Random

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

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

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

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

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

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

Star Wars

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

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

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

Not surprisingly, he had some questions.

"Why can't Darth Vader be Anakin?"

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

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

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

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

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

And of course, the last one.

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

Legos etc.

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

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

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

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

"This one is a rocket."

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

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


_______________________________-


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

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

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

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

T Ball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Challenge Accepted!

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

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

I got a haircut, Kate got a lollipop

_____________________________________________________________

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

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

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

31-Day Blog Project: Success!

Day 31. OK, I realize lots of people actually do blog everyday, or at least I assume so (I don't actually read anything every day, who has the time). But I've never done it, so it's a big deal for me. Seems like a good day for a recap, so here we go.

5:50 a.m. Kate came in. Emily put her back in bed.

6:10. Finally getting back to sleep from Kate's visit, when Jack comes in and clambers into bed before I can stop him. Clocks me in the nose with his elbow; ouch. Guess I'm up.

6:30. Coffee for me, breakfast for Jack. Kate, who woke us all up I believe, is still sleeping. Jack notices an excellent newspaper graphic in today's Sports section with caricatures of Yankees and Mets players. Derek Jeter, in his graphic, has a walker. This is absolutely hilarious to Jack, who laughs it up and repeats in sing-song "Jeter is oll-lll-d....Jeter is oll-lll-d...." and laughs all over again. He cuts out the picture (taking a Jeter-sized chunk out of every page in the entire section, thanks Jack) and tapes the words "Ha Ha" and "Jeter is old!" to it.

7:00. Kate still sleeping. We finally wake her up at 7:30, since we need to drop Emily off at a train into the city today. She gamely eats her cereal, then we pile her into the car.

8:00. Emily dropped off, I bring the kids back and give them each a bagel. And Kate gets honeydew melon, which in our house we call green cantelope.

8:15. Drop Jack off. He hops out of the car and cheerily goes in. Drop Kate off. SHE, to my delight, dances into her classroom to see Miss Ruthie and hangs up her coat. Other kids in the class say "Hi Kate! Hi Kate!" There was a stretch, recently, where she cried and was clingy when we dropped her off, so it's nice that she hasn't been doing that lately.

8:30-2:30. My usual day, which lately has been intensive training for a part-time copy-editing job and my regular Fantasy Index work.

2:45. Pick Jack up at school. Can't believe I've blogged every day for a month without talking about this. There's never anywhere to park, and I'm always wondering after parking if there will be a ticket on my car (or a dent) when I return. I see basically the same people every day, the ones I acknowledge with a nod, the ones I am glad to see and actually talk to, the ones I feel bad about seeing because I haven't talked to them, etc. It's like a high school dance all over again, it's strange. Nick's Mom comes over with a Nintendo game that her son, Nick, said Jack gave him. I said, we don't have a Nintendo system, so he must have meant someone else. (Later we discover Jack actually did give it to Nick. "I found it on the floor," he explains.)

Jack comes out and runs over. That's always fun. And then he sheds himself of his backpack and disappears. Not as much fun.

3:00. At home, Jack and I have a snack, play with Bakugans, do his homework. For his "Z" homework, he has to draw all the zoo animals he can think of. If I remember to attach the picture, you'll see: It's awesome.

4:00. I tell Jack we're going to get dinner at McDonalds tonight. He is delirious with happiness.

4:30. Jack makes a picture for Kate with all the letters of the alphabet and a bunch of different colors, too -- "to help her learn." I tell him that's incredibly nice of him, because it is. He's something else.

5:00. We go to pick up Kate, then head to the grocery store to get a muffin mix for Emily to make for his school the next day. I pile them both into a cart and we scream dangerously around the store to get the two things we need. They laugh a lot.

6:00. At home eating McDonalds. At some point I burp. This cracks them both up, especially Kate, so I do it again. They laugh harder. Sorry, Emmy. They also each have toast. And green beans. The latter because I want to get a veggie in there, and the former because I think McDonald's gives out smaller portions these days. All of us were still hungry. So then we ate half a cake and felt better.

7:00. Dancing in the kitchen. I put on Nick Cave's "Supernaturally" and they leap and crash about. It doesn't get old.

7:30. Bath for Kate, shower for Jack. I instruct Jack what to do, and he chips in with updates. "Now I'm washing my booty!" he says. Awesome.

8:00. I read them "Charlie and Lola" and kiss them both good night. As I'm putting Jack to bed, we hear Emily come in, and Jack's very excited. She comes in to say good night, and I go downstairs to start this blog. It's been a day, and a month.

Swimming with Jack

Jack's swimming class wasn't held this week, so I took him swimming at the YMCA. As we changed and walked to the pool, I told Jack, OK, we're going to do your class. You pretend that I'm the teacher, and you're the student, and you tell me what you normally do. He was good with that.

I got in the water and swum about 10-15 feet out. What happens first, I said. "Well, first the teacher says hi to us, and asks how we're doing." Hi Jack. "Hi!" How are you doing? "I'm good. OK, then we usually jump in the water and swim out to the teacher." He jumped in with a big splash and swam out to me. I need to stress again, the last time we did this, probably a month or six weeks ago, he wasn't at all comfortable in water over his head. But here we were in 4-5 feet of water, and he was happily splashing his way out to me, dog paddling, treading water, somewhat clumsily swimming, but completely at ease.

He reached me, I caught him as his teacher normally did, and threw him back in the direction of the edge. He swam back to the edge. "OK," he said, "and we do that a second time." So he did that once more.

When he got back to the edge he said, "Then we have free play." So he sort of splashed along at the edge a little, played with this little toy action figure we'd found near the pool, grabbed onto the rope separating the lanes. Then he said, "OK! Now we do some back floats." He came out to me and just flopped over onto his back. It occurred to me he should eat more.

"Then we swim another lap, from the edge to the teacher to the railing -- we'll use the railing because there are usually two teachers -- and back to the edge. And then, after that, we tread water for 15 seconds. So let me do that." OK, I said. He did his lap, and then he came to tread water. I counted out loud. After 10 seconds he seemed to be laboring. At 12, I was a little worried, and at 13 I grabbed him. He said, "That was good, we actually tread water for THIRTEEN seconds, so you were right to stop me." No problem, Jack.

We tossed a little ball around, and the action figure, for a while after that, then got out -- freezing cold -- and wrapped up in towels. Then it was back to the locker room, to shower, towel off, and go get Kate. Next week Jack will be back in his class again, and I'll be over at the side watching. But I think it will feel a little more like I'm in there with him.

Bakugans, etc.

In the old days (when I was a kid) we used to play cards after dinner, either group solitaire (we all could play on each others' Aces), or Yahtzee, or whatever. Today the Richardson family also engaged in a post-dinner game: Bakugan.

I'm not going to look too deeply into the origins of this game, and odds are even if I did, it wouldn't match up with whatever it was we did. Basically, the Bakugans are little plastic toys that fold into a spheroid shape, and pop out when striking the floor or some other object with enough force, taking the shape of some sort of dragon or other fantastic creature. Jack has one the size of a baseball (in spheroid form) and a bunch about the size of a ping pong. And those were what we played with this evening.

As Jack instructed, the four of us sat down on the living room floor ("criss cross applesauce?" suggested Kate hopefully). We selected our Bakugan, and Jack explained the rules. He would say "Go!" and we'd roll our little spheres forward. I found that he was holding his longer than I was, plus he was saying something garbled as he rolled it. I asked him about it. "You have to say their name," he said, and added "Mine is Dragonoid!" I said, but I don't know what mine's name is.

Jack looked at it. "You have Aquirian." Huh? "Aquirian. Aqua Arian. Aquarian!" OK, I said.

We rolled again, and again. Jack explained who won after each throw. "Mommy and I both won. Kate, you lose. Daddy, you win too." Kate: "I want to win!!!!" Daddy: Kate, I bet you'll win next time. (She didn't, but Mommy made her think she'd thrown one that DID win, so she was happy.) "I win. Daddy and Mommy win. OK, now everyone take a different one...."

At one point, Kate wanted to be in charge. Jack protested, because it was HIS game, after all, but we convinced him to grudgingly let her lead one turn. She got in front and beamed, then said, "OK, when I say 'Go,' you..." I threw mine. You said go, I explained. She said, "No!!!!" But she was laughing. And she gave it back to me. And said, "You only throw it when I say 'go'..." And we all threw ours. And there was lots of silly, goofy laughter.

________________________________________


I put Jack to bed, and he was philosophical. "What's the most important part of the body?" And I said, well, the brain, I guess, because it controls everything. Or maybe the heart, because it sends the blood around to everywhere in your body. He said, "what about your legs?" And I said, well, the brain tells them what to do...and the heart sends blood there so they can do it. And he said, "Oh, yeah." Then: "Oh, and the brain is also important, because it's how you THINK." And I said, right.

And he said, "OH, and if you didn't have a heart you couldn't love, right?" And I said, right, Jack.

_________________________________________


I thought he was asleep, when he said, "And the least important part is the belly button."

Day 28, football, and bedtime for Kate

Jack and I played football in play room today. It was sort of cold out, and just because actual athletes have to go out in freezing temperatures doesn't mean we have to.

