Kate talking

Kate can be quite chatty at times. When she wakes up after a good night's sleep, for example, she'll talk for a while in her crib. It usually culminates in a, "Daddy!" Pause. "DADDY!" Longer pause. "MOMMY!"

Before she goes to sleep, she also talks at length. Today, before her nap, I heard her talking to her various stuffed toys. "You good boy, Tyrone? You good boy. You too, Austin?" Talking to her Backyardigans. When I got her after her nap, she'd lined them all up, sitting, like an audience for her nap. Funny.

Emily notes how she can't be bothered with things like prepositions. It's all, "You like waffles? I like waffles. You go gym? I go play. You have coffee? You LIKE coffee? I dohlike (it's sort of a contraction of "don't like") coffee...."

That contraction, actually, comes into use a lot. When something at dinner doesn't agree with her. "I dohlike dat....I dohlike pohtaytoes....You like pohtaytoes? I DO like dem....I dohlike dat...."

She chatters away to Jack sometimes, too. "Hi Jack....you good boy? You nap, Jack? You dohnap? I nap. You do puzzle, Jack? You do puzzle me, Jack? I do puzzle. I like puzzle...."

Folding laundry this afternoon. "I help you? I help. I fold. I folding." She stretches a sheet out on the floor and lies down on it. "I folding. I helping? I help YOU....."

Bedtime. She turns to Emily. "You put ME bed? You put me bed. You put Jack bed? Daddy put me bed? Daddy put JACK bed?" Nodding sagely. Then, "Daddy put Jack bed....You put ME bed." Happy.

Good evening

We all have our moods. Sometimes they're good, like yesterday....

I picked up Jack at school, where his class was running around the tumble room. He saw me and ran over, nearly tackling me. Happy.

We went to get Kate, who was drawing on the chalkboard when we went in. Normally she runs over to hug me. Today she glanced our way, turned back to the chalkboard, drew a few more lines. Then, apparently satisfied that her picture was complete: "Daddy! Jack!" She ran over and hugged me.

We headed up to Jack's room. Kate ran down the hallway, laughing. Jack ran after her, quickly overtaking her with his longer stride. She laughed more. We went up the stairs, and again, they both ran pell-mell down the hall to Jack's room. Oh, in the stairwell, both love the echoes, so they yell: "Hello! Echo! Hi! Daddy! Hello!"

Outside, on the way to the car, it had rained. Jack used to always stop to splash in puddles, but was holding some pictures he'd drawn (a stack of Wallace and Gromit pictures, his latest fascination). Kate, however, saw the puddles with excitement. She carefully stopped at each one, planted one foot outside the puddle, and stamped with the other one. Laughter. I put her in the car, and she noticed her pants leg was soaked. "My pants!" Yes, Kate, that's what happens.

We went home, and I started making dinner. Kate found a bag of art supplies and wanted to draw. Jack did too, so I made space at the little table. They sat next to each other, her coloring with the markers and Jack drawing -- another Wallace and Gromit, using a DVD cover I'd just taken out of the library as a go-by.

Kate rushed into the kitchen. "Yook!" she said. She held up the coloring book, where she'd colored some. "I MADE this! Yook, Daddy!" I looked, gave the appropriate praise, and she dashed off again.

Jack came in with his latest picture. "Look, Daddy!" Suddenly, he noticed it fading. He'd used one of Kate's markers, which were intended for special paper. He got briefly sad, then ran back out to the living room to trace the lines before they faded completely away.

Both inhaled their dinner. Jack laughed himself silly at a few minutes of the Wallace and Gromit DVD before going to bed. Everyone slept well.

Pirate Day

We showed Jack highlight from the Olympics. He watched the snowboarders' leaps and stunts. "That's COOL!" he said. He demonstrated the moves by leaping up in the air and turning around, landing fairly impressively on all fours.

I told Jack it would be Pirate Day. We'd talk like pirates, draw pictures of pirates, and make swords and hats.

Jack decided as part of our Special Pirate Day, we should go to Dunkin' Donuts. He drew a treasure map to help guide us there. He rolled it up and carried it tightly in his fist on the walk.

The kids played at the table, making faces at each other. "I see you," said Kate. "I see YOU," said Jack. Laughter. Kate looked through the donut on her plate to see the picture of Tasha underneath. "I see Tasha," she said.

I want to call this day 'Dunkin Pirates Day'," said Jack.

Jack and I did the pirate ship puzzle. Kate watched the Pirate Treasure episode of Backyardigans.

We sent an email to Mommy.

We made pirate hats out of newspaper. Kate seemed very pleased to have hers, even though she couldn't keep it on for more than a few seconds at a time.

We watched the Phineas and Ferb episode with a pirate theme, the "Ballad of Badbeard."

We made pirate swords out of cardboard. Jack decorated them with fearsome skull and crossbones images, and wrote our names on them. Just like real pirates, I imagine.

