more dragons on every page within. He read it to me when we got home: "One day, there was a castle and a dragon. (Pause.) Page Two. The dragon flew from the castle. (Pause.) Page Three....."

He made more books at home. We cut paper in half and I located a stapler and he made several more books that night, with me and with Emily. One with dogs in it. One with more dragons. One with robots. One with happy people with balloons.

He can draw. It's something to see.

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Kate's favorite phrases these days usually begin with "My." "My turn." "My climb." "My shoes." Basically she doesn't want help. With anything. I try to put her in her seat and she wrestles out of my arms and says, "My climb!" And then climbs up into the seat. I try to buckle her and she bucks in the seat and wails. "My do! My doooooooooooo!"

Jack's sitting in Mommy's lap. Kate watches for two seconds, then, "My turn!" I'm looking forward to the day she insists on changing her own diaper.

Funny today: I picked them up in the CRV, and Kate of course wanted to climb into her seat. It's a bigger car, so although she could climb into the car and stand on the floor, just, she couldn't get up into the seat. Jack, watching with interest, said, "Kate, climb up onto the seat first, then your chair." She looked at him, seemed to consider, then climbed up onto the back seat. Stood there next to her seat, clearly debating whether she could get into her car seat. Put one leg over the edge.

And climbed in. Then beamed at Jack.

random stuff

This will be quick because I'm beat, but there's a whole bunch of stuff to write about....

- Kate's favorite book right now is "Are You My Mother?" She brought it to me insistently before bed last night. On the page where the baby bird meets the kitten, she says the cutest little "meow," and looks up at me and smiles. On the page with the dog, she does an emphatic, "Woof! Woof!" These animals appear on later pages, too, so she continues with the sound effects. I was telling Emily and Jack this and Jack said, "Does she moo when she sees the cow?" Oddly, she doesn't. I think she's still thinking about the dog and cat.

- Jack can be very sweet with Kate, like when he shows her how to play with something. "Here, Kate, you can be this car." "Oh-tay!" says Kate. "No, Kate, play with it like this." "Oh-Tay!" He also shows her how best to jump on the bed, which she delights in. The other day he got a running jump to leap up onto it. So Kate then backed all the way up to the closet, ran up to the edge of the bed, then walked around and climbed up as she normally does via the trunk. Funny.

- He also takes her hand when I pick them up at school.

- We went to the beach yesterday. Kate is a little scared of the water, so when I go alone with her and Jack, we end up not going in very often. Emily was there, so I managed to get Jack to go out in the water with me. He was brave, walking out up to his armpits, it was good to see, because again, we don't get to go in as much as I'd like. At one point I picked him up and held him like he was floating on top of the water, then spun around. He laughed and laughed.

At night I asked him what his three favorite parts of the day were. "Um...when you spun me around in the water at the beach.....and when we found shells on the beach....and when we found rocks on the beach."

- Today was a work day for me, so the kids and Emily (and Aunt Cathy) went out on a nature trip to the Audubon Center. Saw frogs and birds and the like. They came back, and Jack came up to say hello. Then, before they went out for ice cream, he came in to ask if I wanted anything. I'd already told Emily no, but he seemed so hopeful and thoughtful, I said, OK, a small black raspberry. He left, then was back some 20 minutes later, with my ice cream and his ice cream. Thanks, Jack. He said, I will eat mine here with you.

So we sat down on the floor and ate ice cream.

My Weekend with Jack

Emily and Kate were around this weekend, too, but because Kate naps during the day, I had a couple of trips out with just Jack.

- On Saturday we went to PlayLand; I'd never been there. It's best known, I guess, for its rides and stuff, but Jack wanted to play mini-golf. So we did. It was perhaps the worst mini-golf I've ever played (later, somebody who'd been to PlayLand said to me, "They have mini-golf there?"), but it was Jack's second, and he probably didn't really remember the first, so he enjoyed it. It took him a while to figure out how to hold the club, but I finally got him to let me help him and we managed it. He even had a hole in one! I'd have had a few if he didn't like to stand in front of the hole while I was putting to catch my ball as it came out of the tunnel or whatever. Anyway, the course was lame because there were no real obstacles, just slopes and such (not even a windmill, for crying out loud), but he had fun and that's what's most important. At one point we skipped two holes to get ahead of a slow group and Jack said, "Yeah, I don't want to wait." And sounded a little too much like me.

We then went into PlayLand to check out the games and rides. Didn't actually do any rides because Jack said in advance he didn't want to, and I kind of wanted to see them beforehand anyway, but there were some rides that would have been OK and we could have done them together. Instead, I won him a stuffed Spider-Man (only spent $14 winning probably a $3 toy) by throwing baseballs at clowns, and then he had a blast at this game where you stood on a platform and squirted a hose at a burning apartment complex. He thought it was funny when he squirted the old lady, which I kind of did too. I'm sorry.