It's easy to crack Jack up in this game. Pretending not to look is a good one, and still catching it. Letting it hit me in the head and then making a silly face is another crowd pleaser. Throwing it back almost as fast as I catch it, playing one off the wall...all good fun. And usually he wins, in part because I'm playing one-handed and it's tough, and in part because I'd hate to win and miss out on his silly, booty-shaking dance when he wins.

_____________________

So I"m putting Kate to bed, and I thought I'd try again to tell her I had a nice evening with her. So I said, I had a nice night with you tonight, Katie.
"What?!!!!"
I had a nice night with you tonight.
"What are you TALKING about?! Night?!"
Sigh. Good night, Katie.

Day 27!

I'm feeling the need to do a recap here! But I won't. Not today anyway.

We all went to church this morning. Emily goes most weeks, and brings the kids; I go occasionally. Not much during football season, a little more this time of year.

So we bring crayons and paper for the kids, and they color and draw and we try to keep them relatively still in the pews during the opening words. Today Kate was in her dancing around mood, which meant she walked up and down the pew, from Grandma to Emily to me and back again. Jack contentedly draws pictures, all the more elaborate each time. Once he drew a picture of him in the backyard on their little swingset. Kind of cute.

Then they go down to Sunday School, which for Kate mean playing in what I take to be the daycare area and for Jack means various activities, sometimes coloring picture stories involving Biblical figures, sometimes making crafts of some sort, and today making some really tasty pretzels. When church was over, we went down and collected him, and while we waited, the teacher had some great things to say about him. How he's very bright, and nice to all the other kids. Helpful and kind. It's been a good week for hearing people say nice things about Jack.

Then we all snacked on pretzels and headed home.

playing catch

Jack and I played catch in the backyard today. As always, we started out with me pitching to him, and he'd hit a few good ones and I'd pretend to try to field them before he circled the imaginary bases. About a week ago I introduced the gloves and playing catch with a real baseball, or a "soft strike" which is the size of a baseball but slightly softer I guess? Dunno, feels much like a real baseball.

Anyway, since he starts baseball, or Tee Ball, this spring, I figured I needed to introduce him to the idea that there's more to baseball than just batting. Last week I was tossing it to him underhand and he had no idea how to manipulate a glove or anything; he wanted to put it on the wrong hand, and sort of waved at throws. I was careful not to throw it too near his head because the odds of him getting his glove up were slim.

Then we played a second time on I believe Thursday, just about 5-10 minutes. And then today I said, OK, let's play a little catch, figuring I'd slowly build him up to it, and he'd catch on gradually.

We played catch for somewhere between half an hour and an hour, breaking only for a few minutes here and there. And he got it. After 10 minutes, I was throwing overhand. After 15, he was throwing balls I had to reach up to catch, and I was moving further away.

That's what it feels like, to teach somebody something and have him all of a sudden just get it. It was great.

He still caught fewer than got by him, either because my throw was slightly off or he didn't react quickly enough. A lot bounced off his glove, one hit him in the jaw off the edge of his glove (he started to cry for just a moment, mostly startled I think, then caught himself, and actually physically "shook it off," bouncing up and down and shaking his head until he was OK, and said, "I'm OK"). But a bunch of them he caught, getting his glove up, hearing the ball smack into it, being pleased with himself.

I showed him a few kooky grips. This is a knuckleball. This is a forkball. Jack: "A forkball? Why don't they call it a 'Peace Ball'? Since you have your two fingers like this." And I laughed and said, I dunno, I guess the pitch is older than the peace sign is?

We'd played the first time with Laney out in the backyard, and her jumping up and trying to get the ball from our hands, or picking it up off the ground in her mouth and running off with it. That was a bit complicated. I'd forgotten it until Jack said today, out of the blue, "You know, this is a lot more relaxing without Laney here." He had a fair point, there.

A couple of times we took a break, and I thought it would be the end of it. But he said, "I'm ready, let's keep playing catch." And so we did.

I think I could have thrown that ball back and forth forever.

didn't see them much today

Emily took a day off, and Jack had an after school class where he learned how to take apart a carburetor and I assume put it back together. So Emily spent the day with Kate, and Jack didn't get home until dinnertime. It was an unusual day.

8:15 a.m. Kate and I dropped Jack off at school. As we were at the curb, with a long line of cars behind us and Jack was getting out, he suddenly turned and started telling a story. I kind of yelled something along the lines of, "Jack, GET OUT." He paused his story and agreeably got out, saying hello to Mrs. S as he headed in. I felt a little bad about yelling for the next hour or so.

8:45 a.m. I gave Kate 2nd breakfast. Waffle, milk, which is noteworthy because she didn't spill it. It's been a bad week for that.

9:00-12. Emily home. She and Kate watched Cinderella and did puzzles and stuff. I cleaned Jack's fish tank and heard snippets of them watching the movie; Kate spent the first 20 minutes wanting to watch something else, then got into it. I went out and did errands, went to the gym, and brought back lunch, burgers fries and shakes.

12:30. Kate drank her chocolate shake and we forced her to squeeze in a bite or two of her burger. She told us something about how if you touched the shake your hands got very cold, but if you put them on the table they warmed up. It was interesting.

1-6 p.m. I worked my various jobs. Busy afternoon. Jack got home and we ate pizza.

7-8 p.m. In the kitchen, we tidied and I filled out office forms while the kids colored in the Charlie and Lola coloring book, drew pictures, got marker all over the table (they simply can NOT draw a picture without going all the way to the edge with the markers. I beg them to leave a white border but they simply won't have it. Alas.), and then danced crazily to music. Kate went out, put on my sneakers, and danced in them, shuffling her feet in shoes to heavy for her to lift her feet. Jack has some pretty wild dance moves, sliding to his knees, doing karate chops with his hands, spinning about. It's impressive.

I think I shall make a point to see them more this weekend than I did today.

random stuff on Day 24!

On the way to the library after school, I mentioned to Jack that his swimming was postponed next week, some kind of break or whatever. Then I said, but hey, we can go swimming at the YMCA pool, OK? And he said, "Great!" And I said, all right, it's a date. And he said, "Well, not a DATE, like you're going out with somebody's girlfriend or something." He's 6.

_____________________________


At the library, we didn't have to walk past the statue of the bull. Or the buffalo. I'm really not sure, it's one of those things. We parked on the other side of the lot. But as we walked out of the library, and headed down the stairs, Jack said he wanted to go say Hi to the bull. Or buffalo. So he ran the 100 or so feet down the walkway the other way, climbed on, and sat there happily for a few minutes. Then I waved him back, and we got back in the car and went off to get Kate.

_________________________________


Jack and I played Nerf football, T ball, and catch in the backyard. Gotta work on the playing catch. He had no idea what he was doing. I feel bad. That will be a regular activity the next couple of weeks.

______________________________________


Putting Kate to bed, I read her "Go, Dog, Go." On every page with the dogs in cars -- there are 4 or 5 of them -- she counts the cars. So I'm trying to read, Stop, Dog, Stop, and she's reaching across me to touch each of the cars, counting, "One....Two...Three...Four....Five...Six.... SEVEN! Seven, Daddy!"

road trip

When we go to swimming class at SUNY Purchase, there are a couple of "speedbumps" on the way across campus. Basically they're cobblestone crosswalks that cross the road, causing you to bounce crazily over them, and forcing you to slow down if you haven't already.

Kate used to go to swimming there, and I think she was the first one to get a kick out of going over them. "Bouncy road!" she'd say. Then Jack started noticing it, too. And then once when I went out there with both of them, Kate said, "Are we going over the bouncy road?" And then she turned to Jack and said, "We're going over the bouncy road, Jack!" As we went over, they both laughed.

So NOW when we go over, I've started setting the stage first. Well, looks like there's no bouncy road anymore, I announce...right before we go over, and we all bounce around and laugh. And then after that, it becomes, well, I guess there was just that one....Whoa! And we bounce over the next one, and everyone laughs again.

Jack took the lead on the joke today. We're driving across campus, and Jack says, "Well, there's not a bouncy road anymore. It's too bad....AAAAAAAAA!" And I'm watching him in the rear-view mirror, and he's got a big grin on his face as he's starting the joke, and then laughing like a maniac when we go over.

I chip in with, well, I guess there's just that one, and Jack adds, "Yep, there are no more bouncy road, they've fixed the rest of them." And then we hit the next one, and I see Jack just in hysterics over his joke, and my joke, and going over the bouncy road again.

It's almost better than the actual swimming class now. But not quite.

building stuff

When I picked Jack up at school, he was happy, and clinging on to his friend Dylan, with whom he wanted to have a playdate. I said sure, but Dylan was being picked up by somebody other than his Mom, so it didn't happen.

Jack ran around the playground a little. At one point I lost sight of him, for several minutes. Then I spotted him: he was hiding, from me, behind the basketball hoop. Yes, he's kind of thin. He stepped out and made a big show of laughing it up. I decided to let him have his fun, this time, not letting on that I had begun to get worried.

I let him help me build a second desk for my office today. It was a fairly standard, Target-sold thing, which required only a couple of screwdrivers and some precision, but he enjoyed it, and we didn't break the thing. I let him turn the big screws, and put in the pieces with a "J" sticker on them, much to his delight.

