Summer break, Day 2

Was planning to take the kids to a playground or something today. But it was really hot, so instead we went with the go-to for hot days, the beach. Told the kids, they celebrated wildly. Loaded the car with chairs, towels, and snacks, and we were off.

I feel like I've written a lot about our beach trips, because they're awesome, so I'm going to stick with highlights:

- We saw a couple of huge crabs with big legs like tarantulas or something. I picked Kate up to show her, Jack I pointed them out repeatedly until he finally said he saw them (I'm not 100 percent sure he did). Kate probably did, because she was a little wary of the water for much of the trip.

- Saw some horseshoe crabs, too, which Jack had just read date back to dinosaur times. So I told him that that dead one we'd seen a few trips back, which he touchingly tried to save by picking it up with a shovel and carrying it into the water (still the most awesome moment all year I think), was maybe just tired from being alive for 100 million years.

- Played football in the water with Jack. He talked about throws being "super gonzo incredible" throws or somesuch, the idea being it was a really, really big throw, and even more impressive to catch them. He also had interesting rules on what constituted a catch. If it didn't hit the ground, he caught it. Since we were playing in knee-deep water, they never hit the ground, so everything was a catch, worthy of vast celebration.

- Kate ate an entire bag of Pirate's Booty, this popcorn-like snackfood, I believe. That's what I get for turning my back for a bit.

- Putting on sunblock, I missed a couple of spots on Jack's cheeks, so he looks like a football player who used red eyeblack. Oops.

- They had donuts (left over from the previous day), apples, goldfish, pretzels, Pirate's Booty, and I think some other kind of snackfood. Not much "I don't LIKE that," from either party today.

- Jack taught Kate how to jump over waves in knee-deep water. He jumped, wobbled, stayed upright. She sort of jumped and got washed over. Spluttered water, but smiled.

- At the end of the trip, they met another apparent brother-sister couple, I'd put them a couple of years older. The four of them spent half an hour digging a big mudhole and making a big pile of sand. I wished I'd brought a book, because they could not have cared less that I was there.

- I washed them each off in the ocean two or three times before leaving. I'd wash Kate off, carry her back to the towel, tell her to put on her sandals. She immediately plopped down on her butt in the sand, then put on her sandals. I carried her back to the water, rinse, repeat.

- We drove home and the kids read magazines and drank from their water bottles in the back. Later, they'd sing songs at home, Jack probably something about burping or farting, Kate something about how being naked is funny. They're something else, those kids.

Summer break, Day 1

Jack is off for the summer, well until Lego Camp starts next week. Kate is off this week. So, I wanted to make sure to give them a good time. Day 1, kind of hit or miss....

- Went to Dunkin Donuts. Wanted to start the week off with something fun for them, plus I hadn't had enough coffee. "Can we get munchkins AND a big donut?" asked Jack. Today, sure. Kate got something with strawberry frosting, Jack got the same, until I ordered a butternut, and he got one of those instead. They munched happily, I drank iced coffee, only later remembering I hadn't actually had any breakfast beyond a couple of munchkins. Oh well.

- Went to Greenwich Town Hall to pay a vehicle tax bill from the previous year. "That's where my soccer is," Jack announced as we parked in the lot; indeed, the soccer fields were down below. As usual, the kids wanted to touch everything as we waited in line in the Tax Collector's office...pencils, pens, counters, etc. As usual, I tried to stop them.

- Came home and took Kate's baby for a stroll down the street. See blog entry below.

- Painting! They love to paint and I love to let them, but there's some set up work involved and clean up after, so it doesn't happen every day. Kate made some nice faces with little arms and legs sticking out and some dots of green and purple and brown on the paper. Jack made people and what looks like a robot of some kind, both with happy smiles.

- Lunchtime. Kate was too tired to eat anything -- didn't nap yesterday, so we took things easy today -- and went up for her nap. Jack ate roast beef, yogurt, chips and bread.

- Jack and I played on the porch some with his dinosaurs and Optimus Prime, the Transformer. Apparently in this story the dinosaurs were evil and Optimus had to smash them all. I kind of felt bad for them because he was a lot bigger and more mobile. And he was operated by Jack while I was making the dinosaurs run around, so clearly they weren't going to win.