- Today we went to the grocery store. Not much to report, but he laughed and laughed when I put him in the cart and pushed it really fast, and then swerved around, and stopped short, and went fast again. His peals of giggling just bubble up out of him, it's pretty funny. Lots of people looked at us. Everyone smiled.

Jack and Kate at play

Jack and Kate are playing together more often, which is fun. For one thing it's beautiful to watch, of course, but it's also nice because it gives us a chance to get something else done. They play with trains in Jack's room, or Play-dough downstairs, or various other toys.

Of course, they don't always play the same as each other -- Kate's playing sometimes involves more breaking or throwing things -- and there are times when they both want a certain toy. Those sometimes get ugly, with us having to threaten to take the toy away entirely if they can't work it out.

Anyway, the other day one of those instances rose up, when Jack wanted a toy that Kate had. He tried to explain the concept of sharing to her, in these words:

"Kate," he said. "Sharing means you give something you really want to have to someone else."

Camping in

So on Wednesday Jack told us he wanted to go to school on Friday (he normally doesn't), because they were going to pretend to go camping in his classroom, with tents and a fire and everything. So I said, well, we can do that stuff at home. And so we did.

Emily and I came up with a plan, which meant digging out our old tents and sleeping bags and stuff, and I aired them out in the backyard on Thursday. Then Thursday night, I had Jack write down a list of stuff he wanted to do (see picture). And when I put him to bed, I said, tomorrow we'll go camping.

So Thursday night Emily and I set up the tent in the living room, which only took a couple of tries, and we set out the sleeping bags, and the battery-operated lantern. And the little camping pillows, one of which has an alien pattern and the other has bugs all over it (the pattern, not actual bugs).

Friday morning, we all came downstairs. It was kind of like Christmas morning. Jack got on into the tent and into a sleeping bag, saying, "Now I'm going to sleep," a course of action Emily and I wish he'd employed in his own bed for another half hour or so at least. Kate also got into the tent, although she had no idea what to make of anything. Jack loved his little alien pillow and wants to keep it even when not camping. Of course.

Jack made a little candle out of blue and orange construction paper, which he called a fire.

We got the blue comforter off his bed which became the pond, and I made fishing rods out of drumsticks, string, and plastic hooks for vegetables from his play store. We caught fish: a bath toy and his "Bridgeport Bluefish" mascot.

We hiked around the living room. Twice.

We ate cereal out of the camping dishes. Jack wanted to sit in the tent for this, but we had to draw the line somewhere.

We "napped" in the tent.

He and Kate went in, Jack zipped it up, and they bounced around and pretend fell against the wall and said "OUch!" I was outside the tent and couldn't see, and I heard a thud, and was going to be worried, but then came peals of laughter. Another thud. Another "OUch!" More laughter.

Jack turned the lantern on and off, on and off, over and over again.

Kate words

We worried a little that Kate didn't seem to have as many words as quickly as Jack did, but over the last few months, boom, she caught up. Here are a few of them...

"Aypane" - She hears an airplane going by outside, or sees one, and just as Jack used to, she gets very excited. "Aypane!" she says.

"Peas" - We're working on getting her to say please. She's almost got it, and it's pretty sweet, usually accompanied by a big, cheerful smile.

"Lap" - I heard that one tonight for the first time; I was showing Jack pictures on the computer from when the McArdles were here last summer, and she came over and wanted to see too. "Lap," she said, indicating it's time to make some extra room on Daddy's legs.

"Fok" - Fork. It sometimes sounds a little inappropriate.

"Poon" - Spoon.

"Shake" - Jack got a pair of maraccas (misspelled, I know) at school, some sort of Mexican fiesta party. Kate loves them; there was a big meltdown yesterday afternoon, in fact, when she wanted them and Jack didn't want to give them up. She asks for them or indicates them by saying, "Shake." Because that's what she does with them.

"WoofWoof" - dog.

"MOOOOOOOO" - This is basically any farm animal. I mean, she knows cow, and duck, and goat, and pig, but when I ask what sound it makes, she usually comes out with "Moo." We were looking at a book today with a picture of a goat, she said "Moo," and I said, no, it's a goat. Leading her to her next word:

"Ohhhhhhh." This comes out like she's learned something very impressive.

"Woww!" - This can accompany just about anything, but it's frequently after she falls, or drops something, or there's a loud noise or crash. "Wow!" she says, even if it's her who just took a colossal tumble. Or tripped while trying to walk around in Mommy's shoes, one of her favorite activities these days.

"Dack" - She's getting closer.

"Keht" - You guessed it: her own name.

"Baba!" - When pictures of him come up on the computer screen, as they did tonight. It's usually a yell. I suspect it's because she looks a little like him. Only younger and prettier.