At night, he colored in the Charlie and Lola coloring book either he or Kate had received for Christmas (Kate I believe). He drew a happy picture of himself, an alien with eight eyes, and an elephant (spelled elefunt, heh). He drew faces of different expressions, doing quite a nice job with "cross," and "embarrassed."

He told Emily with some degree of dismay that he has a lot of work in kindergarten, because he's smarter than other kids. We're looking into that one. It seems a little early to feel overworked.

Gave Kate her bath tonight. She freaked out at a small piece of soap in the water. That was a new one. I knew she didn't like bugs and the like, but pieces of soap? I held it in my hand to show her it wasn't hurting me. She looked at me doubtfully. She'd settled down at bedtime, for Smiley Shark and Swing on a Star. Fortunately.

Day 21

Gave our puppy away today. Tough call but one we felt we had to make for our family.

I told Jack about it on the way home from school. He gave me the puppy dog eyes. "Why?" Well, we didn't feel she was the right dog for us.... He was kind of sad, but I sort of talked him down with general concerns we had. I said, you know, she'll go live with another family, maybe one that doesn't have small kids, which would be better for her. "And we'll get another puppy?" Well, another puppy, or dog, or maybe a cat. But yes, we'll have another pet.

We sat in a comfy chair for a little bit. He was kind of sad, but we went down and played football in the playroom, and used his pull-back racing cars on the table, and he was happy.

Told Kate on the way home from preschool. With Jack I had kind of laid the groundwork for the possibility in the morning, not with her. Her eyes got wide. "But I liked her!" And I said, well, we all liked her. But we weren't sure she was right for us, and I think you were a little nervous around her. "No I WASN'T," she said indignantly, forgetting all the times we had to lift her from her kitchen stool over the gate to the dining room and back again. Kate was quiet the rest of the way home. Later, she was singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs in the living room, so I think she'll move on even easier than the rest of us.

And one day we'll get another dog, or cat, or robot, and Jack or Kate or both will draw nice pictures of that one, too.

Day 20!!!!!!

Our puppy nipped at my ankles and fingers a lot today. I took Kate tricycle riding and at times she was good, and at times she just didn't want to pedal and would sit there and roll backwards on a slight incline. At one point she wanted to get off and push, naturally at the same time the puppy was pulling me the other way. Jack was worn out from a pretty active day, and consequently a little whiny in the evening. He went to a party where there was plenty of pizza but only ate one slice, so was hungry when he got home. Kate asked for noodles for dinner, then had to be prodded to eat them. Plus she spilled her milk, which is a sadly frequent occurrence. She doesn't seem to mind. I won't get into the minor bathroom issues with both of them which crop up every once in a while; suffice to say there were some annoyances here and there. And I'm tired.

But hey, Day 20 of the 31-day blog! Whoo-hoo!

sports stuff

Jack and I played baseball in the backyard today. It's basically just pitching and hitting, but he sets up little bases which he runs after a big hit (or runs in the vicinity of if I field the ball and am chasing him; "we only have to run PAST third base," he explains). It occurred to me today that since he starts organized T-ball next month, I'm going to need to work on fielding, throwing, catching, all that stuff. A little more work than just hitting pitches. As I put him to bed, him grasping that he'd be playing the field and stuff, he said, "What if I get hit in the eye with the ball?" I said, well, it would hurt. But you'll be OK, and then afterward you'll get ice cream. Plus, I've never actually seen anyone get hit in the eye in T-ball, so you should be OK.

___________________________________

Took Jack bike riding today. Have realized he needs to learn without training wheels. So we went to the playground and an empty basketball court, and he rode around with training wheels...with the wheels raised some....with only ONE training wheel....and finally without them, but with me holding the handlebars and running around with him, or his arm, or the seat. I couldn't quite bring myself to let go today, because he absolutely would have gone sprawling, and I guess I wasn't ready for it. Wanted it to be positive and all. Anyway, next week we'll go again, and hopefully he won't get skinned up too badly when I let the bike go. He seemed nervous but happy about the whole thing, so that's something.

____________________________________


Finished the day throwing around a Nerf football in the backyard, one I bought yesterday and introduced today. Took me back to playing it with my Dad, years and years ago. I would swear we played all through middle school and high school, and went through a dozen or more Nerf footballs. That's my memory anyway. I thought of it the whole time I threw it around with Jack, and after.

groceries, etc.

Jack wrote up a grocery list a couple of nights ago. He expressed dismay when I went to the grocery store yesterday and didn't follow it. "I gave you a list for the store!" he said, exasperated.

Here it is.

Hot dogs
chicen nogets
pizza
ice craem
cookies
bannanas
steak
frosted flakes
hunny nuts
dog treats
blue berrys
rasberrys
strawberrys

_______________________________________


Beautiful day today. When we picked up Jack from school, he and Kate played on the playground for about 15 minutes. They climbed up the jungle gym, both of them, fearlessly. I spotted Kate, sure she'd go head over heels (but didn't). Jack "raced" his friends to the basketball hoop, all the way across the schoolyard.

At home, we walked into the backyard, and both of them freaked out; one of them saw a bee. Then Kate freaked out moments later; there were some gnats or whatever flying about. Kate, in fact, was completely spooked for the rest of the afternoon, even going inside while Jack and I played in the backyard -- fighting Laney for possession of baseballs and badminton racquets and the like. Fearless on the playground, fearful of nature; as Emily put it, she's not afraid of the things that can actually hurt her.

In the front, where there were no gnats, they drew some with sidewalk chalk. Jack drew the longest hopscotch board ever. Kate drew the letter H over and over again. "I'm drawing Hs," she explained. We rode bikes down the street, me walking Laney, helping Kate not go too fast on a downslope or roll backwards on an uphill stretch on her tricycle. Jack reminded me they were supposed to be wearing helmets, good job Jack, you're right. That and the sheer difficulty of managing my three young charges led to us cutting the walk short.

Later, Emily and Jack played baseball in the backyard with the new bat and ball I'd bought earlier. According to Jack, he won 16-1. "Mommy, you should have got at least 2," he pointed out.

Maybe we'll get him something off his grocery list tomorrow.

good life

Jack and Kate's new after school activity is to run around the backyard encouraging Laney to chase them. Of course, neither of them want Laney to actually catch them (especially Kate, who's still very wary of her). So Laney is on a leash, and I'm on the other end of it. Running.

It's nice, though, to see Kate a little braver these days. "It's my turn, Jack. Laney, chase me! Laney!" And then she starts off running. She's a good runner. She usually makes a beeline for the shed and stands next to the back corner, at which point Laney corners her, Kate gives a little "Eek!" and I drag Laney away. But, they have fun.

Inside this afternoon, I hear Jack yelling for me in the backyard. I go out on the deck. What's up, Jack? "I found a three-leaf clover!!!!!!!" Uh, Jack, the three-leaf are the common ones....it's the four-leaf ones that are rare. I try to tell him gently, but he's clearly disappointed. Next time I'll just say Wow!

At dinner, we're talking about Jack's playdate, and he mentions he had Nilla wafers. I said, Wow, they still make Nilla wafers? I had those when I was a kid...I think my grandmother used to give them to us. She was your GREAT grandmother, Jack. (Kate's mind is kind of blown by all this, incidentally; she has no concept of a great grandmother.)

Jack says, But she died, right? And I say, well yes, she'd be very very old if she were still alive today. But she lived until she was 95 years old.

Jack's eyes get wide, and he says, "95 years old? That's a good life!" You're right, Jack.

Sunny day

The weather was nice outside today. Emily took the afternoon off, and we both took Jack to his swimming class. I go every week, so I see the more gradual improvement, but she hadn't been for more than a month, so she was pretty amazed. We watched as he threw his arms high in the air to do his strokes, lunged through the water at the start of his swimming run, and raised his hand to be chosen for different activities. Afterward, she showered him with praise, and meant it.

We picked up Kate a little early. She seemed pleased that we were all there. "And there's Mommy, and Daddy, and Jack!" We headed home, and since it was nice, we played out in the yard a little bit. Laney ran around, Jack slipped in the mud, Kate was alternately brave and fearful of Laney.

We then took the party around the block. Walking with a puppy, you get a lot of "Ooh, puppy!" and "Wait a minute!" as a little girl ran in the back yard to get a parent, so she could make sure it was OK to pet Laney. Then we saw Jack's friend Nick, riding his bike -- and I realized I have to get Jack out practicing on his bike so he can ditch the training wheels, good grief -- and played a bit in his back yard, chatted with his Mom, heard Kate deliver some ear-piercing screams when she was surprised by a dog the size of a Buick, and generally enjoyed the nice weather. Much later it occurred to me we wouldn't have gone on that walk if we didn't have a dog.

Nice day out.

Day with Jack

Had Jack at home today, some Superintendents conference at his school or something. We went to the bank, ate breakfast at the diner (he ordered pancakes, craned his neck to watch the fish at the aquarium one table over, and ate my bacon), took Laney on a long walk, and played Checkers (he won) and Parcheesi (I did), just barely.

Late in the afternoon, we switched on the TV and he got to see his first-ever Bugs Bunny cartoon. Much to my relief it was not one of the newer, lame ones, but instead the one with the Bullfight. He laughed uproariously in all the right places, most notably when Bugs led the bull on a dainty dance across the ring.

