Christmas Eve

Seriously, who has the time to write these things on Christmas Eve? Actually, I kind of do, because it's 930 and the kids are in bed and the parents are headed that way, and with any luck an hour from now they'll all actually be asleep! So today....

- jack was wildly excited and bouncy and giddy all day long
- Kate was as healthy as she has been in a week. Naturally, though, she is coughing now.
- we began a tradition of tacos on Christmas Eve. Next year I hope I don't have to run to the grocery store at 4 pm because the meat we bought two days ago looked bad.
- we went to church and the singing was beautiful. It always is. Carol of The Bells and O Holy Night were the highlights. They always are.
- got home and my parents were there. Merry Christmas!
- jack wrote a note to Santa and I helped him put out cookies. Delicious. They looked, that is.
- read the kids The Night before Christmas, as I do every year. Kate was riveted. Jack sang along, not always at the right speed.

Watched some of It's a Wonderful Life, as we also do every year. I think next year we shall watch it the night after Thanksgiving to make sure we get the whole thing in.

Now to check out the NORAD Santa tracker, then bed.

Sunday, Sunday

Couple of good moments today, which included some of the usual pre-Christmas running around by me, Emily, and other assorted family members, plus with Kate still being slightly under the weather, somebody keeping her company here.

- She had an afternoon nap, and afterwards I got her up to sit with me on the couch and watch some football. I told her we were rooting for Ray Rice, and she nodded in assent and obligingly cheered, "Go Ray Rice! Go Ray Rice!" I gave her a cup of water, and told her she could have an orange snack with me, but one on condition: when I gave her an orange section, she had to put the whole thing in her mouth, not take a bite of it or pick strings off it and get juice all over everything. And she agreed, so I'd peel her a section, she'd eat the whole thing, and ask for another. We sat on the couch eating two entire oranges this way, cheering for Ray Rice.

- Jack was sick last Sunday, and I went out to a football gathering, and I feel like the previous Sunday it rained or something. Anyway, we haven't been able to play football the last couple of Sunday afternoons. Then today he was out caroling and at his cousins and so forth. So as I put him to bed tonight, I said, Jack, we HAVE to throw the football around next Sunday. I don't care if it's cold, or rainy, or what, we're throwing the ball around in the back yard, because we've missed the last couple of Sundays. He agreed this was pretty bad. "Deal," he said, and we hugged good night.

Saturday at home

With people trying to get over being sick, and cookies to be baked, we spent much of the day at home. Some of what occurred:

- we watched Year without a Santa Claus, followed by Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Kate was going to be scared of the Heat and Cold Miser, I think, and then I pointed out how goofy they were. Look, he has a little trio of hims as his backup singers! "Yeah, he does!" she laughed.

- we ate pizza, because there wasn't enough room in the kitchen to cook anything or clean up afterwards. Jack settled for that; we would save his first choice, tacos, for the next night. 

- I read stories to Kate, a Biscuit one (she read most of it) and then Christmas in the Manger. Jack and I read Cool Stuff Exploded.

- we made some pictures, and Kate made a birthday card for Uncle Ian. 

Pretty sure we did more, but on this, the 22nd day of Christmas, I am pretty frazzled.

Sick, not sick...bleh

Kate was sick today and stayed home. High fever, she slept a lot. When she's sick, she kind of just crumples up into a little ball, wails when she's awake, whimpers in between. I held her for a while on the couch, though I also felt awful, so she watched Rudolph...and the Grinch...and....   Gave her cereal for dinner and put her to bed. Am hoping she's better tomorrow, because her day wasn't much fun.

Jack feels GREAT, which he reminds us of every 5 minutes by leaping and dancing around. "It's almost Christmas! You don't know what it's LIKE to be a little boy just before Christmas!" Uh, actually, Jack, I do. It's pretty awesome. Anyway, Jack watched the Harry Potter movie, and I watched some with him; not bad really. Holds up well. Love the Wizards Chess scene. We played Parcheesi, I sort of let him win for a change, and put him to bed. Before bed we watched a little of the "Brian 'O' Barley Bowl" or something like that, which is apparently a college bowl game currently sponsored by some chain of burger restaurants. We were watching these commercials for huge burgers and steaks and I felt bad that I'd only had cereal for dinner. Anyway, Jack was in a goofy mood, so when I expressed awe over the size of the burger in the commercial, and elaborated on the elements (burger...bacon...and cheeeeesse) somehow this struck Jack as the absolute funniest thing in the world, and he was totally cracking up. Every time I said cheeeeeesse, peals of laughter would follow. It was pretty funny, and a good note to end the day on.

The Grinch

Way back when, I told Jack's teacher I'd join his class as a chaperone for their field trip to Madison Square Garden to see the musical of The Grinch. That day was today, and although I Wasn't feeling my best, I managed.

At the school I met the two boys who, with Jack, I would be in charge of. One of them said to me, "Do you like your hair that way?" That was pretty awesome.

We got onto the school bus, I sat with another boy's mom, Jack sat between his two.  Friends. They chattered away happily the whole way down. We saw a really big battleship, that was really cool. We saw Times Square, drove by the Empire State Building, sw the restaurant that didn't have room for us this summer.

At the show, one boy had to go the bathroom before, one had to go about 20 minutes from the end, and then Jack had to go about 5 minutes from the end. Guh. Jack, I made wait. He was ok.

Me and a mom took 10 boys to the bathroom after the show. Scariest 10 minutes ever. Bunch of 7-8 year olds running around ("Walk!") as I did head counts over and over again. I went in with the kids, she stood just outside, and I sent 'em out as they finished. Nerve-wracking. None were lost.

Most of it was great, the Grinch especially. Funny. Some of the Who songs, I kind of sympathized with the Grinch. Loud. At parts the kids lost interest.

But the best part was at the end, when the Grinch brought the toys back, and it SNOWED in the theatre. Not real, but it seemed real. All three kids stood up, reaching out, faces aglow. Worth the price of admission right there.

Christmas art

Today when I got the kids home from school, with their gingerbread houses and Christmas trees they'd made in class, we.... Well, actually, first we unwrapped the plastic on both of them, well no, first we tried to untie the ribbon on the top of them, and then I found the scissors and cut through them, and then I ripped the plastic off them, and then we set up in a place of honor on the dining room table, even though Jack's teacher Ms. Bernstein actually made the thing because Jack was out sick.

Anyway! We sat down at the kitchen table with paper, crayons, and scissors and made pictures. I made an old standby, Santa in his sleigh, waving, being pulled by reindeer. Kate also made Santa in his sleigh, and Rudolph, and cut each of them out and we taped them up to the kitchen windows. Jack made a picture of Santa coming down the chimney into the living room, where there were big presents for everyone. He drew a reindeer on the roof, and then drew another picture with more reindeer. Those, too, we put up on the cabinets in the kitchen.

Merry Christmas!

Bleh

Now I'm sick. Brief blog tonight.

Jack stayed home again, but was mostly feeling fine as the antibiotics kicked in. I worked, 'cause I have a deadline, and dragged him to a couple of different doctors -- two, because I got lost going to my appt and had to go to a second one. He agreeably went along with me, reading a book and filling in the doctor on my various medical history, only some of it relevant. "He broke his collarbone three times!"

Yeah, that's it, I'm going to bed.

sick Jack

Jack was home sick today, as the latest illness makes the rounds. (I'm not feeling so hot myself, so this will be a short one.) You really feel it when he's actually sick; he basically just lies on the couch, or sits with his head resting against the cushion. Cheeks flushed, hair matted against his head, eyes glassy. It's terrible but it's also kind of cute; I kind of just want to sit there and hug him. So I did that some today. He'd have momentary flashes of excitement -- something cool in an episode of the Avengers cartoon, or some highlight he saw from a football game -- but then he'll lapse back into silence.

The funny thing is that when Jack is sick, it seems to have the opposite effect on Kate. She was full of energy and joy, perhaps glad he wasn't running around competing for our attention or something. Us not having to entertain him beyond bringing him water every once in a while meant more time to spend entertaining her. Seemed that way, anyway. 

He didn't want to get off the couch at dinner, so I sat next to him and fed him chicken and rice. We watched a little of the pregame, then it was off to bed. And now it's my turn.

Sunday

This morning at church was the Christmas paegant. Jack was a shepherd ("Every Christmas it's the same...I always end up playing a shepherd.") and got a couple of lines and a pretty cool costume with a long robe, a staff, and some sort of wrap on his head. No fake beard though, I was a little disappointed. Maybe next year. Kate was a sheep, and the girl who was one of the stars of the Friday concert clung to the Sunday School teacher for the entire performance.