"Good-bye!" Sometimes, "Bye-bye!"

Sweet Kate, Ill Jack

Kate can drive you crazy. She stands up in her high chair halfway through every meal, or dumps her plate, or starts pouring her milk or water out. Then today she was spitting her milk out again, something she hadn't done for months.

And yet, she's also incredibly sweet.

Bringing Jack his sandals when she and Emily were headed outside. Jack was going to stay in, but she wanted him to come. "Shoes! Shoes!" Then she saw he was already wearing sandals. "Oh!" she said. "Shoes."

Saying "Hi, Daddy," and "Goodbye, Daddy," at morning and night, respectively. The way she says it, kind of dragging out each syllable, with a sweet little happy smile. So it's, "Hi, Dah, Dee."

When I read her stories, on each page, after each line, she looks up at me and beams. That's just if she likes a book, and if there aren't cows or dogs on the page. If there are cows, she points and says, "mOOOOOOOOOOO." If there are dogs, she points excitedly and says, "WoofWoof! WoofWOOF!"

She physically brings me over to see things, or draw with her. Last week I was sitting at the laptop. She brought a piece of paper and markers over to her little table, then came over to me and took my hand. I can't remember what she said: Here? Or, Sit? Anyway, she beckoned me over to draw with her. Very sweet.

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Then there's Jack. Jack was sick most of the week. First he had what we thought was pink eye but turned out to just be some kind of irritation. Then he had a fever and the worst cold he's ever had -- rivers of mucus. Let's leave it at that.

Through it all, though, he was in really good spirits. Cheerful. We played games, drew pictures (he made an awesome house with the whole family in it.

He slipped a bit over the weekend -- maybe going stir crazy a bit, like me probably. Still in good humor, but more frustrating. Little stuff here and there. In fairness, he was probably sick of his being sick, like me.

You realize that some of the stuff you worry about and get upset about doesn't seem to matter as much as simply not being sick. So we're hoping for a week of that, at least.

Just some random stuff

- Tonight Kate sat down at her little table with a piece of paper and three markers. She started scribbling on it, I saw her, she saw me, and said, "Sit. Sit." I sat and she handed me a marker. We scribbled together; she laughed. Then Jack came over and picked up a marker. Kate pointed to the seat next to her. "Sit. Sit." So Jack sat and the three of us scribbled together. As we scribbled, Kate bubbled over with laughter, as if the three of us using markers together on paper was the best thing in the world. We filled the paper, she got up, walked across the room, and got another piece of paper. Brought it back. "Sit," she said, to herself perhaps. "Sit."

- Jack was home sick today; kind of odd really. He was sent home Tuesday with a red, puffy eye. We gave him eye drops, which we have from a previous pink eye deal (although we suspect it's allergies), but they had no effect, so I took him to the doctor yesterday. Turned out he just had something in his eye and then irritated it further by rubbing it. Then yesterday afternoon he suddenly took a nap, which I had to wake him up from so we could get Kate at school, and he ended up with a fever. I say it was odd because he was perfectly fine all day; we went to the doctor, went home, and then shortly thereafter he had a fever. Coincidence I guess.

Anyway, I mention it because he's really quite entertaining. Even though he had a fever, he was in good spirits. He drew a cute picture of a house and a family, as well as a smiley face sign "so only good people are allowed in." We played the "Iron Man game," which involves his four mini Iron Man action figures hitting each other. We played Candyland, and he stacked the deck so that his first two cards were the lollipop and the ice cream cone, after which the game was essentially over. Hate when he does that but it's kind of funny.

Then we went to the library, got out a couple of books, came home and read them, and he had a nap.

He got us up at 5 this morning -- since he'd gone to bed at 6 the previous night. He walked into our room and said, "Why is the night so long?"

He's been coming out with some great questions lately. "Why is the sun larger than the earth?" was a good recent one. I wish I could remember the others.

Bridgeport Bluefish

Went to a Bridgeport Bluefish game today, an independent league team about half an hour away. What can I say, it was awesome.

- Pristine little ballpark in perfect condition, easy to get to and park at, plenty of families -- actually, that was about all we saw.

- Kate, at her first baseball game, was awesome -- for the most part stayed in Emily's lap, then mine, then shared a seat with Jack.

- Jack was mildly intrigued by the Bluefish mascot -- but Kate was enraptured. She laughed and pointed and hollered at him. He was in our area the first couple of innings, then was over on the third base line after that. She stood up in Emily's lap and pointed, and clapped, and yelled, "Come back!" And laughed and smiled and laughed.

- Our $12 seats were about 10 rows from the field. And in the brutal sun, so we moved back after a few innings. Still, we were frighteningly close to the field.

