Busy weekend

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

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

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

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

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

- Sunday morning, Fruit Loops were a hit.

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

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

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

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

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

just a day

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

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

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

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

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

- They got lollipops.

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

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

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

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

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

Coach

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

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

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

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

Afterward, we had donuts.

today

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

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

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

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

Kids on Break, Day 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dinner was French toast and bacon, yum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kids on Break, Day 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kids on Break, Day 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Hugged Jack goodnight. Day 1 pretty good.

Stories and Spies with Jack and Kate

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restaurateurs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robot Day

As I was going to bed last night, the eve of my first Friday at home with the kids in three weeks, I tried to think of a fun theme, on a par with "Pirate Day" a few weeks back. Before falling asleep I settled on Superhero Day. Thought it would be fun.

I told Jack about it this morning and he was into it at first, but then it became, What superhero should I be? And this discussion went on for a few minutes, with me pointing out I wasn't planning on being a specific superhero, I was just thinking we'd all walk around with shorts on over our pants or something. And maybe I'd make some capes. And then Jack decided it should be Robot Day. And so it was.

Also, he said to Mommy, "Today is special because Daddy is staying home." That was kind of nice.

- We watched the Backyardigans episode "Cops and Robots."

- We played the They Might be Giants song, "Robot Parade."

- We dressed in gray (silver) shirts and pants. Like robots. Jack wore his "Artoo" shirt over his gray clothes, which has a picture of R2-D2 on it.

- We drew pictures of robots, and then Jack drew pictures of his stuffed robot and Kate's stuffed robots, which they call Furbies. I'm not sure the origin of that; maybe Furby is what they're supposed to be called. Anyway, Jack's picture is remarkably accurate.

- We had hot dogs for lunch. Um, no robot theme there, Jack just likes hot dogs.

- We read Harry and the Dinosaurs build a robot, and played Jack's Build a Robot game.

- Jack brought out the Toy Story Yahtzee Jr. game. One of the characters on one of the dice is called Zorg, he's an alien or somesuch. Jack calls him Zoltar. He said, "Zoltar's a robot, right?" Hopefully. Yes, sure, Jack, he's a robot.

- We drew more pictures.

- Jack said "Want to make a project?" So we made robot masks for all of us that we could hold up in front of our faces. "Robots have square noses," Jack corrected me.

- At the end of the day, we watched Wallace and Gromit "The Wrong Trousers," because of the robot pants. Actually, A Grand Day Out has a robot co-star, while A Close Shave has a robot dog. So we could have watched any of the three.

- I put Kate to bed and she sung me Take Me Out to the Ball Game again. Jack hugged me good night and said "Happy Robot Day!"

Kate says "my turn"....

...and starts singing.

"Take.....me out.....to ball
game...

Take...me out....cowd...

Buy me pea uts n
crah
jack

I dohn care
nevuh
back

root root root
redddddddddddddddddddd
sox

they dohn win
shame...

is one
two
fwee strikes out

at ohld
ball
game!"

G'night Kate.

Dragon's Birthday

We went to a St. Patrick's Day parade in Greenwich yesterday, at which I bought Jack a giant Dragon-shaped balloon/beach ball type of thing. Jack grew immediately attached to it and wanted to use it as a sleeping toy (Um, no), bring it to school in the car (no), have a picture taken with it (yes) and printed out on our color printer (sigh...yes).

And of course, when he got home from school today, it was Dragon's Birthday and he had to have a party for him.

First, he made a birthday card for dragon. "How do you spell birthday?" "D..A...Y...How do you spell dragon?"

He got Kate interested in the proceedings and they gathered things up for the party. Together, while I made dinner, they made four or five trips upstairs, setting up the party. He gave me updates: "There are games at Dragon's party.....Dragon is staying downstairs with his eyes closed.....Dragon's party will start after dinner...."

We all went up after dinner. He'd spread a blanket out on the floor, with places and plastic cups set out. I was glad to see that Puppy was invited; he occupied a seat across from Dragon. There were places for all of us.

Jack pointed out the games. On the bed his pillow leaned against the wall, and there were a handful of paper bananas. "This game is called 'Ring the Gack.'" (Reference from Dr. Seuss, by the way.) If you land one banana on the pillow, you get to choose one prize....." Jack landed four; I managed two. It was tougher than you might think.

