Football

Jack's first and perhaps last football game was yesterday; he's officially played more organized football in his life than I have. We found out about the Rye Town Youth Flag Football team through a friend, and although we'd already missed sign ups and stuff given our summer move, we got Jack on a waiting list. Late last week we found out there was an opening, perhaps because some people had dropped out after the first week. Hmm.

So Friday I got an email from the coach saying that the first game was at 9 a.m. Sunday, and to be there 45 minutes early for practice. And that Jack should have mouthguard and a cup. For water? No, a protective cup. In case I haven't mentioned it earlier in this blog, Jack is 5.

So Saturday morning we went out to the store and bought him a mouthguard (which we accidentally melted in boiling water Sunday morning, oops), cup, and strap. Much amusement was had in strapping the thing on, which the next morning at the field I learned we had done improperly anyway. We also played some football in the backyard, running around and tossing it back and forth. So despite some uncertainty, I still figured, eh, it will be 5- and 6-year-olds running around in the grass having fun, right. And it's football, which we love, so, awesome.

Sunday morning we got Jack dressed and headed over to the field, at the high school. Big place with a bunch of big fields that looked sized for giants, but there was his team, the red-jerseyed 49ers. So we went over and met the coach, exchanged a few pleasantries, Jack got his red jersey, and they were off. I watched him run off to join the team.

Practice was a little ways away from where the parents stood; we chatted, and I watched from afar as Jack went through drills. He looked a little uncertain, having missed some time, but I'm still thinking it'd be OK. At one point I saw him pick up a ball (after having it thrown errantly in his general direction) and throw it back to the coach. Good throw, the coach said. I felt a swell of pride.

Shortly before 9, more parents started showing up, gathering on the field. The other team. Cheerleaders! The teams lined up, the coaches yelled instructions, and play began. For each team, several players stood on the sideline, including Jack. He got in for a couple of plays, and had no idea what he was supposed to be doing really, but like in soccer, he gamely ran after the kid with the ball. And then rotated out back to the sideline, to watch some more.

Emily and I stood on the sidelines a little confused by the whole thing. In soccer, nobody stood on the sideline. Well, there was the one game where we had more players than the other team, and the other coach said we should hold some players out, and I looked at him like he was crazy. They're FIVE. What am I supposed to do, while running around calling the game and chasing out of bounds balls, orchestrate an assembly line of players moving on and off the field? Not gonna happen. Maybe he had experience in the football program, I don't know.

Jack came in for one play, lined up on the defensive line, and as the play started, he got flattened by an opposing lineman. It was the kind of play you could see coming, since again Jack didn't really know what he was doing, and the other kid was bigger. The other kid started forward and Jack didn't move; flattened. Later that afternoon, when Jack was in bed with a 102 degree fever, it became clear that he was also starting to get sick, something we didn't know at the time. Not that things would have gone much differently, but standing around in the sun for 2 hours from 8 to 10 Sunday morning and then getting leveled probably didn't help any.

I ran out, scooped him up, carried him back over to the sideline with the other kids who were off the field. The other coach apologized to us, the other kid came over to apologize at the command of the coach, yada yada. It was one of those things. Jack was OK after a couple of minutes. I hung out with him for the rest of the game. Afterward I asked the coach, um, Will he normally get to play more? Because I'm thinking little kids standing on the sideline for an hour or more is silly; if there's an uneven number on the field, so what; everybody doesn't get anywhere near the ball on most plays anyway. The coach said, Yeah, because he missed practices, he didn't really get a chance to have a better understanding of everything, how to pull flags, what to do, etc. Which is true; starting out with a game was probably a mistake (although again, we imagined random chaos like a soccer game, not the structured, college football-like atmosphere we got. I think some of the coaches might be taking things a bit too seriously with 5 and 6 year olds). But that it would be better next time.

Walking off the field afterward, I told Jack I was proud of him, that it was great to see him out there. I tossed him into the air, and we headed off to a late breakfast. We got home, and Jack had his high fever and was in bed most of the day. I didn't feel so hot myself.

This morning I said to Jack (who was feeling better after 12 hours or so of sleep), So Jack, what did you think of playing football. Pause. "OK," he said. Do you think you want to go back next week (actually, I later came to find that the team had evening practices, from 6 to 7:15 on Tuesdays, which around these parts we call dinner time, and that they wanted to have practices on Thursday evenings too. Yikes). Jack shook his head. I said, yeah, that was a little tough out there, huh? He nodded. The previous evening, Emily had asked him if he'd rather play football, or maybe go back to soccer next time. "Go back to soccer," Jack answered quickly.

So Jack, I said, we won't go back. And then maybe next year we'll think about doing it again. And Jack nodded cheerily and said, "Then next year I'll be 6 years old, and I'll be older enough." That's right, Jack. You'll be older enough.

We went out in the backyard and threw the football around, with no rhyme or reason or rule to it. And Jack ran around and chased me and I chased him, and he had a big smile on his face. And football was fun again.

Tooth Fairy Etc.

Jack has had some trips to the dentist lately, thanks I guess to poor brushing on our part combined with unfortunate tooth heredity. So on Wednesday, after school, he and I had to go to the dentist to get a couple of his teeth filled. So I picked him up and, for the fourth straight week, we headed off to the dentist.

We got there, and turned out that Jack needed to have a tooth extracted. The dentist was funny; she said, "We just need to wiggle it. And sometimes when we wiggle it, it just comes right out. And then the Tooth Fairy comes."

As my family knows, there's a story behind the Tooth Fairy for me. The Tooth Fairy always left notes, Scott found out it was actually Dad, told me about it, and I was very upset. So that night I got a note from the Tooth Fairy that put my fears to rest. I think they were normally in my Dad's handwriting and now it was in my Mom's. Anyway, Jack was a trooper, he had his tooth removed, all during it he hung in there, giving me occasional waves and thumbs up and stuff, and I was pretty proud of him.

And then they finished up and he sat up and his mouth was bloody and there was a big hole where his tooth had been, yikes, but he was OK. And then he got stickers and such.

And we piled into the car and headed off, because, you know, Jack's first swimming lesson at SUNY Purchase was ALSO that afternoon. So off we went.

And the big thing I want to say about that is that we changed him into his suit and went down to a swimming pool he'd never been in before to be taught by people he'd never seen before, and he didn't cling to my leg or whatever. No, he got right in the water, and had his lesson.

And at one point they did this thing where they had to swim/lunge for the edge of the pool from a platform. And he did it himself, without a flotation device or anything. And when he was back on the platform he looked over at me, and he gave me the biggest, proudest smile, clearly very happy that he'd done it. And I remember that about an hour ago he was in a chair having a tooth pulled, and I grinned too.

That night, he put his tooth under his pillow. Emily and I debated whether the Tooth Fairy would leave a note or not. I think she talked me out of it, or my own note did. One of the two. But the note I ultimately did sneak in to leave, that he didn't see the next morning (he was too happy about his silver dollars), said "Dear Jack - Congratulations! I'm proud of you. Love, T.F."

3!

Kate turned 3 a few days ago. Three! Some moments.

She wanted cupcakes, not cake. So that's what she got. And she wanted ice cream, of course. Got that too.

For a week leading up to it, she -- having been told about it by us -- would at random moments say "My birthday! For my birthday? My birthday. My birthday!" She was into it.

Jack had talked for two weeks that he was going to get her Backyardigans stickers. So when we did all the shopping for toys and gift bag type stuff, we got her Backyardigans stickers. And a Backyardigans watch. And a bunch of little toy cameras (which I knew she'd love, and Jack did too, and for a week after they walked around with the cameras going "Click." "Click."). The cameras had little animal pictures in them. Jack took a picture of me. He said, "I see a monkey." Thanks, Jack.

Kate didn't want to nap on her birthday. She's starting to want to give up the nap in general. But it's funny when she's really tired, and she'll protest without really protesting. As if to say, well, I will take my nap now, but NORMALLY, I don't want to nap.

We gave Kate a Backyardigans playdough set that we'd held back since last Christmas, from Nana and Baba. (Because she got too much at Christmas.) She and Jack played with it a lot. Today she dug out the Olivia dress-up kit Aunt Robin gave her. Well actually, Jack did. And got dressed in it. And looked ridiculous but made us laugh. And then Kate put it on. At first she was like, "I'm a Christmas girl, I'm a Christmas girl," because it had red bows all over it. Jack said, "No, you're Olivia." So then she ran around, "I'm Olivia, I'm Olivia...."

It was the first time she really enjoyed opening presents; the first time she kind of got it.

How old are you? We asked. "I tree!" she said. "I tree!"

Last Friday Home

Since Kate was about six months old, when Emily went back to work, I've had the kids home with me on Fridays. They went to preschool Monday through Thursday, then were home on Fridays. We had good days, we had bad days, we had in-between days.

But Jack started school this week, and kindergarten goes Monday through Friday. He was home today -- school holiday -- but next Friday, he'll be in school. So this is our last full day Friday home together, the three of us.

I thought about it once or twice during the week, but we were busy and there wasn't much time to think about it, so I didn't. And I don't know how much I thought about it this morning, either. Only when we were walking to the playground at around 11 a.m. on a Friday, and I said, huh, next week Jack will be in school now.

When we got up in the morning, Jack asked me, "Did Brett Favre win?" Vikings opened the NFL season last night. No, Jack, I said. "But why?" Well, sometimes he loses. He'll get 'em next week. We watched the highlights on ESPN, I queued up his one touchdown pass for them to see, while they sat next to me on the couch. Kate, say Go Brett Favre, I said. "GoBettFahvv!" she said gamely.

I gave them breakfast, cheerios with milk and cantaloupe on the side. We saw Emily off to work.

They played with various toys. Sometimes I joined in, helped Jack a little with his Lego building.