- Got Jack and Kate both ice cream. Emily noticed how the kids ate ice cream like their personality. Jack slowly, deliberately, carefully licked his ice cream cone. Kate just shoveled it in.

- Went to the gift shop with Jack to get stuffed mascot toys for Jack and Kate. Hoping they'd have a few; they had a ton. Stood in line with Jack with our two toys. Suddenly I looked over and there were Emily and Kate, and Kate had her arms full of mascot toys. Must have had about six of the things. Emily said she saw them and just went, "ooh!" and grabbed one, then "oh!" and grabbed two more, and so forth. When we took her armful away she wailed, until I gave her the one we'd bought. Then she was fine. For a minute she was really panicked about not having one.

- I caught a little bit of the baseball game. Bluefish looked OK. When music played Jack danced at his seat and Kate clapped her hands. This is why there's so much music at ballgames these days -- kids go crazy for it. Once it bothered me. Now, I understand it all.

Sweet Jack

Jack got up this morning, which reminds me that in Vermont when he got up in the morning he came into our room, which was my old room, planted his feet, put his hands out to the sides, and said, "It's....MORNING!" Anyway, he got up and said he wanted to make cards for his friends at school, Teddy and Jack Sais, because he missed them. I guess they were on vacation last week. So he made cards for them.

Later, we went to the beach, and as we got out of the car, me carrying all of our stuff, Kate and Jack standing there, and then approaching the crosswalk from the parking lot to the beach, Jack said to Kate, "Here, Kate. Take my hand." And they held hands as they crossed the crosswalk.

Playing at the edge of the water later, Kate liked to pick up rocks and walk around with them. Then drop them and watch the splash. Jack went and got her a rock. "Here, Kate."

Jack filled his bucket with too much sand and water to carry it, so that became the location of the dump, because after all the dumptruck had to do something with all the sand he put in the back. Then he started burying me in wet sand, and Kate came over and hit me in the leg with her shovel. Which reminds me, when I gave her the shovel, she took it, looked at it, and then said, "Fok?" Which is her way of saying "fork," which is what she calls the rake that comes with the pail and shovel set.

Snack-time was a highlight, because I got to sit in one place (they liked to run in separate directions, Jack for the water and Kate for basically anywhere else) and they stood still. Well Jack did, standing and crunching down Pirate's Booty and Doritos. Kate seemed to be collecting them, I don't know. She'd take 2, eat one, and put the other on the little chair I'd brought. Then she'd do the same thing again. Then she'd try to sit in the chair. Then the snack food would fall into the sand. Then she'd cry when she'd try to pick it up and I wouldn't let her. Kate, I said, when it falls in the sand, it's not people food anymore.

In the car on the way back, we ate Spider-man gummies, and Kate fell asleep.

Told to me

Jack: Mommy, will we always stay in this house?
Emily: Well, no, Mommy and Daddy are trying to buy a different house right now.
Jack: The house with the chimney? (He visited this particular house with us, and noticed the chimney ("Where Santa comes down?")
Emily: Yes.
Jack: But we already bought it.
Emily: No, Mommy and Daddy are trying to buy it, but the man we're buying it from needs to fix some things.
Jack: Why?
Emily: Well, there are some things that need to be fixed before it's safe to live there.
Jack: Why doesn't he want to fix it?
Emily: Well, maybe he doesn't want to spend the money?
Jack: Why doesn't he?
Emily: Well, maybe he wants to use the money on a vacation or something.
Jack: Oh. Well, we can buy another house with a chimney. One that's already fixed.

Ag Fair

Quickly about the Windsor County Ag Fair....

1. Criss-crossed the thing looking for pony rides. No pony rides. Again. Third time in five years. I did talk to people with show horses and these bucking bronco types that were pulling harvesters or plows or whatever. No doubt they thought I was an idiot.

2. My Mom said, "There's a puppet show here." Emily and I scoffed. "We don't care about puppet shows." You guessed it, while we were eating lunch the puppet show started a little ways away. Jack was drawn to it like mosquitoes to an Ag Fair. I think he watched it with Emily for a good half hour; Kate watched some too. Nice for those of us who mostly cared about eating lunch.

3. There were two "rides," one a Ferris Wheel and one a car spinner thing. Jack was scared like nobody's business, especially when they wouldn't let adults ride with the kids. We finally convinced him to ride the spinner thing. I strapped him into the seat and he had a look of fear and misery on his face. Then it started, and I admit it went a little faster than I expected. Jack wailed. The guy stopped it and I lifted Jack out, and the other kids -- two little girls -- also wailed for their parents. I kind of don't blame Jack much. Later, walking by the Ferris Wheel (which went pretty high) I heard another boy wailing in terror. I might have smiled a bit. Note: there were no refunds on the ride tickets; I'd bought 10 and ended up giving most of them away on our way out of the Fair. I had been really close to buying 20 at the outset -- whew!