Afterward Jack had a fever, so he couldn't go to the football party we went to. Emily stayed with him, I went with Kate. Forgot the friends had a dog, which barked at us through the door. Oops. Kate is a little nervous around dogs, especially ones that bark at her. So, she spent the afternoon upstairs in the daughter's room playing with dolls -- in fairness, she would have anyway -- and I watched football. So, not an out of the ordinary Sunday.

Got home to find Jack with a cold, cough, and fever. Put him to bed early. He politely turned away when he had to cough. Sleep tight, Jack.

She loves to dance

It was parents observation week at Kate's dance class, which means we got to sit inside the room (normally parents aren't allowed) and watch Kate dance. It's ballet and jazz dancing, or as much as it can be for 5-6 year old girls, I guess.

And it was pretty cool. They lined up and did their steps and their bends and padded along on their little feet in their ballet slippers, smiling and posing and looking both proud and shy at the same time. Kate is kind of a ham, she clearly loves performing and being on stage...shy in situations where she has to meet people or whatnot, very outgoing in situations where she is on stage. Kind of funny.

Lined up with all the other girls in the same little outfits, she managed to look both very big and very small at the same time.

Today

The morning began with the Christmas concert at the school. We showed up half an hour early to get seats. Kate was in front, in the middle, and she played to the crowd. She sang loudly, she smiled, she waved. Susie Snowflake, Rudolph, etc. She likes to be on stage. Jack was in back, looking a little wooden and sleepy. When it was over, he joked around with his friend Peter ("we walked into a door!" he said later), but during the show he just went through the motions. Kate continued to wave.

After school, they had a gingerbread house class. I helped out, pouring candy into bowls and trimming tips on  icing and such. Working the room, helping kids in need. Often Kate.

We went home, and Jack gave me a tour of his gingerbread house. The trapdoors, the secret passageways, the different attributes. He was pretty pleased with it. Well, he lamented it wasn't as nice as the one in the picture on the box. I said they took a lot more time on those. He admitted his was unique.

We brought Kate to a girl scout meeting. Jack and I stood outside and tried to make up games until Emily showed up. But went inside because it was really, really cold.

At Aunt Cathy's, we ate latkes and lit the menora for their Hannukah celebration. And Jack and his cousins goofily sang 12 days of Christmas. Then we went home.

We hugged and kissed them both goodnight, then sat on the couch and were glad they were sleeping upstairs, safe and sound. Then went up to kiss them goodnight again.

Library

Today we went to the library after school. We go almost every week, it is the only way to keep up with Jack. He is what you call a voracious reader. We park, and we go in...I return books, they run upstairs to the kids area. Jack collects about a dozen books. He is into encyclopedia brown, Beverly clearly, and some other mystery types of books. And Weird at school or whatever.

Kate goes for Biscuit, which is her reading level, and Dr. Seuss, which might be a little beyond me to be honest...that man was nuts. And Olivia, and Pinkalicious. And she likes doing the puzzles there, too.

We head home, and they each want to carry their own books, and read them in the car. It's nice. At home, jack flops over a chair or arm of the couch to read. Kate flips through one, then asks if I want to play a game. She's getting there, though.

12th day of Christmas

Today was going to be a night of leftover spaghetti and meatballs, which would have been fine with the kids I think, but instead I decided to go grocery shopping and get something special -- fish sticks, couscous, and frozen crinkle cut carrots. They love those things, all of them.

We ate in the kitchen, which they also love; not sure why they view it with such reverence, but they do. Next to eating out is Eating in the kitchen.

After dinner we watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town, which I figure I have seen 100 times over the last 30 or so years. I'm not sure how I would rank it, the Grinch, and Charlie Brown... I like them for different reasons. Gotta say, I think the Grinch might just be perfect. But nothing gets me like the end of Charlie Brown, when they are singing and Written by Charles M. Schulz comes up.

Anyway, kate was a little scared of the Winter Warlock, but she liked it eventually. Jack too, but he remembered it more than she did.

Kate's story choice tonight was Goodnight Gorilla. Haven't read that one in a few years.

Brinner

Emily went out for the PTA Holiday Dinner, so I gave the kids dinner -- brinner, we call it, as in breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs, bacon, english muffins or corn toasties, grapefruit, orange juice. Basically it's a meal I can make without really taking the time to cook, although you really have to be attentive to get that bacon just right.

They gobbled it all up (Kate: "I love scrambled eggs AND hard boiled eggs!"), we had lemon cookies for dessert, and then watched A Charlie Brown Christmas for about the third time. I sat between them, the tree was lit up and beautiful, the stockings were hung by the chimney with some degree of care (and the Elf on the Shelf peeking out of one of them), and the show was as great as ever. And so were they.

10th day of Christmas

Sick day for Kate, half day for Jack. Work day for Daddy and Mommy, which can be tough. Because the kids crave interaction, and it's tough to do while working. There's a lot that's great about working from home, I know that. What's not so great is that when you're sitting at a computer trying to work and yet you're home, it doesn't seem like you're at work. It seems like, Daddy! Will you play with me?

And the tough part is that I know there will be days when I wish I had said, OK! Let's play the Playground game, or Scrabble, or Monopoly, or Zoominoes. But in the moment, at the time, I'm just thinking, Gah! I have a deadline! I have to work! I can not play with you right now!

I guess some people are in that situation all the time. They can never say, OK! Or they're working in an office, and not there to be asked. I know everyone in an office would probably trade places with the person working from home. So I won't complain too much. Just those some days.

One great thing today: Jack, knowing I had to work, said, he would get Kate lunch. In the morning, he told Emily proudly how he knew how to make cinnamon toast...He knew where the cinnamon was, where the sugar was, and he knew how to use the toaster. Where the butter was. So after I got him at school and we got home, he said, "Daddy, go work! I will get Kate lunch." So I went downstairs, and he made Kate lunch. Once I went upstairs to offer to pour juice for them, and he said, "Daddy, YOU go downstairs. Go work." So I did, and he gave Kate lunch.

And yes, there was a fine coating of cinnamon all over the counter afterward, but I got some work done.

Sick Kate

Kate was sick today...stomach virus starting around 2:30 a.m. Actually. Kind of makes it difficult to focus on other stuff like the holidays. And it rained all day, trapping us inside, which didn't make it any better.

On the bright side, she didn't get sick after being sick three or four times during the night. And we also got to relax a little, at least from the running around stuff. Played some board games, watched some football, jack took funny pictures of them with Emily's camera. Kate felt better late and proudly pointed out how she ate her chicken and green beans..... "I LOVE chicken," she said.

Together we read Rudolph, as we have every bedtime for the last two weeks, and she went to sleep.

Busy day

Today was a full day,mwhich for Emily and Kate culminated in a classmate's birthday party, and for Jack and me ended with a burger at his favorite eating place -- he's positively rhapsodic about it -- Elevation Burger. Seriously, as we approached it in the parking lot, he was like, "smell that? No, really smell the air. It's the French fries."

So as we were eating our burgers, I said, so Jack, what was the favorite part of your day?

And he said, "Definitely decorating the tree. No -- the snowball fight at the breakfast with Santa. (styrofoam snowballs, we don't have snow yet.) no, watching the "Avengers" show. No, this burger. No, playing with beyblades."

He took another bite of his burger. "I think it was the whole day."

I took Kate to ballet today. Parents don't get to watch, they just sit outside talking, or with their faces in a book or phone or whatever. So I was reading a book when Kate bounced giddily out of class with a "Booo!" And chattered away about "we did THIS and THAT and put our hands together to make a flower and we danced to that song you like and it's my favorite...."

All that and I almost forgot to mention that during breakfast Emily played The Nutcracker, which Jack's class had just seen a version of, and he marched around the kitchen and showed how the guy did this with the sword, and then the mouse sowed up, and the soldiers, and there was Kate saying "da da da da da, da da DA! Da da da da da da, da da DA!" over and over again.

7th day of Christmas

Jack said to Emily tonight, "I don't know why at school people think reading is work. Because, when you read a book, it's a whole story, and it's just great. If I'm bored, I can read, and, you know....." Then he kind of trailed off, because he couldn't quite express it.

Recently Jack had found a key ring, and asked me if he could have other ones. I looked at him, confused, and said, no, Jack, because we need them, we have keys on them. And he found one on a key that we weren't using and said, well, can I have this one? And I said, okay, I guess so. And he said, I need one more. And I could see he had them on a piece of paper with holes punched in one end, and I said, no Jack, I think two is enough to hold that up or whatever it is you're going for. And then he found another one, and I said, ok great. And then he disappeared.