He held out a box of prizes. I recognized the box from one of his Hot Wheels toys; the prizes were a hodgepodge of small things he'd raided from "Mousetrap" and other games, which hopefully would one day find their way back into those various games (I am not optimistic).

"The other game," he said, indicating a colored blanket set up next to his dresser, "is 'Guess the colors.' You have to guess what colors the blanket is made of." I noticed the blue, red, green, orange, and black stripes on the blanket. Um, I said. Brown? He said, no. Blue? "Yes, good, Daddy." White? "No." Um....He leaned close to me and whispered. I said, red? "Good job, Daddy. You get a gold coin." He let me choose a gold coin from the toy box.

Afterward we had soda and cake. I think Dragon had a very nice birthday.

Today

It was a beautiful day, weather-wise and otherwise. Here's a quick, 7-minute blog on how it went.

- Jack and I made Lego figures of Wallace and Gromit. I helped Kate make "Cowboy Tyrone," the Backyardigans character, although really it was just a collection of Legos that looked like a city skyline. Jack pointed this out. Kate said, "mah city."

- We all went to the playground. This had good moments and bad. The bad were Jack hitting his knee and getting upset, and turning all shy when a younger boy wanted to play with him. (Sometimes Jack's the one wanting another kid to play with him at a playground, sometimes he's the one rejecting the attention. It's a fine line.) The good included the slides and swings with Jack, and sitting in the sandbox with Katie making a little sand castle. As I added sticks to it, she said, "Thank you, Daddy.....Thank you, Daddy." She called our structure "Cowboy Tyrone."

- Jack and I went to the supermarket. He was fun here. I can't remember exactly, but he made me laugh. I got him Kix. He said, "Kix." Pause. "Kix." Jack, I asked. "Kix," he explained happily. He likes Kix these days.

- We went to the gas station to get a new propane tank for the grill. Jack helped me pick out a nice one. "Why do we get GAS?" he asked, thinking of a different meaning for gas. Which reminded us of his dinosaur book that has a dinosaur called, and I'm serious here, Gasosaurus. We got a little laugh out of that.

- We went to the office park nearby to ride bikes and feed ducks. Jack rode his bike well; a big difference from age 4 to age 5. Kate rode her tricycle with her feet on the pedals, although I sense she didn't really get that she was supposed to be moving the pedals, rather than them moving her feet. She collected pinecones in her tricycle basket. Jack helped her, getting off his bike to get her pinecones and rocks and some sketchy looking dead flowers. "Thank you, Jack.....Thank you, Jack." Jack got back on his bike and raced; it was important to him to win. Kate fell off her tricycle twice, one sort of a slow motion fall where it was nice she was wearing a helmet, the second one where I basically caught her. She cried hard once and we thought she was hurt. No, she was upset that her pinecones had spilled. Jack helped her put them back in and she was immediately OK.

- We saw Max in his backyard and went over to play. Max is close to Jack's age and they play fairly well together, albeit some moments of possessiveness etc. Kate is fascinated by Max, who wants nothing whatsoever to do with her. We played for a bit, then came home to our own backyard to cook out. Jack said something to Kate that I didn't hear; I asked him about it. He said, "I told her that when Max says something not nice to her, she can just say, No." He paused. "Max isn't always nice to her." Protective big brother. Gotta love it.

- We hit the baseball around the yard a little. Jack really socked one. T-ball, my foot. Kate hit one too, although she didn't want help and hit it with the handle of the bat. Oh well.

- We ate dinner and the kids ate an entire burger. No, really! It was great.

- Gave Kate a bath. At one point she made like she was trying to open a marker as though it was really difficult for her. I laughed at her wide-eyed face and pursed lips, she saw me laughing, and did it again. It was hilarious.

- I put Kate to bed. She was falling asleep during "Swing on a Star." I put her in her crib -- Goodnight, Kate -- and came out. Jack was in the hallway, waiting to say goodnight to me. Goodnight, Jack.

Friday routine

I'm going into work tomorrow, again, while Emily stays home with the kids (she took a day off). It's supposed to be nice out and they'll have a blast, but I thought I'd give her a preview/guide anyway. Usually the day goes something like this.