- We built a robot of some sort with Legos, making it look like a picture Jack drew. I said, hey Jack, that's impressive; you had a vision, and we made it real. I explained what I meant by vision. He said, "I don't want to learn any more new words...I already know enough." We get this from him every once in a while. Over the rest of the day I gave him examples of how great it is to learn words, so you can say things like chandelier or corn rather than "black thing with lights on the end" or "yellow and white thing with little circles on it." Emily, at dinner, said, What if we just called you, brown-haired boy with brown eyes, instead of Jack? He got a kick out of that one.

- Kate woke up and she had lunch, while Jack had a snack. Grapes. Really can't go wrong with fruit.

- We played in the back yard some, swings for both and pitching to Jack. It's pretty dangerous really, because he can hit and I'm standing somewhat closer than regulations. A couple of line drives he's hit back up the middle have been worrying.

- Finished a book and put Jack to bed. Decided we're going to do something new tomorrow.

stroller

Aunt Cathy had a tag sales this weekend, and Kate came back with a stroller for her baby.

Kate is very appreciative of certain toys. A couple of weeks back, Emily got her a present, a doll of "Belle" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Kate has never seen the movie, but when she saw Belle, her eyes got wide and her mouth made the "Ooooooooo" sound. "Belllle," she breathed, in wonderment.

But quickly the stroller has assumed favorite status for Kate. She got it home, and immediately put her baby into it. She fiddled around with the canopy over it, and adjusted the angles and so forth as best she could. And then we went for a stroll around the block.

We did this again a little bit later. And then again. And then, "Daddy? Can we go for a walk? Can we take baby with us? In her stroller?"

Baby also strolled about the house. Into the playroom. Up the stairs into Kate's room. Out onto the back deck. Back inside. Back outside. Onto the porch. Into the driveway. Back inside.

7:30 this morning. "Daddy, can we go for a walk?"

swimming, again

Took Jack swimming at the Rye Y today. We hadn't been there before, and there was a class in the shallow end, so we had to be in the deep end -- 9 feet!

At first Jack was a little nervous. He hadn't actually been swimming in a pool in more than 2 months. And it was a new pool and a new depth for him.

But with the floaty noodle under his arms, he was fine, and he started to relax. Then the floaty barbells. And gradually, as he warmed up to it, he remembered that he could swim.

So by the end, he was jumping off the edge of the pool, a pretty good half dive, half belly flop. First into my arms, then with me across the pool, where he'd kind of dog paddle, steamboat his way over to me. And then he was pushing away the barbells and noodle and swimming for the edge on his own.

I was always just a few feet away, but at times, I was nervous. In the first place, I've been in better shape, to be honest. After half an hour treading water, helping Jack, catching Jack, swimming with the noodle, etc., I was beat.

But at the end, and it was time to get out, he had a big smile on his face and was proud of himself. And he was tired, too, but happy.

In our matching bathing suits and matching colorful towels, we found our way back to the locker room. Showered, dressed, and went off to get haircuts together.

Father's Day

Slept til 6:45. That was sort of new.

Kids brought in cards. Jack had been talking up his cards all week. They were of course awesome. The best was one with a picture of the Earth, and a couple of dinosaurs on it, and a huge asteroid almost as big as the earth heading right toward it. The other had a funny rhyme: "Don't be sad. You're my Dad!" I think that was it.

Kate had made one at her preschool with a little poem between her handprints, reminding Dad not to get frustrated with her because she wouldn't always be this little. That one made me tear up a little.

Jack wished me Father's Day and hugged me. Then it was Kate's turn, but Kate often has a problem being told what to do. So she kind of hugged herself and looked down for a minute. I shrugged, wasn't going to fight it. Two minutes later, though, she looked up and said in a low voice, "Happy Father's Day..." and hugged me shyly. It was nice.

Jack wanted to have his breakfast in bed with me while I drank my coffee. We decided against it.

All day, Jack made it his business to defend me. "Mommy, you can't disagree with Daddy....It's Father's Day!" This occurred on a few occasions. Funny.

We went to the beach. I spent most of the time playing frisbee with Jack in the ocean. I was always pretty good at it and Jack has become pretty good at it too. We threw it back and forth in knee to waist-deep water for a while.

Made a sand castle with Kate. Found a cool shell that seemed to still have a creature in it and showed it to them. Put it back in the water where I'd found it.