Before picking up Kate, we went to the grocery store, and as we left, Jack noticed, as he always does, the sign for Loews Theatres. At that point, this conversation ensued.

"We should go see a movie." Well, I said, we have to get Kate in 10 minutes.

"We should go see one that's just ending, and then go get Kate." So, you think we should pay to see the last 10 minutes of some movie, and then get Kate afterward?

"I didn't think we'd have to pay, we could just get tickets out of the machine, right?" Jack, we'd have to buy the tickets. Everything costs money.

"What about drawing a picture? That doesn't cost money." Well, you have to buy the paper and the markers.

"What about reading a book?" Well, you had to buy the book. Jack, everything costs money.

"EVERYTHING doesn't cost money. What about falling down? Falling down doesn't cost money." Well...what if you hurt yourself? You might have to go see the doctor. Or buy a band-aid.

"Well, but what if you fell down and a band-aid was right on the street next to you." Pause. OK, I guess you're right, in that case it wouldn't cost money.

"See, everything doesn't cost money!"

You're right, Jack.

Football

With the NFL in lockout, awesome, Jack and I nevertheless continue playing our indoor football game. We play in the playroom, in the short side of the L-shaped room. (The long side wouldn't work because my computer is at one end and a TV at the other. Plus our throws would hit the ceiling if we were further apart.) As it is our field is about 25 feet or so, maybe a little more, which is fine.

We use a mini-Jets football, about the size of a grapefruit. But you know, football-shaped. If we misplace it, or it gets stuck behind the TV, we switch to the mini-Patriots football. And yes, sometimes when Jack isn't looking I bash them together like they're the helmets on Monday Night Football's pregame show. I play on my knees, because otherwise all my throws would hit the ceiling, and I'm only allowed to make catches with one hand, because otherwise I'd clobber him. I mean, he's 6, and I have a lifetime of playing minimally athletic games.

Anyway, we usually play to about 30. He zips me one, I catch it or not, I zip it back. We're getting pretty good at it; I think we snagged eight in a row, collectively, today. The problem comes if I get a lead, at which point he sails throws well over my head (again, I play from my knees), or into the carpet. Sometimes I respond with one he can't catch, usually just throwing it a little faster than normal. But generally I play fair, and encourage him to do the same, although granted he typically wins. Because if he didn't, I wouldn't get to see him do his victory dance, with him spiking the ball and all that.

Looking forward to taking the game outside before much longer. Because my knees are kind of killing me.

dancing in the kitchen

sometimes after dinner, cleaning up dishes, i'll put music on, and one or both of the kids will wander in and dance. sometimes i'll join in, sometimes watch and enjoy, it varies.

so tonight the song was the up-tempo Hoodoo Gurus song "I want you back". And in walks Kate, in a sweater dress, wearing Emily's running shoes, and holding a tiny wooden American flag.

she listens for a minute, asks what the song is, then starts smiling, dancing, and waving the flag. but since the sneakers were so big on her, she couldn't lift her feet. so she kind of shuffled her feet, bouncing up and down in place, and waving the flag, impressively in time with the music. it was beautiful and awesome.

I joined in.

Day 12

Sometimes when I put the kids to bed I say, "I had a good day with you today," because I did. So I did that with Kate tonight. She looked at me curiously and said, "What did we do?"

Well, we got up, had breakfast, fed Laney, did the Dora puzzle, went to the grocery store, you went with Mommy to get curtains, we had lunch, Grampa came over and put you down for a nap. Then we had an apple snack, went out in the front yard to jump off the stump, went out for a bike ride, you rode your tricycle and said, "look at me!" and "I want Laney to smell my bicycle," yes I realize that makes no sense. Then we played with the soccer ball in the backyard, then we went out to get Mexican food for dinner, and as usual you only ate chips, but then we came home, and you had water, and we got you in your pajamas, and washed up, and I read you Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, and then I sang you "Swing on a Star," and you woke me up when I fell asleep before I got to the monkey, and then I told you I had a good day with you today.

And then I said goodnight and you went to sleep.

Day 11 of the 31-Day Blog Project

Can't stop me now. Jack went to school and had a playdate today. Kate stayed home. Here's how things went.

- Kate and I had breakfast, her 2nd and my first. She had two waffles, a yogurt, milk, and juice, and wanted more food. I gave her half of my waffle.

- We did a puzzle in the living room. With Kate, doing a puzzle typically consists of her doing it, and saying she doesn't need any help if you try to put in a piece. She did it twice and then graciously let me put in some pieces the third time. Thanks, Kate.

- Took Kate to get her haircut. She sat in the Barbie car at "Sharkey's"; I admit I kind of want to take the big stuffed shark in the window one of these days. She held up little toys to show me as the haircut went on. At the end she got a lollipop and a balloon. She noisily enjoyed the lollipop all the way home. I played a game of pinball during her haircut. I'm not sure if the machine is there for the kids or the parents, but I also don't know if kids have any idea what a pinball machine even is, so I felt I was doing it a favor by playing it. Finally I let Kate drag me away. In fairness, my alternative to playing pinball would have been reading magazines clearly geared toward females.

- Back home, we took Laney for a walk. I walked down the middle of the sidewalk holding the middle of the leash, with Kate on one side holding the end and Laney on the other side wearing it around her neck. Basically I focused on making sure neither one got too close to the other so there wasn't too much angst. Laney seems interested in eating leaves and branches. I don't know what's up with that.

- Lunch was leftover chicken and rice. During the same meal Kate claimed she didn't, did, and didn't like mushrooms. I had the chicken, Kate the rice.

- Kate napped, I trained Laney to rip big strips of fabric out of my pants. Seemed that way, anyway.

- Kate woke up, we had apples, and then did more puzzles. Kate likes doing the easy ones over and over, and getting my help with the harder ones, with which she quickly loses interest. Or maybe she was just nonplussed by the one implausibly featuring a zebra playing a guitar.

- We went to get Jack. As we arrived, I saw him helping himself to a piece of gum. His snack at his playdate was gum, a lollipop, and a chocolate donut. Excellent!

- Back at home, I installed a gate and Jack and Kate played some games that involved rolling a pool ball around the floor and taking their pillows off their beds. It's a rare day that we don't have to go looking for their pillows before bedtime.

- Bingo Night at Jack's school. Jack got a little too into it. When he and his friend Brian are shouting back and forth, "I'm only one number away! C'mon, N 32!!!!!!!!!!!!" I start to get a little concerned. Plus I was really hoping for N 36, myself, 'cause Daddy needs a new wooden airplane with a rubber band propeller.

- Got home and put the kids to bed; Jack was convinced that everyone won at Bingo but us. Well Jack, there were 200 people there, and about 10 people won. "But Nick won!" he lamented. Well, maybe you'll win next year, I said. Or we'll head down to Atlantic City and I'll sneak you into the casino under my coat. Just kidding.

- Jack had bought cookies with the dollar I gave him at Bingo Night; I saw him and his friends tearing around the gym, gleefully holding up their cookies. Kate didn't get one, so Emily promised her one when she got home. As I headed upstairs with Jack, she sat on the kitchen stool, eating her cookie, drinking a glass of milk, and smiling out from under her new haircut.

Kate to bed

Put Kate to bed tonight. Started with her bath, which she enjoys (except for the actual bathing part). She pretends to swim, she colors on the walls of the tub with bath markers, she says silly things. Today she was talking about my phone. "You can call Mommy with it, and you can take pictures with it, and you can read things with it, and EVERYTHING." And what else? I ask. And she gets a goofy look on her face and shakes her head back and forth and says "Ooga ooga booga booga!" She can be very silly.

After the bath, I'm helping her get dressed. Recently she became able to put her arms in her sleeves more successfully, and it's funny, because she talks about it all like it's the most easy thing in the world. "And I can put my arms in my sleeves MYSELF, of course. And of course I can put on my pants, too."

Then we head into the bathroom. She sometimes runs, high-stepping, happy. And once there, she talks about the things we have to do. "And we have to brush my teeth, and then you need to comb my hair, right, Daddy? Because it has ....nasarls in it." Snarls, I say? "Yes. Sanarls."

We finish up, run back to her room, and read a couple of stories. "I turn out the light, OK, Daddy?" Yes, Kate. And she does.

more swimming

Jack's swimming class today was the last of this "session," though a new one starts next week. But today, he got graded on everything they'd done so far.

The class began with the kids in the water at the shallow end (about 3.5 feet). One of the teachers would bring a kid a little ways out and have him do different things, while the other kids appeared to be engaging in a splashing war with the other teacher. Looked like fun; I heard Jack's bubbling laughter every so often. The other teacher was a big guy so at times he stood like a tree trunk, and the kids sort of hung off his arms like monkeys. Funny.

When the other teacher brought Jack out, I saw him swim on his front, and float on his back, and do some kicks and some crude backstrokes. Pretty smooth, it seemed.

Eventually they headed down to the deep end of the pool (10 feet). They swum down with a kickboard, and I get nervous at this part because once Jack lost the kickboard, so it was a little worrying at the time (a teacher swum over to give it back to him). They climbed out at the deep end and I saw what the deal was. One teacher stood about 30 feet away in the water, the other was out of the water. The kids would jump in, bob up, and swim to the teacher 30 or so feet away. He'd then turn them around, and they'd swim back.