6:30. Usually breakfast, sometimes a little free play first, on rare occasions TV.

7:00. TV (assuming breakfast has been had). This is the hour I do work, browse the Internet, guzzle coffee.

8:30. Second breakfast. Jack eats a lot at this breakfast: waffles, banana, cereal sometimes, bagel, orange juice, vitamin. Kate eats about half that much but still does fairly well. This coincides with my first breakfast. On occasion we'll walk to Dunkin' Donuts. On occasion.

9:00. Usually I get them dressed around now, remind Jack to go pee, brush teeth. Sometimes I shower, sometimes not. I get dressed. There's usually some play here too, sometimes they play nicely together for a little while. This is when I might make the bed, especially if I'm Emily. Sometimes they play in their rooms, Jack goes into his room and closes the door, Kate cries because she wants to play with him, so on and so forth.

10:00. We often go out. Sometimes a haircut for Jack, sometimes the bank or supermarket or post office (or some combination of those), recycling, that kind of thing. I find it good to get them out of the house in the morning, not too early so it's cold, not too late so Kate falls asleep. It's supposed to be a great day tomorrow, so I'd lean toward the playground.

11:30. Home, free play. Sometimes Jack asks for TV, usually I steer him away from it, saying maybe he can watch something during Kate's nap. It varies.

12 noon. Lunch. Sometimes mac and cheese, sometimes p b and j, usually yogurt or something. I like to save apples and grapes for afternoon snack.

1:00. Kate naps. I play with Jack. Cards, board games, cars, superheroes. Sometimes we draw pictures. There's a new High Five magazine I'm sure he'll enjoy. This is a good time to focus on Jack. I'm not always perfect, but I try.

2:45. Wake Kate up. Don't want her napping much longer than 90 minutes or so.

3:00. Play. Do puzzle with Kate, something like that.

3:30. Apple snack and either water or milk. Much later than 3:30 and they don't eat dinner.

4:00. TV. Whatever they want. Being that it's supposed to be nice, though, I'd lean toward running around the back yard or playing basketball in the driveway. Spider-man ball is at the top of the basement stairs, other basketballs are probably near the front door. Football in the pantry.

4:45. Around now I emphasize CDs and playing in the living room, waiting for Mommy, or in this case Daddy, to come home.

Have fun.

Little Prince

I got up with the kids this morning. They read "Go, Dog. Go" in Kate's room for a bit, both sitting in the glider with their own copies of the book. I went down and made coffee. Gradually they came downstairs too.

As I got them breakfast, I reflected that Mommy was still sleeping. Jack said, "Maybe it's an enchanted sleep." I laughed and said, where did you get that from? He said, "In Miss Ruthie's room, they read it in the mornings."

Then he said, "If it's an enchanted sleep, she'll sleep forever." And I said, well, maybe you can wake her up with a kiss. And he said, "Well, you'd have to be a prince." And I said, well, what about me? I'm kind of a prince.

He said, emphatically, "NO." And I said, why not?

He said, "Princes have capes." Pause. "I have a cape!"

So he went upstairs, got his superhero cape, and went wake up Mommy.

Guest blog

I worked in an office today; it happens every once in a while. When it happens on a Friday, when the kids aren't in school, Emily works from home. So this morning instead of staying in my pajamas until around noon -- unless it was one of those Fridays I got the kids dressed and we walked the block to Dunkin' Donuts -- I showered, got dressed, and stumbled off to work. And Emily stayed home. Let's hear what she has to say.

• Trying to actually work from home and pay attention to two young children is hard. Very hard. So I'm not afraid to admit it: they watched entirely too much TV today.
  
• On the bright side, at least they didn't watch the same shows they usually do. They branched out a bit, watching something called "Cyberchase" that had penguins in it, and that made Jack burst out laughing a few times, which is definitely one of my favorite sounds in the world.
• I managed to get them dressed before 10 o'clock, finally bribing them with a promise that mommy would finally take a break and play with them for a bit, but only if they were dressed. So they got dressed, and we played Zoominoes, the new favorite game. Then all hell broke loose workwise, and then I was stressed for the next hour or so, trying to get done what I needed to get done for work.
• For lunch I made macaroni and cheese. They were all, it's too hot, it's too hot, it's too hot. Jack said, "Daddy usually rinses it off with cold water first." I told him I wasn't going to do that, but I mixed it up a little bit and blew on it. I said it was OK and offered one to Kate. She carefully tasted one, ate it, then looked at Jack. "It's good!" she said. The taster.
  