Went to Ian's parents' house for dinner. Sat in their backyard to eat and drink. Kids played. They have a little waterfall and koi pond which used to fascinate Jack and now intrigues Kate. Toward the end of the evening we sat on the edge and looked at the stones in the water, some of which had writing on them. "Hope," "Change," etc. Kate couldn't read the words but could read all the letter. "H....O.....P....." she said slowly.

Everyone was pretty wiped out in the evening. A little too much sun and not enough water no doubt. Jack and I read his big Dinosaur book, a pretty cool recent one, where the T-Rex has a scary plume of feathers (seriously!) on his head and there are nice pages of Velociraptors (I had to explain to Jack was "cunning" means) and other fierce dinosaurs. And really, reading a dinosaur book with Jack, I can't think of many better ways to end a Father's Day.

Jack day

Today was Jack's "Moving Up" day at school, which basically means he's "graduating" from Kindergarten and entering the 1st grade next year. So despite his protests that he wanted to wear shorts and a T-shirt, we dressed him up in nice pants, shoes, and a shirt with a collar, and sent him off to his last day as a Kindergartner. Sort of; he'll still be going there for another week and a half.

We gathered in the auditorium with all the other parents, grandparents who lived nearby, and their cameras. The kids filed in and up to their seats on stage, most looking serious, some with smiles frozen across their faces. We all said the Pledge of Allegiance, teachers said a few words, they got their diploma. Jack looked serious, businesslike. Every once in a while he'd catch our eye and give a little smile and wave. The 100 or so kids across three classes all got their little certificates -- Jack was near the end of the alphabet in the final class -- and then filed off to enjoy cookies and juice boxes while parents snapped pictures. Pretty cute.

We met up in the lunch room to find Jack loading up on brownies and Oreos. Excellent. Snapped pictures of him and Mrs. Glockenberg, his teacher, and The Coach, his gym coach. I sort of apologized for the fact that Jack sometimes wore Red Sox attire, as evidently The Coach is a big Yankees fan. He laughed.

On the way out to the car afterward, Jack crouched down to examine a bug on the sidewalk. He watched it for a minute while we waited. Then he stood up, wiped his hands off on his good pants, and walked to the car, leaving kindergarten behind.

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We went to McDonald's for lunch. Jack ate all his nuggets, as usual, but mostly he was pretty thrilled with his toy. "I can't believe I got Kung Fu Panda!" he said. "I mean, I could have just got the BIRD. All he does is SPIN."

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After lunch Jack and I went to our two banks. At one he got a lollipop, and at the other he got to see the cool old-fashioned Drive-Thru (or is it new? I don't know) where you put everything in a plastic tube and it gets sucked into the bank, and then shot back out to you. He thought it was almost as cool as I did.

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We went to the library. He got a dinosaur book for him ("I like nonfiction books," he said) and a book for Kate by the same person who did 'Click, Clack, Moo.' Then he saw Battleship, and we played that. Battleship can be a really slow game with a 6-year-old. First off, he kept calling out, "5-9" and "6-3," while I explained he had to say one letter and one number. Second, he thinks a lot about each choice, and takes a while to put in his pegs, and calls the same numbers more than once, and tends to group his choices whether he gets a hit or not. (I-9. Miss. I-10? Miss. I-8? Miss. H-10?) It was a long game until I started giving him 3 guesses per turn, and said he only had to hit a ship to sink it (because really, isn't that how things would have gone anyway?).

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Emily and I took him to the park to ride his bike. There was no one around so we owned the tennis courts. And after some prodding and running alongside and letting go of the seat and him putting his feet down, he did it -- he rode. And a huge, goofy smile broke out on his face as he rode clunkily along (he's probably a little too big for the bike now), and continued on, and waved us away as we tried to help him more.

Graduating from Kindergarten, riding his bike, playing Battleship, getting Kung Fu Panda at McDonald's. Big day for Jack.

Playground

When we lived in Greenwich, I took the kids to playgrounds in Port Chester all the time. We went to Lyon's Park, and we went to the "baby playground," which was basically a smaller playground that nobody else seemed to go to.

Now we live within walking distance of both, and we go to Lyon's Park more because that's where people go, and where all of Jack's games are. And we play on our own swingset. But today, for a change, we went to the baby playground again.