Two from Jack today

I observed that I had a headache. Jack said, "What's a headache?"

I said, oh, it's when my head hurts.

Jack said, "My head never hurts. My head is the strongest part of my body." Pause.

"Well, except for my hands, they're also strong."

__________________________________

Later on:

Out of the blue, Jack says, "I have my pants on backwards!"

Games with Jack

We're a game family -- board games, primarily. Seems Jack is too.

On Sunday, when Emily and I went shopping, Jack played games with Baba. We came back to find that they'd played Yahtzee, Sorry, and Battleship over the past hour. They were still playing Battleship, with Baba twisted on the floor like a pretzel, peering over at Jack's board, explaining to him how to play. Later, I saw the Yahtzee scoresheet. It appeared they were basically just rolling out dice, adding them all up, and Jack was recording the numbers. So it was JACK 23, BABA 17, in Jack's blocky capital letters, and underneath JACK 87, BABA 76, and so forth; he wrote each name each time.

Later, Baba was playing Solitaire at the computer. Jack was at his elbow; Baba was explaining how to play.

I can remember having to tell Jack to say goodbye to Nana and Baba; reminding him to give them hugs and all that. Today, as we left, he did it on his own.

Kate and Molly

Got to Vermont today, for the first time in about 6 months. Naturally Kate had forgotten all about Molly, and her experience with dogs is limited, so when she saw her, she was afraid. She clung to us and wailed fearfully if Molly approached, or if we got too close to her.

That went on for about an hour or two. Kate would play happily in the living room, Molly would wander in, or Kate would suddenly encounter Molly near the kitchen, and she'd cry and run for us.

Shortly after dinner, Kate decided she wasn't going to be afraid any more. So she stood in the kitchen, a few feet away from Molly, and said, "Hi!" And then, "Hi, Molly. Molly! I'm Hi-ing you! Molly! Hi!" Turns to look at us. "I hi-ed Molly! I hi-ed her! Molly! Hi, Molly!"

Molly, befuddled by this change of events, tried to hide under the table. Kate knelt down near her. "Hi!" she yelled toward her. "Hi, Molly!"

Turns to look at us again. "I'm Hi-ing her!"

Jack, who realizes fully that Molly is essentially a lumpy rug, sits next to her and pets her. He encouraged Kate to come over and pet her. She wasn't ready to actually touch her, but she did kneel very close to her. "Hi, Molly!" she said.

Jack brought out plastic bones and other toys that Molly has no interest in. Kate did the same. Molly left the room. "Bye, Molly!" says Kate.

winter

So it was snowing out this morning, a lot, and everyone was home, so the critical goal of the day is building a snowman. First there was breakfast, TV, and probably a puzzle or two, and then it was time to suit up and build the thing.

To their credit, the kids didn't take much coaxing. Both agreeably let me help them into snowpants, boots -- actually it was sad, Kate got her boots on by herself, and was so proud, but I had to take them off to get the snowpants on -- jackets, hats, gloves, etc. Jack had his own complication, he wanted to put his jacket on before the snowpants, So anyway, I got them suited up, then went to look for my own snowpants, boots, et al. Then put Kate's hat and gloves back on.

We got outside and were hit with a wall of wind and snow. It was still snowing, and the wind was strong. Kate: "Pick me up!" She extended her arms to emphasize it. I picked her up and we struggled into the backyard. I put her down, explaining there was a snowman to be made. She stood in place, grudgingly.

Jack traipsed around a bit. I started making the snowman's body, then started another for his head, which Jack finished. We did a pretty good job. Emily came out. Kate raised her arms to her. I went in to get a hat, gloves, and scarf for the snowman. Jack helped me find twigs and rocks for its features. Oh yeah, Emily brought a carrot, which Kate showed interest in. No, Kate, it's the snowman's nose, not a snack.

We built the snowman. At this point Kate no longer wanted to go in. She pointed and smiled. "Snowman!" Jack and I debated building a snowdog or something, but ended up just throwing snowballs at each other. Mine hit him in the legs. His snowball blasted me in the face from 4 feet away. I fell over, at least somewhat playing.

When we went inside, they both said "Bye, snowman." Jack actually yelled from the door. "BYE, SNOWMAN!!!!"

During Kate's nap, Jack and I went outside again. We played around in the snow, then went in the backyard. Again I considered making a snow dog, but it wasn't working. We made a serpent, kind of, but it too wasn't that great. The snow wasn't quite as sticky as would have been ideal. Jack took the serpent idea and started making little hills in the yard. I asked him why, and he said, "I'm making mountains." Then, "Let's make them all over the yard." I said, uh, why? And he said, "Because." He made 3 more and then said, "I don't want to make mountains anymore."

The wind picked up so we went inside.

