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.