It was a pretty hot day, so I sat on a bench in the shade with the water while the kids played. They went up and down the slides, and at one point Jack asked me to help him slide down the pole -- then said he was afraid when I came over -- then I talked him into it, and he DID, and was giddy with accomplishment and immediately wanted to do it AGAIN. At another point, while I was sitting about 20 yards away, I heard Kate yelling, looked up, and saw her hanging from one of the monkey bars, stuck, feet flailing wildly. I ran to get her, fortunately before she fell.

I pushed them both on swings, then they switched swings and I pushed them again. It was kind of nice, nostalgic. They ran around a little more, then we were going to leave....when suddenly I heard "Jack R!" And it was his friend Brian from school, and his brother. So we were there another hour and a half.

Finally we left, tired, sweaty, red-cheeked. (I promise I used sunblock, but you know, we weren't planning on being there for two hours.) We went home, split a gallon of water, turned on the air conditioner. And the kids played a board game while I thought how small they used to be on those swings.

Kate at morning

Kate either wakes up too early, and is whiny and cranky in the mornings, or she sleeps in, and is a picture of sweetness and light. Here's one of the latter kind of mornings, as she comes down into the kitchen around 6:45, when I'm making coffee.

"He-llo, Daddy!"

She has her stuffed monkey with her. She makes a false sad voice. "Monkey is SAD, because she misses her Mommy."

She also has her stuffed kitties with her. She places them on a chair. "I will put my kitties HERE." One is too near the edge. "Oh, she's gonna FALL. I save you, kitty!" (Saves her. Then:) "I give her little kisses. kiss, kiss!"

Then she laughs at her kitties, and laughs at herself. "She's silly. Silly....silly....silly. I'm silly!"

Sensing there might be a blog in this, I start writing things down. Kate: "Oh, why are drawing so FAST? You don't have to do that. You can take your time with your drawing."

Pause. "You can use different colors. Do you want another crayon? Here's PURPLE. Here's RED."

Kate proceeds to draw pictures of her favorite things to draw pictures of, faces. "This is YOU, Daddy. Here's your stubble."

Then, "This is JACK. I made Jack, Daddy. .... Oops! I forgot to make Jack's HAIR. Silly. Doo, doo, de doo, de doo."

I give her another crayon. "Oh, THANK YOU." Kate cheerful and happy...a nice start to the day.

The Beach

We went to the beach yesterday, first time of the year. As always, it was just awesome. I talk to friends here who are all about going to the pool, and look askance at the beach. Maybe there are two kinds of people, beach people and pool people; maybe it's just about how you grew up; maybe it's where you go. Anyway, to some degree it's who you are.

(Lyndsay said in the morning she didn't like the beach; she liked the pool. But I think we have a convert, because she had a really good time.)

In the car on the way there, we heard the pop song "Dynamite," which is a big hit with the kids (who proceeded to sing along). We unloaded and lathered up on the beach, and it was like Jack and Kate had never left -- they immediately ran down to the water, Kate with pail and shovel, Jack to collect seashells and rocks, Lyndsay joining them.

That was pretty much the day, but a few moments stood out.

We always look in the water for horseshoe crabs, and did see a few, including a pair with a clam or oyster stuck onto them -- cool! We watched them for a while. Later, we saw another one, in the sand at the water's edge. Not moving; probably dead. It happens. I tried putting it back in the water, but it just washed gently ashore again.

I kind of wanted to distract the kids, so I got them interested briefly in building a sand castle. Then I looked up and Jack wasn't there. I spotted him a minute later near the water's edge.

He had taken his sand shovel and used it to scoop up the crab, and he was wading out up to his knees in the water to bring it out deeper. Struggling just a little bit, but managing. As Emily and i watched, he lowered it into the water, then ran back, with some effort, to the shore.

I went up to him, barely knowing what to say. But I said, Jack. That was great what you did.

And he said, "I like horseshoe crabs. I didn't want him to die."

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Kate is nervous around animals, nervous around a lot of things -- a sliver of soap in the bathtub puts her into near hysterics. So it was odd when, standing in waist-deep water, she stumbled and fell on her face, floating for a moment, getting drenched, before stumbling to her feet. I ran over to grab her out of the water, expecting tears or fright.

Instead she kind of blinked, smiled, and said, "I got my eyes wet!" And then shrugged and continued to play in the surf.

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As I put Jack to bed tonight, Lyndsay having gone home, I told Jack I had a great weekend with him, and he said, "And with Lyndsay."