Real-time Friday

6 a.m. We go get Kate out of bed. She first made noise around 5:30, I guess. Maybe earlier. We don't get her before 6, but she often wakes up earlier. We've tried various things to get her to sleep later, putting her to bed later or earlier, but the best solution appears to be curtailing her midday nap. Shorter naps have had her sleeping late. Of course, waking her up from a nap after she's been up since 5 a.m. also has its drawbacks. Jack also wakes up around this time, either because of Kate making noise or just because.

6:30 a.m. Downstairs, Jack doing a puzzle. Kate messes it up. We tell her to say Sorry; she doesn't. I make coffee, she comes in wanting breakfast. I say, first tell Jack you're sorry. She refuses, so I refuse breakfast. Five minutes later, she gets up, walks into the living room, walks up to Jack and holds her arms out for a hug. "Sorry, Jack," she says. It's a nice moment. Then she offers him her hand. "Breakfast?" They walk hand in hand to the kitchen for breakfast.

6:45 a.m. Breakfast is eaten, Jack and I finish his puzzle. A debate ensues over what to watch on TV. Kate has found the Finding Nemo VHS and wants to watch it, but Jack's not a fan. Something about all the scary stuff early on, which I kind of understand his feelings on. We settle on Madagascar, enabling Daddy to do a little work and drink lots of coffee without interruption.

9 a.m. Second breakfast. We have this because this is when I have my first breakfast, and me eating food prompts them to be hungry too. Waffles, bagels, bananas, it's a smorgasbord.

10 a.m. Jack plays with his castle and Kate plays with the pirate ship. Like talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter, I'm afraid to mention it further.

11 a.m. We play with Bakugan toys. Well, Jack and I do, while Kate uses the toy Dr.s equipment to check my ears and give me a shot. I get a bandaid, then she jams the thermometer into my teeth. Painfully. I guess I'm glad it wasn't my eye.

11:30 a.m. We're still playing with medical equipment. Kate takes my temperature with great enthusiasm. Jack does the same, and says, "uh-oh, Daddy." He shows me the thermometer with the wheel turned to sad face. I say, oh no. He says, wait! And checks it again, then turns it to happy face. Guess I'm OK.

12 noon. Lunch. Both eat yogurt. I give Kate avocado and tuna fish, the latter of which she doesn't eat, naturally. She takes one dainty, Kate mouth-sized bite. "No like," she says. I eat the rest. I make Jack a turkey burger, because there's leftover from last night. He grudgingly, eventually, eats it. It will be easier at afternoon snack when I'll offer them an apple, and they'll greedily wolf it down.

At lunch, Kate sings, a combination of Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider. She kind of mishmashes lines of different songs together, which is funny on its own, plus Jack corrects her. "Kate! It's not itsy bitsy STAR! It's Twinkle twinkle little star, and Itsy Bitsy Spider!" She says OK, sheepishly, but continues on with it anyway. Jack sighs and looks at me.

12:30 p.m. We play with blocks. Jack wants to make cannons, so we do that for a bit. Then he wants to make a dragon, so we do that too. Kate brings out one of her dolls, a baby (used to be Emily's, looks like a cabbage patch kid. Pretty cute). We spend 10 minutes putting her hat on...taking it off...putting it on.

1 p.m. It's time to put Kate down for a nap. "Not now, soon," she says. For Kate, "soon" is some distant point in the future. Even though she could barely keep her eyes open at around 10 or so. I say, yes, very soon.

1:15 p.m. Kate is standing near the couch, leaning back, sucking her thumb. I've been trying to get her to stop, at least at times not associated with wanting to sleep. Now, of course, she wants to sleep. So up she goes. I put her down on the changing table to check her diaper. "No, I'm good!" she says. "I'm GOOD." This is a phrase she's picked up from us. Turns out she is good. And tired.

1:30 p.m. Jack and I play with his cars a little bit, then I let him watch this short DVD that came with one of his toys -- basically a 10-minute commercial for Imaginext toys. I've now got the theme song stuck in my head. As he watches, I write this.

Jack wants to draw a picture of his dragon, using the DVD picture as a guide. I'm going to go watch.

Ten things we did this weekend

1. Jack had his 5-year-old checkup. It included a finger prick (he cried a lot), four shots (more crying), and peeing in a cup. Since he'd gone before we left, that wasn't easy for him, nor for me with him, Kate, and a cup in a tiny bathroom. Got it on the second try! For the shots, they gave him the first one, and he wailed and writhed on the table, at which point they brought in two more nurses -- one to hug Jack tight so he wouldn't move too much, one at each arm to administer the shots. Ouch. Over the nurse's shoulder (I was holding Kate), I tried to tell him it would be OK and smile reassuringly. He'd have none of it, instead looking at me with an anguished "Why? WhYYYYY!" in his eyes. Afterward, he got a bunch of sticker, as did Kate. And gummi bears at home.

