friday

- while Emily gave Kate her bath, jack and I sat and watched the fire. Jack said it looked like the blue flame was dancing to music, and he got up and demonstrated it dancing.

- I finished up Kate's bath. She didn't want me to take the band-aid off her knee, as usual, but it was time, so I ignored her thrashing and yanked it off. When she had settled down, she not only laughed about it, but mimicked her own protests. "And I said, 'no, don't take my band-aid off' and then I cried like this...'" Hilarious.

- I read them some goofy book called Chaucer's winter or somesuch, about a bear that doesn't want to hibernate. And doesn't! But his parents keep an eye on him. All winter! And I couldn't help thinking, they must really want to sleep. That's parenting.

I read Kate a frog and toad book. At the end of Toad's Dream, which is kind of a disturbing story, Toad wakes to find Frog visiting. You came to see me? Says Toad. I always do, says Frog. That part is nice.

Friday

As I turned out the light and tucked Jack into bed tonight, I looked up and saw the stars Emily had painted on the ceiling. Oh, the stars are beautiful tonight, I said. Jack, playing along, said "Yes. And look: the Big Dipper is out! .... And I think I see Orion's Belt over there...." I pointed out the stars that kind of looked like his initials. And he said, "And, look, there's a shooting star!"

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While I was making her lunch, Kate drew pictures. She showed them to me, and then explained, "It's me and you because we're home together."

We had a nice day today

Mommy took Jack to school; it was Friday, so Kate stays home with Daddy. And since Daddy's work is largely a Sunday through Thursday schedule, I don't always have to work so much.

We went to the grocery store to get fruit salad for Kate's Halloween parade at preschool (she doesn't go Friday, but she can come in for the parade) and dinner things. We got the pricing scanner, which she and Jack both love, and she scanned the items one by one. After each one, she said "I DID it!" And then, "I did it AGAIN! I did THREE!"

Back at home, we got her into the Supergirl costume. She posed and stuck a fist in the air and put her hands on her hips. She was into it. We drove to her school, she was happy all the way up to her classroom, walked in, saw the other kids in costumes, froze, and buried her face in my leg. First just saw shy, but then tears when I tried to talk her off the ledge. I won't go on too much about it, but it was bad. At one point all of her friends came over and circled around us. What's wrong, Kate? Kate? I said, well, I guess she's a little shy now. Them: Kate's NEVER shy!

Finally I got her to walk with me in the parade of kids. We lined up with her class. She held my hand and buried her face in her other wrist. Then, Mackenzie showed up in a dragon costume. This might be a boy she likes. She started to come out of her shell (almost literally). She talked to him. Then suddenly, the meltdown was over, and she was walking along, chattering away about her costume. "Maya, what are you? Oh, that's great! Mr. Brendan, what are you being? Oh, that's great! This is my Daddy...."

After the parade, and lunch in the classroom, we went to the party store to get a Halloween wig. Kate turned a few heads, still dressed as Supergirl. Lots of Aws and so cute! and so forth. Kate was kind of oblivious, fascinated as always by all the decorations and toys.

At home, Kate said, "can we do a project?" I don't do many projects with her, so I said sure. We dumped out her big art jar making a horrific mess, and she wanted to make a bird. So using glue and pompoms and pipe cleaners and googly eyes, we made a bird. It's the best things we've ever made together.

We got Jack at school, brought him to clay class, came home after that, made dinner, sent Jack and Mommy off to his Halloween dance. Then she drew pictures in the kitchen while I cleaned up, and we played music. The House of Pain song "Jump Around" came on, and we danced and jumped around. Kate hadn't heard the song before, and probably shouldn't again any time soon, but she laughed and jumped.

I read her stories before bed. As I was putting her to sleep she said, "We had a nice day today." It was half question, half statement, I think. I said yeah, we had a nice day. I kissed her goodnight and she went right to sleep.

pre-Halloween

- We drove by these wild decorations near Kate's preschool the other day. Kate always gets very excited as we drive by; there are all kinds of ghosts and skeletons and monsters. She lights up: "Ooh! I like the vampire the best. No, actually... I like ALL of them the best!"

