dodgeball

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

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

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

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

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

Art show and more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Katie Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skating

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

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

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

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

Sledding

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

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

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

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

Birthday Week

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

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

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

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

Digging dinosaurs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas

- Emily had bought "Santa Claus socks" -- red socks with a Santa design on them -- to wear on Christmas Day. Thought the kids would be into them. They were: Jack saw them on Christmas Eve and, enchanted, wore them for the next day or so.

- Emily found the "Elf on the Shelf," a tradition where an elf from Santa Claus would show up on different places in the house each morning in December, then disappear overnight (to report to Santa) and return somewhere the next morning, for the kids to find him. Jack especially was into the challenge of finding him each day.

- Late Christmas Eve, after the kids were in bed, built the art table for their play room with my Dad. That was nice.

- Christmas morning, we were sleeping/setting up in the living room. Still dark. Jack awake, padding about upstairs, talking with Nana. I look up, and he's peeking around the corner of the landing. "Wait!" I say. "Not yet." Jack, evidently feeling the need to elaborate: "I"m just so excited to open my presents!"

- They dove through their stockings. Kate: "Look, Jack! Oh, it's Jessie! It's Jessie, Jack!" (From Toy Story.) Jack saw his Bey Blades and I think he gave a little shriek of delight. At one point, they disappeared. Where'd they go? I asked. Oh, the playroom, said Emily. I went down, and they were sitting at the table and chairs we'd built the previous night, pulling out markers and paper and crayons.

- Baba picked out a model police car for Jack to build. He and Jack worked on it together. At the end, there were a bunch of decals to put on, which Jack did with his own unique style.

- Aunt Linda had given us a couple of cute stocking gifts, including tiny windup robots that danced. Jack wound them up, had them dance, and danced goofily with them. A riot.

- Nana read Kate "If you're happy and you know it." Kate did everything with great exuberance, clapping, spinning around, stamping her feet.

- Jack was so excited to get the "How to Train Your Dragon" DVD. "Oh thank you thank you thank you!" You've got to love the appreciation.

- Late in the day, after presents and dinner, I was in the kitchen cleaning up. Kate walked in. "Can we open more presents?" she said hopefully.

- Kate got a couple of dollies, asked me to play with them with her. I did. She asked, "Do you love my dollies? Do you? Do you love them?" Yes, Kate, I do love them.

- One of Jack's presents was a wooden snake that came with paints, so he could make it colorful. He asked if he could paint it a couple of days after Christmas. I needed to work, but said the heck with it, sure, you bet Jack. We went down to the playroom and I spread newspaper out on the table, opened the paints. He took the little thin brushes and held the little snake so carefully, the brushes so carefully, painted every inch of it, red and green with silver glitter glue. I just sat there watching him, concentrating as he worked, seeming so intent, focused, big.

swimming

Took Jack swimming at the Y today. His lessons had ended last week, but it had become a Wednesday routine, and they say kids love routines. Dads too.

We got there, changed, headed out to the pool. Jack grabbed a barbell-like floaty thing and headed into the water. I hadn't gone with him since before his lessons began. So it was pretty cool the stuff he was willing to do, now.

He jumped off the edge of the pool, floated on his back, swam on his front, put his face in the water. Raced me (with the barbell thing). Gave it up 10 feet from the edge of the pool and did a fairly ungainly scoop and paddle to the edge. Floated more on his back. Splashed about on his front. Jumped off the edge again, went under, bobbed up. Not afraid, not nervous. Didn't care that he didn't have a floaty belt on.

Nice to see.

Afterward we showered (he loved the warm water, didn't want to leave...I think we're scrapping baths for showers from now on), got dressed, went to the grocery store, got gas, got Kate. Came home and had French toast for dinner. Watched some of Rudolph, and they both went to bed.

funny jack

- jack and i were walking home from school the other day.

jack said, "i've been eating all of my carrots, and i STILL cant see in the dark! After you left the room last night, i looked at my hand" -- he held his hand out for effect -- "and i couldnt see it!"

yesterday, walking home, we saw a squirrel's body on the road. we'd seen it the past couple of days, and i decided it was time to mention it. Do you think he's sleeping? i asked. jack said, "No, he isn't, he's DEAD." Uh, i dunno, maybe he's sleeping, Jack... "He's FLAT. he's not 'sleeping.' he's DEAD. He's flat, Daddy."

