Day before Thanksgiving

- Dropped both kids off at school. Kate and Jack fairly ran up the stairs to Kate's class, and by the time I got her bag and lunch into her cubbie, she was already down in Mr. Brendan's room, sitting at a table, drawing a picture. Probably one of her happy faces. Whisked Jack out the door and off to his school. We caught every light and Jack said he was using his light power to get us green lights. Sometimes I'm not sure if he's being serious or not.

- Picked Jack up first, then Kate. At Jack's school, he immediately wanted to take off his jacket, as always. I said no, as always, with it being cold and rainy and stuff. We zipped off to get Kate; when we arrived her teacher was reading the kids a story. She came over: "Daddy, can I sit and hear the end of the story?" I said sure, and she went over for about 10 seconds, then got up and started babbling away: "Do you want to see my brother's shirt? Jack, show them your shirt...."

- Went to the wine store. There's a parrot, so they ran off to see the parrot and wish it a Happy Thanksgiving. When it was time to leave, "Goodbye, parrot! Happy Thanksgiving!"

- Jack wrote a Christmas letter to Santa Claus for Kate. He drew a picture of Santa (it's a great Santa) and opened with a couple of lines saying he hoped Santa's family was doing well and the weather was nice or somesuch. He wrote down the two big things she said she wanted; earlier he'd explained to me how "Santa doesn't always bring EVERYthing you want, just some things."

- Took Jack out to Mr. Ruvo's to get his haircut. Mr. Ruvo reminisced how Jack had been getting his hair cut there since he was 2 years old. Yup.

- Afternoon project with the kids, making paper plate turkeys. From a website mentioned in an article Nana sent, so good job, Nana. Kate wanted to make a purple turkey, so she did. Jack opted for the more traditional brown with colored feathers. The turkeys were awesome.

- And then Jack also wanted to make a hawk, so we made basically the exact same thing, except Jack colored it black instead of brown (Black hawk? A town in his birth state of Colorado, incidentally), and also gave it angry looking eyebrows. And we didn't give it one of those weird turkey things hanging off its beak, of course.

- Ate pizza, read stories, washed up, went to bed. You know, just a day.

friday

- while Emily gave Kate her bath, jack and I sat and watched the fire. Jack said it looked like the blue flame was dancing to music, and he got up and demonstrated it dancing.

- I finished up Kate's bath. She didn't want me to take the band-aid off her knee, as usual, but it was time, so I ignored her thrashing and yanked it off. When she had settled down, she not only laughed about it, but mimicked her own protests. "And I said, 'no, don't take my band-aid off' and then I cried like this...'" Hilarious.

- I read them some goofy book called Chaucer's winter or somesuch, about a bear that doesn't want to hibernate. And doesn't! But his parents keep an eye on him. All winter! And I couldn't help thinking, they must really want to sleep. That's parenting.

I read Kate a frog and toad book. At the end of Toad's Dream, which is kind of a disturbing story, Toad wakes to find Frog visiting. You came to see me? Says Toad. I always do, says Frog. That part is nice.

Friday

As I turned out the light and tucked Jack into bed tonight, I looked up and saw the stars Emily had painted on the ceiling. Oh, the stars are beautiful tonight, I said. Jack, playing along, said "Yes. And look: the Big Dipper is out! .... And I think I see Orion's Belt over there...." I pointed out the stars that kind of looked like his initials. And he said, "And, look, there's a shooting star!"

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While I was making her lunch, Kate drew pictures. She showed them to me, and then explained, "It's me and you because we're home together."