We walked to the "baby" playground. First Kate went on the swings, while Jack played on the slides. Then he wanted help with the monkey bars. I helped him, barely. He went right across with my hands barely touching him. He couldn't do that a month ago, two months ago.

Jack wanted to go on the swings too, so we went back to the swings. They both swung high and laughed. Jack kicked his legs in the air like he was running at the top of his swing. "I'm running in the sky!" he yelled. "I'm running in the sky!!!!" Kate kicked too and laughed. "Running in the sky!"

We walked around the baseball field. I stood on the pitcher's mound and fake pitched to Jack. He fake swung a bat. They both ran the bases, kicked dirt on the chalk lines, ran in the outfield grass. They were both wearing their Red Sox sweatshirts.

We headed home. I gave Kate a ride on my shoulders for half a block and Jack a piggyback for half a block. They wanted more, but I said, that's it, guys. You're getting heavy.

At home we had lunch, chicken nuggets and fries.

I put Kate down for her nap. Jack tried but ended up reading in bed. Then he and I played Yahtzee, just like my Dad and I did. And still do.

After Kate's nap, they had apples, carrot sticks, water. We got the new Entertainment Weekly that had an ad for Hawaii Five-O that played music when you turned to that page. Jack turned to that page over and over, playing the music over and over. And dancing and dancing.

In a little bit, I'm walking them to Aunt Cathy's house for dinner, while I go out. There will be days off here and there of course, and weekends, plus Jack gets off school earlier than he did from preschool. But this was our last Friday with all of us together, and I already miss it more than I ever thought possible.

Painting Etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dentist

Took the kids to the dentist today. Some moments:

- I dug out the toys in the waiting room. Their eyes went wide. Ain't no toys like waiting room toys. One was basically the same Fisher-Price farm that they had, which they'd both lost interest in months earlier. Now, it was fascinating.

- We went in, and while Jack was quite sociable, Kate clung to me and buried her face in my shoulder. But then, as the dentist started showing Jack the flashlight, and "Mr. Thirsty," the water pic, Kate gradually took an interest. Then she looked at me: "Can I get up there?" and she climbed into the chair with Jack.

- During her session in the chair, Kate was as obedient as I've ever seen her, opening her mouth, holding still, only after what seemed like a really long time saying "Can I get down now?" So politely. It was killing me each time the dentist said "Just one more minute." I'm thinking, she's 2. Let's move it along.

- Jack was in remarkably good spirits, eagerly opening his mouth and smiling to show his teeth. You'd hardly have known he'd end up having multiple cavities. I felt and still feel awful.

- At some point, both cried, basically after being in the chair too long. Especially Jack. Which was when the appointment ended and they were whisked away to some secret chest of toys, returning all smiles with some big rubbery toy frog clutched in their hands.

Today

Jack wakes up and we hear him go to the bathroom. It's before 6:30, the new sort of rule, so we hear him go in his room. His light goes on. We hear him reading aloud...one of the "Tommy" books that I had when I was a kid. He reads slowly, carefully.

We got some fruit from Aunt Cathy before they went on vacation, plus we'd just been to the grocery story ourselves that morning. So Jack had been pushing for a fruit salad. It was a hit. "Can I have more canneelope?" asked Katie. "More yellow melon?" asked Jack. Much fruit was eaten.

Everyone got dressed. Kate picked out her shirt. She wanted a certain pair of shorts, but they were in the wash. I told her that, and she said (as she's been doing lately), "Oh. Right."

We brushed teeth. Kate always wants to push the footstool all the way under the sink and then stand on it, with the result being she nearly bonks her head, or hangs like she's doing chin-ups off the sink...not good. I push it back some and we brush her teeth. "I can do it...I do it!" she protests. Another current thing with her.

We went out for a game, because it was raining, and because we needed to get stuff for painting the dining room. A combo toy store and ACE Hardware store comes in handy. We got a Lego game for Jack and a mini-Hungry Hippos game for Katie, that I think Jack actually picked out. Very shrewdly -- they both played with it for about an hour. Naturally they kept picking up toys wondering if they could get them. No...no....NO! good grief....Yes...Wait! No! What was funny was at the hardware store, Kate was doing the same thing. "Can we get this, Daddy?" You need a tub of spackling paste, Kate? Really? "Can we get this?" No Kate, we don't need another set of doorknobs. Eventually they discovered the wall of paint colors, and they gleefully picked out colors together. I think we cleaned the store out of "Sea of Midnight," which I can say with some confidence we will never use.

Back at home, we opened up Kate's game, they played it, I made lunch. They then started playing nicely together with Kate's dollhouse. This usually happens right around Kate's naptime; it's like Kate starts playing nicely with the dollhouse with Jack so as to keep me from putting her down for her nap, because she knows I'm a sucker for such great behavior. She's right; I put her down later than usual. But, she naps.

Jack and I build his Lego game. It is awesome. We play it and it's even more awesome. Jack builds the Minotaur, but you can't use him until you roll a black square. We play for a while without him rolling one, so he asks if he can just nudge it onto black. I let him.

It's time for Kate to wake up so I send Jack up. He comes down saying he opened her door and gate but she still wanted to sleep more. I'm about to go up when she appears. "Ta-DAAAA!" she says. Jack wants to show her the Lego game, and I say, OK, but you know it's too old for her and she might not play it right... He says, I know. But I think she'll like it. She does. He explains it to her.

We walk to Aunt Cathy's to get her mail and check her house. They run around and find toys to play with. I take things away from them before we leave. Jack has pockets, but I think I get everything back. We'll go again tomorrow anyway.

At home, they play more with the new games. It's pretty rewarding. Emily comes home, with a new backpack for Jack and a lunchbox and water bottle for Kate. Jack immediately puts on his backpack, which looks huge on him. Kate shows me her water bottle and lunchbox. "Yay, I have a water bottle!" she says happily. "I have new lunchbox! It's Hehyo Kitty, Daddy."

I put Jack to bed. I notice his little clay penguins next to the bed that we made in the oven the previous week...I hadn't noticed them before. I said, those are really good, you know. Have you shown Mommy those? He's not sure. He holds up one. "I think this is the best one," he says thoughtfully.

We read "Good Night, Little Bear," and he laughs at the old mitten under the stove, and at Little Bear bumping his head on the ceiling. Lights out, then sleep. He doesn't want songs tonight, he's tired. It's been a day.

random

Jack said, "When Kate is bossy to me, she does it in a nice way."

Kate likes to appear in the mornings (or afternoons, or evenings, but especially mornings) by stepping forward, standing with her feet apart, and throwing her hands up and saying, with a big smile, "Ta-DAAAAAAA!"

Jack offers to pay me to let him do things. "If you let us get McDonalds, I'll give you $7 from my piggy bank."

Jack read a library book in the car on the way home the other day, maybe I mentioned it already. Today, he sat on the couch with Kate and slowly, quietly, read it to her.

Kids at Home, Random Events

Captain Hammer

Jack and Kate played with toy carpentry tools. They both ran over holding a hammer.

Jack: "I'm Captain Hammer!!!"

Kate: "I Captam Hammer!!!!!"

Drawing

Jack and Kate sat down at the little table in the play room to draw and color. They used the art book where you trace your hand and make animals and such. They then brought all the pictures upstairs to show me. Jack laid them out, and they both talked at once.

Jack: "That's a dragon...and that's a dinosaur....that's a giraffe...." What's that? "That's a squid, Daddy." His elephant was awesome.

Kate: (filling in sound effects as Jack pointed out the animals) "Rahhh!" "Rahrrrrrr!" "No, Jack, let me. Let me. Rahhhhh!"

DMV

Went to the DMV to get my driver's license. With the kids! Had a backpack with one pad of paper and a pen. First Jack used it, while Kate ate a box of raisins. Then Kate used it, marking my shorts with the pen of course, while Jack looked at pictures on my phone.

Waiting up at the counter, the kids noticed the footsteps painted on the floor (for people to stand in for eye tests). They happily ran around, putting their feet in different footsteps, looking at each other, and cracking up. I can't help but think they helped things move more quickly for me.

Beach with Jack's class.

We met Jack's old preschool class at the beach. Before going he asked if he could wear his Tiggers orange shirt (with the class name on it) "So they all know who I am," he explained. So of course he did.

When we approached the class, he ran over. Everyone yelled. He was greeted like a conquering hero; big hugs all around. They clapped him on the back like he'd just returned from some big trip. It was pretty cute. They all played in the sand and the water together.

Afterward, he lined up with the class for showers outside the changing room, then we all traipsed over to picnic tables and ate lunch. Jack sat next to Teddy drinking his juice box and eating his sandwich. Kate sat between two of the girls in Jack's class, I think it was Harley and Isley. She sat very still, as though happy to be included with all the other kids. All her big brother's old friends.

Chair Box

We went to Ikea this weekend and bought a chair and a couch. They were delivered today, and we assembled the chair. The huge box went on the front porch, to be put out with recycling tomorrow.

Or so I thought. After dinner, the kids and Emily went out on the porch.

"What's that?"asked Kate, and Emily said, well, it's a box. And then, It can be a boat.

So then they started climbing in and out. They'd lie down, and then one would climb out, and they'd close it, and then they'd pop out.

It was a place to curl up. A place to hide in. A boat, a car, a secret box.

They played cooperatively, Emily said to me later. I feel like it's the longest I've seen them play together without fighting.

They also came in and out of the house a few times. Ultimately I went out and saw that they had Puppy, Monkey, a throw pillow, magnetic McDonald's Spider-Man toy, and a blanket in the box.

"Get in, Daddy," said Jack. I did. He closed the box. Kate kneed me in the back. I climbed out again. Jack climbed in.

This went on for a while. Tomorrow we'll put together the couch, and I guess the box will go out on the porch for a little while.

