Birdhouse

Jack had a day off today -- his "Spring Break," really, after a slew of snow days wiped out the other days off -- and I was thinking last night about what would be fun to do. It rains six days a week, so I didn't really factor outdoor activities, but I wanted to do something kind of different. So for some reason, maybe I got the idea from an article in the paper, or maybe I'd been thinking about it for a while, I decided that Jack and I would make a birdhouse.

Jack had a morning playdate, and then he came home, and he wanted to work on his "Rocket book." It was a bunch of colorful pictures, stapled together, of rockets. And he wanted me to draw with him, and so I did. I sat at the little chair at the art table downstairs -- the best Christmas present we got him, I think -- and drew rockets. Jack explained how they all had to be firing either flames or bullets (I chose flames), how they all had to be different colors (done; his were far more colorful than mine, but I did OK), and how they all had to have names. And when I wrote a little name in the footer ("Flame Thrower") he said, "No no, they all have to have big names across the top of the page." So I wrote it in big, and he smiled approvingly.

It's great drawing with Jack; everything has a structure, and he explains how things should be drawn, and then colored, and how the rocket flames need to be all across the bottom of the rocket and stuff. And if I finished early, he said I should do more; and he was only going slower because he was doing his very best work. And we finished and he was happy and he stapled the book together. "ROCKET BOOK."

Then I told him we were going to make a birdhouse. He said, "How?" And I said, well, I'm going to get some scrap wood from behind our shed (a big board) and saw it into pieces and nail them together, and we'll paint it. And he said, "Can I help?" And I said, You bet.

My Dad has actual carpentry skills; I just have the ones I picked up from him and occasionally have used over the years. But I can see something in my mind and saw straight lines and hammer nails, so that was enough. Jack held the boards while I sawed them -- just kidding! -- he watched while I sawed, and helped a little with hammering the nails. When I ran out of nails, I sent him down to my toolbox to get more, and he agreeably headed off and came back later with a handful of them. I sent him back for a screwdriver; he came back with 5 of them. It was awesome.

And we built the thing and it looked OK. I used a small saw and a hammer and chisel to make a bird-sized circle in the front, and tomorrow I'll find a dowel or something for the birds to stand on while they're admiring our craftsmanship.

I asked Jack what color it should be. He said, "Red." Which was fortunately one of the handful of colors we had, the leftover paint from the previous owners' red dining room. I found an old T-shirt and draped him in it, covered the kitchen floor with newspapers, and sat him down with the can of paint and an old brush. And he slathered it in a thick coat of red, and it was good.

Put Jack to bed tonight and asked him what the best part of his day was. He could have said the rocket book and he could have said the playdate, but instead he said, "Building the birdhouse." So it was a really good day.

Random

- Jack can sit down and turn a blank page into one with a dozen colorful characters and creative spelling with ease. Kate sits down and makes faces with broad smiles; recently she started using multiple colors.

- Jack got his first team baseball cap Saturday, with a "P" on it for his team, Pasquale's. (Italian restaurant.) My first baseball cap ALSO had a P on it...not sure whether it was for "Perkinsville" or "Pirates." He wore it proudly to a birthday party that afternoon, handing it to me 5 minutes in so he could run around without it falling off.

- I'm learning to tie my own shoes righthanded so I will be able to teach Jack how to tie his.

- Kate's teacher tells us that Kate is the social butterfly during "free play," asking everyone, "And what did you do this weekend? And what did YOU do? I played with my brother...."

- At the party yesterday, his little friend Kinsey handed me a sealed envelope to give to Jack. We opened it later; it had a piece of wrapped candy and a note from Kinsey. "Dear Jack. You are my best friend. Next time let's have a play date!" Sweet.

- Then later, talking to Kinsey's Mom (before I opened the note), she said, Kinsey says Jack helps him with his work at school....he says he's a great friend to him. Really? I said. I asked Jack about it later. Jack tried to remember. "Hmmm. Once he didn't know what 8 plus 8 was. And I told him it was 16." That's great, Jack.

Star Wars

It was a rainy day and Jack had a half day from school. So what better time for me to make a big bowl of popcorn, sit us down on the couch, and let him watch Star Wars for the first time? So that's what I did.

The movie holds up well. I had hesitated to show it to Jack, despite asking for it for Christmas, because I feared he wouldn't be into it or would be bored. Nope. He watched with rapt attention, fully engaged most of the way. If memory serves my parents didn't want me to see it because they heard perhaps the bar scene might be scary for little kids. Well, how could Jack be scared by "Hammerhead" or "Greedo" when he was clutching their tiny action figures in his hands? A few minutes into the movie, he ran upstairs to get his Darth Vader case with all the action figures (formerly Scott's). As each character he had the action figure of appeared on the screen, he found the figure and held it up: Luke, Leia, Sandpeople, Darth Vader.

(BTW, I think the charred remains of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (Peru?) were a little more alarming for a youngster. I shielded Jack's eyes, but no one shielded mine.)

Not surprisingly, he had some questions.

"Why can't Darth Vader be Anakin?"

"Why are their weapons made out of light? Wouldn't a SWORD be better?"

"Why is my case shaped like 'Darth Vader'? LUKE is the hero."

Aren't Banthas cool, Jack? "Huh? No, it's just like a big buffalo."

(During the space assault on the Death Star at the end) "Is that Luke? Is THAT Luke? Is that Luke?"

"Did Obi-Wan Kenobi die? Did Darth Vader kill him? Is he dead?"

And of course, the last one.

"Can we go get 'Empire Strikes Back'?"

Legos etc.