2. I played dodge ball in Port Chester, a fundraiser for local schools. Emily and the kids arrived moments after my first game, and left moments before my second game, 45 minutes later. The timing was poor. The next day I described it to Jack in vivid, semi-accurate detail, which he enjoyed.

3. We had family over, Emily's cousin Marik and girlfriend Maureen. Jack and Kate were both shy at first, but by the end Jack was putting his blue toy lizard on Maureen's shoulder, which I take to be a sign of kindness.

4. Jack and Kate played with their cousins at both Cathy's (prior to dodge ball) and our house (the next night). Kate said hi to Ian, which is a step for her; she's equally fascinated by and wary of him. He said she seemed pleased when he said hi to her: "The monster spoke!"

5. Jack and I drew pictures together. We took turns making dinosaurs on a page, and then their skeletons. So if you drew a picture of a T-Rex, you also had to draw a T-Rex skeleton. This extended to our next picture, which included random animals like a fox. Jack draws a cute fox skeleton. I realize it sounds a little odd.

6. We went to Luciano's birthday party. It was basically kids running around a large gym at a New York Sports Club, playing games led by gym employees. For the most part they had fun, it seemed, although Jack did lament afterward, "It was fun, except you had to sit and listen to what they told you to do." Jack's a bit of a ham; every once in a while he'd look over from running or dancing and give us a goofy smile and a big wave.

7. We had various meals. Jack ate well; we think he's in the midst of another growth spurt. Kate ate sporadically; she's into grazing breakfast and lunch, eating some, saying she's all done, wanting to come back 10 minutes later to eat more. A little aggravating.

8. Jack and I went to the grocery store. We used this scanner which totals your purchases as you go; I'd never done it before but Emily recommended it and Jack insisted. Took me a lot longer but Jack had fun pointing it at things. I would like to believe we only paid for things we actually put in the cart, but it's hard to be certain.

9. I did puzzles with Kate. She's getting better at them; it used to be just me doing them, essentially, but now it's her.

10. Sung both of them to sleep last night, Kate with Itsy Bitsy Spider (she sings along, "Pie....der..."), Jack with Swing on a Star. Kate woke up and babbled away for a while, but it still felt like a job well done.

Evening

Emily had to go into the city the other day, and got home late, so I got both kids, gave them dinner, and put them both to bed. Here's a quick recap of how it went.

5:15 p.m. Jack's class is in the tumble room, basically a gym at daycare where they run around, climb on things, and ride little cars or push big bouncy balls around. I wave to him and head off to get Kate, since he has fun in the tumble room and dragging him around for everything makes it all go slower.

I go to Kate's room. She sees me, yells "Daddy!" and runs over with her arms out. It's always nice. I gather her lunch and jacket and hat and sleeping toy. She always wants to carry her lunch and sleeping toy, which I extricate from her just to get her jacket and hat on. Sometimes the hat stays on, sometimes she pulls it off. Sometimes it ends up over her eyes. "I can't SEE," she laments. I fix it.

We go upstairs to Jack's room and collect his lunch, jacket, and hat. Exchange pleasantries with other parents. I know some names, others I know merely as "Olivia's Daddy."

We collect Jack. It's a chaos of sheets to sign, jackets and hats to get on, lunches and sleeping toys to keep track of. And that's just Jack and Kate; other parents show up too with similar baggage. I ask if Jack napped, always important because it makes a difference of about an hour in his bedtime.

We walk to the car, both of us holding Kate's hands. Clamber in. "Can we hear Poker Face?" asks Jack. The Lady Gaga CD is a little too omnipresent in our lives these days.

At home, the kids run wildly around the house while I assemble dinner. This is sometimes fine (they play with toys that are out) and sometimes not (they dig out new toys and create a huge mess, often resulting in lost pieces, instructions, that kind of thing). Every few minutes it's guaranteed that one of them comes in wanting water (OK), goldfish (No.), dinner (Soon.), or help finding a lost piece or instructions.

6 p.m. Dinner. Jack normally eats well, Kate, eh, sometimes yes and sometimes no. I bribe them to eat more with the promise of gummi bears. Hate to resort to this, but sometimes I do; kids gotta eat.

6:30 p.m. Bathtime. Kate tends to complain too much. I put shampoo on her head. "OWWWW!" she says. I wash her face. "OWWWWWWW, DAddy!!!!" Good grief, Kate. I do the shampoos early, then let them play after that. Then wash the rest of them (down as far as possible, up as far as possible, then wash their possible, thanks Mom).

I get both out and wrap them in towels. I dry Jack and send him off to his room to get into his pajamas. Sometimes he's quick about this, sometimes I'll find him sitting naked on his floor 10 minutes later playing with some random toy. Jack, it's freezing, get dressed. I bring Kate into her room to get her lotioned up and dressed. She insists on putting on her own pajama pants, which basically means I get her the rest of the way dressed, go check on Jack, and come back and put her pants on 5 minutes later, collecting them from where she's tossed them after giving up and going to play with some random toy.

