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.