- We went to Eden Farms in Stamford last week, and went through the Spooky House. It wasn't very spooky, but Kate enjoyed it, and I think Jack did too, until he saw an older boy saying it wasn't scary, so he took up that mantra too. So I of course pretended it was the scariest thing I'd ever seen. I dunno, Jack, I might have nightmares tonight. He looked at me with what appeared to be disgust. "How can you be SCARED? It's not real. It's not scary!" I said, well, what about these eyeballs in this jar? He looked at it doubtfully. Then: "No...THAT's not scary..."

- They went through the hay maze, around and around and around again. At one point Kate looked a little nervous (it was only shoulder high on her), so I went over to check. She looked up at me. "Oh! Hi Daddy." She was fine. Jack paused to fix a scarecrow whose head had fallen off, just like I did a few minutes earlier. Good boy.

- We carved a pumpkin last night. Both of them drew the faces they wanted carved, and I did my best to merge the two. Jack also drew a witch on a broom to carve into the back of it. Geez, Jack, I'm working with a serrated knife in PUMPKIN here. But it turned out OK anyway.

Acting up

Went to pick Jack up at his clay class. It's a weekly thing on Fridays, and I guess at pickup last week the teacher didn't have a chance to talk to me. This week she said she had to; Jack was looking downcast.

Apparently Jack and another boy (older, natch) were using the clay working tools to, uh, swordfight. There are a dozen kids in the class, the teacher said, and she couldn't keep an eye on all of them. And she said, "I never specifically said, 'Don't swordfight with the clay tools,' but I thought it was self-explanatory..."

I nodded and listened and looked sternly at Jack, and weighed in, "Yes, we frown on swordplay in our house, and Jack knows that," and so forth. And when she does I spoke sternly to Jack, saying, "Jack, you understand, right? You use clay tools for what they're for, not for fighting. And you won't do that again, correct?"

And Jack nodded seriously, and I apologized to the teacher, and she said, "They were both very good today, but I thought it was important that I speak to the parents." And I agreed.

And we got in the car and headed for home, but before we drove away I said to Jack, You know, I thought you were going to be kicked out of the class, there. Don't do anything like that again, and you listen to your teacher. And he nodded, and we headed for home.

But as we drove home I was thinking, Well, he's six.

poi

So I read Kate "Harold and the Purple Crayon" tonight, and we get to the part where Harold makes all the pies. And I say, as I always do, "poi," because that's the way Grandpa R used to say it.

And Kate says, "Daddy! It's not 'poi.' It's PIE."

So I keep on reading. And there were all nine kinds of poi that --

"DADDY! It's PIE, not 'poi'!" And she was laughing now and so was I.

belt

Emily got Jack his first belt last week. Thursday was a home day, and Jack was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but he wanted to wear it anyway.

So I found it, and he proudly put it on himself, and tucked his shirt in. I said, well Jack, you don't really need to tuck in a T-shirt. And I untucked it for him.

He looked down, then looked up, a little sad. "But then nobody can see my belt," he said.

So we tucked it back in, and he was happy.

Back in the habit

Haven't blogged in too long so need to write some stuff down. Like:

- In Week 1 of the NFL season, I had to give Kate her bath before bedtime, so I asked Jack to take notes for me. Here's what he wrote:

"Eagles win! .... Jay Cutler looking good. ... Falcons get big loose against Bears." (I think he meant "lose.") "Persi Harven get run back for t-down on first play of game." Thanks, Jack.

- Jack's first organized soccer practice! Considering Pee-Wee Soccer in Greenwich was mostly just running around (plus his Dad coached him his final season), this to me seemed like a bigger deal. And he did great, running and kicking and having the ball taken away from him and playing goal (because all the kids wanted a chance at playing goal, it was a little odd). And afterward he wanted to stay and take shots on goal, but we had to go because Kate had gymnastics. Which brings me to...

