Stories and Spies with Jack and Kate

I sat on the couch reading books to them today: Madeline, which I think I'd read way back when I was a kid, and neither of them seemed really into, but Jack picked it out so I did; the Very Hungry Caterpillar; and several Clifford stories, which they love and I absolutely despise. Like his birthday story, where none of his friends show up at his birthday party, and they find them at the park, where they say, they didn't come because they didn't think their presents were good enough for a great friend like Clifford. I mean, what?

Anyway. I read them stories and they loved them, and then I got up and did something else for a bit. When I came back, Kate was standing at the couch reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She turned each page, looking at all the things the little caterpillar supposedly ate. As she turned the pages, she said, "Strawberry!" and "Cake!" and so forth.

At bedtime, Kate found the very old book of I Spy, that was ours growing up and I think Robin might have sent us at one point. Or Mom. I'm sorry, I don't remember which of you sent the thing. Anyway, we read that before bed tonight. It was fun, I pointed to things to see if she knew them. A lot she got right away: "Tomato!" "Apple!" "Banana!" "Door!" Some she surprised me with; I can't remember now, but I was like, Good, Kate! One -- "Monkey!" -- I was confused as to where the average child would see such a thing around the house, as the book claimed. Then there where the things she had no idea what they were, either because they were dated (typewriter) or because she only sees them cut into manageable pieces (pineapple).

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Jack wanted to play spies today. He made all the rules. First he built a rocket ship in our kitchen. He used three chairs and a bunch of blankets, and brought down Puppy and Gromit (because they had to go with him) and his suitcase, and had a whole lot of play money, I guess for the treasure spies find. I rode with him in the rocket for a while; we went to Africa. And before you point out that you don't need a rocket to go to Africa, as I almost did, just remember it would be a whole lot faster.

Jack wore his floppy hat as his spy hat. He'd left it upstairs, and Kate was napping, when we played spies midday, so I went up to get it. I said to Jack, your first mission will be to find your spy hat. So we played warmer....warmer....colder....in the living room, until he found his hat. He thought that was a good mission. Our other missions were finding the fake money, and taking the rocket ship places. He had other rules, like sitting down meant this and standing against the wall meant this. I'm a little hazy on the details, but I know it all made sense to him.