Jack's been really into his Legos lately. He kind of forgot about them for a while, and now he actually gets up in the morning and plays with them, and has to be dragged away from them at night.

Today after school he was playing with them a bit in the living room; I was downstairs in my office. He came down with a trio of little wheeled vehicles, showing them to me one by one.

"This one is like a racecar...I remembered watching racecars with Baba in Vermont, and so I made it from my memory. This one is a different kind of racecar. And this one I made so he'd have a friend."

Then he came down with some aircraft. "This is a jet....I thought it was cool. This is an airplane, because I remembered going to Ireland on an airplane.

"This one is a rocket."

Then he came downstairs with more vehicles...these were boats. "This is a racing boat. Oh, THIS is a big machine that kills bugs. They go in here....and then they get sucked in here...and you can see them through this clear part, all their insides and guts and stuff....I took it outside and an ant went into it...." Every Lego had a story.

Later, he lined them all up, all 20 or so of them, on a box before going up to bed.


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At dinner, Kate did something, I forget what, maybe Emily was feeding her, or it was something she said. And Jack said, "Kate's a BABY!"

Kate looked at him seriously. "But I'm not a floppy baby, right, Jack?" We laughed at this, then asked, A floppy baby?

And she said, "Yes, like my dolly. She's a floppy baby, she just sits there and can't move." And then Kate made a goofy face and pretended to be all limp and floppy.

Jack assured her that no, she wasn't, and it seemed to make Kate happy.

T Ball

Jack had his first T ball practice tonight. I was nervous about it all day; he appeared to be oblivious. But when it came time to go, about 10 of 6, he was all, "Kate! Let's go! Get your shoes on! We have to go!" And then we all nearly ran down the street to Aunt Cathy's to drop Kate off (for some reason; she could easily have come with us, I'm not coaching), and head to the park. Jack: "I don't want to be late...I don't want to miss any kids' names!" I'm not sure if he was being serious, or repeating something I had said a while ago about something completely unrelated.

It was cold but sunny. We walked into the park for practice -- nice being able to walk -- and saw James, from his class. He and Jack greeted each other with wild happiness, as if they hadn't just gotten out of school together 3 hours earlier. They met the coaches, split up into twos. I waited for the first throw to catch Jack in the face (in practice I had stressed the importance of getting his glove up, even if he didn't catch everything), but the drill was, wisely I think, to just roll the ball back and forth to each other, and practice fielding it.

There was some time spent teaching the kids to "get ready" by crouching; couple of kids looked like they were trying to lay an egg or something. But eventually they got it.

They graduated to throwing the ball to the coach. Jack's first throw was 10 feet to the coach's left, from about 10 feet away. His next few were on target; whew! Yes, maybe I cared a little bit too much.

They split into two groups, one batting and running to first, one fielding the balls. It's only T ball, there was no pitching. But it was awesome. I can't believe how much fun it was to watch. Jack hit one on the ground, one in the air. Ran to first. Then ran back, picking up his bat on the way.

They took the field next, and Jack, I think just because of where he was standing, was pointed to first base. I may have groaned a little. We've really only just started working on catching, after all. Fortunately in the time he was there, none of the throws really were that near him. Once he got the ball on the bounce, and as the runner ran back to home, he ran after her and tagged her. "Ouch," she said. Sigh. Jack, you don't have to tag the runner now. Later, he was moved to third. I think the fielding and throwing will go better for him than the catching it at first.

And that was it. We walked home, and he seemed happy. I told him, Hey, you're a baseball player. "T ball," he said; a stickler for accuracy, he is.

We saw a friend on the way home, guy I play racquetball with, his daughter is in Jack's class. He asked how T ball was; Jack said, "Great!" Then, because the guy's a Yankees fan, Jack said, "Boo Yankees!" Naturally they'd won today, while the Sox are 0-6, so it didn't have much punch to it.

His daughter, Sophia, showed up in the doorway, seeing Jack with his little baseball cap and glove. Big, beaming smile. She likes Jack. She came out and said Hi. "Hi, So-phi-a," Jack said. A combination between nice and being polite.

I read a blog the other day, one of Emily's favorites (2nd, of course), where the Mom talked about the danger of thinking kids are a "second chance" at your own childhood. Good blog. I was never much of a baseball player; smaller than the other kids on the team, plus for some reason (probably afraid of the ball) I didn't swing at the thing. I think I was an OK athlete, but I was never going to be great at it.

I don't really care if Jack is a great baseball player or even a good one. I just want him to have fun and be able to walk home happy, tell a friend it was great and be polite to a little girl who's sweet on him. And afterward, at home, have a cookie.

Challenge Accepted!

Took Kate with me to get a haircut today. There was a little kid ahead of us, probably about 2 or so, who screamed and wailed in agony from the moment he got in the chair until the moment poor old Mr. Ruvo finally proclaimed the haircut more or less complete.

Later I said to Kate, wow, he didn't enjoy his haircut, did he? "No," agreed Kate. (Although she'd also at one point said "I like that boy!") I said to her, But you don't cry like that at the barber, do you? And she said, "No. I would just say, 'Ouch.' And then, 'Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!'"

I got a haircut, Kate got a lollipop

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Jack recently lamented that he is always doing nice things for Kate, and she never does nice things for him. So today i asked her if she'd like to draw Jack a picture.

She drew her faces, two of them, and said one was her (girl hair) and one was Jack (stubble or a lion's mane...it's how she draws boys). When I showed it to Jack later I showed how she had also drawn a circle, which she said was a Bakugan.

Jack had a little smile on his face. Not sure how to describe it. Pleased, I think.