A few minutes later he came back to show us what he had done. He had drawn pictures on three pieces of paper, and linked them together with the key rings. One had Santa on his sleigh. One had eight reindeer. And the last one had Rudolph, leading them all. It was this cool mural, connected by key rings.

What could I say? Well, Jack, you were right. I stand corrected. That is a much better use of key rings than hanging on hooks in our kitchen. That is really, really great.

Quick one

Watched The Grinch again with the kids and put them to bed. Read The Happy Lion Roars to Kate, which like most sequels was not as good as the original, The Happy Lion. Jack and I then read an Encyclopedia Brown story. Strange how I remember most of them. That's the stuff my brain hangs on to?

Then I came downstairs and shut off the computer before I had blogged, so I wrote a quick one on my phone and turned that off too

Swimming

The kids have swimming classes back-to-back on Wednesday, Kate at 3:30 and Jack at 4:20. What this means is I'm there for two hours, entertaining Jack for the first hour and Kate for the second hour.

We speed over there after school, and Jack parks himself in the parents waiting area with a book while I get Kate into her bathing suit. She chatters away happily and I'm glad she's not the kid who's crying about something or other, presumably swimming I guess. I tuck her head into her swim cap and she asks for a sort of pony tail, "like you did last time." Basically I bun her hair up and stuff it into the cap without the benefit of an actual pony tail tie. We strap on her goggles -- she needs new ones -- and I send her happily off into her class.

Jack finishes his homework, and we spend some time in the game room. It's about what you might expect from a YMCA game room -- air hockey, foosball, pool table, table tennis, in various conditions. The foosball table is falling apart, but that's what Jack wants to play. So we do. I try not to clobber him, which isn't hard because the thing barely works and it's sitting on a slight angle, so if we miss the ball entirely it eventually rolls into my goal. I also nobly take the side that doesn't have a goalie. He wins 5-4 and is very happy, laughing when yet another rolls into my empty goal due to the rotation of the Earth.

I check in on Kate. Her goggles have broken and she's sad. I go in and take them and promise to get her new ones before next week. "Will they be pink?" she asks sadly. Yes, I say. She cheers up and finishes the class.

While Jack is in his class, I take Kate into the family bathroom, which has a shower. She's too old to bring into the boy's room, I obviously can't go in the girls room. The family room is OK, at least it locks. Kate has her shower and we manage to get her dressed without her clothes getting too wet.

I brought coloring books for Kate, and Highlights magazine. She colors happily and sings a little. For about 10 minutes. Then we look for thing in the magazine puzzles (A rake! A shovel! Daddy's vision at 25!), and she laughs at my jokes (Is that the fish? "NO, Daddy! That's a banana!" That? "NO, Daddy! That's a monkey!"). I get 5 minutes to read the book I brought, and then it's time to get Jack, bundle up to brave the cold, and head home.

Grinch was on tonight. "Then he got an idea.....an awful idea....the Grinch got a wonderful, AWFUL idea...."

I think Kate might be a little scared of the Grinch early on. But she loves his dog Max.

playdates

Kate had a playdate at her friend Brooke's house today, Jack had his friend Dylan over for a couple of hours. Tuesday's a busy work day so I try to avoid the complications, but Kate being out is a plus, and Jack being otherwise occupied when Kate's out is a plus.

Jack and Dylan played with Jack's Nerf bow and arrow; there were gasps of "Wow!" and such from the back yard as they fired nerf darts straight up into the air. They ran around and laughed and I realized as always that playdates are pretty good, because Jack needs to play with kids his age sometimes outside of just school.

Kate returned from her playdate chattering away. "Brook has a MILLION stuffed toys! Really! And I want to have Brooke over for a playdate. And a SLEEPOVER! And I want to go over THERE for a sleepover. Oh, bye, Brooke! Byeeee!!!!!"

3rd day of Christmas

Kids spent some more time playing with the Peppa Pig camping trip toys this afternoon. I realized, listening to them play with it, that Kate was really, really happy that Jack was playing with her, with toys. Because he's a little older, and he likes to read, and play football in the yard, and play computer games. He doesn't always want to sit down with Kate and play make-believe games with toys. And he was doing it, and she was ecstatic. "Here, Kate, let's do this." "OK! And, Peppa will be over here, OK, Jack?" "OK!"

A lot of the games they do play are imagination type things. They play "toy," where one of them acts like a toy and the other the child playing with them. They play some sort of roughhousing game where I'm always scared one of them is going to get hurt; I'm not sure what that one is called. "Nearly hitting head on coffee table," I think.

The games Kate likes best, generally, Jack gets tired of sooner, and he wants to go do something else, usually that Kate has no interest in. And she gets sad, or angry, and I try to either fill in when I can, or cheer her up, not often with success.

So it's nice when they find an activity they can both enjoy, and I don't always realize how much Kate appreciates it. Jack is kind of mild-mannered, I think, so he doesn't seem to make a big deal out of it. But I tell him, Hey Jack, Kate really enjoyed playing that game with you. It was great of you to do that.

I like to think he's happy to know that. 

2nd day of Christmas

Today was mostly a home day, aside from a morning birthday party for Kate and church for Jack. Back at home, I spent a whole lot of time watching football, and Kate and Jack spent a lot of time.... playing. It's a big deal, because they don't always just, you know, play with toys. Together!

Their first big toy activity was, uh, multiple wooden Nativity scenes we've collected over the years. We have them set them up each year, which is fun for them. But today they decided they'd play with all the characters like they were action figures.

Kate: "I'm going to be the baby Jesus!"

Jack (putting one of the wise men's robes on a cow): "It's ....Supercow! Yay, Supercow!....." He held the cow up and had it fly around the room.

Kate proceeded to have other Nativity figures bring presents to the Baby Jesus. Toys, mostly. Because, you know, baby. So the wise men brought Jesus a puppy and a small ball, rather than say myrrh or frankincense.

Jack enjoyed playing with Nativity figures from different sets, and thus of different sizes. "Look, it's a giant version of ME," he had one Joseph saying to another Joseph. "Look, it's a little version of me," said the second one.

Later in the afternoon, they played with the Peppa Pig camping trip set. I think this was prompted by Emily helping Kate clean her room, and they found it. Suddenly it was Kate's favorite toy again, and they had a blast with it. I only caught bits and pieces, because the camping trek went from Kate's room, to the playroom, and back again. Stopovers in the kitchen on the way.

At the end of the day, it was time to put the recycling out, and since we were outside, and it was Sunday, we played some football. It was nearly pitch black, but the football was half orange, so we could half see it. We threw it back and forth, and Jack tried to bring every catch back for a touchdown, for about 20 minutes without anyone getting hit in the eye since they couldn't see anything. And then we went in, ate dinner, watched some football players who weren't nearly as good as we were, and called it a night.

25 Days of Blogging

Been slacking on this lately, so what better than the busiest time of year to write a blog every day for 25 consecutive days? If you don't have a goal, you won't try to achieve it. So here goes.

Today we rose at the ungodly hour of 5:30 so we could be out of the house before 7 to drive into New York City to see the 9 a.m. showing of the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Jack helpfully woke Kate up as soon as he was awake and fairly dragged her out of bed and down the stairs, then encouraged her to eat her breakfast faster. "Kate! C'mon!" Anyway we got out the door and drove into the city.

Made it to Radio City and immediately dropped a small fortune on a couple of Santa Claus stuffed toys and a program. Took some pictures with glowy lights in the background and then of Jack and Kate with a real live Rockette. They did a nice job of smiling. The Rockette, too!

The show was pretty great. There was a lame bit where a mother and daughter played a video game to save Christmas or something, which Jack enjoyed, but everything else was cool. Kate was enthralled, I think, by the dancing. Jack liked some of it, got weary of some of it. Granted, we were all up really early. There were marching soldiers and dancing Nutcracker characters and a whole lot of Santas. And ice skaters. We asked Kate what the best part was, and she said, "Everything!" Jack mentioned the video game and I believe the wooden soldiers, because they were pretty cool.

After the show we went on a quest for coffee/food for the kids. After somehow walking about 4-5 blocks in New York City without encountering a Starbucks (we'd see 3 on the way back to the car later that afternoon), we settled on the Cafe upstairs from the NBC Store. Yes, I suspect we're the only people who have ever gone into the NBC Store for the coffee and the black-and-white cookies, which were fantastic. Kids got hot chocolate, which they enjoyed once it was lukewarm. When do kids start to like hot beverages? 