A month ago, Jack didn't want to jump in the water, period, unless someone was there to catch him. But as I watched, he jumped in, went down, bobbed up, and swam the whole way. And back. I watched in kind of amazement, and then more as he did it again. I stood up and walked near the edge for this one, because he looked kind of tired by the end of the second time. But, he did it. Then everyone got their boards back and swum the length of the pool. Jack seems to like to win these things, so I watched with some trepidation as he gave it his all, but still seemed to be laboring. At the end, he was kind of treading water with the board, so he grabbed onto a rope, rested a minute, then swam the rest of the way.

I got him out of the water, wrapped him in a towel, told him how proud I was. He was kind of beaming about it too: "I didn't think I could do it, but I did!" he said. "I even treaded water for a long time, too!"

I talked to the teacher afterward, who'd written a note about how hard Jack had worked, and how he'd grown as a swimmer. He used the word "amazing," and I said, well yeah, I'm amazed, because I couldn't believe he could do what he did today, compared to where he was at a couple of months ago.

My son learning to swim, it's a beautiful thing.

Day 8! Low on kids, big on dog

Jack had an afterschool playdate, Kate was in school all day, and the puppy had a vet trip and I had a full-time job keeping her from shredding any more of my clothes. But, we got through it all, and at 5:30, we were all home in the kitchen, me making egg pizza (Jack's favorite, and one of Kate's too), Jack and Kate coloring, Laney chewing on something or other.

Jack asked to hear the Police CD, again. I really need to get another Police CD.

Kate asked if she could feed Laney a treat, and if I could hold her in my lap so she could pet her. Trying to be brave, good girl Kate.

They both ate all their dinner, and went into the kitchen together to get a chocolate chip cookie. They even brought two out for me and Emily; now that's service.

Gave Kate her bath; she fretted during her shampoo, as per usual; then played by stretching out on her stomach. "I'm swimming!"

Kate picked out stories, Dr. Seuss and Karen Katz selections that could not possibly be more different in terms of coolness and cleverness. But she likes them both, so I read them dutifully.

Get the kids in bed, spend an hour or two cleaning up and trying to train the puppy not to destroy everything, and am able to sit down and blog in time with the end of Goodfellas on AMC. It's edited, but that scene were Ray Liotta is trying to get a dozen different things done at the same time one afternoon works just fine anyway.

Day 7!

Picked up Jack at school. As usual, he had another kid locked at his elbow. "Can we have a playdate?" Today it was Dylan, and I said I'd talked with Dylan's Mom and they were going to have a playdate on Friday. They both said, "Oh," and ran off to the playground. A few minutes later, Jack came back, with his friend Brian. I also saw Brian's Mom. "Can we have a playdate?"They asked in unison. His Mom said, today wasn't good, but they could do a future day, maybe Saturday? I said that was fine. Jack went looking for Dylan again.

We headed back from school. I asked Jack how his day was. "Grreaaatttt!" he said. It didn't really sound like Tony the Tiger or anything. I said, what was the best part. He said, "All of it." OK then.

At home, we played with Laney for a bit. Jack likes to run around with her chasing him; they did that for a while. Then he gets tired, or at least tired of running, and she continues to want to play, so he asks me to put her back on her leash.

He makes two amazing dinosaurs out of K'Next pieces, which are sort of like super Legos or something. He carefully places them in his room so they won't get destroyed by one of the two members of our household under the age of 4.

We play football. I kind of win, 30-29, but let him tie it up with a final catch. We high-five and then he insists we shake and say good game. So we do.

We go and get Kate. As we peer into the "tumble room" at preschool, we see her standing on a gymnastics mat facing one of the other kids, lifting a knee up in the air. Crane technique? She looks at us, smiles, and runs over. I make the same pose. She wants to hug me, but Jack steps into her path and embraces her. She is one part happy and one part annoyed. "Jack!" Then: "Daddy!"

We go home and run around the backyard more with Laney. Kate wants to do it, but shrieks when Laney runs in her direction. Sigh. Later, though, she bravely petted her, and said a tender goodnight through the bars of her crate. Laney's, that is.

I read Jack his dragon book from Mikey. I'm not sure he's really following it (nor am I, since I only get to read every other chapter; Emily is reading him the alternating ones), but he likes it if for no other reason than his cousin sent it to him.

Blog Project Day 6, Dog Day 2

It's the 6th day of consecutive blogging, and the 2nd day of consecutive dogging, ba-DUM-bump. Anyway, Jack had a great time bringing Laney her toys, and when she got up and went into the next room, Kate had a great time picking them up again, bringing them into the same room as Laney, tossing them hurriedly into her vicinity, and climbing up into a chair. She's still kind of nervous about this little dog.


But she was better. Kate petted her when she was lying down, or being held securely by one of us. She didn't shriek as much at the end of the day when Laney walked around in her general space. She threw treats fairly close to her; it almost seemed like one day she might handfeed her, and be calm around her.

And Jack? Well, judging by the picture he drew after dinner, he loves her already.

(BTW, in case the picture doesn't make it clear, it rained like a banshee -- yes, I know, I'm mixing metaphors here -- all day.)

Dog

We adopted a dog today. Supposed to be some kind of lab mix but may in fact be something called a Blackmouth Cur. But that's not important, 'cause she's our dog now regardless.

At the adoption event, where there were probably 100 or so dogs up for adoption, Jack was funny; it was like he was in a toy store, and he was pretty agreeable as to which toy he got. "Can we get this one? I like this one." Then we'd move on to another one, which he'd take one look at. "Can we get this one...." Kate was fascinated by all the dogs, petting and touching them, which made it ironic that when we brought one home, she ran wailing whenever the dog (let's call her Laney, because that's her name) approached her.

So anyway, at home, Jack got her to chase him in the back yard, shrieking with laughter when she did. He picked up sticks and threw them, hoping she'd play fetch. He fed her treats about half as often as he wanted to, which was still too much. He let her sit in his lap, for a moment, but when she put her mouth over his hand, sort of teething at it, that was kind of the end of her sitting in his lap for the day.

We took a family walk around the block. Kate skipped ahead, running faster when Laney picked up her pace. Jack, desperately wanting to help me hold the leash, wanted to play while walking, continually cutting in front of her and running backward. "Good dog!" he said. "Good dog!" Jack, let her walk, I said. We walked slow, fast, forward, backward, with Laney weaving about and us trying to keep her in line, keep Kate from running too fast and Jack from trying to run backward, and doling out treats on the occasion when she did something we wanted her to do.

At home, Jack poured the food into her bowl, and we did more little trips out to the yard. She whined in her crate as we ate dinner, and gave the kids baths. And then she slept.

Family of five, now.

Day 4! Fence repair with Kate, Jack the music critic

On Fridays I have Kate with me; first she and I went out to the hardware store for chicken wire to patch our fence (in anticipation of getting a dog, perhaps, tomorrow). She was very helpful, trying to pull a roll of metal wire taller than her out of the rack. "Here. I get it," she said.

Then the grocery store, where we were able to get a red-and-yellow racecar, even though we only bought two things (and "smashed bottles," the euphemism for turning empty soda and beer cans and bottles into money).

Then home, where I used a staple gun and wire cutters to manipulate the fence into place. Kate wanted to help. How does a three-year old help with a staple gun, wire cutters, and wire chicken fence? Well, she doesn't. But she tries, by following me into narrow spots behind tangles of bushes despite my pleas for her to stay back. Kate, I told you not to come back here. "But I'm helping you."

After school, we picked up Jack. He immediately lit out across the playground with a couple of friends. They spent the next 10 minutes running, running, running. I walked Kate over to the jungle gym area. There were bigger kids on it, so Kate would approach something, see a large kid heading toward it, and slowly back over to me. But, she did get to stand on this little platform thing, hold the bars at either side, and swing slowly, a small smile on her face. Until a big kid got too close and she came over to me again.

______________________________________

I played a "Police" CD for Jack today, Regatta de Blanc. Jack had plenty of opinions.

"I like this music with guitars and drums better than music with keyboards. It's a lot better."

"Reg Aah Tah dee Blanch is the most famous song, and it doesn't even have any WORDS. They're not even SAYING 'reg aah tah dee blanch.'"

"I like when everyone is singing. It's more of a party song."

"I thought THIS guy was Sting, because he has a picture of a bumblebee on his shirt."

"Why are they called 'the Police?'" I don't know, Jack, maybe one of them had his life saved by a policeman. Or maybe they just thought it was a cool name. "Or maybe Sting is a policeman. Or maybe he USED to be a policeman. Or maybe....Stewart or Copeland did. Or...."

"Message in a bottle is my most favorite song." And then he got off his chair and did his typical butt-shaking, foot-stomping, knee-sliding dance, that I promise I did not teach him.

Day 3! running, running, running

I picked Jack up at school today. It was sunny and cold. We said Hi, and I noticed Stephen V's Mom. I turned a moment to say hi to her, at which point Jack and Stephen V, with one mind, lit out for the playground. We were both like, Hey, wait...ah, OK, whatever.

As we watched and made small-talk, they ran directly past the playground and kept on going. And going, to the far corner of the schoolyard. Then they made a sharp left, and kept on running. I said to Susan, Well, uh, they have some energy. As they almost disappeared from sight around the corner of the school, she yelled to Stephen to say in view. I don't know how he heard her, but he veered left again, as did Jack.