- Kate's birthday! It was basically a weeklong birthday, with the family over on Sunday, her actual birthday on Tuesday, and a party for her preschool friends on Saturday. Some highlights: I saw one present, the "My Little Pony" stuffed toy, and said, Oh, My Little Pony. Kate, indignant: "No. MY little pony."... The night before her birthday, she asked if she could wear her blue dress, the one she thinks is like Cinderella and she would wear every day if she could. It was dirty, , but I said of course you can, and washed it and dried it that night so she could wear it the next day. ... At her birthday, they did a "Hide and Seek" thing where they hid her for her friends to find her. Uh, they found her, when she started wailing for Mommy because it was dark where they hid her. OK, maybe that was a lowlight. ... She liked bouncing on the trampoline and walking on the balance beam. Of course, she'd been doing that that very morning, at her gymastics class. Which you can tell she loves because she smiles, pays attention, and does what she's told. It's stuff she doesn't love where she is more, shall we say, resistant. ... I put her to bed the night before her birthday and sang Swing on a Star with goofy voices. I could see her little cheeks crinkle as she smiled at me.

Kate at morning

Got up with Kate this morning to give her breakfast. She was kind of chatty as we sat in the kitchen, me drinking coffee and her eating cereal.

"When I grow up, I'm going to put that chair like that." (Indicating my chair, which I was sitting on at a slight angle.)

"And when I grow up, I'm going to drive to work and Mommy's going to sit next to me."

"What is Jack going to be when he grows up? Oh! He's going to be a scientist. I wish I could be a scientist." You can, I said. "But I don't want to me, I'm going to be a Mommy when I grow up." You can be both, I said. "Oh! I know what I'm going to be. A mermaid!"

(Looking at me writing all this down as she spoke.) "That's a lot of words, Daddy."

Jackolympics

Camp ended for Jack last week, and Kate is home the entire month of August. So yeah I'm kind of going insane. But seriously! It's been great a lot of the time. I think tomorrow or the next day we'll go to Dunkin' Donuts, I'm looking forward to that.

Anyway, yesterday we had something I dubbed the "Jackolympics," and Jack liked it so much the name stuck. He set up little sporting events throughout the house. We had golf in the playroom, something similar to rugby in Kate's room, bowling in our room, and basketball in Jack's room, where the Jackolympics finished up.

In his room, he'd set up his wastebasket (onto which he'd stuck a piece of paper that read "don't put trash here") as one basket, used some shelving things as another basket, and made a hoop out of pipe cleaners (is that what they're called? I don't know) onto a third. One basket was worth 10 points, one 20, one 100. The basketballs were these little Nerf-like things. Jack went first and got 160, Kate went next and got 20 (she's little and throws like a girl, sorry), and I went last and got 150; I had to ratchet up the drama by barely missing my last one, probably on purpose. (But maybe not.)

I put Jack to bed, and we read his new Beast Quest book from Aunt Robin. He always reads a page or two. He came to a long word, "straightened," and slowed down. As he was working at it, I started to help him, but he said, "I'm looking because there are a lot of little words inside it." And I said yeah, you're right.

As I turned out the light, he said, "Daddy, what's today?" And I said, August 16th. And he said, "Every August 16th will be the Jackolympics." And I said OK then.

Talent Show

Normally Kate wakes up from her naps cranky and unwilling to get up. But today when I told her it was time get up she jumped up, went right to the bathroom, shook her hair out of her eyes, and was ready to go. Because today was Jack's Talent Show Day.

We've had an inkling of something coming up from Jack's camp for a little while now. Every so often he'll break into a little mini-dance, including hip shakes and chest beating. Turned out they were learning a routine, and practicing it, for a show at camp. It was today, so I roused Kate from her nap and we hoofed it over the park to see it all unfold.