I brush both's teeth. Kate occasionally resists. "My turn...ME do it....MY turn.!!!!"

I put Kate to bed. Stories, songs, bed.

Jack napped today, so we head downstairs. We play Toy Story Yahtzee Jr., his current favorite (it's pretty cool, a birthday present), then a little bit with his monster truck set. This is a pretty cool thing where the goal is to vault each little truck into a plastic flame in the middle of a cage. The goal is to hit the fire! Kind of funny.

Jack and I go upstairs to read books. Sometimes these are good, sometimes not; I let him pick the books, unless they're all really horrible choices and I have to sub one out. (I need to draw the line about how often I read "Shark in the Park.") Then it's lights out, at which point he decides he wants some water, naturally. Emily gets home in time to kiss him good night. Good night, Jack.

Outside

Weather has been cold and gray on most recent weekends, or we had plans (holidays, birthdays, etc). But today was relatively balmy; 40s or maybe even 50. Emily was home and Kate was napping, so Jack and I went outside.

In the backyard, we ran around with the football. Jack was Brett Favre, I was Percy Harvin. (These are the two Vikings names Jack knows.) I tossed it to him, sometimes he came close to catching it. He tossed it to me, it crashed into my ankles. We both wore winter hats and jackets. The ground was cold and a little wet, but not bad.

After a little bit of tossing the football, we tossed a little plastic parachutist into the air. It worked better than inside, but the guy wasn't heavy enough to throw it that high. Or I'm getting old, one of the two.

We played tag, kind of, running circles around and around.

We walked to the office park to feed ducks. There were lots of them; the pond was mostly frozen over except for the fountains in the center. The ducks congregated near us as we approached, hopefully. We had a little bread, which was quickly distributed, before the ducks got too aggressive. They seemed hungry; winter. May need to go back soon.

We walked around the water on the pathway. I picked up a rock and showed Jack how the ice wasn't safe to walk on for us, since the ice was thin. "How can the ducks walk on it?" he asked. Well, I said, they're a lot lighter than we are.

We walked up a little staircase and sat on benches. Office workers probably had their lunches there, I explained. I told him not to lean back. We sat in the sun on the benches.

We walked around to the other side of the pond. Looked down on the ducks. Tossed a couple of rocks at the ice. Threw a couple of leaves into the water.

Leaving the water behind, we found some snow. I picked up a snowball and gave him a mischievous look. His eyes grew wide but he laughed. "NO, Daddy!" I tossed it into the water.

We made a tiny snowman. We used little sticks for his eyes, another twig for his mouth, leaves for his arms. I said, OK, let's go. Jack went up to it. "I'm going to kick it over!" I said, aw, no...then, well, OK, whatever. Jack stood close to it, then changed his mind.

"Goodbye snowman!" he said as we walked away. Goodbye, snowman. We walked home. In the yard, we made another tiny snowman, ran around a little more, then went inside for some water and a snack.

Birthday Party

Sunday was Jack's birthday party, and although it was his 5th birthday, it was his first party; at least, first that wasn't entirely composed of family or our friends. This year we decided it was time for a party party, so we rented out a place called "My Gym" in Stamford, invited all his school friends and cousins, and got ready.

It's a bigger deal than you might think; at least, it was to me. I haven't really thrown a ton of parties, especially ones where the guest of honor is a 5-year-old whose happiness and excitement means just about everything. So, I went a little overboard. Multiple trips to every party store in the tri-state area (Phineas and Ferb reference, sorry) for gift bag items -- some with Jack, some on my own. Ordering the cake from Stop and Shop, and going with a full sheet because a half sheet didn't look like enough (it would have been). Getting balloons and other decorations. And then more gift bag items.

Jack and I filled the gift bags on Friday. Naturally, he wanted his gift bag right away. He'd picked out a couple of kooky things, like little bendy smiley face action figures. I'd also picked out some goofy things, like little monster finger puppets. (To my happiness, one of the kids greeted us wearing his at school the next morning; that was kind of cool.) We separated out the boy and girl bags -- boys got Spider-man tattoos, girls got Hannah Montana. I hate to stereotype, but there it is. Jack also felt that the girls should get the yellow and purple finger puppets, and the boys the green and red ones. Boys also got Transformer pencils, girls -- well, this caused me much consternation at the party store. I wanted to get Hanna Montana ones, but they didn't have them. Doesn't Hannah Montana use pencils? Then I wanted Hello Kitty, but they didn't have those either. I knew Emily would frown at the Disney Princesses, and I myself frowned at Tinkerbell (who is apparently big now with little girls, who knew? I was told in the store she had a movie out recently). Anyway, half an hour later I settled on sea creatures - fish, seahorses, that kind of thing.