Kids at home, Leaping Lizards

It was brutally hot, and Jack was asking about going somewhere. It was too late to make the hour-long drive to the zoo, too expensive (and we'd just gone) to go to the aquarium, too late to try to get it together for a beach trip. So we decided on Leaping Lizards, being that it was close, only mildly expensive, and oh yeah it had air conditioning.

Basically it's a big indoor play area, with bouncy castles and slides and other soft, inflatable exercise things and tunnels and mazes and stuff. And ball pits, for kids to fall about in -- a highlight for Katie.

Best thing about the whole thing was finding out what a great big brother Jack is. Because it's really more geared to his age, and Kate would get stuck in tunnels or confused and start to cry.

And I'd be outside the maze, and couldn't get in easily, and couldn't even see Kate sometimes. And then I'd hear Jack: "Here, Kate. Kate....come this way." And then she'd stop crying, and a minute or two later they'd both appear from one of the tunnel openings or slides. First Jack, then Kate, obediently following her big brother.

At one point her foot was stuck in a net in a big jumpy ball pit. She cried. Jack went back to help her get out.

There was a drinking fountain there; Jack could reach it, Kate couldn't. He got his drink, while she stood off to the side, on tippy toes, trying to watch. Then Jack would say, "Daddy, Kate needs help." And I'd go and lift her up, and she'd drink from the fountain.

Time to leave, they took turns hitting elevator buttons, and we headed back home.

Kids at Home, Birthday, Etc.

Birthday today. Stunningly, Jack and Kate both slept in. Jack came in a little after 7. He had a broad grin on his face, almost incredulous. "I just woke up!" he said. He got into bed and I hugged him.

I got lots of handmade birthday cards. Kate's been doing this thing where she uses lots of different colors to make circles and dots on the page. She called it a rainbow once I think. Jack made me a card with some kind of sea monster on it, then another with "an electric panel." I said, piano? He said, slowly so I could understand, "PANEL."

Got munchkin donuts for everyone. They disappeared quickly. I maybe got one.

We headed out to the beach. Jack and I had our usual joke where we see a sandy beach about half a mile from where we're actually going and I ask him if he wants to get out here, and he laughs and says no. He reminds me if I'm slow to ask him.

We set up shop and immediately the kids bolted for the water. We rounded them back up to lather them up with sunblock. After that, the beach was pretty much as normal, just one extra parent and three extra kids. Abbey does her steamboat swim (that's what it was called when I learned it). Mikey jumps and splashes in the water. Niamh seemed happy to be cool at last; it's been ridiculously hot here.

All the kids wore swim goggles, so Jack wanted a pair too; there were extras. He then was extra brave about putting his face in the water, which was nice to see.

At one point, Kate slipped in the water. Robin lifted her out. Kate cried for a while, but then rallied. Niamh related how Kate described the accident. "I was in the water and then I was down there (pointing) and then I was up. I not crying any more!" Sometimes she does a long, stream-of-consciousness talk that's pretty funny.

We got chicken nuggets, hotdogs, fries, juice boxes. I think we were hungrier than the kids were. They wanted to go back in the water.

Back at home, we cranked the air conditioner and watched Toy Story II.

Pizza, football ice cream cake, blueberry pie. More homemade cards. Abbey almost missed dinner while spending about half an hour on her card; it showed. Jack, in addition to his card, made two construction paper turtles, big and small. The Daddy and the baby turtle. He said he knew I liked turtles.

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I put Jack to bed, it was pretty hot in his room. After reading to him, lying down for songs, I said to him, I can't stay long, it's too hot for me. Jack said, "Well, we don't have to hug. You can just lay with me."

So I did.


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Friday, most of us kind of slept lousy. Jack ended up switching rooms with Emily, because he was hot or having bad dreams or both, and keeping Niamh up. I shared the bed with him. For a small guy he moves around a lot in bed. He seemed rested in the morning. Me, not so much.

Waking up, he made his monkey (currently one of his two favorite stuffed toys) bounce around on the bed. Then I made it dance. Jack laughed.

We set up and played the Lego game. Mikey won the first game, Jack the second. I did not win any games.

Went to the playground. We were there maybe 10 minutes when the ice cream truck showed up. So much for the playground. Got some great pictures of the kids inhaling their ice cream. Much ice cream got onto faces and hands, but at least I talked Kate out of the Dora ice cream and into a strawberry eclair, my favorite as a kid if memory serves. Jack had one shaped like Iron Man's head.

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After Robin and the kids left today, Kate was napping and I was setting up the new Lego game with Jack. I said, I miss Robin already.

Jack said, "Did you hug her goodbye?" I said yes.

He thought about it for a minute, then said, "Well, maybe you should get on the computer and send her a hug."

I said, well, that's a good idea. I can't right now though.

"Because you promised you'd play the Lego game with me?"

That's right, Jack.

Kids at home, Day 1

We decided to keep both kids home the month of August. Save a little money, give Jack a break before he started kindergarten. Seemed like a good idea at the time. So I'm going to be writing about it a lot.

Today they watched TV from about 7:30 until 9 in the morning, while I did a little work. That will probably be a recurring theme. I'm not really awake anyway, plus I've got to clear my plate of some work type things.

We then had 2nd breakfast (for them; 1st breakfast for me). Cereal, frozen waffles/pancakes, fruit. I think they could basically eat cereal all day long. Jack asked for a third bowl of cereal this morning, while his pancakes were in the toaster. Exasperated, I said, No. He said, "Why?" like he could fathom no reason why eating half a box of cereal was a bad thing. We need to shop at Costco more.

After breakfast, Jack wanted to play with his clay, given to him by Nana and Baba. I had advised him to wait until Kate's nap, but he said it would be OK. After 10 minutes of her grabbing clumps of clay and mashing them together, and him saying "No, Kate," he sighed and said to me, "You were right, Daddy." Score.

We were going to go for a walk, but it rained for about 5 or 10 minutes, so instead they played in the playroom. Kate was acting like she wanted to nap, which was odd since it was about 10:30 and she'd slept until 6:15 or so (good for her). It had cleared up, so I thought we might go for that walk. We headed upstairs to get dressed and I took a quick shower.

Came out to find Jack had gone back downstairs and Kate was in Jack's room. Asleep. On his bed, from which the sheets had been stripped. It was 11 a.m. about 2 hours before she normally naps. So I got dressed, went downstairs, and Jack and I made things with his clay. He made an impressive little family of penguins, which we baked in the oven. He was pleased.

We went outside to play with these scoop game toys Emily had bought. Jack couldn't get the ball to go forward, but rather off to his side. It was tricky. He told me, "Daddy, you should stand over there," at his side. I did, and of course he turned, tried to throw it to me, and it went off to the side again. He laughed.

We opted for a variation on the game, where we threw the ball at the small basketball hoop with the scoops. Absolutely impossible to get it in. Finally we stood about three feet away and I slammed the ball and scoop through the net. Jack cracked up, and then did the same thing.

Kate woke up and we had lunch and went to the beach. I figured, well, Kate's already had her nap, so we can sit around for 4 hours and probably get cranky and whiny (and they wouldn't be much better) or go to the beach. So we did.

We hadn't been to the beach for at least 2 weeks (seemed longer), but they acted like they'd never been away. Both started walking down to the water with their pails and shovels while I was still assembling the umbrella. Kate went right up to her ankles (I ran after her and splashed water). I say this because our kids aren't necessarily the most daring in the world. But they've really taken to the ocean thanks to the frequency with which we go, and it's awesome and gratifying. We played in the water like it was nothing, which was not the case at the beginning of the summer.

Jack splashed me. Kate splashed Jack. Jack splashed Kate. Kate thought about crying, then instead splashed me. Jack tried to clamber onto my back. Kate wanted to be bounced up and down in the water. We all walked out to this sandbar where given the time and more adult help I'd have staged a picture that made it look like they could walk on water. It was pretty cool. Jack wanted to go out deeper, but it would have been over Kate's head so we didn't.

We had snacks, Dora fruit bites and grapes and juice boxes. Then they ran back to the water. My magazine went unread.

Did not find the hat Jack lost a few weeks back. The people at the lifeguard shack where there might have been a Lost and Found looked at me like I was joking. My son lost a hat here two weeks ago.... I may as well have been asking if they'd found the Ark of the Covenant.

In the car on the way home from the beach, Jack asked for the Boat that Rocked soundtrack, and he jammed in the back seat to '60s and '70s rock.

We turned it off as we approached home. A sun-kissed and half-sleepy Kate started singing Jack's Stewie the Duck song. "Don't...jump...in...till you know...how to swim...Cover your chest...with the safe...life...vest..."

Jack's last preschool day

Today was Jack's last day of preschool. I got bits and pieces of it, from several sources.

Emily: "We were going to get Munchkins, but Jack wanted big donuts, so we got big ones for his class and Munchkins for Kate's. ... I teared up a little after dropping him off."

Miss Liz (when I picked him up): "OK, take turns hugging Jack goodbye. Teddy, Olivia, take turns!" (They were crushing him. On the bright side, they were going to see him on Sunday anyway at Charleigh's birthday party.) And: "Another girl's last day was last week, and she brought donuts, but there weren't enough so they had to be cut in half. Jack said, 'I brought 14 donuts, so they don't have to be cut in half...everyone gets a donut!' He was very proud."

Jack: "I hugged Mr. Brendan goodbye and he hugged me so hard he picked me up off the floor! And then he patted my stomach like THIS! And then I patted his stomach TOO!"

"Mr. Brendan said I was the King of the Classroom, and so today we did whatever I wanted to do."

"I miss Teddy. But, I'll see him Sunday. And I'll see him at our playdate. And I'll invite him to MY birthday. And I'll see him at other birthday parties....." You bet, Jack.

At home, Jack opened all of the going away presents from his class. First he read all the words on his balloon. "Bye! We'll miss you! Good Luck! Keep in Touch!" He's a good reader. Teddy had made him a picture. Charleigh made him a paper crown. He unwrapped the present from the class. It was a canvas bag which everyone had signed their name to, in different colors.