And then he was quiet for a minute, and then said, "I miss Lyndsay. Because she was here for 3 days, so it was like she lived here. And it's weird that she's gone."

And I kissed him goodnight.

Lyndsay

We had a guest this weekend, cousin Lyndsay. Both kids are pretty fond of her. I haven't read a bedtime story to either one all weekend; they've requested her. So they all get together on inflatable mattress and she reads to them, their choices. There's a lot of laughing.

We usually help Jack with showers, turning on the water, making sure he gets himself clean, etc. Still help him with brushing his teeth, too, given that cavities like him.

But since the first night Lyndsay was here, after she showered, Jack has gone in to shower on his own. "I can do it myself," he insists. I let him, just watching carefully to make sure he didn't run it too hot or anything. He did all the washing and drying himself, then moved on to brushing his teeth. Wanted to do that himself, too. I said, no Jack, we still need to help you. "But I want to be like Lyndsay!" he said plaintively.

Jack has finally come around on the bees in our backyard. He doesn't like them and still flinches on occasion (so do I), but he now plays readily in their presence. I overheard him talking to Lyndsay yesterday, after she noticed them. "Oh, those are carpenter bees," he said knowingly. "They don't sting."

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Jack had T ball yesterday. A fierce desire to play first base has developed among the players; they all run to it at the start of each inning, and usually end up sharing it during the inning, with coach Moore dictating when it's time for somebody else's turn. I talked to him about it afterward, telling him I thought he'd handled it well, and that it was odd to me that everyone wanted to play first base. He said, "Well, it's a chance to touch the ball."

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Recap of the day

Jack was in a play at school. All the kindergartners were there, dressed in green shirts and tan pants; it was a play about the rainforest. Every kid had a line; Jack's was first. He stood up, wearing his light green dress shirt and khakis, walked to the mike, and said "The play you are about to see is the story of the Great Kapok tree...." Delivered his line and sat down. We all clapped and took pictures. Jack waved from his seat.

Afterward, as I walked to Jack to tell him he did a great job, he said, "Nick's Mom has my MightyBean! Will you get it from her?" So, he hadn't let the play go to his head or anything.

Walking back to the car, Kate walked between Emily and me and held our hands. She didn't walk much at all; she just swung. She's getting heavier.

At home, we played some in the backyard. She helped me a mow a little, then watched me mow, then went on the swings. She lay over it like a folded newspaper and swung back and forth. "I'm Supergirl!" she said.

The neighbor with two young kids walked over and they played in our yard for a bit. They brought out the T ball set for a bit which went well until Kate swung the bat with one of the kids standing too close to the tee and whapped him in the face. He cried. I managed to extract one of Kate's slow, monotone, "sorrrryyyyy"s out of her. Later he was on the slide and it seemed like he was waiting for Kate to walk by the end so he could take her out. Nah, I'm just kidding. He probably wasn't really doing that.

We picked up Jack at school. As usual, they ran around the playground together, and I looked for the mighty bean Jack had dropped in the tall grass yesterday. I was touched by the fact that a couple of his little friends helped out. I said, guys, there's no chance of us finding this thing, you can go play.

We went home and they played with these little bead things that Emily irons and they make little figures and designs that fascinate Jack for about 2 days until he forgets about them.

We ate pizza, and watched some of the Red Sox game. I read Kate "Ferdinand the Bull." And everyone went to bed.

baptism

Got the kids baptized over the weekend. Strangely affecting.

- Nana and Baba came down from Vermont. It's a long trip for them and they no doubt missed the comforts of home and their own beds but they didn't make so much as a whisper of complaint. Both looked wonderful at Church and I could hear Baba's voice during all the songs, except when Kate was on his lap and he wasn't able to follow along.

- Aunt Robin sent the nicest card from Ireland -- here several relatives lamented the inability to find baptism cards for non-infants -- and beautiful Celtic crosses for the ceremony. Jack wore his even though it got tangled in his tie; Kate might still be wearing hers for all I know.

- All the Rosenfelds and Papa Earl were on hand, with Reanna going up to read the first reading (from the Old Testament) and everyone looking so nice that I didn't feel overdressed in my suit.

