Kids on Break, Day 3

Well, I worked on Day 2, but Emily had a very nice day with the kids. They went to the library and the playground. Today it was me again.

- I took Kate downstairs, which often begins with Kate getting breakfast for me -- play food, of course. Today, though, she told me she'd be getting breakfast for the babies. Like Jack, certain toys cycle in and out of popularity for her, and now she's into the baby dolls again. So she set them up on the couch and arranged a fine breakfast of waffles and pie for them. She also determined to bring a chair from the kitchen; fortunately Emily came down and talked her into a dining room chair instead, which didn't have as far to travel and made less noise as Kate pushed it across the floor. I made coffee.

- Jack came down and busily drew for a while. Afterward, he showed me what he'd made: a book, titled TOTHLIS (Toothless)THE DRAGON BE (by) JACK RICHARDSON. First page, a picture of TOTHLIS the dragon. Second page, TOTHLIS again. Third page, HICCUP the Viking. Fourth page, Hiccup and Tothlis, Fifth page, Tothlis and a rocket ship. I don't recall a rocket ship in the movie. Sixth page, another rocket ship. Then more Tothlis and Hiccup. Hiccup had a very cute Viking helmet with little horns on it. It might be tough getting him to give up the Vikings even if Favre finally retires.

- After breakfast they played a little, and I went upstairs to work. I heard them come upstairs and head into Jack's room. I checked on them after a few minutes. They were sitting on the bed, and Jack was reading Kate a book, Little Yellow Dog Says Look at Me. I watched for about 5 minutes before Jack noticed me, said "Ahhhh!" and put the book over his face. He was probably reading a lot of it by memory, but I think he was also recognizing and reading a lot of words. It was pretty cool. At certain parts, where Kate laughed or whatever, he looked fondly at her.

-We drove to Stamford to deliver Mommy's suit jacket. The kids were pretty agreeable about hopping in the car, so off we went. We then went to Bruce Park playground. There are a couple of silver slides, side by side. Jack went down one, I went down the other with Kate in my lap. Pretty fast. "Whee!" she said.

- Lunch at McDonalds. Incredibly -- I mean, not THAT incredibly, the movie is out and all, but still -- the Happy Meal toy was a How to Train Your Dragon toy. Jack was thrilled. The booths were all full, so we grabbed a table; they were pretty high with high stools, at least for the kids. Jack did fine, but I worried a little about Kate. Who, remarkably, was perfectly fine, perched on the edge of her high stool, eating her fries one by one, followed by her nuggets. Jack did the same, then eagerly opened his dragon toy.

- The kids played with their new dragon toys at home for half an hour. I think Jack talked Kate into having them fight. Nobody got hurt, which is the best kind of fight I think.

- During Kate's nap, Jack and I played Yahtzee Jr. Dragons played with us. Jack beat me, as usual, in large part because his drops count as rolls if they're good and as drops if they're bad. So some turns he gets a few extra rolls. I also watched a Phineas and Ferb with Jack. I don't watch them enough, because normally I do stuff when they watch TV. It was really funny.

- After Kate's nap, they each had an apple for a snack, counteracting the McDonalds food, dontcha know.

- They played in our room for a little while, Jack climbing into suitcases we pulled out to start packing things up for the pending move, and playing peek-a-boo with Kate. Funny.

- I played a CD for Kate, which has baby sounds on it. She loves it. Jack is sick of it. She heard it for 10 minutes, just laughing at every little baby laugh. Then it was Jack's turn, so we took that CD off in favor of another one. Kate WAILED. I went to make dinner.

- Putting Kate to bed, she sang Edelweiss and Take Me Out to the Ballgame to me. She was still singing when I put her in her crib and left the room. Um, good night Kate. Good night! I like to think she noticed.