4. Later, bribed by a toy from Daddy's childhood toy shelf, a place of magic and wonder for Jack, a place of dusty, 30-year-old toys for me, I got him to do this big bouncy obstacle course with me. I think he was the youngest kid who did it -- you had to crawl through tunnels and climb up walls, it was sponsored by the National Guard or somesuch. He did great. As did I, since this one they let adults do. We raced, it was fun. And later Jack claimed his prize, some sort of little plastic turtle that I suspect he'll have lost by this time tomorrow.

5. Kate said "Cow?" at just about everything. Got to touch a kitty, too.

Sports with Jack and Kate

Today I played golf with my Dad in the morning. Then in the afternoon, I played golf with Jack.

Emily thought Jack was old enough that we could bring him up and he could putt a little on the green at the golf club. In fact, though, Dad also was able to borrow a kid-sized driver so we got some range balls and went out to the driving range. And, it was great. I stood behind Jack and helped him to set his stance and swing. My Dad came up with the bucket of range balls and said it was great to just walk up and see us there.

Jack was OK with me standing behind him, hands on the club over his, swinging and hitting a few that way. We even got a few in the air. Then Jack tried a few on his own, which was hit or miss. His swings were sometimes lunges, feet stepping around as he swung and hit the turf -- but sometimes, when he kept his feet still, he hit it straight and stopped to watch, just like he'd been doing it all his life. He kept things interesting by hitting off three different tee boxes at the range.

Later, we putted about 5 or 6 balls on the green. This time, he was less inclined for help. Actually he didn't care that much about style or form. He just liked getting the balls in the hole, then pulling up the tee so they all exploded out onto the green. We did this for a good 15 minutes. At one point I heard someone saying to a friend, "THAT's the age to start 'em at."

I don't know which of us got more out of the whole thing - Jack, me, my Dad.

At home that afternoon, we played some in the yard. A ball, a bat, a couple of scoopy things and another ball. Kate and Emily were also out for it. That was kind of funny. Kate mostly liked to take both balls and run in her herky-jerky style, laughing, across the lawn. Jack liked being "the runner" in baseball -- not hitting, not pitching, but running after hit balls. I think he was pretty out of breath at the end of it all. (Although he did hit some at the end, which was good to see.) And nobody got hit by a golf club, bat, or scoopy thing all day.

Jack's digger, and other stories

We went to a playground a week ago, there was a sandbox, and another boy had a digger - a big truck with a high, arcing shovel scoop. The other boy ended up sharing, which was nice, but I said at that moment, Jack needs a digger. So I told him I'd get him one.

Easier said than done. The toy store in town had lots of dump trucks and bulldozers, but no diggers. So last Thursday, I went to Target in Stamford. This will have a digger, I said. No! I walked up and down every one of the toy aisles. Two or three times. No digger.

I went to Stamford Toys, this little Mom and Pop store that I'd never been to. And FOUND a digger. There were two, actually, a 40 dollar digger and a 50 dollar digger. That's right, 50 bucks for a plastic toy certain to be destroyed within weeks and no doubt ruined by sand. Granted, it was a nice, realistic looking digger, but it didn't even light up or anything.

But regardless, I'd been all over town, so I bought the 40 dollar digger and drove the half hour or so back home. Traffic was beginning to pick up since it was just before the 4th of July weekend.

I'd been home 15 minutes when I decided I liked the other digger better. So I got back in the car, drove back to Stamford (traffic slowed me down quite a bit), and exchanged the $40 digger for the $50 one.

And it was so absolutely worth it, because Jack said "Wow!" and played with it until dinner and showed it to Mommy once she got home and wanted to bring it up to bed with him and brought it out with him to show Grandma and Grandpa and his cousins the next day. 5o bucks well spent.

Sunday he brought it to the sandbox and it got filled with sand and now the shovel scoop doesn't quite straighten all the way. But he doesn't mind so I don't either.

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Kate runs into my arms when I pick her up from school. She basically tackles me, even though she's not big enough to knock me over -- but if she was, she would. She just runs into me, shouting "Daddy!"

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She has a lot of words now. I usually hear them the most when she's attached to something or other and she's left it upstairs when she's downstairs, or vice-versa, and wants me to go get them. So, "Pablo?" in reference to the stuffed penguin she's left upstairs. (She pronounces it, Pab-ule.) Or, "book?" in reference a book she's left in another room.

Other words I hear a lot: "Up!" (Pick me up.) "Mik!" (Milk.) "Toe! Toe." (I stubbed my toe on something....ouch.) "Dack!" (She's getting closer to saying "Jack.") "Duck!" (Duck.) "Woof!" (I see a dog.)