When it came time for Jack's number, they did this little hip-shaking, jumping up and down, spinning dance number to a medley that included a Back Street Boys song. Jack was in the front and in the middle, perhaps because he was one of the more physically expressive dancers. Near the end he did this little foot shimmy that cracked me up, then a finger point, and finally an emphatic microphone wave and thrust that was right out of a music video I'm pretty sure he's never seen. It was a riot.

What was funny was how seriously he was taking it -- he later said he was nervous and shy -- he really looked like it was important to him to hit all his cues and do a good job. I recorded it, and we watched it at home on TV, Emily and I cracking up, Jack hiding his face in his hands. At first. And then we played it again, and he stood up, with his back to the TV, and did the whole routine again, with the music, just like his little video image on the screen. This time, though, he had a big grin on his face.

And his little sister got up next to him and did the same spinning, pointing, twirling dance. Big smile on her face, too.

For me, I think it was top 2 with seeing him score his first goal in soccer. I was grinning like an idiot while he danced like Justin Timberlake in his Mark Sanchez jersey. 2012 King Street Talent Show, look out.

Week with Kate

Emily says my most common visible emotion with Kate is frustration. I guess it's true, though I'd like to believe it's just when she sees me most with her (around dinnertime). She tests me, I get impatient with her, all that stuff.

So this week, with Jack at camp three days, I tried to avoid getting angry at Kate. I think I did OK; I feel like I didn't yell at her all week, which is something. I am not perfect.

Here were the memorable moments.

- Went to Leaping Lizards with her and Jack (on his one day off from camp). It's a big indoor play area, with slides and huge tunnels to run through and nets to climb. What was funny is that Kate has been once before, and I wouldn't think she'd necessarily remember it, but she's been asking for it lately and then all the way there she was singing, "We're going to Lea-Ping Liz-Ards,..." Jack must have been talking it up lately. Anyway, I think the first time we went there were isolated moments of tears, when Kate got trapped in some area. Not this time, especially with big brother Jack nobly leading her to safety on more than one occasion. There were a couple of other times when I believe he tried to hide from her; I'd see him run by, then her a few seconds later, trying to find him. I worked a little on my column for the magazine, then played some Skee-Ball with Jack and let Kate ride the merry-g0-round, and we headed home.

- Went to a toy store to get a birthday present for Jack's friend Dylan. Kate was pretty good; she grabbed the random toy here and there, I explained, no, we were just getting a gift for Jack's friend, and she was playful about it. "OHHHHhhhhh," she'd fake moan, then smile and go look at something else. She ended up being fascinated by this Thomas Train set arranged near the back of the store, making me sad we'd sold Jack's a while back when he hadn't cared about it any more.

- Pushed her on the swing in the back yard. I think she could do that forever. She laughs and laughs. And then I realize she can't do it forever when she suddenly says "I want to get off," almost in mid-laugh.

- Let her and Jack run through the sprinkler after camp. A big hit. My favorite bit is when she gets water in her eyes, cries for about 5 seconds, then continues running happily around like it never happened. She's an odd one sometimes.

- Went to the supermarket, again with both of them. Chaos. Neither wanted to ride IN the cart, both wanted to ride ON it. They clung to the side, or the front, argued over who got to hold the scanner, asked to see the lobsters, said they wanted to go get turkey at the deli. But Kate, I said, you never want to eat turkey for lunch, you always want peanut butter and jelly. And she said, "But can I just eat turkey here?"

And for most of the week, she was happy, and so was I.

- Irish cousins arrived today; one quick story. Kate wanted to play Hide and Seek with Abbey. "Abbey. You be the hider and I'll be the seeker. OK?" Abbey asked where she should hide. Kate said, "You hide...right here." She picked an exact place for Abbey to hide. Abbey hid there. Abbey said, OK, you should count to five. Kate, asserting her homefield advantage, said, "I am going to count to SIX." She walked 20 feet away and started counting. Finished counting, looked up, saw Abbey, and said, "I FOUND you!" Very proud of herself.