Lastly, they'd given him the picture of the four of us we'd sent in a couple of years ago, Mommy and Daddy and Jack and Kate, sitting on the porch swing in Vermont. It was laminated and put on construction paper, surrounded by stickers he'd put on. And that was preschool.

Vermont Part 2

- Sunday we slept in, miraculously. It was great. Nana made blueberry pancakes and they were fantastic. Jack could eat blueberries by the basket - did yesterday, in fact - but was lukewarm on having them in his pancakes. Kids.

- While Emmy and I went to Wal-mart, the kids played with Aunt Robin and their cousins. "Splat" was the most popular pursuit, plus they made stuffed animals with a kit. Jack naturally loved Kate's stuffed animals toy. I think whatever was chosen for Kate would have fascinated him more than his own. Just how things go.

- Jack played baseball with Mikey and Baba. I got the idea later that Jack didn't do as well as he'd have liked. We made up for that by playing more later, giving Jack another chance to really hit some. Hard to tell a kid, well, he's 3 years older than you....

- Jack and his cousins went swimming while Kate napped.

- We went up to the Queechee antique mall with a train and merry go round. First we rode the train, which I sometimes think the adults enjoy more than the kids. Although Kate at least wasn't afraid of it by the end and actually opened her eyes and started looking at things. "Bear!"

- After the train, the kids rode these goofy quarter horse rides. Kate liked sitting on them more than riding on them. Jack wanted to ride all of them even though they were all basically the same. Soon the quarters ran out.

- Dinner was fun. They stuck the 11 of us in our own room, wisely. Jack and Kate colored, while Jack gave his order to every employee who walked in our general area: "Pizza and a side of french fries!" He ate well, Kate ate well. One kid had to go to the bathroom, so did the rest. Niamh told a story that cracked up Mikey, and then his laughter cracked the other kids up, and suddenly everyone was losing it. Emily and I watched in mild bafflement as our kids peacefully ate their ice cream for dessert, occasionally laughing or smiling politely at the hilarity.

- At home, everyone was still wired and we hung out in the front yard, near a tree that I remember being planted as just a sapling -- that was now a giant monolith that everyone climbed into. We took picture after picture after picture. Happy kids.

- Played baseball in the yard on Monday. Everyone got a turn to bat. No fights, no bruised feelings. Just six kids and their parents and grandparents, playing baseball.

Vermont

- We picked blueberries in the morning. Kate ate essentially every one she picked. Jack ate most, until we impressed upon him the idea of it being a competition to pick the most blueberries. Then he stopped eating them and tried to find his way onto teams of the best pickers.

- There was a petting zoo. Everyone petted rabbits and cows and sheep. We threw too many quarters into the food dispenser, getting food which the animals would take from the kids' hands unless they nervously dropped it on the ground.

- We went swimming at the Grover's Pool. Jack was fine with the inner tube around his middle; he jumped off the edge of the pool a bit, and swam all around. He gets a little more relaxed every time. One day he's going to toss that inner tube aside. At one point I just picked him up off the edge of the pool and bounced him up in the air. He yelled in laughter and nervousness, kind of a mixed joy and alarm I think.

- Kate was pretty wary of the water, but with the inner tube, she too eventually went in a little, in my arms, bounced up and down in the air. And then she really got into it when we let her on the raft, which was so big that she could spread out on it and still not touch the water. She made herself as flat as possible, fingers and toes stretched toward the corner, chin on the raft. And a big, happy smile on her face.

- We cooked out, on a little Smoky Joe grill I picked up last week. Jack helped me put it together, which I think he was proud of. Kate kind of helped husk corn. Then fell asleep sitting up on the couch next to Abbey. We woke her up for dinner, which was a hit. Mikey said more than once that he "loved" it. Kind of nice. Jack ate every bite of his hotdog, even though like Kate he was kind of zonked out.

We went to bed relatively early.

Beach Day

Went to the beach on Sunday. It was probably about the eighth Sunday we've been to the beach this year. One, the kids seem to love it more each time, and you really can't put a price on that. Two, it's about the only thing we can do that doesn't involve price, which is nice every once in a while. And three, we've kind of got it down to an art form right now.

10:00 a.m. I pack the car in a few minutes. Umbrella, beach chairs, towels, beach toys, sunscreen, change of clothes for the kids, extra swim diaper for Kate, cooler with water, juice, snacks. We throw on our suits and we're off.

10:20. We're there, and we tumble out. Choose a spot, plant the umbrella, lather up the sunscreen. Jack wants to run down to the water. Kate wants to run down to the water. We run down to the water. It's low tide, and you can walk a ways out and it's only up to your knees. So we do. We run and splash in the water for a while. Kate prefers staying close to the beach, but she's getting braver and braver each time we go. Jack sees people way out yet still only waist deep and wants to go. So we do.

11:15. Snacks. This eventually turns into lunch. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is not terribly filling. Our art form has a flaw....need to schedule grocery store trip on Saturdays again.

11:30. Back to the edge of the water, with buckets. We dig in the sand. Make a castle, Kate kicks it over. Make another one, Jack kicks it over. There are lots of obstacles to development in this neighborhood.

11:45. Jack likes to chase seagulls. His little feet pound against the sand as he runs determinedly after them. I have images of gulls, flying away from him, clocking other beach goers. Fortunately, it doesn't happen. Eventually Jack tires of it. We go back in the water and find horseshoe crabs and tiny fish. A seagull divebombs a few feet from us and gets a fish. Jack won't chase that particular one anytime soon.

12 noon. A couple of little boys, in the way only kids can, telepathically invite Jack to play with them. He does. They appear to be throwing a G.I. Joe-like toy up in the air like he's doing surfing tricks, then burying him in the sand. This is fun for them for about 15 minutes, at which point I believe one of the boys no longer wants to share his toy. Everyone goes their separate ways, but Jack remarks, "I made a friend."

12:15. I take Jack to the bathroom. As we walk the 10 minutes or so to the facilities, I debate at what point I can just direct him to a tree or leafy plant somewhere. Maybe next year.

12:30. We return to find Emily and Kate playing in the water. Emily holds Kate's hands and bobs her up and down in the water. Kate, who wouldn't even set foot in the YMCA pool the previous days, screams with laughter. Jack and I play his futile yet still enjoyable game of fighting the waves with punches and kicks. I feel like Mr. Miyagi, with Jack my karate kid using crane technique.

12:45. We're working on teaching Jack to swim, so we hold his hands and get him to kick and float on his stomach. At one point he does a credible dog paddle. Big smile. I hold Kate's hands and walk backward in the water on my knees. She kicks out her legs behind her. Bigger smile. She turns her head to Emily. "Mommy, I swimming!" Pause, smile, laugh. Then: "Mommy, I swimming!!!!!!" She's terribly proud of herself.

1:00. Jack recognizes a little girl from preschool, Harley. I wonder if he's mistaken but nope, she knows him too. They run around playing, which soon turns into filling buckets with water and splashing the monster until he falls underwater, roaring in pain. I get up with difficulty and discreetly cough water out to one side. They bury me in water again. Eventually I'll mind, but it's a pretty hot day.

1:30. Jack and Harley run off back near our towels, playing with the beach toys. I approach to keep an eye on them and Jack says, "Daddy, can you give us privacy?" I thought it would be another 10 years before I heard that from him. I step back a little and sit in the sand, watching them play.

2:00. We're waterlogged and burned, and Kate is starting to get cranky from not napping. Plus she wants to play with Jack's friend, and Jack and Harley don't want her too. I guess this will probably happen a lot in the years to come. She gets upset, we soothe her, and then the ocean and the sun make it all forgotten.

2:15. I load up the car, while the kids relax in a hot mudbath. This is also standard procedure at the beach, because I guess sitting in hot mud makes sense after cooling off, I don't know. We all rinse off one last time and pile into the car to go home.

2:30. Kate sleeps in the car. Jack asks to hear the same Who song from the Boat that Rocked soundtrack again and again and again. One day, perhaps, we'll make it to the Beach Boys song.

Singing Kate

Everything is a song to Kate these days.

"Oscar the grouch....Oscar the grouch...."

"I found my pullup....I found my pullup.....found....my....PULLUP!"

"I want some cantelope....I want some cantelope...."

"That's Jack's bear....that's Jack's bear.....THAT'S.....JACK'S.....

BEAR!"

"I stubbed my toe.....I stubbed my toe......"

sidewalking

Most days I pick the kids up from preschool, and we park in our driveway at home. And most days, they want to go for a walk, and so we do.

We couldn't do this at our old apartment, since we lived on a ridiculously signed intersection, and we didn't have any sidewalks. So this is one of the small but important benefits of our new home.

Part of the appeal is that Jack likes to step on ants and other bugs. Kate has joined him in this exercise. I naturally love all of the earth's creatures, great and small, but you know, he's a 5-year-old boy, and they're bugs. So what are you gonna do.

We walk about half a block, turn, and walk back. We usually see people walking their dogs. Yesterday we met a woman walking a Rescue dog, the friendliest black lab you'll ever meet. Jack is a little wary, but he gradually works up the nerve to pet it. He smiles goofily as he does so.

Kate hangs back, then gets brave as the dog leaves. She steps forward onto the sidewalk (off our lawn) and yells down the street. "Bye, doggie! BYE DOGGIE.....!!!!!!!!"

swimming

Took Jack swimming at the YMCA pool yesterday. He goes with his class each week; we don't take him enough.

Since he goes all the time, he felt he should tell me what to do and where to go. "There's a family changing room," he explained. "Don't go here, go here." And: "There are rooms for the boys and rooms for the girls."

We headed to the pool. "We go in that part over there. Here, come on," he said helpfully.