We then went to the American Girl and Lego stores, with the idea being the kids would think of things they wanted and tell Santa. They could each pick one thing. Kate picked a doll, we made a note of it, and on the way out of the store she came up with a different one. Jack picked some giant Lego truck, then switched to a Harry Potter Diagon Alley set, also halfway out the door. So yeah, they'll get something and may or may remember which one it was that they wanted.

We had lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner, this 50s diner type place with singing waitstaff. While we were there somebody sang Lady Gaga and this other woman did a pretty fantastic rendition of "Everything's Alright" from Jesus Christ Superstar. Great voice! The kids menu was for under 6-year-olds, so Jack had a big burger from the regular menu, same as me actually. Did a pretty good job eating the thing.

Made it home, watched Charlie Brown Christmas, ordered pizza. Kids were a little on the rambunctious/overtired side, or maybe that was us. Anyway, we trundled them off into bed and weren't far behind. Nice family day in the big city.

Teacher

So at the kids' school they do these occasional after school classes/courses called Creative Knights, where kids get to do, I don't know, projects, science stuff, languages, learning about cars ....whatever volunteers are able to teach. So because last year I had done these Paper plate turkeys with the kids around Thanksgiving, Emily signed me up to lead a Thanksgiving crafts class. And that was today.

The plan was to do two projects, maybe three. We would do the paper plate turkeys, and then we would do these apple, marshmallow and raisin turkeys, and maybe some sort of tepee thing.  I had gone to the store and got the apples and everything, so it was all set. Thing I came to find was that doing projects with a couple of kids takes much less time than doing them with 23. We had all the stuff, and I had a couple of parents and nieces helping, but I was still running around stapling and folding and cutting and gluing googly eyes, because you have to have googly eyes, for all 23 kids.

I pretty much didn't stop to catch my breath for an hour and 20 minutes. There would be Kate saying "daddy! Daddy?" then an aside to her friend Brooke, "that's my daddy" before calling me again to help her out. There would be Jack asking for help before sharing a joke with one of his friends. Then another child needed a beak cut, and another a waddle. Or carbuncle? I have no idea. Whatever that red thing on a turkey's face is. And the glue sticks. Ah, the glue sticks. There were many. And lots of staples were used. I hope there are no barefoot kids there on Monday.

As I finished each turkey, all 23 a little different, I said, Hey, nice one! And it wasn't difficult to do, because they were all unique and all awesome. And then it was time to go and everyone said goodbye and a lot said Thank you and Kate named her turkey Siena or something and it was beautiful and they were happy.

In college or maybe after people sometimes said I should be a teacher. It was one of those things I briefly thought about but always figured I would do journalism and publishing of some sort, before one day drifting into a career that didn't even exist at the time and sounds fake even now. I don't know. I have a ton of respect for teachers anyway and probably even more after spending an hour in a room with 20 some odd kids. Because doing it every day, it would be pretty challenging. But doing it a little bit, here and there, every so often. That I could do.

And oh yeah we ran out of time for the apple turkeys. So when we got home, I got out all the stuff and Kate and Jack made them anyway.

Blackout!

Day 1

We lost power Monday evening. It was expected, and we had the flashlights and lanterns ready. We ate dinner by candlelight - leftover lasagna for us, yogurt and bread and peapods for Jack and Kate.

In the living room, unable to find the book I wanted to read to the kids by candlelight/lantern, I settled on Grimm's Fairy Tales. Kind of dark stuff, and might I note that the authors of these things must not have liked their wives very much. Most of the stories involved wives making their husbands do things they didn't want to do. ("Grimm! When you are going to finish those stories you keep promising to write? Grimm!")

After that, we made hand shadows on the wall. Somewhere along the line I must have inadvertently said "hand puppets," because that was what Jack went on to call them for the next day. So the next morning when he said, "Kate and I made some great hand puppets!" I went into his room looking for them, and there was nothing there. I made a dog, a moose, a bird, a snake, the old standards. Jack seemed ambitious, contorting his hands into wild shapes, looking at what was produced, then trying again. Kate made a bunny, remembering how she'd seen me make it. One of us guessed it, and she pointed happily and yelled "YES!" Then she made another one. Which was also a bunny. One of us guessed it. "YES!"

Jack made a dog, then when we guessed that he did one more. He rolled his arms really fast. Uh, a cotton gin? A lottery wheel? We couldn't guess it. "HURRICANE SANDY!" he yelled.

We laughed for a while, then went to bed. We'd moved Kate's bed into Jack's room (high winds, and there were more trees near her windows), so she slept in there. They slept quickly.

Day 2

We used the camping coffee pot to make bad coffee in our powerless home. (The gas burners on top of the stove worked.) We walked to Cathy's and spent some time over there (they still had power). Surveyed the damage from overnight, which included a pretty tree in our backyard having been snapped off; it rested against our fence and the neighbor's deck. Had to have it removed, which was kind of sad.

Played some games, left the kids there, went home to get some stuff done around the house while it was still light, and hoped power would come back on. It didn't. Had dinner over at Cathy's, and when the kids asked if they could sleep over -- their first ever -- we said sure. So they did. We went home, sat in the dark for a bit, went to bed early. Uh, it was kind of cold.

Day 3

Still no power. It was Halloween. Emily went back to work, and the kids and I walked up and down the street, taking a few pictures of trees and lines down. For Jack and Kate it was all a big adventure, really; there was no school, they could play all day with their cousins, we went to McDonald's for lunch...not so bad.

After lunch we went home, I got them dressed up in their costumes, and we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Regular nighttime trick or treating was essentially cancelled on our street -- nobody had any power, there were no street lights, it would be really dark. So we went during the day. They happily ran to the houses next door, across the street, got their candy, and plenty of it (because the people handing it out knew there wouldn't be many other visitors). A friend who had power hosted an indoor trick or treating event, with adults standing in rooms handing out candy at doors. Kids got more candy, showed off their awesome costumes, were happy. They're probably both young enough -- especially Kate -- that they didn't remember how much more extravagant Halloween was a year ago. They left with people having enjoyed seeing them in their costumes and with them having got big buckets of candy. That's Halloween.

Day 4

We got power back. It was a huge relief. Told the kids they had to come home from Aunt Cathy's now. They did a nice job of not seeming overly disappointed.

It was sunny and warm, so we went biking. We brought their bikes down to Recreation Park. (Lyon's Park, the bigger one nearest us, was closed because of all the trees and wires down....too dangerous.) Rec Park also had trees down, several huge ones. It was crazy; like an angry giant had walked around the neighborhood pushing down everything in his way.

What was funny was that to Jack and Kate, the mammoth fallen trees were just another part of the park scenery. This huge tree had crushed the fence around the tennis courts and now lay across the courts themselves, and they just happily rode their bikes in circles, playing games, pretending to see monsters, pretending to go home. I sat on a bench a little way away, snapped pictures with my phone, and they went around and around and around.

Pumpkin Patch

So we needed to get one more pumpkin to carve, and my first thought was to go to Stop and Shop. And then I thought, NO! We're going to Sam Bridge Nursery, which has an actual pumpkin patch and stuff the kids can do. So I picked them up after school and we went right there.

It was awesome. We parked, grabbed a wagon, and I pulled them down to the patch. They jumped out to say hi to the big inflatable Frankenstein monster, and the three little pigs and big bad wolf, and the ghosts, and the scarecrows. And then they ran around in the middle of the pumpkins, and in the hay maze. They jumped from bale to bale and frankly I was a little nervous but Kate can jump further than you would think. Or than I thought. They did this for about half an hour, while I carefully and meticulously selected a couple of pumpkins. There was a tractor, which they climbed on, and off, and on, over and over again. I'm not sure they'd have left if I hadn't finally said it was time to go.

In the car on the way home, they happily sang pumpkin songs.

Kate:

"Mr. Pumpkin
Mr. Pumpkin
he's so orange
he's so orange"


Jack:

"When the ghost went out,
on Halloween night,
he screamed.......!
and he dropped his head right onto his toe!"

There were others, but those are the only words I can remember.

At home, they had a Halloween party. Kate wore a pumpkin cat mask she'd made at school. Jack quickly made a colorful skeleton mask. They made a sign; Jack wrote the words, Kate drew pictures of the pumpkins, hay bales, and tractor. It was pretty great. Then Kate came to me and asked me how to spell "pumpkin patch" so she could finish the writing. She did.