- Mikey read bedtime stories to Kate (Some Dogs Do) and Jack (not sure, I'll have to ask tomorrow). And finally the kids went to bed, so I could make sure I got it all down.

Random stuff

- Kate's first movie in a theater was last Friday. She was a little bit confused by all the previews. "Is this the movie?" No, it's just a preview. "Is THIS the movie?" No, it's another preview. It's like a TV commercial. Unlike Jack, who sat down in the aisle, thinking it was a seat, and shaken up by how loud it was (I sat in the back row with Kate), Kate basically treated the movie like another TV show, just on a much bigger screen. Plus, "Winnie the Pooh" was more TV-like than Jack's first movie, "Horton Hears a Who."

- The Irish cousins were here briefly on Monday morning. They were all sleeping in the living room when Jack and Kate woke up. For the next couple of hours, Jack and Mikey basically moved around the house, and the yard, as one. They wore plastic fireman's hats and carried light sabers. They played on the swingset. They ran about and posed for pictures. They ate cereal together, talked about Star Wars toys and MightyBeanz and TV shows. It was 2 hours when Jack didn't care about anything else in the world but playing with his cousin.

- Kate, of course, was drawn to Abbey. When they finally had to go to school and camp, both said goodbye to everyone, and Jack went around giving out hugs. But he made a point of saying goodbye to Mikey, and as I took Kate out the door, she said, "Bye, Abbey!"

- They got presents, huge "Pillow buddies," a carrot for Jack and a strawberry for Kate. Jack sleeps with his; Kate puts hers in the chair next to her at breakfast, and let it watch her take a bath the other night. "Hi, strawberry!" she waves.

- I took Jack to "Dinosaur Summer" at the Maritime Aquarium yesterday. We saw a weak IMAX film, but also enjoyed a "Thrill Ride" dino film where the seats in the theater moved and everything was in 3D -- and vivid enough to scare Jack, when a huge prehistoric mosquito flew at us. I think the highlight for him was this big robotic model of a T-Rex where he could use controls to work its jaws and arms. Either that or the wooden cutout where he could pretend to put his head in the T-Rex's mouth. Sometimes, kids are easy to please.

- When I put Kate to bed at night, she asks for a "squeezer" -- to be hugged really tightly. She puts her arms around my neck and squeezes, and I hug her back. She gives a big smile and I suspect I do, too.

Arcade

Jack was home on Tuesday and it was really hot, although I guess it was actually the coolest day of the week, hurrah. So I thought we'd get out of the house and go to an air-conditioned arcade at Playland. Alas, the air-conditioned arcade was closed, so we had to make do with the one on the Boardwalk. Where it was remarkably hot and nobody else was around, oddly enough.

So anyway, we had the arcade Boardwalk to ourselves! Of course, we tried to win these cool stuffed toys in the claw machine, and I absolutely would have if the things weren't rigged to drop the Angry Bird stuffed toys even if you picked them up perfectly; I really don't understand it.

We moved on to Skee-Ball. I taught Jack to play, which was fun; if memory serves the last time I played was at an arcade we went to on the night of my bachelor party; I know, pretty crazy! So I taught Jack to play and we spent $3 to almost win a rubber ball that I paid $2 for at Target last month. Jack cleverly (craftily?) had this idea that we could roll both sets of game balls down the same lane to get one prize, but sadly the machine counted how many balls were thrown, so no go. It worries me a little that he's already thinking of ways to beat the system, but in fairness the claw machine was rigged so he's only responding in kind.

We played a racing game where we sat in car seats next to each other and zoomed on a video track. Jack couldn't figure out why he wasn't going anywhere until I helped him stretch his foot to reach the pedal. Then he did pretty well, if by pretty well you mean colliding with me and other cars on a regular basis, but I think we started doing it on purpose because it was pretty cool. We laughed a lot.