Jack went right over to get a floaty, which he wears around his chest. With that on, he's extremely comfortable in the water. So we swam about a bit with him in that. But, I wanted him to swim a little without it. We took it off, he was a little more nervous. But, with a barbell-like floaty, he was fine. That was pretty cool. He held it out in front of him, kicked with his feet, went from end to end.

I wanted him to jump in the water off the edge of the pool. He was wary. Don't you do this at school? I asked. He said, "Well, I did it once. And I got water in my eyes and my nose and my mouth and I cried." I said, well, it's just water. And I'll be right here. So he got up on the side of the pool and went to jump...but instead crouched down, sat and sort of slipped into the water instead.

So I brought out the big guns: McDonald's for lunch. So that worked. He got back out, got in crouch position, and asked to grab my fingers when he jumped (which is how he does it at school, evidently). He jumped, sunk in the water to his shoulders or so, bobbed up.

He was euphoric, his little face beaming with pride. "I did it!" he said. "I jumped in!" I gave him much praise. He did it again.

Then we put the floaty back on and swam around a bit. Another little boy, couple of years older probably, was playing. There was this huge floating ball, that they and I batted back and forth for a while. Eventually I just got out, and they played. I think Jack could have stayed in for an hour. Finally it was clear, after much swimming about, hitting the ball, and laughter, that he was getting cold/tired. I said it was time to go. Bye dude! the other kid said to Jack. "Bye!" Jack said.

As I dried Jack off, he made a funny, raspy voice. "This is my funny voice when I'm cold," he rasped with a big smile.

We went to McDonald's, and it was good.

Rare form

Jack was in rare form in the car on the way home today.

"I think we should give America a present," he said. "I think we should pick up litter. Because if we don't pick it up, the whole world would get sick. And then it would cough."

As we got home, I said, Hurry up and get inside, you don't want to melt.

Jack said, "I want to melt." Kate chimed in, "I want to melt too." I said, why would you want to melt? Jack said, "Because if I melted, I would turn into Iceman, and I could make everything cool."

Today

Taught Jack to play Risk and Parcheesi. The one he wanted to collect all the cannons, the other he wanted to play with the elephant and buffalo pieces. But it was fun anyway. He kept inventing new rules, so that both games ended up being nothing like they were supposed to be. And it didn't matter.

Went to a backyard barbecue. There were a bunch of other boys, many slightly older, who Jack didn't know. At first he just played with his cousins. But then, hanging out near their baseball game, he showed interest. A boy invited him. He shambled tentatively into the group. And got a chance to swing the bat at a few. He and I had just played in our backyard that morning, and I saw him hit a few good ones that evening, so it made me happy and proud. Glad for him, too.

Kate and I swung a jump rope that she'd found at the party. Also played with a couple of hula hoops. She laughed and laughed.

Friday

First Friday in our new house. Here's how it went.

- Kate woke up at 5:15. No idea why she's waking up so early. They went to bed a little late last night, too. Fortunately, some magic occurred where she actually went back to sleep. On her carpeted floor. Ultimately we all slept past 6, which is a big deal around these parts.

- Went down and made coffee. Set up the new DirecTV box in the playroom, much to the delight of the kids.

- Gave them breakfast. Cereal, raspberries. I know why Jack likes them so much, they're fantastic. As was the watermelon we had after dinner last night; like candy. Really amazing how good it was. Kate wasn't going to get any because she didn't eat much dinner. I told her to eat two pieces of hotdog and she'd get watermelon. Looking right at me, she slowly ate her two bites.

- We got dressed and went to "the baby playground." (The smaller of the two we can walk to.) Jack said he wanted to go to Bruce -- the one we have to drive to. Forget it, Jack. We walked the two and a half blocks with ease, then played on the swings and raced. Maybe Jack will be into track. I liked the idea of track, but I was never particularly fast.

- Came home and had snack bites on the front porch. Jack said, "Our first time sitting out on our front porch!" For lunch, macaroni and cheese. Kids inhaled it, as they usually do.

- Kate napped, Jack and I played superheroes. Basically we make his action figures fight. Scott and I used to do something similar.

- We played in the backyard for a bit. Got out Jack's toy golf clubs, balls. They kicked those around, we raced more.

- Had an apple snack on the front steps and colored with sidewalk chalk on the sidewalk. First time we've done that anywhere. It was nice.

- Lots of people walked by with dogs. Jack said, "It seems like a lot of people here have dogs. We need to get a dog."

- They raced more on the front porch. I cracked them up by talking in slow motion. "Reddddddddy.....Settttttttt......" Jack's first porch-length dash took 7 seconds by my count, his last only 1. But I was talking in slow motion, after all. At times he ran in slow motion, but not always.

- Emily came home. The Rosenfelds came over for gin and tonics, their girls played with Jack and Kate. We sat on the back deck and ate pizza.

- I carried the kids up the stairs and we got them into bed. Think they were exhausted.

Father's Day

It was our first morning in our new house, so we really didn't have much in the way of breakfast in bed or what have you. I got cards from Jack, Kate and Emily; I drank lots of coffee; and we unpacked a few things. DirecTV came, but they couldn't get us hooked up. So it was sticky and hot and the day looked to have some packing and probably whining in it (since the kids were up too early), so we decided to go to the beach.

I asked Jack if he wanted to go; he had been watching TV and that usually led to him saying, "No." I ignored it and said, "Great! Get your suit on!"

We piled into the car and headed off. Kate napped some. It was overcast most of the way to the beach and I worried about rain. But it didn't. Instead the rest of the day went like this...

- We went down to the water and splashed at the edge and made mudpies

- Jack and I went in the water and found shells. Kate and Mommy went back to the towels for a snack for Kate

- We made sand castles

- We had sandwiches and chips and a coke and they were fantastic

- We found a horseshoe crab in the water and we admired it for a bit until we realized it was either very sleepy or dead. Then we moved away.

- Kate splashed me from the edge of the water and I splashed her back. She laughed

- Jack and I fought the waves. Jack said we had to punch and kick the whitecaps. I explained that this was an infinite job but we spent the next 20 minutes doing it anyway. He seemed to have limitless energy. I was exhausted.

- We fought the waves more

- We'd been there about 3 hours, probably our longest beach trip ever, and were getting ready to leave. I packed up the stuff while the kids got distracted on the way back to the towels by a mudhole. They continued playing.

- The kids napped in the car on the way back, chins down on their chests

- At home, I gave them their first baths in the new tub. Both were covered in sand and mud. And groggy from napping. And happy.

- The Rosenfelds had us over for dinner. I was expecting hotdogs, but as we walked in Cathy held up a huge, writhing lobster. I was surprised, Jack was alarmed. And the lobster and beer were both awesome.

New Home

We closed on our house Friday, getting ready to move from the apartment Kate was born in and Jack became Jack in. After closing, we gathered the kids from Aunt Cathy's and headed over.

Jack cruised right through the house and out into the back yard. "This big back yard is ALL OURS?" he said, thrilled. Yep. They both ran around a bit. Kate faceplanted at one point. Got up without tears. "Oops," she said.

They loved the back deck. They went up and down the stairs, up and down. Good practice I think.

Kate's room has stars on the ceiling. She LOVES them.

The basement steps seem a little steep. As I write this, Emily says, "Kate just body surfed down the final four steps. I think she found something she enjoys."

Yesterday we moved in. When the movers had gone, the kids were brought back over by helpful relatives. They immediately ran into their respective rooms and jumped on beds, happily.

They were up way too late last night.

This morning, Jack came in around 4. "I'm cold but can't find long pajamas." And 5. "I accidentally turned on Daddy's clock radio (his was still packed) and can't turn it off." And 5:45. "My foot itches."

We got up early on Father's Day.

Kate wakes up too early

Kate wakes up too early, and as a result she wakes all of us up too early. We try different things, and sometimes it works for a while, but whether we put her to bed earlier, later, whatever, she still seems to wake up too early. Maybe the guy next door has an alarm that goes off that early; if so, maybe it will change when we move.

Anyway, she wakes Jack up sometimes. He seemed tired tonight, and Emily said to him, "I know it's hard...Kate's been waking you up lately, hasn't she?"

Jack sighed, and held out his hands in exasperation. "Kate's been waking me up since she was born," he said.

Graduation

Jack's graduation from daycare was this morning. We got him dressed up in a little polo shirt and shorts, and Kate in a nice dress, and dropped him off early, so he and his class could get ready. On the way he caught his hand in the door. He cried but was OK. Probably hurt a decent amount.

Emily and I and Kate sat in this little church hall next door to the daycare. It was all decorated with balloons. The administrator made some opening remarks, and then his class -- all of whom would be going to kindergarten in the fall -- paraded in. They all wore little mortarboards and carried flags; Jack held his flag up high. They took their seats and he fidgeted with his hat.

After some opening remarks from teachers, a student was called up to lead the Pledge of Allegiance -- Jack. He recited every word clearly so that everyone could hear. Emily and I swelled with pride.

Each child came up and announced their name, age, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Each parent tried to get pictures and make out what they said. We didn't catch what Jack said; later it turned out that he said, "I haven't decided yet." Good job, Jack.

The kids sang some songs together (Mr. Sun, Happy and you know it, etc.), then got their diplomas, one by one. Pretty cool.

After came food, pictures with friends, and ice cream. Jack picked an ice cream sandwich.

Jack and one of his classmates since he started there, Olivia, struck goofy poses for pictures. Very funny. All that was missing was them throwing their caps in the air.

At home, Emily and I gave Jack his graduation present, a hardback edition of Where the Wild Things Are. I sat down and read it to him, and he said, "Can you read it again?" So I read it again, and as we finished he took it out of my hands, sighed, and said, "I love this book."