Five minutes later, they came back over to us. Stephen was showing his Mom his feet, which I didn't think much of until Jack showed me his. Evidently they ran through a mudhole about six inches deep. Excellent. Jack's cheeks were flushed all the way home.

At home, he called Emily, as we often do, and left a message: "We're going to be going out to get a dog crate and also to get Kate. You can email Daddy's phone."

____________________________

We got the crate, and at night I put it together. Naturally, Jack and Kate wanted to put a couple of dog toys in it. They then climbed into it, happily, and pretended to be dogs. I asked Emily not to put the picture she took up on Facebook. I haven't dared check.

_________________________________

Putting Jack to bed tonight, he looked up at the stars on his ceiling. He said, "I used to just think there were stars in the sky. Now I know that they aren't just stars....they're constellations. Like, the other night, when you showed me The Big Dipper? I used to just think it was a big spoon...."

Swimming, Racquetball, etc.

Day 2! I took Jack to swimming today. I think this was the day when he really turned a corner. Like, I think he's always been into it, right from the first lesson at SUNY Purchase when we went straight from a dentist appointment where he had a tooth pulled and a cavity filled. Then, he hopped into the water like it was nothing, as he did today.

But I also saw him
-Waving back to me as he ran to jump into the pool
-Saying, Me! Me! when the instructor asked for volunteers to do a backstroke
-Easily swimming under the rope separating lanes to get his kickboard, then swimming back
-Getting into a splashing war with the instructor, laughing
-Dutifully turning his head from side to side as he swam, like it was really important to him to get it down exactly right
-Executing a perfect dive (albeit from a sitting position) into the water, with his hands above his head in a V as he tipped forward off the edge of the pool

The lesson ended, he came out of the water all doubled over and with blue lips, as usual, and I wrapped him in a towel and whisked him away.

______________________________________

I told the kids we'd order pizza tonight. "Yay! Yay!" Kate chimed in: "And garlic twists?" No, Kate, we're ordering from Frank's, they serve garlic balls. Kate: "Oh - I know! We can get garlic balls. OK, Daddy?" OK, Kate.

_____________________________________

I mentioned at dinner I was playing racquetball tomorrow with Sophia's Daddy (Sophia is a girl in Jack's class). I forgot that I hadn't ever discussed the sport with them, seeing as I haven't played it in about 15 years.

Jack: "What. In the world. Is racquetball?" I said, well, it's like Tennis, but it's played in a court...
Jack: "What in the world is a court?"

31 Day Blog Project!

So I watched Julie and Julia with Emily the other night, good movie. And I'm not exactly good about blogging every day, but I thought I would try to do it for a month straight. Should have picked February! Anyway, here is Day 1.

________________

Jack's had a loose tooth for the last week or so. We thought he might lose it in Vermont, which would have made things difficult on the Tooth Fairy (or easier, because we could have gone Old School? Hmm? Hmm?), but it hung in there until today. Yesterday I sent him to school with a little plastic tooth holder. Or rather, I gave it to him 5 minutes before we left for school, and he forgot it. But today he brought it, and when I picked him up I asked him if he lost his tooth, and both he and Mrs. Glockenberg said "Yes!"

Jack told me the story, but his phone message to Emily was even better. I will paraphrase: "Hi Mommy. I lost my tooth! Really exciting. I hope I get $3. ... Want me to tell you how it came out? Well, I was eating my apple. Of course. And I bit a seed. And then something was in my mouth, so I spit it out. And you know what it was? MY TOOTH! I know, very exciting. Well, goodbye."

Jack and I played football in the playroom this afternoon. Kate was drawing pictures, but at some point she decided to come over and climb into my lap. Literally climb; she walked up my leg (I play on my knees, otherwise I'm too tall to throw the football) and stood on my hip kind of, sitting on the inside of my elbow. Made continuing to play football difficult, but I managed, and Jack was able to avoid hitting her on his throws. She leaned forward and kissed my forehead. She does great forehead kisses, usually using her hands to hold my head still, then kissing the exact center of my forehead as if there's a target on it.

I read the Grimm's Fairy Tale version of "Red Riding Hood" to Jack. He claimed there was another version of the story where the wolf ate the woodsmen, too. I am not aware of that particular version of the story, but I guess anything is possible.

Skiing

I am not a skier, but that wasn't going to stop me from giving Jack a chance. So today I fed him a breakfast of scrambled eggs (his request), bundled him up in eight layers of clothes (pajamas, thermal shirt, T-shirt, sweatpants, fleece, winter jacket, hat, boots, borrowed ski gloves), and headed off to Thunder Ridge Ski Area, where the mountain snow thunders down upon you. I made that part up, I think.

We had talked up skiing for a few days beforehand, but in retrospect I'm not sure Jack really had any idea what the hell it actually was. He seemed kind of quiet on the way up, perhaps because he had no clue what he was going to do. We went through the various counters and lines (lift ticket for Jack here, helmet here, boots here, skis here). At each one, the person behind the counter tried to make jokes with Jack; he was sort of glassy eyed, to be honest. But we got him all suited up and went outside, at which point he had to go to the bathroom, so we lumbered in, peeled off his various layers, and he went.

Waiting at the ski school, he stood on his skis and I showed him whatever various tips I could remember. Lean forward. Don't cross your skis. Uh...that's about it. Finally the class began, and the whole class -- mostly first-timers too, all kids aged 4-7 -- trudged over to a circle with the instructor. And sat for 10 minutes while they waited for the other one to show up.

Lesson started off with them taking ski poses without skis....then on one ski (that's right, they started out learning on one ski, very James Bond)....then on both skis. Then they headed over to the skiing area, which involved them walking past the lift...but not going up it. I had wondered about that.

Instead, the ski lesson area had a "magic carpet" which was basically like an airport motorized walkway with a slight (10 degree?) incline. The kids stepped onto it at the bottom, and then at the top of this "hill" the kids would stumble off, make their way over to the top of the hill (and/or fall in a heap), and then ski down, with guidance and help from the instructors. They probably did this about 15-20 times each.

Parents could stand behind a fence a little way away from the lesson area, so we did, with our cameras and cell phones (i.e., cameras) clicking away. I saw Jack fall, oh, 10 or 12 times, never big falls, but little falls. And get up. And when he reached the top of the carpet, most of the time, he'd see me, and give me a big grin and a thumbs up. It was awesome.

A couple of times he skied all the way down without falling. When that happened, I'd see one of the instructors, perhaps expecting a fall, run after him, because they didn't know how to stop (beyond falling on their butt, which Jack did plenty of, particularly at the bottom). Sometimes he'd fall on the trail, lie there struggling to get up, get helped up, then continue on his way. But the smile, and the thumbs up, or a wave, was still there as he came up the carpet again.

Afterward, at the pickup area, he saw me. Big grin as I applauded him. Then: "Can I take this helmet off? It's really hurting me." So we took the helmet off. "Can I take these boots off?" Well, not here Jack. I offered to get equipment and head out with him, but it was clear he was wiped out after what ended up being about 2 hours on skis, so we called it a day.

I took some pictures, and he said, "I feel like an all star." And I said, why? And he said, "I'm proud of my skiing." I mean really, does it get any better? I can't imagine.

He told me how the instructors told him to make a pizza with his skis. When I was a kid they called it a snowplow, I think. Jack made a joke: "You mean with an oven?" Then said, "Or should I draw a picture of a piece of pizza, because that's EASY." He's a comedian.

We went to McDonald's for lunch, which he'd spotted on the way there. You want to eat at the lodge? A diner? Any other restaurant in the area? "No, McDonald's." So we did. He inhaled 6 nuggets and all of his fries. And a lot of mine. Are you eating my French fries? I asked. "Just the ones that fell out of the box," he explained.

Jack napped hard on the way home, something he seldom does; granted he was not only exhausted but also slightly windburned and sunburned and probably felt like hibernating from his eight layers of clothes. We played some playroom football at home, because that's kind of a ritual now. Then went to get Kate at preschool.

On the way, he continued to be in a great mood. Glowing, really. We drove by Carvel. Jack said, "I love Carvel, because they make the best Fudgie the Whale. They make a great Fudgie the Football, too. ... Is it called Fudgie? It should be called 'Yummy' the Football....."

He showed Kate his little lift ticket on his jacket. "Look, Kate, I got this sticker at skiing today." Kate, awe in her voice: "Wow, that's pretty cool, Jack." She loves him.

After dinner, Jack told his Mommy all about skiing, all over again. "And they showed us how to turn....and how to make pizzas. Look, I'll show you....."

I am not a skier, but maybe Jack will be. And maybe I will be, too.

Bedtime for Kate, etc.

Putting Kate to bed has its own nuances. She has to put her own toothpaste on her toothbrush, even though she's guaranteed to empty about half the tube if you look away for a moment. She can be a struggle with her pajamas, alternately wanting to do it...and not wanting to do it. Few things are as frustrating as her sitting there with her pajama top half on, unwilling to go any further.

And then, of course, she's sweet: we're in bed settling in to read a story, and she reminds, "Put your arm over me," if I haven't done that yet. She then nestles in, getting comfortable, and we read.