We played air hockey, which was OK, but he's not quite tall enough to reach very far. We played pinball, which was nostalgic for me and essentially impossible for him; again, not quite tall enough to see the whole playing arena. And we played some other scam game where you had to hit a button when the red lightbulb was lit up, which we were successful at, uh, not at all.

And last but not least, we went into the picture booth, the first time I'd done that in oh about 25 years, and got some great pictures of us making goofy faces.



On the way home, Jack said, "You know, it wasn't fair that we didn't win that Angry Bird stuffed toy. But, it was still fun."

Vacation, Part II

- The bulk of the week was spent beating a path back and forth from the pool, to the beach, to the pool. On our second day we found Breakwater Beach, which is where we spent most of the rest of vacation. At first, Jack was either tired or sulking, hard to say; he'd liked the previous day's beach (more than we did, since it wasn't much of a beach) and wanted to return. So we let him sulk for a few minutes and read our books. After a bit he got up and walked down to the water. Next thing we knew he was digging in the sand with another little boy, then running back to the towels to get another shovel, then coming back for another pail. So he warmed up to the new beach.

- Found a lot of cool stuff at the beach. Hermit crabs. Fragment of shell that looked like a big shark tooth, so of course I told Jack it was a big shark tooth. He thought that was pretty cool. On the downside, he kept bringing me up other shell fragments to ask if they, too, were shark teeth.

- At one point when I was wading around in the water with Kate and Jack was digging in the sand on the beach, an ice cream truck showed up. Jack saw it and it was like a TV commercial, with him standing on the beach, running a few steps toward me, then a few steps back toward the ice cream truck, then stopping and yelling at the top of his lungs, "ICE CREAM MAN!!! Daddy, it's the ice cream man! ICE CREAM MAN!!!!"

- If I have to be honest, the truth is that both of them ended up loving the pool even more than the beach. Kate got braver and braver each day with the water wings. After swimming with Mommy a bit, then with me, she said excitedly, "Mommy says I'm a brave girl."

- We went to a reading at a book store where a little old lady was reading books to kids. Jack was riveted for most of it. Early on, Kate showed no interest, instead walking around pulling books off shelves and such. By the end, though, she was bringing the lady over books ("Can you read this one? This one?") and asking "Can I sit next to you?" Sure! said the lady, who yes kind of reminded me of my Mom.

- One night, Emily got fresh scallops and made pasta with cream sauce. This really has nothing to do with the kids, who had plain pasta, but the scallops were simply fantastic.

- It was cold one day. We had breakfast at a diner and got seated outside, and it was really cold. Despite that, we went to the pool, because, uh, the kids loved the pool. I was in the water swimming with Jack when one of the staffers came out and announced a "cannonball" contest for the kids, where they'd be leaping into the deep end. I asked Jack if he wanted to do it. He clambered out of the pool, stood in the line, little goggles on and shivering in the cold, and went right up to the front and, when it was his turn, jumped on in. Best cannonball ever.

- We went to a baseball game; the kids were mostly into the playground. Jack watched about half an inning with me, I guess, and was disappointed we didn't get a foul ball.

- Jack I drew a picture of Tashi one morning, from these books he's been reading. One of our pictures was about Tashi and the Demons. Jack pronounced it "Dee-Mohns," even though I told him it should be dee-muhns. And, it was cute.

At the end of the week of the beach and the pool and food and drink and what seemed like too much sun and one or two pool trips too many (and now seems like one or two pool trips too few), we drove home. Kate fell immediately asleep, Jack lamented not being able to find a rubber lobster toy (and it's true, it was oddly elusive), I drove.

Like most vacations I guess, there were times it seemed too long, but most of the time, and especially on the way back, it seemed too short. But it was long enough that we discovered that Kate loves to swim in the pool and Jack loves to jump in the pool, and both of them, so quick to complain at times, are also brave about some things, and that makes me happy. And oh yeah the scallops were fantastic.