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At bathtime, it's very important to Kate that if she's getting a shampoo, Jack gets a shampoo. If I start to give her one, she starts pointing at him in protest. "Dack! Dack" ("Him too, Daddy! C'mon here.") Once I start giving him one, she is much calmer and happier about the whole thing.

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She's very sweet. Jack occasionally hurts himself -- stubbed toe, bonked head, whatever -- and cries. Kate comes over and is very concerned. She seems to want to help.

Today they were playing with big Legos, and Jack knocked over something of hers. She looked at me and wailed in protest. I went over to calm things down. She then looked at Jack and hit him. I said, "Kate! No hitting. You don't hit Jack. Now, say you're sorry." "Sowwah." (To me.) "No, say it to Jack. "Sowwah." (To me again.) "Kate," I began. Jack said, "She doesn't have to say she's sorry." "Yes, Jack, she does."

Suddenly Kate looked at Jack and patted him gently on the back. Then went as if to hug him. She didn't say "Sowwah," but she showed it.

Like I said, very sweet.

Jack at the Beach

Went to the beach with Jack today. Kate had a cold and cough so Emily stayed home with her. Here's how the trip went.

- Found a spot. Jack immediately wanted to bury me in the sand. I usually help him with this, otherwise it could take a while. He buried one leg while I scooped sand over the other. The way he did it, he used a little shovel to fill a bucket, which he then used to fill his dumptruck, which he then used to pour sand over me. Essentially he spent 5 minutes filling something he couldn't lift and then whacked me in the groin with a plastic dumptruck, as sand fell pitifully near my leg. Good times.

- We went down to the water. I pointed out how a guy was way out far but it was only up to his knees. We started off, walking out into the water. I was impressed by how game Jack was; I remember him being reluctant to go in, not so long ago. Perhaps when we lived in Colorado and he only saw the ocean on rare occasions - a trip to Mexico, basically.

- We played some games on the beach. One was "train," where I'd follow him and stop when he stopped. There was some "whoo-whooing." Another was "run from the seagulls." The seagulls had zero interest in us, but that didn't stop us from running madly for our seats, pretending to be statues, running for the water, running back to the beach, etc. Still another involved throwing shells into the water. Jack liked finding shells near where our towels were, running down to the water (a good ways from our towels), and heaving them in. We'd done this a few times when I pointed out there were a lot of shells right on the edge of the water. Thus, more time throwing, less time running back and forth. The game changed a little after that.

- Jack wore his wild, green patterned bathing suit and floppy blue hat. He looked like a little beachcomber. He ran on the beach oblivious to things like rocks and stuff that I know a year ago he would have gingerly walked around.

- We built a sand castle. It was pretty ugly. I'm a little out of practice, and Jack likes bringing more water than is necessary to create a moat. We built some towers that slowly crumbled into the moat. We used the shovels as flags in the collapsing towers. Then we kicked the whole thing over.

- We went to get food at the stand. Chicken nuggets, fries, burger. Jack danced around me while I waited in line. He was in a good mood. Ate lots of fries and nuggets, too.

- There was a lot of ketchup on Jack's face.

- We headed home and I gave Jack a ring pop from the cooler. He was pretty weary and nearly falling asleep as he sat in his car seat, wearing sunglasses and his floppy beach hat, noisily chomping the ring pop. Some of it didn't end up stuck to his sandy face.

Wally and Molly

Kate has taken an interest in Jack's Wally and Molly stuffed toys. Wally is a mini-version of the Red Sox' team mascot, Wally the Green Monster, and Molly is an effort to further cash in on fan interest...I mean, Wally's girlfriend. Anyway, Jack had started bringing Wally to school as a toy to nap with, and when Kate developed a similar fondness for him, we steered her toward Molly. Now of course she loves both of them. Anyway. Jack doesn't mind letting Kate play with Molly, and so she has been.

Kate's funny. First, she calls Molly, Wally. She still calls Wally Wally, but she also calls Molly Wally. Really. So this week I'd bring her into school, clutching Molly, and then in the afternoon I'd pick her up, and they'd tell me that Molly was in her jacket sleeve on its hook, and as I got the jacket, Kate would be saying, "Wally?" And then: "Wally?" And I'd say, Yes, Molly! And I'd give it to her, and she'd say, "Wally!" And sometimes it was "Wally, Wal-ly, Wah-ly!" And "Wah-ly, wah-ly, wah-ly!"

So she's been sleeping with Molly, and walking around with both Wally and Molly whenever Jack leaves Wally unattended. And it's pretty cute, because she at times treats them like her little dolls. (She really hasn't shown any interest in the babies ever since one of their heads fell off.) Today I gave her her sippy cup of milk, and she had some, and then she wanted to give some to Wally and Molly....she sat on the kitchen floor and held the milk up to their mouths.