At the party, Jack read Halloween stories, and also Lost and Found, aloud, while Kate listened in rapt attention.

During the time they were running wildly around the pumpkin patch, Jack paused for a moment and said to me, "I feel bad for the kids who have to go to after school program!" Then he ran off.

I can't tell many people that, but it was pretty cool.

school trouble

It was a rough week for Jack, and us, hearing that he supposedly called another boy a name (he says he didn't, and we pretty much believe him), then getting in trouble for, I guess, telling knock knock jokes while lining up for recess with a friend and using a word he shouldn't have. That incident got him a "warning" because apparently there was another occurrence, totally accidental, where he brought a dot to dot book to school, and a pencil, and accidentally poked a friend with the pencil. He told me about that one and was kind of confused it was an issue. "I turned to talk to Peter and was holding the pencil and Jenna got poked."

He's a 7-year-old boy; I kind of figured I had a few years before I'd need to be worried about him getting in trouble in school. So we gave him the lecture about not wanting to hear any more of this kind of thing, and punished him, and said, you know, you could get suspended. And he was in tears, lamenting he was going to have to get through the whole year without doing anything wrong. And it's sort of like, well, yeah, I guess that's true. So I guess I won't be letting him bring a dot to dot book to school, and he'd better not be laughing at or repeating jokes that are pretty much created with 7-year-old boys in mind.

The funny thing is that -- while conceding I have a bias here -- I don't know any better kids than him. Happy, funny, likes everyone, gets along with everyone. (Near as I can tell, I'm not actually there at recess.) Every day do I need to worry about him getting in trouble for something or other? Again, I just figured it was a ways in the future, if ever.

He was in tears at the idea that somebody thought he'd called them a name ("If people think I said that they won't want to be friends with me!") and at the thought he might get suspended. Scared. Which makes sense; he likes school, likes reading, likes the work, likes his friends and teachers.

I feel bad for Jack, and I wonder what's true and what isn't, and what needs to change. I wonder what the next thing I'm going to hear is. And I hope -- that it will stop, that it's nothing, that he'll feel better in the morning. And when I can relax and not worry about stuff like this, and realize as I write this that the answer is probably, uh, never, or at least not for very long.

Bedtime songs

I put Kate to bed tonight and offered her a song. She chose Edelweiss, then said, "No -- ballgame." So I sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Then she said, my turn. This was her song, as best I can remember it.

"Bears like to sleep,
they sleep in the night.
They wake in the day,
and they like to eat salmon.

Cats sleep too,
and cats eat fish.
Dogs sleep in the night,
and they eat dog food.

People eat everything,
except food for animals.

People
like
to
sleeeeep."

Mommy away

Emily had to go to Chicago, so I handled the kids solo tonight. Here was how it went.

Picked them up at school. Kate ran around with some boys her age. Only took two weeks for her not to be running around with jack and his friends. Jack ran around with Nick, as always.

Went to grocery store to smash bottles and buy hotdogs. Fun was had by all.

Watched an Avengers with Jack. He picks up on subtle things. "Look how now Stark tower is in the sun," he said. "So everything is Ok." That's right, Jack.

They helped make their beds. Well, they put on pillowcases. Kate cleaned Jack's room. Did a good job, too.

FaceTime with Mommy. They had fun making faces. Uh, just like me when I FaceTime with Robin. Hmmm.

Ate hotdogs, chips, corn. Eating in the kitchen, which we tend to do with three of us, is a big treat. I don't really know why.

While I cleaned up, we played music. Titanium a favorite these days, so I found it on YouTube and we listened. They danced.

Bath and shower. Jack helped Kate brush her teeth and comb her hair. Thanking her for cleaning his room. I don't have words for that.

Read Room on the Broom. At the end, Kate likes pointing out all the different features on the new broom. "He has a pool, and he has a book, and he has...."

Gotta go make my own bed, now....

Day off

Today the kids were off. I had to work. There were ups and downs.

In the morning, while I worked, they played a game called wanderers. They put together backpacks and filled them with play food, books, blankets, and sleeping toys. Then they spread everything out and ate, read, and slept. We might call it camping without the tent.

We went to Burger King for lunch. They looked around for the toys they would get, which weren't on display. We got our food, relaxed in a booth, ate. The burgers are better than McDonalds, the fries aren't as good. They ate everything, and we heard We Are Young on the way home.

We played in the backyard. They briefly climbed into the treehouse to play with the BK toys, then Jack and I played football. We have been working on our timing on pass routes - shed, bush, swing set, tree. I think that in a movie, one day we would need these skills to defuse a bomb or something. "Jack, shed!" I would say, and he would run the correct route. Anyway. We have been practicing.

They drew colorful pumpkins on printouts Kate had brought home. They were similar and I am not sure who copied whom, or if it was just coincidence. Kate also drew a family of cats.

Jack and I watched an Avengers cartoon. To my surprise, he got out his ukulele and played it for the first time in months.

We went out for pizza.

Kate cut her thumb on something. Jack ran to tell me about it "gushing blood." There was a drop, yes. Emily told me at bedtime Kate lamented having not cut her other thumb instead, because the bandaged one is the one she sucks when she goes to sleep. Sad but also funny.

I wrote this blog, and went to bed.

Birthday girl

Putting Kate to bed last night, I said goodnight, my four-year-old daughter. She said, "daddy, I'm 5!" and I said, no, you will be, and this is the last night I can call you that.

She said, "tomorrow, you all need to hide and then jump out and say, Happy Birthday!"  and I said, well, maybe. She came downstairs before me, of course.

She had Fruit loops, cause it was her birthday. Went to school with ice pops for her class. I ran around getting balloons and presents. Picked her up, and she was happy.

At home she saw the balloons, a big 5 and a princess castle with 5 Disney princesses. And she loved it. Her eyes got wide and she pulled at the strings. And then she clobbered me at "playground" and "walk the Plank", a couple of board games she plays not entirely correctly.

We had pizza, opened her presents, she oohed and aahed. Loved her cards, delighted to get the princess and the pea game,mwhich I am sure she will crush me at tomorrow.

Highlight was her opening the card jack made for her. On the front was a carriage like Cinderella's .. "Is that for us going to the ball?" she asked Jack. Then she opened it up and saw the picture inside. "is that ME? As a princess? And is that YOU? You're a knight? jack, I LOVE it!" jack was pretty proud I think.

It was an awesome card. And a happy 5th birthday.

First week of school

Kids started school this week. Some stuff:

- Kate had her first day of school on Wednesday. We sat in the auditorium with her, just as we did with Jack two years ago, and then she got called to join Mrs. Glockenberg. She hugged Emily goodbye and walked off to join her teacher. Brief tension, afraid she would turn back, but she kept on. Emily said she saw her smiling.

- at pickup, she waved happily, smiled, hugged her teacher, ran to us. Happy.

- Jack, an old pro at this, was fine. But at pickup, he wanted to look for his friends, all of whom ended up in a different second grade class. He's funny, he speaks about it philosophically, saying he talked to them too much anyway. But then I see he wrote in his journal, "got Miss Bernstein. None of my friends in my class." And I know he is sad about it. So today we signed him up for soccer each Saturday morning. With all of his friends.

They did great in Week 1. Probably better than we did worrying about them.

Summer belonged to us

Last full week of summer vacation, so we tried to pack a lot of excitement into it.

On Monday, I worked and the kids bickered. Then it rained. Not such a good day. But the day ended well: we made a list of things we wanted to do the rest of the week, then constructed a calendar where we added the appropriate requests at appropriate times for the next four days. Some fell by the wayside, for example "Go to Great Wolf Lodge....please please please can we?" Most of the rest made it on, although I decided we would not go to McDonald's AND Burger King, but rather just one of them. That's right, I'm no soft touch.

On Tuesday, we went to the pool. We hadn't been in a couple of weeks, and it felt like even longer, but it was nice. Attendance was low ("Dad! Can we get a picnic table?" OK. "YEAH!!!"), so we could have lots of fun with lots of room to play. We swam and tossed the ball around at our leisure, and Kate jumped off the edge and did her little steamboat swim, and Jack went down the slide. I think Kate grew an inch since we last went because she could now basically stand on her toes on the bottom of the pool with her head easily out of the water. At 3 p.m., we lined up for ice cream. By 3:15, it was clear no ice cream man was coming. So we went to the vending machines and were able to get the exact ice cream bars they normally chose anyway. It was kind of funny.