Vacation, Part I

We went on vacation last week. No laptop! So no blogging. But there were some highlights.

- In the car on the way there, Kate kept asking, "When do we get to vacation?" And we keep saying, THIS IS IT! Vacation started when we all got home last night and started packing up the car! And then half an hour later, "Are we at vacation yet?"

- About 3 hours into the drive we stopped at a rest area. Surprisingly, it had a big picnic area with tables, some with a roof over them. We hauled out the cooler and ate sandwiches, drank juice boxes and sodas, ate chips and grapes. Saw a wild looking caterpillar. Laughed. I wanted to say to Kate, Now we're at vacation.

- Arrived at the Cape tired, hot. Picked up our pool passes and went straight to the pool. Kate was scared at first until she got used to the water wings, flotation devices she wore on her arms, something I only decided to throw into the car as an afterthought at the last minute. Once she got used to them, and the fact that she could float easily with them on, she warmed right up to the idea. "I"m swimming!" she said happily. "I'm swimming!"

- At our first meal out that night, Kate didn't eat anything, even though we ordered her shrimp, which she said she wanted. The next meal out, we ordered her macaroni and cheese, I think, and she didn't eat that either. Jack picked at a grilled cheese sandwich that had yellow cheese instead of white. We ended up eating four dinners in our condo, half cooked and half takeout. It would have been five but I gave them another chance (Kate kept asking, "Can we eat at a restaurant?" And I said, Yes! If you eat!) and they came through.

- Our first full day there, we went to the pool, and played mini-golf, and got hotdogs for lunch, and then went to the beach for the rest of the day. That night, putting Jack to bed, he said, "This was the best day. The beach, the pool, and minigolf." Pause a beat. "And hot dogs for lunch!"

- We played with water shooters I bought before the trip. They could spray water 3o feet in the air. Jack had a lot of fun with them. I kind of did too.

- High tide and low tide at Brewster is the difference between about 20 feet of beach and waist deep water a few feet from shore, and being able to walk a mile out into the ocean without the water being up to your knees. It's pretty amazing. We did both, and when the water was shallow, we crab-walked along on our elbows, or dug up shells and rocks and hermit crabs.

- At minigolf we fed goldfish in a pond near the end of the course. I believe this was the highlight for the kids. That or the plastic shark in the water near the 11th hole, I'm not sure which. It wasn't the minigolf, although Jack did get a thrill out of sinking one long putt. And dragged me back there two days later during one of Kate's only naps all week.

- The condo had a tiny yard, but we played a game of Mr. Fox anyway. It's kind of like Red Light, Green Light, I'd say. The kids had a blast, I made burgers. Nice. There was also a selection of board games; I think Pick Up Sticks was their favorite. It reminded me of a game we played as a kid, Jack Straws. I'll have to look for that next time I'm up there, or have Robin do it before she comes down.

- Fascinated by a new house with new toys and loads of knick-knacks, the kids were inspired to make up games. They played something involving these little rubbery coasters shaped like flipflops, a hide and seek sort of game. They played another with little glass objects shaped like fish and shells, which remarkably they didn't break. A third involved this big calculator, or maybe they just liked playing with it. Granted, they were just as apt to get in fights with each other over nothing of consequence, but when they did play nicely together, it was awesome.

More later.

Lego Camp

Jack had Lego Camp all week. It was a half-day camp through the Rye Y where he built with Legos.

Every afternoon I picked him up, and he'd talk about it all the way home. And then to Mommy at dinner, sometimes going on for 5 or 10 minutes straight.

"And then I builded a car. And then Aidan and I builded a bowling alley. And it had these different chutes so that you could go this way, or that way, and there was a propeller. And then it could knock over this, and then that. And then we built a CAR. And then our car versed another car, and our car won. And then we builded a castle!"

Today I pulled in to get him after his last day. He was dancing around on the sidewalk, talking about something with his new friends. He said "Daddy!" and jumped into the car. I talked a little with the camp counselor through the window, and he handed me a card like one they presumably give all the parents. It read as follows.