Sometimes she'd just walk over to me with one of them, announce their name (It was always "Wally!") and then wander away. Today she also walked up with Molly, caught my eye, and then had her doing little claps. By which I mean, she used her hands to make Molly's little green hands clap. And she provided a soundtrack, too. "Tep, tep, tep," she said, happily. "Tep, tep, tep."

Emily told me Kate was doing this last night, too. When she was putting Kate to bed, at one point, she went in and soothed her a little. She rocked Kate, who was also holding Molly at the time. Kate held up Molly to her, and clapped her little hands together. And laughed and smiled.

"Tep, tep, tep. Tep, tep, tep."

Father's Day Blog

6:05 a.m. I hear Jack's door open, him clomp along to the bathroom, things crash and slam in there, and then him head back into his room. More crashing. Typical morning, really, sometimes no different if Jack is trying to be quiet. A few minutes later our door opens, and there's a crinkle and a rustle of paper. Jack is there, holding something up. "For Father's Day," he says. It's a miniature plastic Dallas Cowboys football helmet, autographed by Tony Romo with an official certificate of authenticity. Jack actually tried to show it to me in his closet several times this week, but I kind of figured out early (maybe because he told me) that it was a Father's Day present and I resisted seeing it. And I owe a phone call to Aunt Cathy, who I think knows what the story is with it. Something about a raffle I believe. Jack: "But we don't like the Cowboys?"

6:15. Jack and Emily have gone downstairs to let me "sleep in," but Jack returns with Father's Day cards. And Kate, who's now awake and Emily deposits her on my lap. I open up the cards, ones made at home and school. Kate's from school has a picture of her in it, and her hand print, and she doesn't want to let me have it. She smiles coyly as she clutches it and moves away from me. Jack's includes a construction-paper tie and a beaded key ring, whose letters read "I LOVE YOU DAD." Jack asks me if he can keep it. Actually, he asked me on the way home from school on Thursday.

7:00. I make it downstairs for blueberry crumb cake and coffee. The kids climb over me a lot during it.

10:00. Watched a "Phineas and Ferb" show. Lots of good laughs.

11:00. We play some with Jack's toys and Kate's animal puzzle, her favorite toy these days. She likes standing the animals up (they're blocky wood puzzle pieces) and clapping happily when she's done, as well as showing them to me one by one, occasionally identifying them. Apart from calling the flamingo a "duck," no matter how much I correct her, she usually gets them right. Plus, she acts like she's correcting me: "No, Daddy. I keep telling you. DUCK. Duck." She's very firm on this point.

12:00. Kate's napping, Jack and I have had lunch, so we go out for father-son activities. First we collect some bread and go feed the ducks at the nearby office park. There was an incident once a year or so ago -- a couple of rather larger geese got greedy and came out of the water for bread -- which adds an element of danger to the whole thing. Jack was kind of shaken by it. So now we go and I make doubly sure they're not coming out of the water and am ready to scoop him up if need be. We heave all the bread in bit by bit, I take a picture of him with my cell phone -- he's wearing his little floppy hat, it's damn cute -- and we leave without incident.

12:30. We're at the fish store getting Jack more fish. We have four, so we're going up to eight. Just little fellers. Jack of course wants frogs, turtles, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs.....but ultimatley grudgingly settles for fish. "I want another Dodo," he says, which is the red one. The sole original survivor of the fish we bought him over a year ago. So I buy another red one and three others (which together are the same price as the red one, I might add) and we're off again.

1:00. The fish are in their new homes and Jack seems happy. So do they.

2:00. We play Candyland. I think Emily whispers to Jack to let Daddy win, and I put on a show of being all sad about losing, pretending to be morose or whatever. Jack kicks my ass anyway -- first legitimately, then by drawing the ice cream card which he has placed, totally without guilt, on the top of the deck. Father's Day or no, I'm not going to win my first Candyland game from Jack today. Maybe next year.

4:00. Jack's neighbor Max comes over for a bit. All three kids run around wildly for a while. Kate is fascinated by Max, I think. She stands in place and yells, "Max!" Pause. Then: "Max!" Max basically ignores her. She doesn't mind much.

6:00. We've eaten dinner, and now it's time for Fudgie the Whale, the best thing Carvel has ever made. It says "For a Whale of a Dad." Jack and Kate each get pieces of "Dad" and devour it with much enthusiasm. "Goodbye, Fudgie!" says Jack, as we pack the rest of him away into the freezer. Kate continues eating, pausing only to say, "More?"

7:00. Hide'n'seek. I make Jack laugh from his standard hiding place in his room by pretending to talk underwater in his fish tank ("Arebbbbb youbbbbb therebbbbbb Jackcbbbbbbbb?") and then, when he's hiding near Emily's dresser, bonking my head on my desk repeatedly as I look for him under it. High comedy, for him anyway. I have a bit of a headache, but it's a small price to pay.