We hit the grocery store on the way home; there was a racecar-like cart available and they excitedly clambered into it. That's an appropriate word for Jack, who is clearly too big for such a cart these days; his legs and arms were kind of accordioned into it. We cruised around the supermarket and I tried not to bang his elbows too much. Sometimes they sang and yelled, and I had to tell them to keep it down...although I cut them some slack every now and then. 

On Wednesday, we went to have lunch with Mommy at her office. Her coworkers oohed and aahed appropriately and the kids were dutifully polite if shy. Said how old they were, when they were going back to school, accepted praise of their hair and clothes and watches and whatnot. And gobbled down candy that seemed to be within ready access of most desks. And donuts! Ah, office life. Kids ate their barbecue lunches even though the hotdogs had specks of black on them, maybe their standards are easing somewhat.

After lunch, we went to Bruce Park. This is a favorite because it's new and different, and I watched as Jack made a new friend and Kate recklessly climbed things I figured she'd be afraid of...kids surprise you. I pushed her on a swing and helped them both on a couple of things where kids sit and cheer and adults get a workout pushing and pulling on various pulley contraptions. Didn't need to go to the gym today, score!

Rested at home for a bit, then rode their bikes to Lyons Park.The fun parts were pushing them on the big donut swing and when they stopped to climb a tree. The less fun parts were when Kate, who couldn't ride as fast as Jack, yelled and cried after him as she pedaled furiously to catch up. And when I had to run after her yelling for her to stop. For half a block through our neighborhood. That wasn't so much fun. Kate, stop! I yelled. "It's my bike!" she yelled back. Hoo boy. When I caught up to her, stopped her, told her she couldn't ride her bike anymore if she didn't listen, she nodded seriously, lips pursed like she was about to cry, and then cried. Still just a little girl.

Today, Thursday, we went to the beach. It was high tide and we splashed in the water, threw a ball around, snapped the new profile picture of three of us. The sun was warm, the water was cool, and we sat in the sand and ate chips. And when we left we said, Goodbye, beach.

We blinked, and just like that, the summer was over. I can't wait for the next one.

Camp Week

Jack had a morning baseball camp this week, Kate had an afternoon princess dance camp. Yes, that's actually what it was called. They dance and, uh, made paper crowns and wands and such.

Every day Kate and I dropped Jack off at baseball camp in the morning. We pick him up at lunch time, go home and have lunch, and then Jack and I dropped Kate off at her camp. And picked her up three hours later. It is kind of crazy.

I don't know what exactly they do at either of these things for three hours, to be honest. They're not the most reliable witnesses. Jack seems to hit a lot more home runs than it seems likely, for instance. But I know they practiced hitting and sliding and throwing and catching, and he always seemed happy at the end, like after a baseball practice. So that's good.

Kate made a new friend every day, who she announced as I picked her up that she wanted to have a playdate with. First day it was "Summer," next day it was some other girl. I really can't keep them straight in my mind. But she was also always happy at pickup.

Camps remind me that kids need more than parents alone during those summer months. Me trying to work and entertain is not effective, they get bored playing on their own or with their toys and books. So, it's good to remind them what school is like -- running around in the company of other kids their age -- before they go back to school.

Still, today I picked up Jack from camp and took him to a baseball game. The Mets lost, shocker, but we had fun anyway. Ate a hotdog, inhaled ice cream as it melted ("I like it more when it's melted," Jack announced, face dripping ice cream), cheered the occasional exciting moments (the Mets didn't score, so this time it was Mr. Met shooting T-shirts into the stands, one of which I nearly caught, that was about as exciting as it got).

But it was a nice day, and it was baseball, and it was a reminder that even if summer is coming to an end, it needs to be enjoyed while you have it. And it can also be looked forward to, like Kate's playdate with Summer, since it should happen at some point in the future, too.

McArdles visit

Robin and the cousins were here this week. As always, they're all beautiful and charming and the kids love them. Jack and Mikey have reached closeness enough in age that they are basically into the same things and pretty much from Sunday evening's dinner through this morning they maintained a steady and largely exclusive conversation about superheroes, Wii games, baseball, and other sports and popular culture things that are the realm of boys aged 7-10. I think at dinner I basically just spent 10 minutes watching them babble away to each other as if they were the only ones in the room. Clearly they're both just ecstatic to have a boy relative to see. I would like to say Jack talked with other people the last few days but I am not certain he did.

Kate is drawn to Abbey because she is youngest (and evidently Abbey is thrilled not to be THE youngest); but really, it seemed Kate loved all of them to pieces and was ecstatic to spend time with any of them for as long as they were willing. She read books with them let them carry her, walked around clutching great pictures Niamh had drawn of her favorite stuffed toys, played dolls with each at various points...and today, went around desperate to get hugs goodbye from each of them, including Mikey, who stood obligingly as she hugged his waist.

Among the other highlights:

- Coffee in the mornings and beer in the evenings on the deck with my sister

- Laura and Niamh loving Times Square, taking great pictures (including an hilarious Laura-Naked Cowboy shot that just struck me as a classic). Both spoke glowingly about the time they had, which made me happy.

- Abbey making bracelets for everyone. Jack and Kate beaming at theirs

- Kate singing all the way into the City on the train. And according to Emily sleeping most of the way out.

- Seeing the big Lego lions at the library with Jack. "I would buy one of those!" he proclaimed.

- The old school King kong posters at the Empire State building and the original movie playing on a screen as we waited in line. It's the little things.

- Being hustled through the line BUT stopped long enough for a picture of the whole group. Bribing Kate to smile with the promise of future candy. Despite just one take and barely stopping moving, picture turned out great with all 9 of us smiling. Impressive.

- Going en masse to the Pool on Monday, and seeing Jack jump off the diving board into 12 feet of water without hesitation. Swimming to me and saying excitedly, "I did it, I did it! That was one of my goals for the summer, and I did it!" Pretty cool.

- Niamh jumping in like a cork. Laura looking like she wanted to dive, then changing her mind and jumping. Me following with the ugliest looking dive ever. But not getting hurt.

- Kate swimming like a fish, without water wings, without fear. Jack jumping off so many times he wore himself out.

- Laura and Niamh delighting Kate (and all of us) with a duet of My Favorite Things, complete with hand gestures, falsettos and wild eyes. Hilarious.

- Pitching to Mikey and Jack in the backyard. Nice to have a fielder sometimes.

- Both kids tonight being so tired they were almost slurring their words. And going to bed really happy.

Not just them.

Day with Kate

Kate is done with camp, but Jack's lasts two more weeks. So Kate and I are doing our own thing; here was today.

- - Drop Jack off at camp. Kate wore a ballerina skirt and slippers and the leggings part of her Olivia dress-up outfit, so it is just as well that she doesn't have to get out of the car. "Bye Jack!" she yells.


- - We drive home and Kate goes off to find the stuffed monkey she and Jack are calling "dark chocolate." I don't ask.  I hear her playing with her dolls, which is pretty cute: she speaks for them in this high, airy voice. The stories usually involve somebody being put in jail and then rescued or whatnot. I am not sure how the monkey figures into it but I like to think she is reenacting King Kong or something.


- - We go to the grocery store. Kate has certain staples of these trips. We go to the deli for meat where she wants to try slices of ham or turkey, and then chooses peanut butter and jelly anyway when we get home. She likes to say hi to the lobsters, who for all she knows are grocery store pets I suppose. She likes to pick out her yogurt, and usually wants eight different kinds of cereal which I honestly believe she picks based on either the color of the box or how cute the animal is. So if you ever wonder why cereal doesn't come in brown boxes with cartoon warthogs on them, now you know.


- - We visit with the neighbors' kids who are slightly younger. The three of them ride tricycles and scooters in circles around the driveway. Golf clubs come out eventually and I get Kate home before someone gets brained.


- - We have lunch. Kate eats a sandwich, yogurt, chips, grapes, juice box, milk, water, cheese stick, and some pea pods. Lunch is Kate's big meal, especially since we cut out second breakfast.


- - We ride Kate's bike, well, she does, and I run or walk fast behind her. Sometime she sings, sometimes not. Today she didn't sing but did ring her new bell. A lot.


- - Read a book, "Backyardigans: A Merry Fair." The TV show is better, but she is learning to read and we are going with "ready to read" books for her. She does pretty well, and when we finish a page, I congratulate her, and she cackles with pride. She really does kind of cackle.


- - We pick up Jack and I try to ask about his day while Kate babbles away about her day. Our day.