We got lost on the way to the party. See, I'd never actually been there before. We were supposed to be there 15 minutes early, and in fact we arrived 5 minutes late. Last ones there. For Jack's party. It was a little embarrassing. But, Cathy ran out and we got the kids inside and playing, and I struggled in with the cake the size of a bedsheet.

The place was like a big gym (natch) with colorful mats and circles and things to climb on and big vats of plastic balls and the like. The kids loved it. Kate at first clung to Aunt Cathy, or Emily, before finally getting interested in things like the mirrors, and the plastic balls. Jack was running around with two of his best friends -- actually about 6 months older who'd started kindergarten and thus he didn't see them much -- also named Jack. I was apologizing around for being late.

Every once in a while, the madcap was running around was interrupted by structured activity from the friendly ladies who hosted it. It was kind of nice that they went out of their way to make Jack the center of attention. I realize this was obvious, but like I said, my first party. "Can you all say Happy Birthday, Jack?" "Is that the loudest you can do?" So on and so forth. At one point a lady asked Jack who his favorite superhero was. Inexplicably, no doubt because he was nervous, he said, "Superman." I gazed forlornly at the massive Spider-man cake a few feet away.

They played Tag and Musical Chairs and random stretching, dancing, running in place, dodge ball with huge, people-sized balls...it was nuts. I was exhausted watching. Strangely, none of the kids seemed to be. Kate walked up a slide and tried to slide down the carpeted ramp. That was funny. Everyone did this zipline thing --- wheeee! It was pretty cool.

At one point I looked over and Jack was in tears. It's pretty much a given that it will happen at some point at a party or crowded event. I don't know if he'd fallen down, bumped into something, was hungry -- any of those things were possible. So Emily and I tried to talk him down, and managed it more or less, and then I said, Hey, do you want to see your cake? He nodded, and I picked him up and hoisted him onto a shoulder, which never fails to produce peals of laughter. We went to look at the cake, and after that he was all right. It was a nice moment.

After about an hour or so of this insanity, it was time for cake. The woman had the kids make a line (later, she told Emily it was the most impressive, organized line she'd seen -- that's right, our kids get good learnin' at school) and they headed back for cake. I had ordered half white and half chocolate, which turned out to be a waste -- kids who got white and saw other kids with chocolate wanted chocolate too -- fortunately we had plenty. And those kids were right; the chocolate was a lot better. Blowing out the candles was time consuming -- there was a Spider-man candle, Jack letter candles, and "5" candle. Plus both I and the lady were worried she'd drop the cake as she brought it over. But they managed.

And we had just enough goodie bags.

Driving home, I finally relaxed from the whole thing. It's crazy, I was really stressing out about it. I realize he's 5 and will probably have forgotten this particular party in a few days (if not already), but I wanted it to be awesome for him, and fortunately it was. For one day it was his world, he was the center of attention, and the smiles were all worth it.

"Ladybug RAAAHHHH!" and Jack's birthday

Emily got Kate some ladybug pajamas. Somewhere along the line, Kate got the idea that Ladybugs say "RAAAHHHHH!" like a dinosaur or something. So the other morning, she looks down at her pajamas, and says, "I'm ladybug --- RAAHHHHHH!" Cracked us all up.

Tonight, Jack puts on his Spider-man pajamas. "I'm Spider-man!" And he poses and jumps and pretends to shoot webs. Kate: "I'm ladybug -- Rahhhhhhhh!"

Today was Jack's birthday. He had honey nut cheerios for breakfast, plus raspberries on the side. Arguably his two favorite breakfast things. Went to school, and I spent some time out buying balloons and the like. He came back to decorations, which he immediately wanted to walk around holding. He cut the string on a balloon I'd tied to a chair, then couldn't reach it anymore. I helped.

Hot dogs and fritos for dinner. Cake for dessert. We'll have more cake the next few days.

He made me laugh when I was putting him to bed. We were reading the shark book, which has big pictures of shark, and he'd taken the top of his "gel cling" Christmas tree off his wall. It was a little green triangle with a red circle in the middle (ornament). I said, what are you doing with that? He said, "I want to give the sharks scary eyes. See?" And he placed the triangle over the Great White Shark's eye, giving him a red eye. "Scary eye." And I laughed, and said, you're right, that's pretty scary. He put it over the Hammerhead Shark. "It's scaarrrrryyyyy," he said, dragging it out for effect. I laughed more.

Then he turned the triangle upside down. "Now it's SAD eye," he said. "See? The pointy part is like a tear coming down. Saddddd eye." It was pretty funny.

Chatterbox

Kate, like her Daddy, sometimes wakes up slowly, and is grouchy and uncommunicative for a few minutes or more. As she did this morning. But when she's awake, sometimes, she can't stop talking....