8:00. I slip out of Jack's room having read him stories and sung him to sleep ("Sixteen Tons," which he now sings along with). A special day, but really, just another one of being Jack and Kate's father.

Jack's Question

Last night Jack asked Emily, "When's Brother's Day?"

Reading

I read to Jack's class today. One of the Moms organizes it and I've gone a couple of times since April. Basically she gets a book for the class (usually something touching and inspirational) and puts it in Jack's cube for me, and I bring in a couple of additional books (usually something about pirate dinosaurs or cows that can type) to read.

I walked into the class and they were all gathered on the rug around Miss Gabriella, one of their teachers. I don't know if she preps the room by giving them warm milk or something, but they all seemed peaceful enough. Jack raised his arms up happily when he saw me, which is nice.

The teacher introduced me and I walked over to the upside down milk crate and sat down -- I felt like a stand-up comic saying Hi Hello there, like I should make a joke or something. But instead, I just said, Howdy, I've got some great books here: "Room on the Broom," "Click Clack Moo," and "Happy Birthday, Moon." Which one do you want to hear first? "Room on the Broom" got the most yells, so we were off.

I quickly realized I was going to have to read each page upside down. I tried reading a page and then showing the picture, but as soon as I turned the book away somebody complained that they couldn't see. This went on for a few pages until I just held the book so that they could see the pages and I was reading upside down. Might be why I have a headache now. Anyway.

Everyone oohed and aahed and laughed at all the right places. They also laughed at the punchline in Click Clack Moo -- "the ducks want a diving board! HAAAAAA!!!!!" -- it was pretty cute. And I even enjoyed the touching story about a little bear giving a gift to the moon; I feel like I'd read it before at some point, though I'm not sure when.

Jack pretty much stood at my elbow during all three stories. For some pictures, kids got up to see them from up close (like for example the witch's new broom at the end, with a little shower for the frog. Everyone wanted to see the shower for the frog). And at the very end, when Mr. Brendan told everyone to say thank you, a few got up to hug me. And then the rest did. And then I was crushed by about 15 kids, who thought it was pretty funny. "You're welcome "gah" cough akkk."

And then I waved goodbye and left, missing them all already.

The Little Stuff

The best thing about going on vacation, aside from the actual vacation, is the little stuff you get to appreciate when you get back....

1. Jack came in to our bedroom this morning, saw us for the first time since we got back late the previous night, stopped for a minute, then came over and hugged me. And then it was talk talk talk talk talk: "I got a pin at soccer.....Aunt Cathy cut my nails....what's THAT? (A toy shark we got for him.) Did you get me a remote controlled long-necked dinosaur, too?" On and on and on.

2. Emily brought Kate in. She sat on my lap and looked closely at my face. Yeah, I remember you. Daddy! Her face looked chubby to me. Either she'd gained weight in just five days, or I remembered her differently. It was kind of weird.

3. Kate wanted her baby. Then Uniqua. Then this toy. Then that one. And at one point she babbled on for about 5 minutes. I didn't understand much of it. Probably, "Grandpa my baby Mommy Jack. Grandma? Book fair Aunt Cathy. Grandpa! Watermelon juice baby Grandpa!" And more of the same.

4. Kate wanted me to read a book to her this morning. "Sit," she said. Not a request, or an order, but more like an invitation. I sat. I read her a book. We did this once or twice.

5. Jack came home from school with pictures he made. A zebra, a witch, a row of "Evil Robots." Two of the coolest grinning fish you'll ever see. (Gah! This reminds me. Jack got a big puzzle from a yard sale next door, with huge pieces that connected together and spelled out the alphabet, with a picture of things for each letter. After doing the puzzle, he sang the Alphabet song, but started replacing letters with words that they stood for, or occasionally other things indicated by the pictures. So it became, "A, B, C, Daddy, E, F, Kate's favorite word." (It was a picture of a goldfish, and Kate loves to say 'fish.' Or 'feesh.') "H, I, Jack, Kate, L, Mommy....") Nice to see his pictures.

6. Kate ended up bringing Jack's stuffed Oscar to school today. Or rather, Jack brought it, but left it in Kate's room when they dropped her off. The teachers there put Oscar into Kate's jacket sleeve. At the end of the day, as I got her jacket down, she saw Oscar. She laughed like it was the funniest thing she ever saw. Then didn't want to give up Oscar, which Jack of course wanted back It was a little ugly until he gave her Daffy Duck, a stuffed toy I've had in my car for 17 years now. And then she said, "Duck." And, "Duck!" I'd swear at some point she even said Daffy, although that one I'm not sure about.

7. At bed time tonight, Jack didn't want stories or songs. He just wanted to hug me as we lay down to go to sleep. So I let him, and I hugged him back.