For songs, we tend to always sing "Swing on a star." I ask her what she wants to hear, and she usually says, "Swing-ing on-a star." Sometimes she says "Doe, a deer," and I remind her, no, that's Mommy's song. And she says, "Oh. Right." And "Swing on a star" it is. Sometimes she interrupts me during. "You forgot the horse," she says. No, Kate, horse is next, or, No, Kate, I just did the horse. "Oh. Right."

Sometimes she touches my face as I sing, tracing my eyebrow or something. As if to make sure I'm still there. I finish the song, we hug goodnight, and I head downstairs.

At least until she needs a cup of water, or to have the sheets pulled up again, or.....

_____________________________________________


I had to give Jack a stern talking to today about manners; he wasn't as polite as I'd like at the end of a playdate. He took it pretty hard and was silent, buried in his jacket and hat all the way to pick up Kate after preschool.

Kate of course knew immediately that Jack was upset. "What's wrong, Jack? Daddy, why is my brother sad?" (Love when she calls him 'my brother.') "What's wrong, Jack?" I gave a brief explanation.

As we pulled into the driveway, Kate said to Jack, "It's okay, Jack. Jack! Want to go play with my baby? Jack? Want to go make a house nook in your room?" (They did this yesterday....set up a big scene on his bed with all their stuffed animals and all of their various Valentine's Day candies.) "Come on, Jack." As the door opened, she said, "Want to get out before me, Jack?" (This is occasionally a competition. Tonight, it wasn't.)

Swimming, Level 3

Jack's swimming class started today - Level 3! A step up from his previous class, and we weren't 100 percent sure he was ready; the instructor seemed uncertain herself at the conclusion of that session, questioning his "swimming stamina." But we figured, well, better to be pushed than do the same class again. Right? But, I was still nervous.

I brought him over to the instructor, and he sat down on the edge of the pool. The other 5 kids also came over and got in the water. I started to wonder if Jack wouldn't get in, but he did. In the car on the way there he said, "I hope some of the other kids in my class moved up with me." So he was a little unsure about everything.

I watched each kid take their turn kicking their way out to the instructor. Jack was a little wild, but did OK. The instructor caught him, turned him around, and started him off back. Jack floated on his back, and his front, and clung to the edge some. Seemed a little nervous, I thought. Or maybe it was just me.

Using kickboards, they kicked to the other end of the pool. Clambered out, and jumped in one by one. Jack did one of his better jumps (Later he said, "I did the highest jump!"), went under, bobbed back up.

They swam back to the other side of the pool. He lost his kickboard for a moment; I sprang up, ready to kick my shoes off and dive in fully clothed. But the instructor was right there and retrieved it. Whew.

Afterward, he got out, shivering. I wrapped him in a towel and said to the instructor, Was he OK? He looked nervous at times, we weren't sure if he should move up from Level 2 or not...

Instructor said, Jack did fine. There was some hesitation at first, but he did everything...He's definitely in the right class.

Which was all I needed to hear.

In the locker room afterward, Jack shivered and I helped him get dressed. As usual, he expressed fascination with the combination locks on every locker. "This one is like ours! This one is blue! This one...!"

Heading home, Jack said, "None of the kids from my other class were in this one, but I made a new friend." Later, he said, "We learned 'Chicken, Airplane, Soldier.'" He then demonstrated: they're three different swimming poses. He lifted his knee up for chicken, stuck his arms out for airplane, put his arms at his sides for soldier. And smiled.

Annual checkup

Jack had his 6 year old checkup today. Six! Time flies.

- I picked him up at school and we walked home. He kept wanting to take his jacket off because the sun was out. I kept pushing it back up on his shoulders. He kicked at every snowbank, I think, on the 15-minute walk home.

- We went to Mr. Ruvo's to get his haircut. I read him the Billy Goats Gruff book, since we've done it every time we've been there for almost 4 years now. It's missing a few pages in the middle and I'm still not sure how the little Billy Goat Gruff made it across the bridge. Jack sat relatively still, laughed when the barber tried to shave his neck, and eagerly collected the lollipop ("And one for Kate," which he actually gave to her.)

- Went to the Dr., where they did height and weight (almost 4 inches and 5 pounds since last year), had him read the eye chart with a spoon-like thing held over one eye (I held my breath hoping he wouldn't need glasses yet, he's too young!) -- he passed with flying colors -- and asked him to write his first name. "It's a short one..." she said, and I said, well, he can write his last name too. I looked: he wrote first, last, and middle. Didn't act like it was a big deal.

- She asked him if he ate fruits and vegetables; I was glad to hear him mention "broccoli" and of course carrots, which seem to be his favorite. Showed him the food wheel ("It's important to have lots of color," she said, which he repeated back to her a few minutes later) and the activity pyramid (a little of this - TV - more of this - walking, riding a bike - plenty of this - swimming, running, sports).

- Had him bend over to touch his toes so she could check out his back (aces); checked his ears, eyes, mouth, heart. As she finished each thing he asked her, "No shot?" And: "Shot?" No shot this year.

- Despite being mildly worried about having a shot, Jack was really relaxed about the whole thing. Like he knew he was great but was happy to play along anyway.

- He got stickers afterward, and also got one for Kate (Pluto). At home, they put the sticker on a piece of paper, and he drew her a Pluto in yellow marker. Then he cut it out, and Kate happily took it up to her room to show it to her baby.

dodgeball

Went to play dodgeball last night. It's an annual fundraiser for the Port Chester Youth Baseball League, which Jack may one day play in, in which fathers throw dodge balls at each other and try to avoid getting hurt. Jack came along.

- On the way there in the car, he said, "Should I yell 'Andy'? Because there will be a lot of kids yelling out 'Daddy'."

- Once there, he saw his friend Nick. "Nicky!!!!!!" They sat together, or rather stood together, yelling and whooping and pumping their fists, often related to what was happening on the court, but not always. It was pretty cool.

- We actually did pretty well, but of course we lost a game eventually. As I walked to the sideline, I saw Jack working his way down the stands, and he delivered a line that I suspect Aunt Cathy, who was watching him, or Reanna told him to say. "At least you tried your best!" he yelled.

- One of the other Dad's daughters was there, and she kind of likes Jack. He told me how she tells school stories, and since there are two Jacks in the class, she always specifies, "And then Jack -- you know, the one I like -- said...."

Art show and more

- Jack cleaned the playroom this evening. I asked him to pick up all the markers and construction paper around the table. Checked on him after 10 minutes to find him drawing a picture. Reminded him. Few minutes later he came upstairs: "I have a surprise for you." He'd cleaned the whole thing, well, about as well as a 6-year-old could anyway.

- Kate had an allergic reaction to, apparently, penicillin (which she got for an ear infection). She also had strep a few weeks back. Rough start to the year for Kate. Anyway, she broke out with rashes all over her body. And I mean, all over. Emily thought she looked like former Viking pass rusher John Randle, who used to smear face paint all over his cheeks. Anyway, sometimes it bothered her and she itched, and sometimes she seemed kind of oblivious to it. Like tonight, when I was getting her in her pajamas, and she started dancing in front of me. "Look at my butt! Look at my butt!" More dancing. Sometimes, she's a trooper.

- Jack and Kate played dress up today. Jack wore his Superman cape. Kate wore her Olivia explorer hat. Jack said, "I'm Superman." Kate said, "I'm a princess!" Jack said, "Why don't you be Supergirl?" Kate said, "No, I want to be a princess." So she was. At some point, her huge stuffed duck was wearing the Superman cape. Not sure why.

- Jack and I went sledding today with a kid in his class who lives down the street and his Mom. I'm not sure the two are actually friends; they seemed to just be doing their own thing at the same time as each other. Kind of funny to see them both accepting each other's presence for the benefit of their parents. Or maybe that's just how it seemed to me. Anyway, it was a great sledding trail. Drew bounced his way down the slope on a saucer. Jack zipped down on his lightning-quick snow tube. Crashes were occasional. Wails of pain were relatively rare.

- We worked on Jack's project for the art show at school. It's a dinosaur mural which features a huge volcano, construction paper dinosaurs in different colors, marker-drawn trees, and approximately 5 rolls of Scotch tape. I don't think I'm exaggerating. And an entire gluestick. And more dinosaurs. It is the most awesome art project ever.

- He was interviewed by one of the art show organizers on the phone yesterday. His answers to her questions were great. "I like dinosaurs." "Yes." "Yes." "Ummmm. Yes." "I like to use all kinds of art stuff." "Favorite? Um. A T.Rex." I can't wait to read the interview.

Katie Blog

I write more blogs about Jack, I think. He and I do more activities -- he doesn't have that middle of the day nap, and gets home from school earlier -- and of course he's more talkative in general. So Kate kind of gets short shrift in the blog. But not tonight.

- Kate likes to dance. She does kind of a herky jerky think where her hands kind of float in the air. Big smile; it almost doesn't matter what the music is. "Come dance, Daddy. Come dance."

- She likes to sing. She regularly makes up songs, about pretty much anything. "I...love my...brother....and Daddy and Mommy....too.....Jack is eating....potato chips......I will have some too....."

- She likes to draw. Faces and faces and faces and faces. Sometimes eyes nose mouth, sometimes with hair, recently with little stick arms and legs sometimes, too. She's especially proud when she makes a letter. "I made an H, Daddy! An H!"