- During the baptism, Kate said with some chagrin to Pastor, "You're getting water on my dress." But she didn't freak out, as she does when I drip water on her after washing her face. Jack was completely calm and well-behaved as Pastor put water on his forehead. They shared a towel with each other to dry off, happily not fighting.

-Kate was completely unwilling to smile and look at the camera for family photos, so we got several with all of us smiling beautifully while Kate showed the back of her head. Then we got some without her in them. Later, Reanna took a picture of me and my Dad, and Kate said, "Can I see?" I showed it to her, and I said, this is what a picture looks like when the people in it are smiling and looking at the camera. She said, "OHHHhhhh." I said, do you think you could do that sometime? She said, "Yes! Yes, I will!" So we took some pictures of her with Baba, and maybe later we'll use the magic of technology to doctor one of the other pictures with a smiling Kate face. Or not.

- Jack smiled broadly (a little too much so at times) for almost every photo, willingly bribed by the promise of jelly beans.

- The kids made an amazing amount of noise playing together that evening, while I sat with Baba on a bench and watched. Kate chatted away happily with Uncle Ian ("Ekan! Ekan!" she said if he looked away).

- Dinner was cereal with strawberries and toast with apricot jam. And it was really good.

Movies and art

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Jack and I went to a movie today, "Rio." He and his classmates had the day off because of testing for older kids; this apparently doesn't apply to very many schools or classes, because he and I were the only people in the theater. Jack said, excitedly, "We're the first ones here!" As the movie itself began, and we were still the only ones there, he said, "Where are you, people?" We had our own private screening.

Jack enjoyed it, initially naming it his second-favorite movie behind "Star Wars." I said, what about "How to Train Your Dragon"? And he said, "Oh. My 3rd favorite movie." And he called "Tangled," which he saw with Emily last weekend, his 4th favorite, until I mentioned "Cars" and "Madagascar." So he then proceeded to name his top 10, which I believe included every movie he's ever seen, except for the first movie he ever saw in a theater, "Horton Hears a Who," which I believe scared him. And I will never forget because we walked up the steps to the row of seats, and I said he could sit down, and he agreeably sat down on the step in the aisle.

At home, I had to check my email, and I heard him sit down at the table to draw a little. Ten minutes later, I saw his picture. He'd written "Rio" across the top, with different colors for each letter, and drawn striking renditions of all the main characters, which were brightly colored birds. The detailing was kind of amazing, I have to say.

Later on, he drew another picture, of himself, riding a shark. "Shark!" it say, and in the picture Jack has a big smile. I said, uh Jack, where did you get this idea? And he said, matter-of-factly, "It just came to me. And, I like to draw, so...."

My brudder

Jack and I typically pick up Kate after preschool. He enters the wrong code to the door before I can enter the correct one, and then we eventually get in. He asks to go up and say hi to his old teachers sometimes, and we do that.

Then we head into the tumble room, which is where Kate's class usually is, running around and playing with various toys and such. Jack climbs into one of the little cars and drives it around, or kicks a ball and I hold my breath hoping it doesn't catch some toddler in the side of the head.

But today Kate's class was up in her room, crowding around one of the teacher's who was reading a story. We walked in, Kate spotted us, and ran over and greeted us happily. Then she went back to the group, and pointed to Jack and said -- as if we didn't pick her up almost every day -- "That's my brudder! That's my brudder." Very happy.

Jack sits down with the group, shows them his new toys, "Mighty Beanz," and they all ooh and aah. And then we head off, me and Kate and her brudder.

Catching up

Wow, it's been a while. So what's been going on?

- Kate was stick with a stomach flu over Easter. She couldn't do an Easter Egg hunt (which was indoor because it rained so much), so she sat on the couch while Jack searched around the house for eggs. He gave her all the pink and purple ones.

- Finding eggs was so much fun for Jack we continued to hide them, even emptied of candy, for the next two days, and then he did the same for us.

- Kate continued to be sick and drowsy until midday Monday. Then either because I kept giving her water in case she was dehydrated, or because Jack came home from school Monday afternoon, she suddenly made a dramatic improvement. She went from sleeping on the futon most of Monday morning to running around and playing with Jack Monday afternoon as if she'd never been sick. Seeing Jack made her happy and healthy, I sincerely believe it.