"Happ Bir-day, Jack."
"I want waffle. Do YOU want waffle?"
"I have green apple. You have red apple. I have green apple ....all time!"
"Hi Daddy. Daddy. I have tell you something. Daddy. I have.... tell you something?"
"Sleeper, off? Sleeper off."
"I can't DO this!"
"I have cantaloupe. YOU have cantaloupe? Jack have cantaloupe. Pease?"
"Watch ABCs? I watch ABCs?"

Bedtime for Kate

One of the few times Kate takes an interest in the toys in her room is right before bedtime. It's time to get washed up, or brush her teeth, and suddenly she's fascinated by some toy she's walked right by for weeks.

I separate her from the toy of interest and we head to the bathroom. I get a washcloth wet to wash her face. As I reach it toward her, she says, "Ow! Ow, Daddy! Ow." It's awesome, especially when I haven't come within a foot of her.

I manage to wash her face, and we go back into her room. As I change her diaper, she says, "Elmo? Elmo?" She is referring not to her stuffed Elmo, but rather the kind of diaper she wants. With Elmo's picture on it, rather than Big Bird or Grover. So I find the diaper, and get her dressed in her onesie and pajama tap. But, she wants to put on her own pajama bottoms. "I do! I do it!"

So I sit her down on the floor and she happily busies about putting on her pajama bottoms. I wander off, because this is a 5-minute exercise. Sometimes she puts them on backwards. Sometimes she gets them halfway up, and walks out all proud: "I DID it! I DID it!" And they're still below her butt. Sometimes she turns them inside out and returns to the toy she was interested in earlier. Sometimes I'll hear her: "I can't DO this! I can't DO this!" Eventually, we manage it.

I brush her teeth. This is also a back and forth ("I do it! I do it" and "My turn! My turn"), which gradually gets done. Then it's time to say goodnight to Mommy and Jack, which we do. Sometimes she gives big hugs, kisses, nose rubs. Sometimes she's all coy and runs away. Then changes her mind and runs up and hugs them.

We read stories. Maisy, Goodnight Moon, Backyardigans books, etc. "One more book," she says. Sometimes I relent, sometimes it's too late.

I turn out the light and rock slowly. I begin with Take me out to the ballgame. As I finish, she says, "Sun." So I sing Mister Sun, sometimes she joins in. As I finish, she says, "Moon." I sing Mister Moon. Then: "Edelweiss." I sing that, and we conclude with Eensy Weensy Spider. She says, "Itsee Py-der" with a smile. I sing that, complete with hand gestures, and she chips in a few of her own, raising her fingers up in the air for "up the water spout."

Then I put her in her crib, tell her I love her, and close the door, goodnight.

Football

- On Sunday we occasionally throw soft mini-footballs around the living room. Jack brings one out and we start throwing it back and forth. When he catches it, he looks as proud as you can imagine. Kate sees us, and also wants to play. So we bring out a second one, and get her involved. And then Emily comes over. This can continue for about 10 minutes or so. It's kind of nice.

- Jack drew me a picture of a guy with a 4 on his shirt. (Even though the 4 is backward.) "I drew a picture of Brett Favre for you, Daddy."

- Last night I was working and he brought me in small picture he drew. It's a football, with a little guy drawn on it. Wearing a 4 jersey. If that doesn't ease the pain of watching a heartbreaking overtime loss on TV, I don't know what does.

Present Stuff

A quick rundown of some present stories....

- Jack and Kate played "Elefun," a game with an Elephant shooting butterflies into the air for kids to catch with nets. Emily: "Jack, why do you have all the butterflies and Kate doesn't have any?" Jack: "Because I'm REALLY GOOD AT IT!" Later, Jack lets Kate catch some, which is usually them landing on the floor and her bending down, picking one up, and placing it in her net. "My GOT it, Daddy! My GOT one!" They continue to catch them, noting the colors each time. "I got a red one!" "Green! Green!" Later in the afternoon, Kate said "Elefun! Elefun!" on more than one occasion.

- Kate played with her dollhouse while a few feet away, Jack set up the Mousetrap game. Jack sang "Jingle Bell Rock" throughout. This continued for a while. Emily and I wept with stunned happiness.

- I walked into Jack's room yesterday morning and he was modeling his superhero cape over his pajamas.

- I changed Kate's diaper and as we went to leave the room she said, "My dog! My dog!" We collected her stuffed dog off the shelf. "MY dog!"

- Kate busies herself at her kitchen. At the sink: "I wash mah hands," she explains. She brings me a cup of water. Over and over again.

- Kate and Jack both got K-Nex sets from Aunt Robin. One is age appropriate for Kate, the other for Jack. Of course, she likes his set, which makes dinosaurs. This morning we made some, and she continued trying with his set again this afternoon. It was very frustrating to her though. After dinner I was in the kitchen washing dishes and heard her alone in the living room (Emily and Jack were upstairs) saying, "I can't DO this. I can't DO it." I walked out there, and she sat in the midst of a pile of green dinosaur blocks. I helped her, and she made me a waffle in her kitchen.