I needed to mail a package, so I asked Jack if he wanted to come with me. I told him he could press the buttons on the machine. So he came (with his book and stuffed doggie), and helped me press buttons, and put the package into the bin. As we left, there were painted footprints on the floor, about six feet apart. He leaped and stretched his little legs to step in each of the footprints on his way out of the post office.

We took the shortcut through the office park, past the duck pond. "Hi, Sloppy!" Jack yelled. He calls the duck with a green head Sloppy, apparently because of the way he eats his bread.

As we parked and walked up our steps, Jack said, "I've got a funny joke. Pretend I'm still holding your hand." Then he snuck over and stood behind the edge of the garage. I played along. Then he said, "Now pretend I'm invisible." I continued, walking ahead as if I was holding Jack's hand. He jumped out, laughing. "That was a pretty good joke, right?"

Lyle, Lyle

I was putting the kids to bed tonight, reading them stories in Jack's bed. We came to "Lyle, Lyle Crocodile," which we got out of the library last week. It's actually the book that I think I remember most from childhood. One of them anyway.

Jack likes to read it, using basically his own dialogue based on what happens in the pictures. He also uses a sort of goofy voice, which is kind of funny. So he started reading it. I left for a minute.

When I came back, they were both cracking up. Jack said something I didn't understand and they cracked up again. Turns out, after much prodding, that he was saying "Hec-Tor P Val-en-ti!" after the character in the book, and this was very funny. And it was pretty funny.

Hec-Tor P Val-en-ti!

Goaalllllllllllllllllll!

We had soccer on Saturday morning. It was a pretty hot day, already. But we went out there anyway and ran around in the sun. I led various soccer drills; passing, shooting, scoring. Standard stuff, but everybody seemed to get it a little more than usual. Well not everyone, but most everyone. Solid kicks. Goals.

We did Red Light Green Light, and they all ran hard, kicking the ball like they were part of something. We did Follow the Leader, and they all followed me.

And then came the game.

I'd basically not given up on Jack scoring, exactly, but I no longer expected it. He was game; he ran around and went after the ball, and kicked it when he had a chance, but safe to say it wasn't his reason for being or anything.

But late in the game, it happened. Couple of our better players were off to the left of the goal, maybe 15 feet away, battling for the ball with a couple of their players. Jack was in the vicinity, sort of in front of the goal, 10 feet away. And then the ball either was passed or kicked out of the scrum, right toward him, and as it came near him he wound up - left-footed! - and booted it, hard. The ball was a dart. His aim was true. I saw the back of the net stretch out. Goal!

There was much celebration. I ran over, which fortunately I could do being the coach and all, and clapped him on the shoulders, patted his head, congratulated him. Did the same for the kids who may or may not have intentionally passed it to him. Congratulated Jack again. He was kind of a stunned happy, I think. I did a theatrical fist-pump toward Emily. A low-key Steve Martin in Parenthood type of celebration.

Afterward, congratulating Jack again, he seemed ready to move on. He had a play-date at Teddy's house, after all, where they would spend the next hour or two pretending to be Godzilla.

Saturday

We all slept terribly last night. Kate's been waking up and getting out of bed too early, waking up Jack, we've been working a lot and going to bed too late, it's too hot, it's too cold, it's too noisy, whatever.

Got up today and the kids had Fruit Loops. Only on weekends. They love Fruit Loops.

Jack had soccer. He had fun running around with his friend Teddy. Only mildly interested, I'd say, in soccer itself. But his team won, that was nice. Jack took a hard elbow at one point and went down. He cried. It's a fine line between trying to soothe him and trying to get him to shake it off. It went OK, though.

As we were getting into the car afterward, one of Jack's teammates yelled out the back window of his car, "Bye, Coach!"

Kate ran around a lot, also at one point asking me during the game when I was near the sidelines, "Please can I have Dora bites?" (The snack we brought for them for afterward, they're like little fruit bites shaped like Dora the Explorer...yeah, I don't know how that's really possible either.) Kate, I'm kind of in the middle of something here.

Kate napped, during which I sat with Jack for a while reading him "Highlights" and "High Five" magazine. He enjoys both of them particularly the puzzles and stories. Yesterday we made Finger Puppets from them. We always do the games where you have to find little things, shapes of common objects and stuff, in pictures of a beach scene or whatever. He also likes to do mazes. I used to love to do mazes.

After Kate's nap, we went and rode their bikes in the office park. I guess when we move we won't go to the office park anymore, because we'll be near a big actual park. But no ducks! Well, we'll see. We fed the ducks. There were two groups of ducklings with their moms (or Dads, far be it from me to make assumptions about familial roles in waterfowl). We threw bread until we were out, than rode our bikes home. Kate likes to sit on the bike and move along with her feet on the ground. Jack actually pedals and stuff; at some point we'll need to take off the training wheels. I don't know when that is.

Kate put on her own pajamas. She beamed proudly about it. Jack sang in the bathtub, I don't remember what about. Grandma put him to bed and cracked him up repeatedly. His laugh is awesome.

Friday recap

In the morning I took apart Kate's crib and set up her mattress. It was a little sad, but at least now she won't have to yell for us to get her at 5:30 in the morning. She'll just come in.

I lured them upstairs to get dressed with the promise of seeing Kate's new bed. She was very pleased and they both jumped on it. Then Jack made a cozy home, which he does by placing blankets and pillows all over something. Usually he makes it on the couch, today he made it on Kate's bed.

We went out to the playground. Jack was approached by a little girl to see if he wanted to come play dragon with her and her friend. I later learned from one of their Moms that they were both 5, too. Jack played with them for like 20 minutes, running around and climbing on rocks they called their dragon car, hiding behind trees, going about the park with sticks. It was nice. Eventually they left, Jack came back to me and Kate, and we all had some water.

Jack then climbed around on this tower thingy, while Kate led me by the hand to sit down at a park bench. The woman sitting on the bench as Kate brought me over to it ("Sit here. Sit here! Daddy, sit here. Sit where that girl is. Sit here.") was amused.

We drove home and they played a little before lunch. Jack invented a board game called The Mouse Game. "Do you want to play The Mouse Game?" he asked. Sure, I said. He'd drawn a hopscotch like series of boxes on a piece of paper with numbers in each box, up to 30. And taken the mouse game pieces from the Mousetrap game and the spinner from Chutes and Ladders. The object was to have the mice advance along the spaces until they reached the end. Near the end there was a place marked "Lose a turn." So I spun and got a 5 and moved 5. Jack got a 2. I spun again and got another 5. Jack said, "Wow, Daddy, you're good at this game." He won, however, as I managed to hit Lose a turn a couple of times in a row.

After lunch Kate said, "I want to go nap on my bed." So up we went, she climbed on happily and lay down. I left and closed the door. Five minutes later she came out. "I want to play." We went back downstairs and played. Then it was naptime and I brought her up. This time she stayed in her bed.

Jack and I played The Mouse Game again. Then we did something, I don't know, Oh, we played hockey with the mallets from the Alien game Robin gave us way back when.

After Kate's nap they had an apple, we played outside with the bubble machine, and they watched some TV while I made pizza for dinner. I told them I'd make fun shapes. Jack wanted a Captain Raptor pizza. I made this turtle-like shape that I tried to pass off as Captain Raptor, but Jack wasn't buying it. So that became Kate's, and he and I made Captain Raptor.

They helped me put cheese on both pizzas. And ate some, too.

Busy weekend

- Jack had soccer Saturday morning. Their team had 7 to our 5, and one of their kids was about 14 I think. We were losing, although it was probably only like 2-1 or something, but they had more chances. During a water break, Jack said to me, "I don't think you guys (me and the other coach) are doing a good job." Thanks, Jack. I gave him the whole bit about how it was very close and he was doing great and the important thing was to keep trying. Not sure if he bought it. I also pointed out that they had more kids and one of them was probably shaving already.

- Kate, I'm told, ran around the track around the soccer fields multiple times during the game, with Grandpa once and with Emily another.

- Jack and I went to the supermarket. No great stories, but he was really good, in high spirits and helpful and funny the whole time. It was nice. The fact that I only had one minor glitch where I spent 10 minutes looking for Teriyaki sauce probably helped. Anyway, good trip to the store. He'd been asking for Fruit Loops, which we'd never bought before, and we said OK. He clutched the box all the way from the checkout lines to the car. Nobody was getting that box of Fruit Loops away from him.

- Jack asked if we could eat dinner outside, we said sure. So we ran around the backyard and played with the wiffle bat and so forth, and then had grilled chicken and orzo salad. And when milk was spilled, no cleanup required.

- I read Jack his new library book, Captain Raptor and the something something - it involved pirates and dinosaurs - twice.

- Sunday morning, Fruit Loops were a hit.

- We went to the Greenwich Audobon Society. There was a frog pond; we saw lots of frogs. Learned we need to do more nature stuff, as Kate is scared of ants. Jack thinks every flying insect is a bumblebee. After a while we settled in and had a nice walk in the woods.

- Went out to get Kate a mattress. Big girl bed for Kate! She clung to us the whole time since it was shortly after she'd woken up from her nap.

- At home while Emily made dinner, Jack showed Kate how to make a bed with her new sheets on the couch. And they made a Cozy Home, which is basically Jack using blankets and stuffed toys and various other objects and random stuff to make a mini-home. Kate listened solemnly to everything he did and said.

- Ran around the backyard after dinner, running the bubble machine. Literally ran; Jack likes to race. He generally wins, then points out that I'm running in slow motion. Although that's usually true, in this case it just might have been really hot.

- Before sleep, Jack and Kate lay on their stomachs on his bed with books. Kate read aloud, although she was just describing pictures which may or may not have been the book she was reading. Jack listened. We didn't interrupt even when it was past her bedtime.

just a day

Jack was up too late last night, so he was a little out of it today. Plus he had a slight cold. But, the day came anyway...