Now back at me. When I got home, Jack greeted me at the door, Kate was doing something or other in the living room, Emily was buried under a sea of papers and toys...or not.

Anyway, it was a nice reminder I'm a pretty lucky guy.

I running!

February was kind of rough; snow and cold and all that. Oh sure it was fun making snowmen and such, but you know.

Today, the first Friday home with the kids in March, was nice. Not exactly warm, but sunny and clear, so we got into clothes -- I admit, there are Fridays we stay in pajamas, not often but it happens -- bundled up, and went out in the backyard. Brought a couple of footballs, too.

For a little while, we just walked around. They climbed up on the little play slide and swing, which they hadn't seen all winter. Poked around the empty flower pots. Walked along the fence. Got used to the feel of grass under our feet; a week earlier, there'd been snow and lots of it.

Jack and I threw one football around. He almost brained Kate with it at one point, but fortunately didn't. I tossed them underhand, he caught some. He threw with all his might, one or two were in my vicinity. Go long! he yelled. Throw it, I said, I'm far enough away.

Kate picked up her smaller football, made as if to throw it, but instead ran up to me and put it in my hands. Then demanded it back.

At some point, the footballs were put aside in favor of running. Racing. We all lined up on the edge of the grass and ran. Jack ran full tilt, easily outdistancing us. I ran a step slower than Kate, which is to say running a step, stopping, running a step, stopping, waiting while she picked herself up from her knees, running a step, stopping. Jack won easily. Kate and I continued running in stride. She fell on her knees for the final time near the finish line, at which point I stopped, augh, you got me, Kate. She laughed. She laughed as she ran, laughed as she fell, laughed as she got up and laughed as she ran. Jack laughed triumphantly as he finished minutes before we did.

Later that evening, eating pizza, Emily asked about it, said to Jack she heard we raced. Did you win, she said. Jack said, Yeah, I ran like this. And he showed his fast run. And then: Daddy ran like this. And he did a slow-motion, Six Million Dollar Man run that cracked us up. Daddy always runs in slow motion, he said. Then he did Kate's run, waving his arms and legs in a herky-jerky style that cracked us up all over again.

Kate apparently wanted to clarify that she could, in fact, run. She ran into the living room. Yook, Daddy! she said. Yook! I running! I running! As she ran, she turned to look over her shoulder, making sure I was watching. I running!

Monkey

When Jack was 3 (I think), Grandma gave him this stuffed monkey that would say Ooo Ooo, laugh when you tickled its foot, hiccup after being given a bottle, and other stuff. It kind of freaked me out a bit to be honest, and Jack mostly lukewarm on it as well. Every once in a while the monkey would get taken out and play, but he spent a lot of time peering over the edge of the living room toybox.

In the last week, two years later, things have changed. I don't know if it was Kate first or Jack, but now the two of them together have adopted Monkey. In the mornings they give him breakfast, sitting him at their little play table and laying out quite a spread of play food. Jack looks for fruit in particular -- "Monkeys like fruit," he explains sagely -- so all the toy apples, bananas, and what have you adorn the table for Monkey's feast. "Is a cucumber fruit?" he asks. No, Jack. "Is papaya a fruit?" Yes, Jack.

They also put monkey down for naps, covering him with a blanket. This morning I saw Kate sitting facing monkey, as if they were going to play pattycake or something. Not sure if that actually occurred. She was talking to him, though.

When Jack was getting ready for school this morning, he asked me to take care of Monkey. "If he hiccups, that means he wants food," Jack said. I'm not sure I followed his reasoning, but I said, OK.

Evidently not convinced, Jack spent his last 10 minutes before going to school writing instructions out for me. "How do you spell 'monkey'?" he asked. And so on. When he was finished, he taped the note instructions up for me to see.

There was a picture of Monkey, so I wouldn't get confused. And the note read, "Monkey should only be fed when he hiccups."