Christmas Eve, Christmas

Christmas Eve

Dropped the kids off at school. Kate often wants to get her waffle or yogurt out of her lunch herself. ("Me do it. ME do it!") Jack quickly disappears amongst his friends in his room, playing superheroes or somesuch.

Picked the kids up at school. (half day) They were singing -- well, Jack's class was, and apparently Jack was shaking bells -- but there was nowhere to park and I dropped Emily off but got there too late myself. Will leave earlier in the future.

Went home and put the last sticker on Jack's advent calendar, the Christmas tree. Gave them lunch, put Kate down for her nap. Wrapped some presents. Got Jack's help making tags for Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins. Nana and Baba showed up. Aunt Linda and Grandma showed up. Jack and Kate are quite fond of Aunt Linda. They played with musical instruments and read books.

Jack and I wrote a note to Santa. Jack drew a picture of Santa on the note.

We all went to church. Kate wore a beautiful red Christmas dress, Jack in a nice red sweater. Jack sat with his cousins, Kate sat with me. For a while she was fine drawing in a pad, then she wanted me to draw. "Make face," she says. "Make face, Daddy." So I drew faces for a bit. When I stood, she sat at first, then stood on the seat, then I held her. It was past her bedtime so there was a point when I thought she'd sleep; she clung to me and was very heavy in my arms. But then she'd see someone she recognized and get interested, or hear music, and talk a little, and wake up.

The kids were called up for the children's sermon. Jack headed up and I was told that he'd take Kate up, but he was already gone when I put her down, so Emily walked her up. All the kids sat up front and listened. I could just see Kate, and she'd stand up and wave every so often. Sit down again. Then, big smile, stand up, wave. Pretty funny. Jack raised his hand to respond to a question about Christmas. I didn't catch the question, but his answer was "presents."

At the end we lit candles. Kate was intrigued. Jack wanted to hold one, then didn't. I said it was OK.

We went home. It was late and I didn't read Jack stories, just lay down and we talked about Santa coming. Emily had found noradsanta online, which tracks Santa's sleigh as it travels across the world. Jack enjoyed it; they checked it again right before bed. He had just been to Ireland!

Christmas

Kate woke up making noise at 5 a.m. We put her to bed an hour late, she wakes up an hour earlier. It's bizarre. Jack also woke up, we heard him go in the bathroom, not exactly being quiet. At 6 a.m. he came in, I think Kate slept off and on, he probably watched his clock.

We made coffee and finally let the kids go downstairs. Got a lot of "Wows" from Kate as she saw her Fisher-Price kitchen. (Kate-size.) And Jack's Hot Wheels Dinosaur Trick Track. (There were Wows from Baba and Daddy too.) We played with it for a bit, then opened stockings. And then Jack noticed his Bionicle, and Bakugan, and showed me how to play with them. We opened more presents. Jack had breakfast at some point, once we reminded him.

At some point he went up to his room with some new toys to play. Didn't want Kate playing with them too, I think. Granted some of the new toys he brought up were hers.

I went into his room and saw him playing with this little windup monkey. He was sitting watching it spin in circles, and he'd wind it up and do it over again.

The next morning, this morning, I heard him wake up around 6, go to the bathroom, go back in his room. Then we heard him playing with his toys. Then the voice of Optimus Prime, and the WooWooWoo of the siren. Around the third time, I said, OK, that's got to stop. I went in. Jack was there, just blissfully happy, playing with his new toys. Optimus Prime, the little train cars that spelled out "Jack", the Bakugan. Happy.

Big Brother Jack

More and more these days, Kate wants to play with her big brother. She can say it now: "Big brudder Jack!" In the mornings she sees him and lights up: "Hi, Jack!"

This afternoon Jack came home from school, where he'd had a Christmas party, and received a Secret Santa gift. He opened it and it was a bunch of Tonka cars and trucks. He sat down to play with them.

I looked up and there was Kate struggling over to Jack with his big Digger, a truck about as large as she was. "Here, Jack!" she said, proudly, hopefully. "Here, Jack! Play with diggers!"

Heartbreakingly beautiful

Cleaning up Jack's room a bit this morning I saw a little decoration he'd made that I hadn't noticed before. A happy, cheerful Santa face he'd drawn, cut out, and glued to a Popsicle stick. Something about the little faces he draws; so sweet. On the tree, later on, I noticed a star ornament he'd apparently cut out and colored -- maybe Kate colored it. That got me choked up too. Must be the holidays.

Kate was playing with laundry this morning. She walked out into the kitchen with a washcloth around her waist. "Ma dress!" she said happily. "Ma dress!"

I can barely take it sometimes.