- Start with last night, we had breakfast for dinner. I make faces on their plates: the mini-bagels are the eyes, scrambled eggs for mouth (or hair sometimes, with bacon for the mouth), and a strawberry for a nose. I think they enjoy it as much as I do. Maybe it's a toss-up.

- This morning they had breakfast for breakfast. Yogurt, cinnamon toast, cereal. Canteloupe. Whatever one of them asks for, the other one wants. "I want milk TOO!" "I want canteloupe TOO."

- Went to the bank. Jack requested the latest rock and roll CD. Sonic Youth. I don't think there's any cursing in it, though I'll need to screen things closely as time goes on.

- Took Jack for a haircut. Kate ran around the barber shop, peering through glass into cabinets. I read them both the Scooby Doo, Haunting at the Playground book. I've read that thing for basically every haircut Jack has had, so I'm thinking about 6 times a year for the last three and a half years. I think that's the main reason Jack wants to keep going to Ruvo's, even more than the lollipops afterward. That book.

- They got lollipops.

- We went to the library. Found the book Jack wanted, that he'd seen with his class this week. Found a book for Kate, who of course walks around picking random books off shelves that she wants, even if she has no idea what they are.

- Outside the library, they sat on the statue of a bull, as they also do every time. Last time they went with Emily, and maybe she called it an ox. Because Jack said, "Can we go sit on the axe?" And I'm like, WHAT?

- Went to the little playground. Jack was kind of tired and went through the motions at the slides and stuff. Kate wanted to go on the swings. I put her on a swing next to a little boy, a bit younger than her, being pushed by his Mom. Kate laughed gaily as I pushed her. The boy was absolutely silent as he swung. It was a little embarrassing. When Kate laughs, she really laughs.

- Went to McDonalds. They'd moved on from How to Train Your Dragon toys, but the woman went in the back and found a couple. They were happy. Both ate all their food. Something about McDonalds.

- At home, Kate napped. Jack could have but didn't. We had a quiet afteroon and they went to bed early. Like I'm going to do now.

Coach

Soccer started today for Jack. I was an assistant coach last year, and was planning to do the same thing this year. Then Monday the woman at Parks and Recreation called me and basically said there weren't enough coaches and there might not be a team if I didn't become the head coach. So, I'm the head coach. I mentioned it to Jack yesterday. This morning I was in the kitchen giving Kate breakfast when Jack walked downstairs. I said, Hi Jack. He said, "Good morning, Coach."

So we had soccer, I handed out the jerseys, met all the little kids. And they did fine with drills, Red Light, Green Light, etc. Jack messed around for the first minute -- like I was his Dad, which makes sense -- but then I told him to be serious, and he was. Then his friend Teddy showed up and there was great happiness.

The game itself was OK. It's strange how much changes in a year. A year ago, when the kids were all 4, I don't think anyone had any idea what the score was. This year, with 5 and 6 year olds, everyone knew. You had kids saying, "We have 3 and you only have 1" and stuff. It was crazy. I guess that's how it is.

Jack was game enough. He ran after the ball. He was usually around it, and kicked it when it was near him. And he likes to run around kicking it and pretending to score in the backyard. But that's probably as far as it goes. I think he does it for the heck of it, and likes the running part, but I don't think he cares all that much about scoring. It's just something to do. Which is fine; it beats a year ago when frequently he acted like he'd rather be somewhere else. So that's progress.

Afterward, we had donuts.

today

Jack helped Kate draw a picture today. "I drew the outline, but she drew the face...see?" Two eyes and a line for a mouth, in one of Jack's little stick figures. It was a Kate all right.

Jack made a Hiccup the Vikings and a Toothless the dragon out of playdough, and snuck them up to his room to dry out forever.

We played at the playground; Jack climbed up something he normally doesn't climb up, and was proud; Kate walked across the shaky bridge by herself, and was proud. "Look, Daddy, I did it!" she said. The first time I helped her, but then a little later she went back and did it on her own.

The kids ran around the backyard and I sat at the table in the sun and was happy.

Kids on Break, Day 5

It was rainy and grey today, and we were out of groceries. We still had coffee, but were basically out of cereal and fruit, two morning staples. So we managed breakfast as best we could (Cheerios, not that filling for me) and headed out.

Went to the supermarket, so Jack and Kate could both ride the bus -- the cart shaped like a bus. Jack mentioned it on the way there, and Kate chimed in, "Want to ride BUS!" It was available. We took it. Cruised through the store loading up on cereal and fruit and yogurt and milk.

Went to the post office. Jack played with the pen on a chain while we waited in line. He acted like it was a rocket. I pulled out the hand sanitizer as soon as we were back in the car. Mailed Jack's birthday cards to Ireland.

At home we drew some pictures. I taught Kate how to draw a face. First make a circle....then dots for eyes....no, press harder.....then a line for the mouth. Yes, that's it! Great face, Kate!

Macaroni and cheese for lunch. Plus they wanted cheese sticks. I tried to explain how it didn't make sense, but whatever. Juice boxes. Toast. They ate well.

During Kate's nap, Jack and I played Dragon Choose. We chose dragons, one by one, from his collection, named them, and played with them. We also made a Lego dragon.

After Kate's nap we all had apples, then sat on the couch and I read them a story from Highlights. Ku Dong or somesuch. Jack liked it, Kate liked sitting on me. We played some rock music, and I bounced each up and down, in turn, on my lap. Much laughter. They watched TV while I worked.

Dinner was French toast and bacon, yum.

Put Kate to bed. I used to cradle her in my arms, now she wants to be held to my shoulder. So I did that for Swing on a Star. She seemed really long, I think she's grown. Then she sang me Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Edelweiss. Then I sang her Itsy Bitsy Spider and put her to bed.

Jack came in to hug me goodnight. He hugged me, then as he walked off said, "And that's for tomorrow and Sunday night, too." (I'm going to Vermont for a couple of days.)

And then the week was over, and I miss it already.

Kids on Break, Day 4: "Corn is not the best part of my life"

Kids were in a good mood today. Kate actually got into bed for a minute with me and Jack before we went downstairs. Normally she's all "Go downSTAIRSSSSS!" as if she wants a cup of coffee as badly as I do. I don't know what the rush is, I guess she misses her plastic food or something.

We went out early. Went to the bank to deposit a check; kids got lollipops. Jack's turned his mouth blue and he was still eating it 20 minutes later. Kate ate hers like a cookie and it was gone in 2 minutes. "I have more lollipop?" she said. No, Kate.

Went to the toy store to get a birthday gift for Max, next door. Kate hadn't been in a toy store recently, and it was the first time I'd experienced her really noticing things. She was reaching and pointing at everything. Jack looked for dragon toys.

Went to the book store to get gift cards for Jack's cousins, whose birthday was Monday. At the counter, all of the impulse buy stuff was a little too accessible for kids. They grabbed fistfuls of, I don't know, bookmarks, candy, funky pens, whatever. I wearily put everything back, fortunately not having to buy anything additional due to it getting broken.

Went to Starbucks, in the same strip mall. Gift card, got my iced coffee. Jack was getting weary of it all at this point. "Why do we keep going to more stores?" he asked. It wasn't quite a whine, it was almost more befuddlement. Then Starbucks had free samples of little pastry things that I gave to him and Kate. That ended the complaining right quick.

Went to the playground, Lyon's Park, the one we'll one day walk to. Fun was had. There was a little boy, about 3 I later learned from his Mom, who followed Jack around. Jack wanted no part of him; as he explained later, "He kept following me. So, I went down below when he went up on the top part, and when he came down, I went up." Kate, of course, was fascinated by the boy. They made a little train around the playground for a bit.

Went over to Max's to give him his birthday gift. Jack climbed around on the ...climbing wall thingy.... that they'd got for his birthday.

Had lunch. Kids ate cheese sticks, turkey, rolls, and Kate ate peanut butter and jelly. She calls it, "peeberjehwy."

While Kate napped. Jack built an army. Literally; he lined up all his coolest looking toys in a big army on the living room floor. Dragons, robots, Transformers, superheroes, some dinosaurs. More dragons. Then we drew a picture of them together. And he kicked my butt in Yahtzee Jr., as usual.

At one point I looked at the couch, where Kate had been for a while earlier. A brand new box of crayons had been opened. All 15 crayons lay naked on the couch. All their paper wrappers lay strewn about in little scraps. I asked Jack, Why does she do this? The paper keeps crayon from getting on your hands. He started to say something like, "That's Kate..." when I pointed out that he used to do the exact same thing.

After Kate's nap, they ate apples. They're both into green apples these days. Jack eats everything but has me bite out the center part, closest to the core. Kate eats the slices right up to the peel, like it's a watermelon. Four little apple peels sit forlornly on her plate when she's done. Sometimes, feeling bad for them, I eat them.

We went to feed the ducks. We had about three pieces of bread. While we stood there throwing crumbs from those pieces into the water, a woman drove up, parked, and opened her trunk. She had about a dozen entire loaves of bread; they must have been day old or something from a restaurant? I dunno. Anyway, she threw them all in the water, whole pieces, a shower of bread. Roughly 100 pieces of bread floated in the water as we threw our little crumbs from three pieces in. I felt really stupid. If the kids did too, they didn't mention it. Now I know why the ducks are often not very hungry; they're clearly eating well if this woman is a frequent visitor.

We had dinner, chicken nuggets and fries and corn. Jack ate all of his fries and all of his nuggets. He knew we wanted him to eat his corn, but delayed as long as possible. At one point we looked over; he was sitting with his head bent, gazing down at his plate. He noticed us looking at him.

By way of explanation, and with no small amount of regret, he said, "Corn is not the best part of my life."

Put Jack to bed tonight. We told stories. I told him one about a hero rounding up a bunch of other heroes to fight a monster. He enjoyed it. Then he told me one. It bore a suspicious resemblance to the plot of How to Train Your Dragon.