Kate and Jack plan the future

When Kate and Jack get along well, they really get along well; they happily play with each other, and plan a future where they are always together. We explained how they can't get married, but that hasn't stopped them from planning some sort of roommate situation anyway. They discussed this yesterday.

Kate: "We'll have a pool. And our own beach! And we'll have a candy hotdog slide! AND a candy pizza!"

Jack: "And we'll live at Great Wolf Lodge! And we'll have BUNK BEDS!" Kate: "No, Jack, we can sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed!" I explained to Jack that when he's older he might not want to be at the Great Wolf Lodge doing water slides every day. "Well, then I can play the wand game!" he countered, which was this game for kids where you went on quests and such.

Kate: "And when I'm older and Mommy and Daddy aren't our Mommy and Daddy anymore..." Well, we'll still be your Mommy and Daddy, Kate. "Oh," she said. "OK."

Jack: "And I don't want to be kind of bald like Daddy." Thanks, Jack.

Kate: "And we'll be our OWN Mommy and Daddy. And I'm going to marry Joshy!"(Kid in her preschool who she'll most likely never see again.)

Jack: "And I'm going to have a son named Jack Junior!"

Funny stuff

The stuff they say, the stuff they do. It is better than anything I could come up with on my own.

Jack won or was given a red and green wristband at camp this week. He was very happy xwith it, as he conveyed to me in a theatrical fashion before bed the other night: "It's a VEry SPECIAL wristband. Very. Special." He smiled mysteriously.

Jack was explaining something the other night. "Sometimes when I laugh I snort," he said. Then he proceeded to laugh. And snort. And laugh harder.

We cleaned his room earlier this week. His first reaction upon surveying it: "Now that I can see my floor, I want a robot rug." He thought for another minute. "Or dinosaurs."

Kate is not the most adventurous eater. She typically asks what's for dinner DURING dinner the previous night. "What's for dinner?" Spaghetti and salad. "I like tomatoes," she said brightly. "Only, not the squishy ones."

We had a picnic today. With all of her dollies, whose hair she had me put in pony tails. I might be getting good at it. In her room.

"Come with me," she said, after I agreed to the picnic. "I have Cinderella. And Belle, and Sleeping Beauty. And I have my baby. My old baby and my new baby. And I have a piano." She pointed out the keyboard. "AND," she said, "I have a humpback whale." She indicated a circular toy that did not look much like a whale. "Well, actually this is baby's toy. But she doesn't really play with it."

She had one more toy to bring out. "AND," Kate finished, showing me one more animal toy, "I have a penguin."

Then I poured the tea and we had a picnic.

Cape wrap up

Last night in the Cape. Some random thoughts.

- It was nice seeing Kate swim, and want to swim. The week started with her just wanting to jump in and out of the pool, over and over again. Her only swimming was from where she landed in the water to the ladder. But at the end of the week she wanted to put her face in the water and swim, either in the ocean (without the water wings she wore in the pool) or the pool. "Daddy, watch!" She would grab her nose, take a deep breath, and swim...we used to call it the Steamboat back when I was learning, I think. Awfully glad her being sick only lasted a day. Lucky.

- Jack was happy basically the entire vacation. He lost his tooth the first morning (and another a few days later) which really started things off nice for him. He did a great on his bike, riding probably some 20 miles altogether, taking trips Tuesday, Wedenesday, Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we rented bikes (trailer for Kate) and rode to a little pond, having a beach day at a quiet little spot with fish and frogs and a deep drop off as you walked out into the water. Anyway, he was really comfortable on his bike, which is a huge improvement from where he was as recently as a month ago.

- The kids aren't adventurous eaters. But at least Kate ate hotdogs from a variety of places. And Jack ate some fried shrimp. Yeah that's all I got. Emily and I ate well.

- Kate took naps where she could get them. In the bike trailer after our pond trip. In a chair at the pool, briefly, once. Any midday car trips. It probably helped her mood, which was mostly awesome.

- They ate all their ice cream tonight. The seven days of ice cream are complete!

Cape vacation, days 3-4

Day 3

Kate woke up too early, but better - she was talking to her stuffed dog, which she has named Carl.

Jack woke up too early, thanks in part to Kate, but was still giddy about his lost tooth, and the $5 he found under his pillow. He wanted to find his wallet to make sure he put it there.

We spent most of the day at the beach. Threw a soft, fabric ball in the ocean with Jack for hours, it seemed. Might have been that long. Over and over, with brief breaks for snacks, swimming, and rest. Got lunch at the beachside stand -- best chicken tenders ever -- followed by ice cream.

Kate and I made sand castles, jack and I made sand patterns (sharks, dinosaurs), we all made pits to bury each other. Kate walked circles around the sand castles, singing all the way. She made a "sand castle cake" which she was very pleased with.

Played frisbee with Jack. Pushed Kate on a swing. At home, later, played pixie sticks with Jack and read Backyardigans stories to Kate. That was the day.

Day 4

Rented bikes. It was tough for Kate, more riding than she is used to, and there were some mild expressions of discomfort on her part. After about half an hour we made our way back to the rental place (Emily and Jack were miles ahead) and I rented a carrier to tow Kate behind my bike.

She liked this development quite a bit.

Jack was awesome on his bike, he and Emily made about a 4 mile trip, then did it again with Kate and me. Went to a nice little pond. Both kids waded right in and would have gone swimming if we had our suits on.

Later, pool. Kate swam a lot. Jack and I jumped in together in the 9 feet deep area. I should note we had to talk Jack into going because we had bought him the new How to Train Your Dragon book and he almost literally couldn't put it down. Jack, don't read while you're walking up stairs. He finished it in a day.

If the mark of a good vacation is the kids not making a peep after lights out and being really tired writing a blog, well, mission accomplished.

Cape vacation, days 1-2

Day 1

Driving day. We hit the road at 9:30 and Kate was asleep before 10. Jack did not sleep, so he talked Emmy into playing Mad Libs. Over and over again. Since he's 7, favorite adjectives included stinky, smelly, ugly, poopy. It made for some interesting reads, especially since it was a Star Wars Mad Libs and most of the pages were about the Death Star.

We were late crossing the Bourne Bridge, so there was some traffic, and when we stopped at a rest area for Kate, they only had port o potties. Emily started thinking it would be the bizarro version of last year's Cape trip, which Kate being sick the next morning only added to. But we got there and checked in and went straight to the pool, which was a hit as always. Ate seafood and drank beer (us not the kids, though they had some shrimp) and turned in.

Day 2

Kate was sick, high fever. Slept all morning. Jack, shortly after breakfast, lost his awkwardly twisted hillbilly front tooth when he knocked it against the back of Kate's chair. I honestly don't think I have ever seen him so happy; just giddy with joy and glee. He threw his hands in the air and said YES so excitedly it was like a spoof of someone being happy. He didn't even mind the blood. In retrospect we gave him too much grief about getting that thing out (as he pointed out in a note to the Tooth Fairy) and I kind of felt bad about it. But we were celebrating right along with him. In the car on the way to the beach we heard a song that had a line about it being a great day, and he said "it is a great day now that I got my tooth out!" Probably I am overstating this but it came up a lot during the day.

So Jack and I went alone to the beach. We played together for a bit and then Jack saw some boys playing baseball and he said "I'm going to see if I can play with them." I didn't see much of him over the next two hours. They played baseball, then Jack ran to get his shovel and pail and ran back to the boys and they made castles while I exchanged pleasantries with the parents. (the boys were a grade or two older) At one point Jack and the younger boy hung out on body boards, hoping to catch a wave and chatting like much older kids. I oversaw them from afar until the impromptu play date ended. Later Jack drew a picture of them playing baseball, writing, "I made a new friend." Emily said to Jack, that's impressive, making friends like that. Jack said, "it's easy. Just walk up to somebody playing and say, 'can I play with you?'"

Other stuff we did at the beach: eat lunch, find snails and shells (jack: "if you see a snail, draw an s in the air so I know"), and get a couple of rocks for Kate. I brought Kate her rock and she was duly appreciative. "I will add it to my rock collection. Well, it's at home."

She told me she felt a little better (next day, she was) and liked the grape medicine I got her.

Jack played catch in the yard with Emmy to end the day.

Summer vacation, day 2

Started the day with Dunkin Donuts. It gives me an excuse to get iced coffee, plus they love it.

Then we went to Bruce Park playground. Funny today because Kate saw a preschool friend, leaving Jack feeling left out. I say funny because it is almost always the other way, with Kate forlornly chasing jack and some friend around. Jack, however, was a good sport, at one point pushing both girls on swings. He is a great big brother.