- Jack had his first T ball game on Saturday. I hustled him out of the house; didn't want to be late! He was probably more relaxed than I was. We walked to the park with him in his little ballcap, T-shirt, and glove. I snapped pictures as we walked. Went to the field where the game was supposed to be played. Everyone looked so big! They were; another team was playing there, with older kids. We walked to the actual field. The team did stretching exercises, Jack with a goofy grin on his face, and the game started. When he came up to bat, he high-stepped to the plate. My son, Deion Sanders? Got his hit -- everyone gets a hit in T ball -- and ran the bases, 90 feet at a time. Three innings of everyone on both teams batting, scoring, and then taking the field. Jack occupied the pitcher's mound, since he's one of the better fielders and most balls don't get out of the infield. Usually he ran to the ball. Occasionally he was looking in another direction. Two of his friends were on the other team; it's sort of like Major League Baseball thanks to free agency. After the game, all the kids slapped hands, and we headed off for ice cream, or at least a cookie.

- Jack had a trip to the doctor. I'm wondering, do all kids touch everything they see, or is it just mine? Bad enough he touches everything; worse at a place I'd rather he keep his hands jammed in his pockets the entire time. Anyway, he's very relaxed at the doctor. He climbed up on the table and stretched out like he was relaxing on the beach. Funny. We had to pick up a prescription, and as we waited in line at the pharmacy I had to constantly remind him not to touch everything.

- Kate's new favorite book is the second Harold and the Purple Crayon book, or the second one we have, Harold's A B Cs. She's taking an interest in words these days. "What does THAT say? And what does THAT say? And...."

- I finish the books when I read to Kate and she clambers over my lap, smiles at me, turns out the light, clambers back over me, and lies down. "Swing on a star?" she asks. Yup.

Birdhouse

Jack had a day off today -- his "Spring Break," really, after a slew of snow days wiped out the other days off -- and I was thinking last night about what would be fun to do. It rains six days a week, so I didn't really factor outdoor activities, but I wanted to do something kind of different. So for some reason, maybe I got the idea from an article in the paper, or maybe I'd been thinking about it for a while, I decided that Jack and I would make a birdhouse.

Jack had a morning playdate, and then he came home, and he wanted to work on his "Rocket book." It was a bunch of colorful pictures, stapled together, of rockets. And he wanted me to draw with him, and so I did. I sat at the little chair at the art table downstairs -- the best Christmas present we got him, I think -- and drew rockets. Jack explained how they all had to be firing either flames or bullets (I chose flames), how they all had to be different colors (done; his were far more colorful than mine, but I did OK), and how they all had to have names. And when I wrote a little name in the footer ("Flame Thrower") he said, "No no, they all have to have big names across the top of the page." So I wrote it in big, and he smiled approvingly.

It's great drawing with Jack; everything has a structure, and he explains how things should be drawn, and then colored, and how the rocket flames need to be all across the bottom of the rocket and stuff. And if I finished early, he said I should do more; and he was only going slower because he was doing his very best work. And we finished and he was happy and he stapled the book together. "ROCKET BOOK."

Then I told him we were going to make a birdhouse. He said, "How?" And I said, well, I'm going to get some scrap wood from behind our shed (a big board) and saw it into pieces and nail them together, and we'll paint it. And he said, "Can I help?" And I said, You bet.

My Dad has actual carpentry skills; I just have the ones I picked up from him and occasionally have used over the years. But I can see something in my mind and saw straight lines and hammer nails, so that was enough. Jack held the boards while I sawed them -- just kidding! -- he watched while I sawed, and helped a little with hammering the nails. When I ran out of nails, I sent him down to my toolbox to get more, and he agreeably headed off and came back later with a handful of them. I sent him back for a screwdriver; he came back with 5 of them. It was awesome.

And we built the thing and it looked OK. I used a small saw and a hammer and chisel to make a bird-sized circle in the front, and tomorrow I'll find a dowel or something for the birds to stand on while they're admiring our craftsmanship.

I asked Jack what color it should be. He said, "Red." Which was fortunately one of the handful of colors we had, the leftover paint from the previous owners' red dining room. I found an old T-shirt and draped him in it, covered the kitchen floor with newspapers, and sat him down with the can of paint and an old brush. And he slathered it in a thick coat of red, and it was good.

Put Jack to bed tonight and asked him what the best part of his day was. He could have said the rocket book and he could have said the playdate, but instead he said, "Building the birdhouse." So it was a really good day.

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.


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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.