Painting Etc.

We had a painting day, and it was a blast; I don't know why we don't do them more. I mean I know why, because of worries about getting paint everywhere and such. Anyway, I threw down a big tarp (Kate's mattress came in it way back when), dressed the kids in big T-shirts and little else, plopped them down, and distributed paints and brushes. And away we went!

Jack made a dog, and some other kind of animal. Kate makes her multi-colored circles, over and over again. Until the end, when the paints were all mixed together, and they were all kind of brown and grey.

"More paint, Daddy." "Another paper, Daddy." "Here, Daddy." "This one's for YOU, Daddy." It was awesome.

At the end I made a picture myself, of the two of them painting. Jack said, "Nice, Daddy." Kate: "Can you paint Mama, too?" I added in Emily. "And now can you add Daddy?" So I did that too.

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Kate plays with her dollhouse sometimes. It's fun. She asks somebody to play with her, but mostly she just wants that person to watch. Although, she did let me play with the Peppa Pig family in the dollhouse. "You be these guys, Daddy." Sometimes she's playing and I'm working, and I'll hear her say "Daddy," and I'll say, What? And she'll say, "No, I talking to this Daddy." And she holds up the dollhouse Daddy.

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I bought the kids games one day last week. Jack got Minotaurus, this cool Lego game. Kate got Hungry Hippos, a mini version, and she and Jack played with it. I think I wrote about this already. Anyway, that night Emily brought home new backpacks. Kate wanted to put her game in her backpack. And there it stays. She won't take it out, no matter how much Jack asks. It's a little sad really; he just wants to play her game with her, but she won't.

So when she napped the other day, I told Jack we could get it out, and we did and we played it. It is kind of fun. We took it out today, too.

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Jack wanted to play Minotaurus with me the other day, during Kate's nap. It was a busy work time for me. So I said, look Jack. I can play with you, in 10 minutes. But normally this involves you asking me every minute, "NOW can you play with me?" and "Has it been 10 minutes yet?" And as a result I don't get my 10 minutes of work done. So if you're patient, and don't ask me, I will play with you in 10 minutes.

And so I worked for 10 minutes. And he played with his game. Very quiet, very patient. When 11 minutes had passed, I finished what I had to do. I turned to Jack and said, OK, now we can play.

Jack said, "Wasn't I very patient, Daddy?" Yes you were, Jack. You were great.

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We mowed the lawn the other day. Well, I did. And they helped me push the mower, by which I mean, they got between me and the mower, and held the middle part of the handle, and their heads banged into my legs and groin and stomach as I tried to push the mower without trampling them or injuring myself too badly. Eventually, the lawn got mowed.

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Guy came to install our chandelier last Friday. Kate and Jack wanted to help, but it was an electrical thing and, you know. So I said, no, better to just look. They went off into the living room and were quiet for a minute. I checked in on them. "We sad," said Katie. They both looked sad.

I said they could help with their toy tools. So, happy, they got their little plastic tools, and I gave them a piece of cardboard from the chandelier box, and they helped.