"Mr. and Mrs. Richardson: Jack is a pleasure to have at Lego Camp and he always puts a smile on our faces. He likes singing songs while we wait at pick up and dropping off campers. Also, Jack seems to be making a lot of friends at camp. We hope to see Jack again!"

So yeah, I'm proud and happy for him, and it was nice. Plus he traded one of his lego things with somebody else and got this cool shark guy!

Summer break, Day 5

A low-key kind of day, at least for some of us. Kate still woke up too early, and woke us up too early, we put her back into bed, lay awake until she came in again 10 or 15 minutes later. Jack slept in, keeping with the trend that if one of them wakes up early, the other one sleeps in. If they could just sync up those days every once in a while, we'd all be happier.

Anyway, we got up early with Kate, slugged down coffee (not Kate, I think she had milk in her Peppa Pig cup), she had breakfast, and watched Olivia on TV. Jack came downstairs a few minutes after Emily had left for work, and he and Kate played some kind of game involving his snake from the Beardsley Zoo (rubber) and her wolf (stuffed).

Aunt Cathy had forwarded an invite to attend the local pool at midday, but given Kate's lack of sleep over the course of the week, I decided it best she stay home. So they took Jack, and Kate napped, I worked, and Jack swam, played volleyball, and had his second straight day (and third in four, counting the beach on Tuesday) in the water and the sun.

When Kate woke up, I read her the Olivia book, and then we drew pictures in her room. First she had me draw an elephant (she applauded), then a robot ("Is that a boy robot or a girl robot?"), and then a baby. She's a very appreciative art fan. She asked me to read her another book, and I was going to grab one I liked from her nightstand, but she said, "I like to get a book from my bookshelves." Which is why she currently has about 10 books on her shelves and 100 towering in Dr. Seussian epicness on her nightstand.

Later, at Cathy's, I asked whether Jack had a good time. When I told him about the pool this morning, he'd asked, "Is it deep?" (He's still not totally comfortable in water over his head, although he's actually a serviceable swimmer and water-treader/dog-paddler these days.) "Who will be there?" (He wondered if it would only be bigger kids who wouldn't play with him.) Well, your cousins, and the Hinz boys, and maybe some other kids. "I know Lyndsay will play with me!"

Cathy said, well, he mostly played with the girls, and then at the end, Matthew (older boy) played volleyball with him. And he was so thrilled.

Found Jack downstairs playing "Operation" with his cousins. He had a little glow to him, rosy cheeks, happy smile, all that. He looked like an older boy.

Summer Break, Day 4

Today was a crazy day with the kids. We left the house at 8:30, drove an hour to the Beardsley Zoo, walked around looking at animals for 3 hours, got food, blew some money at the gift shop, drove home, changed into our bathing suits, and met a friend and her kids (one in Jack's kindergarten class) at the pool, where they swam and ran around for 3 hours before we wearily headed home, bathed, ate, and piled them into bed.

And they were incredibly happy, almost all day, and I realized that maybe that's one of the secrets to this whole parenting thing. Much as I might want to relax and kick back or whatever, they want to be busy, racing about from one thing to another. I don't want to overschedule them, and I realize that's a bad thing too. But they're happier -- less whiny, less complaining -- and cheerier when they're busy.

At dinner, Jack chattered away about the different animals at the zoo. Kate sort of sing-songed away about the pool, and "swimming" in 1-foot deep water in the kiddie pool. And when they fell into bed, and didn't make a peep, it was with smiles on their faces, I think.

Summer Break, Day 3

Kind of too tired to write about today's trip to the Big Apple Circus, or playing frisbee with Jack in the backyard, or dining at a tavern after the circus and Jack being fascinated by the pool table, and later the dartboard (the bartender let him throw a few plastic darts, which careened wildly around the room hitting everything but the board itself).

But I will take a minute to share Jack's journal entry, about the previous day.