Both of them climbed things I didn't know they could climb. Kate climbed a rope tower thing that I was impressed when jack climbed. At 6. She then yelled for her friend to see her. "Look how high I am! Look, Georgia!"

Lunch, library (where Jack took out eight books), playing in the yard. Kate also did her summer workbook and asked if she could take the trophy stickers "because I did so well." I said sure.

I also saw her read a sentence she hadn't seen before (so I knew it wasn't something she had memorized). She is getting there.

Near the end of the day she played with her dollies, "because it was on my list of summer things to do."

Summer vacation, day 1

Summer is here, and the living is easy. Except for the kids being home all the time and this being the one week where we had no definite camp or travel plans. Emily was home yesterday, but we were still recovering from camping and basically moved in slow motion. Today Emily went back to work and summer began.

Decided to open with the Aquarium. It was on the list (yup, I had them make summer activity lists) and I had heard there was a new tank where you could touch a shark, so I dragged them along.

We had been there a few times before (we were actually members one year), but I'd don't think it had ever been this good. An albino alligator! That actually moved and swam and walked along the bottom of the tank, with his head resting on the surface of the water and his eyes blinking at us. He had really cool teeth, all craggy and jagged. And apparently they don't live long in the wild because of their color, due to both predators and sunburn! Really! Oh, the kids enjoyed it too.

Then we touched sharks and rays. Jack did, too, making him 36 years younger when he first touched a shark than I was. Kate didn't much want to and also couldn't reach unless I held her by her legs over the tank, which I feel would have been frowned upon.

Then we went to another touch tank, with starfish and horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs. We were lucky on the timing; the guy actually got to talk to us at length. He talked about how hermit crabs change their shells when they outgrow them, how horseshoe crabs use their tails to flip over (don't pick them up that way, their tails break). Jack told the guy he once scared birds away from a helpless crab; I am not entirely certain if it is true or not. Plus Kate touched a crab!

Then we saw the seal show. I don't think I had ever actually seen the whole thing (and didn't this time either because Kate got hungry and started whining about a snack), but it was pretty cool. Then we went to the play area and realized how long it had been since we had been there, because it was only for 5 and under and Jack couldn't go in. Kate played for 2 minutes and we left.

The day wrapped up with lunch, quiet time, workbook activities, baseball in the back yard, chasing balls over the fence into the neighbors' yards, frisbee, and helping them on the monkey bars. Jack made it to the fourth monkey bar, so just one away from the end. Kate did well as long as I held her legs from start to finish. We're working on it.

Funny Kate: she likes to draw pictures but (like me to Emily when I am writing a blog) she puts her hands over her work and says "don't look! You can't see!" then when it's finished she brings it out and says "close your eyes" before proudly displaying it. It's cute.

Oh yeah Jack also wrote a journal entry on camping, probably better than my blog, and concluded it by writing in bold and capital letters, I LOVE CAMPING. So we are going again in a few weeks.

Camping

Took the kids camping for the first time this past week. Time really does move slower at a campsite; we were there barely 24 hours but it seemed like a week's worth of stuff happened. Best to do the blog fairly stream of consciousness I think.

- On our drive to the campground, we stopped one of those upstate New York delis that appear every mile or so for sandwiches. First deli sandwiches for the kids. They ate them!

- Beautiful drive, perfect day. We arrived at the campground and as we were checking in the attendant mentioned the high winds. That would be an omen because literally just as we were parking the car in the lot near our campsite, we felt a drop of rain. I said to Emily, uh, that wasn't actually a drop of rain, was it? I was just starting to set up the tent when we heard thunder. To play it safe, we put everything back in the car. Good thing, because the skies opened up and it was a torrential downpour for almost the next hour. Some discussion about going to a hotel. Another hour of rain, or less, and we would have.

Sitting in the car in the parking lot, starting at the tree-filled woods, buckets of rain coming down, Emily and I shook our heads in disbelief and kind of laughed. I thought of Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin in a canoe with his father while sheets of rain came down. Dad: "It isn't very buggy, is it?" Calvin: "You're really reaching, Dad." We decided to play "I Spy," with Kate going first. Kate: "I spy with my little eye something....green." We all laughed, since we're looking at the forest. Jack gamely tried to answer. "Ooh! Those leaves?" Laughter. "THOSE leaves? What about THAT leaf? These leaves?...."

More rain. Emily: Jack, are you reading? Jack: "How else should we pass the time until we can camp?"

The rain mercifully stopped and we set up the tent. Walked around a little bit, decided which campsite we'd get next time (one directly on the water, where we'd later see fish swimming about).

As the sun was sinking in the sky, Jack said, "Can we go see the water? The sun looks really cool over it." We did. 

Kate walked around the campsite singing and having conversations with herself. She and Jack were totally comfortable playing around the site as we set it up. I thought about Scott and me playing with Fisher-Price adventure people while Dad and Mom set up the campsite, way way back when.

Started fire, started camp stove, made hotdogs and beans. Jack: "This is the best hotdog ever. Outdoor food is best." Kate also ate well.

Made smores. I made the first one, roasting marshmallow on stick. Kate ate the marshmallow, strangely uninterested in the chocolate and the graham crackers. Jack wanted to try roasting a marshmallow, and did. He also set his on fire. A brief look of stunned disappointment. I showed him how it was really tasty anyway. He ended up enjoying his smores. I am sure we also set marshmallows on fire as kids, I assured him.

We told ghost stories, me telling a revised one of Bill Murray's from "Meatballs," Jack telling one about "a ghost scaring Kate and she said I'm not scared....and then the ghost ate a smores." For Jack's story, he held a flashlight under his chin for a scary glowing effect.

Emily read Ladybug girl stories to both kids in the tent, and then we left. Most nights (including our practice camping night) they're awake for a while, saying they're cold, or warm, or thirsty, or can't sleep). This night, we didn't hear a peep -- both were asleep almost before we'd zipped the tent closed.

During the night I woke up at one point and heard Jack or Emily whispering. I felt for Jack, who was sleeping next to me, and couldn't find them. Apparently we were sleeping on enough of an angle that Kate was somewhere down around Emily's knees and Jack was basically on top of her, all three of them in the opposite corner of the tent from me.

Heard an owl around 4:30 a.m. Thought of Twin Peaks.

Morning, I woke and saw Jack sleeping, his stuffed monkey sitting against him, seemingly protecting him, smiling happily. (He always smiles, he's stuffed.)

Jack crawled into my sleeping bag at some point and we snuggled. His fuzzy crewcut kind of itched me.

In the morning Emily and Jack walked down to the water again. Jack came running back, excited. He'd seen a fish. He named it "Dorsal."

Breakfast was coffee, eggs, toast, bacon. Kate ate all of her eggs, which never happens at home.

We went for a brief hike, Kate singing happily in the same way she does sometimes when riding her bike. About nothing in particular to no one in particular.

Emily took Kate to a little playground near the beach, while I took Jack fishing. We had borrowed rods and tackle gear. I showed him how to cast and I was stunned to see him pick it up immediately; I expected the first hook to catch either me or him in the head. Nope. I fished too, at one point seeing a fish actually put the lure in its mouth, then let it go. I was either too stunned to jerk on it or didn't want to deal with trying to remove the hook without hurting him. But, it was pretty cool.

We fished for almost an hour without catching a thing and not only was Jack NOT bored or disappointed, he wanted to fish more. Pretty amazing.

We went to the beach and rented a rowboat. After some incompetent circling, I got the hang of it and we went over near our campsite. Then Emily rowed. Then JACK rowed, and did a credible job; he was so thrilled. He had his back to me but Emily said he had that proud look he gets when he does something new; the "I DID it" look. He rowed for a while and wanted to keep on doing it. A natural fisherman, natural boater, natural camper? Mebbe. Or I'm just a proud father, whichever.

Kate also wanted to row and we let her try. The end of the paddle caught her in the lip and she cried. Sorry, Kate. But she rallied anyway and sat on my lap while I rowed, her hands on my wrists. Happy again.

The boating was the best, because it was just the family, out on the water on a beautiful day, like there was nothing else in the world. It felt like we could do it forever.

We played on the beach, Kate and Jack completely unfazed by muddy pond/lake water, just like us as kids. They rolled around in the sand, jumped in the water, rolled around some more.

Time to leave, drive home, eat dinner at a diner, and stumble into our own beds exhausted. I put Jack to bed and as I said goodnight I said, Jack, I had a great weekend, I'll remember it always.

Jack: "Me too. I'll remember it at least until I'm 70."