- She likes painting, as we did yesterday. I took a picture and whereas Jack kind of looks down at his work, Kate turns on the charm with a big grin.

- She has a love-hate relationship with the camera. We try to get family shots at museums or ballgames and she typically buries her face in Emily's shoulder. But I take pictures of her with a project we made or in her Red Sox sweatshirt, and she simply beams, throwing a smile that lights up her whole face.

- At the doctor the other day her first reaction was to wail and cling to me. Five minutes in she was giggling and offering up winning smiles at every request.

- She's become the exhibitionist Jack was at her age, standing naked before the bath and saying, "I naked! Look at my BUTT. See?" With a little wiggle. Good grief, Kate.

- She''s generous, bringing Jack toys she thinks he's forgotten or lost. "Here's Sammy, Jack. Here's your dragon, Jack. Jack. Jack! Here's your car." Most of the time she hands it to him rather than throwing it in his general direction. Most of the time.

- She reads book by memory. She sings songs by memory. I hear her alone reading books like Where's My Mom. "Hush lil monkey...I will help you find your Mom...she's over here. Oh, no, that's an elephant....." I hear her singing, often long after she was supposed to go to sleep. "Bloom....and grow.....for.....EV....er...."

Skating

Having taken Jack sledding last week, the key winter thing I still wanted to do was go ice skating. (I haven't ruled out skiing; it's possible at some point in the next few weeks.) So today we piled into the car and headed off to Playland.

There's a "kiddie rink," which is for beginners 7 years old and younger. Fortunately they let me on anyway, even though I'm obviously highly experienced, having been on skates I think 2 or 3 times in my life. We got our skates and worked our way over onto the ice. We went a couple of laps around clinging to the rail along the side....then a lap around with just Jack clinging to the rail along the side, and me holding his hand...THEN a lap around with me holding the rail in one hand while Jack skated holding my other hand. And then we went back and forth, and up and down, falling some, without holding the railing. And each time we reached the other side, and grasped the railing, I saw a big grin on his face.

Afterward, with minimal falling and injury, we went to the game room. I played Galaga, and let Jack beat me at air hockey. Or he let me think I let him beat me, one of the two. Then we went to "The Claw" game, where you could grasp a stuffed toy with a metal claw. I explained it was a ripoff, but said I'd try anyway. And indeed, on the second try, I actually picked one of the things up, and the claw just decided it was too heavy halfway up and let go. Five bucks later, we left. I tried to explain to Jack it was a cheat, but it's kind of a difficult thing to do. So I just said, you know, they don't really want you to win these things. And he said, but why? And after some random hemming and hawing I finally said, Well, maybe next time.

We drove home talking about ice skating, and ate Ritz crackers at home.

Sledding

Broke out the "snow tube" today, an inner tube-like sled that Jack got from a friend for his birthday. Interestingly, when I was a kid we actually slid on inner tubes! Which was much better than the red metal saucer sled that Amos once slid into me on and broke my collarbone. I told Jack he could use his new sled and he was pretty excited about it.

We bundled up in our layers -- I went upstairs to get socks and when I came down Jack was completely dressed in snowpants, boots, jacket, hat and gloves, the fastest by far that he's ever suited up -- and headed off. We walked the two blocks through snow-lined streets, thanks to three storms in the last two weeks, and arrived.

I never know for sure with Jack, if he'll be really into something with an element of thrill and danger to it, or scared. Much to my relief, he was completely into it. He climbed in, held the handles, and slid spinning down the hill, me watching with trepidation, hopeful it didn't capsize and send him careening down the hill on his face. It didn't. As he went down, I could hear him yelling, and at the bottom, laughing, great peals of giggling, happy laughter. I slid clunkily down after him on this blue sled I'd bought last winter in February, after what I think was one of the few snowstorms we had.

We went down one hill a few times, and I pointed out a higher one across the ballfield. Again, not sure if he'd be into the idea. He was. I guess, he's 6 now. One brief negative moment when he slid pretty fast and hit a chain link fence, and cried, but I talked him down, and then he was ready for more. He stood up, set his lip, and hiked up the hill again. "Let's race, Daddy."

Birthday Week

Jack's birthday was on a Friday, his party with friends was the previous Sunday, his party with family was the Saturday after, and he also went to two other birthday parties that same weekend. So it was a full week of birthdays.

His party was at "Kids U," which was basically a big gym with inflatable stuff to jump on and run around on. We got there first -- 10 minutes early after being 10 minutes late for his party the previous year -- and Jack and Kate ran around on their own. It was similar to another place they'd been before, so both were pretty comfortable. Then Jack's friends started showing up, and there were highs and lows. It was great when he came out to hug different kids; not so great when on one occasion he was suddenly in tears, either because he hit his head or felt he was being left out of the fun (an odd moment; one minute he was racing around with everyone, the next he was sad because they were in one area while he was in another; the next he was running and laughing with everyone again. Kids.). Best moment: in the midst of it all, with all of his friends running and jumping around (and this one little girl following him incessantly), I saw him stop, to help smaller Kate up onto another level, hugging her to him in his arms to lift her up high enough so she could climb up. And then he climbed up on that level, and did the same thing all over again to help her up yet again.

On his actual birthday, Jack had a snow day from school. We got donuts for breakfast, and in the afternoon, while Kate was napping, Jack and I made a snow dragon -- an honest to goodness dragon, lying in the snow, with an open mouth and wings and curly black leaves for toenails and teeth. It was a truly collaborative effort, something I'd always kind of wanted to make. Jack brought me snow for his legs, and branches to build his tail around, and dug in the snow to find more banana leaves for his toenails. He was beautiful and scary. Then we had Jack's meal request for dinner: chicken nuggets, mini-hot dogs, french fries and green beans. And cupcakes.

The family party had pizza. The party for his friend Olivia: also pizza. Even Jack didn't eat cake at that one, explaining, "I'm saving myself for Fudgie the Whale." (The ice cream cake we had for his party.) We will not be having pizza for a little while. Got Jack a pirate skull balloon and a big number 6. He approved. At night I put my 6-year-old son to bed; he went right to sleep. It had been an exhausting week of birthdays.

Digging dinosaurs

Went to the American Museum of Natural History in New York last week. "To see the dinosaurs," we explained, and that mantra was repeated by the kids in the days leading up to it. Each morning Kate would wake up. "Are we going to see dinosaurs today?" No, Kate, this is Monday. On Thursday we see dinosaurs. Next morning: "We see dinosaurs today?"

It was remarkably easy to drive into the city, park in the garage, take the elevator up to the fourth floor, and see some immense dinosaur skeletons. I honestly have no idea why in four years here this was the first time we'd done it, although I guess the kids wouldn't have appreciated it as much.

And the great thing was that they had fun and were awesome. No whining, no crying, no wanting to be picked up and carried....well, not much until the end. But it was a family outing into a crowded museum in the city with very little stress or angst. (Until we got back to the garage and our car was triple-parked in on both sides and it took half an hour for them to get us out. But anyway.)

We went around and around the skeletons. Jack wanted me to take a picture of him running away from the T. Rex, which was great in part because I wanted Emily to take a picture of ME running away from the T. Rex when we were at the Dinosaur Dig museum over a decade ago. So yes that is where he gets it. So I took the picture, although I'm not sure how much he sold the running. He did at least make a sort of scared face, although it mostly came out as angry/laughing.

Both of them wanted to touch everything. Both of them ducked underneath railings to get even closer to the exhibits; I explained, no no, the railings are to keep YOU out.

Jack was disappointed there weren't sea creature dinosaurs. I admit I was too. Maybe we missed them somewhere.

We went down a floor to see African creatures: elephants, giraffes, zebras. "Zebra!" yelled Kate. Shhh, I said.

Walked through the monkey room. The kids made faces and pretended to be monkeys. Kate made a big loud mouth like she was screaming or saying OOH OOH, one of the above. Jack scratched his head and stood on one foot. He's a good monkey.

We went through the Indian exhibit and Jack was impressed by their weapons and musical instrument. I think Kate liked their dolls.

At the gift shop, Kate picked out a stuffed monkey. (I thought this was fine because they liked the monkey room, and it was no doubt a museum original. Two days later I found the same beanie baby monkey in a toy store near us, not to mention for half the price. At least I won't have to go back into the city when she loses this one.)

I figured Jack would pick out a stuffed toy, and he did look at dinosaurs. But instead he settled on this thing where you could dig, build, and paint your own dinosaur skeleton. It was heavy as a brick -- indeed, it was a brick -- with a skeleton encased inside; you had to dig it out, then assemble it.

The next night, he and Kate and Emily and I -- but mostly him -- spent 2 hours intently digging away with his little hammer and chisel. And then another 2 hours the next morning finishing digging, assembling it, and then painting it. Jack is 5; finding anything that occupies his rapt attention for 4 hours, is amazing.

Each time he found a bone, or extracted it, he was so excited. "Look, daddy! It's a leg bone. A LEG bone!" Kate: "Can I help you, Jack? Can I have a turn?" (She got a turn.)

The dinosaur skeleton, painted white and black with red around its mouth and forearm ("from where it was fighting," Jack explained), stands on our fireplace mantle now.