Kids on Break, Day 3

Well, I worked on Day 2, but Emily had a very nice day with the kids. They went to the library and the playground. Today it was me again.

- I took Kate downstairs, which often begins with Kate getting breakfast for me -- play food, of course. Today, though, she told me she'd be getting breakfast for the babies. Like Jack, certain toys cycle in and out of popularity for her, and now she's into the baby dolls again. So she set them up on the couch and arranged a fine breakfast of waffles and pie for them. She also determined to bring a chair from the kitchen; fortunately Emily came down and talked her into a dining room chair instead, which didn't have as far to travel and made less noise as Kate pushed it across the floor. I made coffee.

- Jack came down and busily drew for a while. Afterward, he showed me what he'd made: a book, titled TOTHLIS (Toothless)THE DRAGON BE (by) JACK RICHARDSON. First page, a picture of TOTHLIS the dragon. Second page, TOTHLIS again. Third page, HICCUP the Viking. Fourth page, Hiccup and Tothlis, Fifth page, Tothlis and a rocket ship. I don't recall a rocket ship in the movie. Sixth page, another rocket ship. Then more Tothlis and Hiccup. Hiccup had a very cute Viking helmet with little horns on it. It might be tough getting him to give up the Vikings even if Favre finally retires.

- After breakfast they played a little, and I went upstairs to work. I heard them come upstairs and head into Jack's room. I checked on them after a few minutes. They were sitting on the bed, and Jack was reading Kate a book, Little Yellow Dog Says Look at Me. I watched for about 5 minutes before Jack noticed me, said "Ahhhh!" and put the book over his face. He was probably reading a lot of it by memory, but I think he was also recognizing and reading a lot of words. It was pretty cool. At certain parts, where Kate laughed or whatever, he looked fondly at her.

-We drove to Stamford to deliver Mommy's suit jacket. The kids were pretty agreeable about hopping in the car, so off we went. We then went to Bruce Park playground. There are a couple of silver slides, side by side. Jack went down one, I went down the other with Kate in my lap. Pretty fast. "Whee!" she said.

- Lunch at McDonalds. Incredibly -- I mean, not THAT incredibly, the movie is out and all, but still -- the Happy Meal toy was a How to Train Your Dragon toy. Jack was thrilled. The booths were all full, so we grabbed a table; they were pretty high with high stools, at least for the kids. Jack did fine, but I worried a little about Kate. Who, remarkably, was perfectly fine, perched on the edge of her high stool, eating her fries one by one, followed by her nuggets. Jack did the same, then eagerly opened his dragon toy.

- The kids played with their new dragon toys at home for half an hour. I think Jack talked Kate into having them fight. Nobody got hurt, which is the best kind of fight I think.

- During Kate's nap, Jack and I played Yahtzee Jr. Dragons played with us. Jack beat me, as usual, in large part because his drops count as rolls if they're good and as drops if they're bad. So some turns he gets a few extra rolls. I also watched a Phineas and Ferb with Jack. I don't watch them enough, because normally I do stuff when they watch TV. It was really funny.

- After Kate's nap, they each had an apple for a snack, counteracting the McDonalds food, dontcha know.

- They played in our room for a little while, Jack climbing into suitcases we pulled out to start packing things up for the pending move, and playing peek-a-boo with Kate. Funny.

- I played a CD for Kate, which has baby sounds on it. She loves it. Jack is sick of it. She heard it for 10 minutes, just laughing at every little baby laugh. Then it was Jack's turn, so we took that CD off in favor of another one. Kate WAILED. I went to make dinner.

- Putting Kate to bed, she sang Edelweiss and Take Me Out to the Ballgame to me. She was still singing when I put her in her crib and left the room. Um, good night Kate. Good night! I like to think she noticed.

Kids on Break, Day 1

Kids are on vacation this week, so it's time for a daily blog. It's late though, so this one will be fairly quick.

- Woke at 4:45. Heard Kate around then. Her window was open and she may have been cold. I went in to close it around 5:15 because she was still making noise. She thought it was time to get up and wailed when I left. That didn't work.

- Took the kids out to Dunkin' Donuts around 8:30; wanted to start the week off right, or at least better than when we'd woken up. Kate walked some, then held her arms up: "Pick me up." Donuts were had and they got the iced coffee to cream ratio right for a change.

- Went to the playground. "Baby playground?" said Kate hopefully. There's a smaller one we go to sometimes. We went there and raced around until Daddy wanted to curl up on the bench with his iced coffee.

- When Kate napped, Jack and I made more pictures of Toothless (Jack spells it TOTHLIS with the L backward, it's very cute) the Dragon from How to Train Your Dragon. Then we played Yahtzee Jr.

- After Kate's nap, we played some in the backyard. Ran around with golf clubs, threw a football, kicked a mini basketball. Neither Jack nor Kate hit each other in the mouth with a club. Or me.

- Watched Backyardigans "Mighty Knights" episode, because Kate loves Backyardigans, and Jack loves dragons right now. There's a dragon in it.

- Gave Kate her bath. She doesn't like the shampoo but her hair is long enough now that she puts her head down and soap doesn't get in her eyes. She announced this to me happily. "Not in my eyes."

- Put Kate to bed. She sang me "Edelweiss." At the end, when you're supposed to say "Bless my homeland forever" after the title, she starts the song again ("Every morning greet. me...."). Theoretically it could go on forever, if I didn't put her to bed.

- Hugged Jack goodnight. Day 1 pretty good.

Stories and Spies with Jack and Kate

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

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

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

----------------

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

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

Restaurateurs

Toy food never goes out of style. The kids have been playing with it lately.

We came home today and they started lining up all the plastic toy food on one of the couches. They'd been doing it a little bit, to a lesser extent, of late; putting together meals for their stuffed toys the Easter Bunny brought: Gromit the dog for Jack, a kitty cat for Kate. But they had bigger plans today.

"Who's ready to come to the restaurant?" yelled Jack. "Everybody should come to the restaurant!"

Kate then came into the kitchen. She was wearing her plastic sunglasses up on her forehead, holding her hair back, and talking into the plastic phone that came with her toy kitchen. "Are you coming to the restaurant?" she said. I'm not sure whether she was talking to me or into the phone. Or both. Then she said it again, and then "Yes? You're coming? OK bye." She held the phone down and walked over to grab my hand.

I went out to the living room, where Jack stood with the feast. All of their plastic food -- it's quite a lot, really -- was spread out on the couch. I asked if I could sit on the floor, and did.

Jack said, "We have lots of food at our restaurant. Do you want lunch, dinner, or snack?" Well, we're about to have dinner, I said, so how about a little snack. Jack said, "OK." Kate brought me a piece of cake. "No, Kate!" said Jack. "That's dessert." Kate sat down next to me and pretended to eat the cake.

Jack asked me what I wanted. I said, how about chips? He said, "All we have is a pretzel." I said, fine. He said, "It's fifteen hundred dollars." I said, wow, that's a little steep. He said, "OK, do you want a piece of bread? It's a dollar." I said that sounds good. He handed me the bread. "Do you want butter?" Sure, that would be great.

I ate my bread and butter, Kate ate her cake. Jack said, "Do you want pizza now?" I said, well, how much is it? He said, "It's a dollar." The market had clearly driven prices down.

We ate dinner together, then Emily got home, and we all went into the kitchen and did it again.

Good Friday

It was sunny and beautiful yesterday. So we spent a lot of time outside.

- We went to the playground. Sometimes they like going to the little playground -- Kate calls it "baby playground" -- because for some reason nobody ever goes there. It's not as nice as Lyon's Park, but it's got most of the same stuff, plus you can use all of it because...well, because no one ever goes there.

They went down the slides, and went on the swings a little bit, but mostly Jack wanted to race. Now, it was 10 in the morning and neither Emily nor I felt a whole lot like running, but we did anyway. It's kind of funny that we let Jack win and he knows we let him win (he once referred to my fake running in slow motion style), but we do it anyway. We ran laps, from the playground to the swingset area, and back. Kate ran some, then stepped in soggy, damp grass, stopped, lifted her foot, looked at it, expressed some misgivings about the situation, then went back to running. Once she took a shortcut from the run and stepped into a hole up to her ankle. She didn't run quite as quickly after that.

Jack tried to teach me how to run. "No, Daddy. OK, we go, 'ready....set....go.' And on 'set,' you have to crouch down like this. OK, now Go! No, wait Daddy." So basically, I said, it's go after you've already started? "Right," he said. We did this for a little while.

I impressed Jack by trying to throw a plastic bottle away into a trash can using only my feet. I didn't want to use my hands because, you know, I don't know where that bottle has been. I was ultimately successful.

- We went home, had lunch, and I took Jack to Home Depot for a sink fitting. We got the racecar cart. He was very happy.

- While Kate was napping, I fixed the sink, while Jack kind of helped. Then Emily took him over to the girls' lemonade stand. Kate woke up, and I took her over to feed the ducks. We had a lot of bread and as we approached the water, Kate yelled, "Here, ducks! Here's your BREADDDDDDDD!" We threw bread in the water, piece by piece. Kate sometimes ate a little.

- Emily and Jack joined us at the duck pond. We walked around the water. Jack showed Kate the little flowers that you could pick up off the ground. We went to a little footbridge and Jack explained how he liked to go to one side, throw the flowers in the water, and run back to the other side to see the current carry them under the bridge. And so we did that.

- At home, we played in the backyard. More running and racing around. Some fun with the bubble machine. We gave Jack his new soccer ball -- it starts in a couple of weeks -- and he and I played a little. I lost. Soccer is a contact sport for Jack, in that if I have the ball he'll typically go for me rather than the ball, leaving me sprawled in the grass while he goes on to score. It's possible I take a dive in these matchups.

- We grilled burgers and had gin and tonics. Emily and I anyway. It felt like summer.