Made me laugh.

Xmas Prep

Kate was home sick today, but there was a lot to do anyway, so we kept busy.

- Went to CVS to get her prescription for amoxycillin (probably misspelled). She has strep. Couldn't find a quarter in the car to feed the meter, so I spent some time looking. Told Kate that Mommy didn't leave me any quarters. "Mommy didn't leave you any quarters!" she said sympathetically.

- In the store, she walked up to a random shelf. "I get medicine, Daddy. I get medicine." She started pulling things off the shelf. Oops.

- We headed to the grocery store. Kate wanted to ride in the cart, and did. She said, "We get coffee? We get fyoot?" (fruit) "We get sooweeall?" (cereal)

- Came home and Kate had her medicine. Spat it all down the front of her shirt. My jaw dropped. After 10-15 minutes of pleading and yelling and cajoling, she finally took a dose. Said, "I like medicine!"

- She ate lunch. Halfway through she said, "I'm ready for my nap." She napped.

- We went to get Jack. Spent 10 minutes looking through the lost and found, again, for his winter hat. Jack also said he wanted to show me something. He walked us into the school, all the way down the hallway, to show me Christmas decorations in this big storage box. He walked us right over to it and opened it up. "See these? Aren't they cool? Can we buy them?" Woman nearby said, those will be for sale at the holiday boutique next week. I said, um, Jack, not now.

- Jack saw Aunt Cathy and stopped, set down his backpack, opened it, and gave her a Hanukah card he'd made.

- We came home and put up Christmas decorations on the lawn. The kids admired them. Kate went out and stood on the sidewalk. "Hi snowman! Hi Rudolph! Happy Christmas!" Jack corrected her. "It's MERRY Christmas," he said.

- We came inside and read "The Grinch." Then they watched The Grinch while I put up more decorations. Then they bundled up again and came out to admire the decorations some more.

- They set up the Playmobil Nativity scene. Kate walked over to me at one point and held up her hand. "I have rings," she said. I didn't understand her at first. "Rings," she said. She was wearing the little hair pieces of the figures. They did a pretty nice job setting it up; I was relieved that they put the Baby Jesus in the manger. Last year I think Jack put the donkey in there.

- Emily read Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to them. Multiple times.

- We had dinner, and then dug out the Christmas CDs. Emily played her favorite, Jack made critical noises. Then they played The Muppets CD, and were happy.

- Jack read a Charlie Brown book to himself. Slowly, carefully sounding out each word. Then said, "Daddy! You've got to see this funny joke! Her EARMUFFS are too tight! Of COURSE she can't hear!"

- Put Kate to bed and kissed Jack goodnight. It had been a day.

Dinner and bed

Sometimes I find myself getting frustrated with the kids. Mostly it's just them not listening the first time, or the second time. And so I get angry, and speak sharply to them, and with Jack it works, and with Kate sometimes she thinks it's all a joke, until she finally figures it out and either does what I want, or cries because I spoke sharply to her.

And I feel bad even as I'm doing it, because I know it's partly my fault. We do kid around, and we're not always firm, so when we ARE being firm, small wonder they think it's a joke sometimes.

At dinner tonight, I said I was sorry for yelling (some sort of situation where they weren't doing what I asked, so on and so forth). And then Kate said, "You not mad anymore?" And I said no, I'm not mad. And she said, "I not mad. I happy!"

So I said, let's see your mad face. And she gave me this "grrr" look that was totally goofy with her gap teeth. And we all cracked up. And then I asked Jack for his mad face, and his mad face was basically a lips-pursed smile, trying hard not to laugh, while he lowered his eyebrows and flared his nostrils. And we all laughed again.

Then I washed them up, read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and put them both to bed.

Sports

- Jack and I are playing football a lot in the yard these days. He's kind of getting it. He can throw a spiral (er, it's not a regulation football). He can catch some. He used to kind of volleyball it away, and he still does with some, but he's gradually figuring out how to pull it in.

- After playing, we raked leaves. Or I raked leaves, and Jack got a shovel and laboriously lifted piles of them into the yard waste trash can. We finished the back and I was ready to knock off, and he said, "What about the front?" He's a little task master, he is.

- Jack picked up "rock, paper, scissors," from somebody, either his cousins or at school. He wants to play it a lot. Of course Kate's gotten into it, so when Jack and Emily were playing in the kitchen, she stood there eagerly: "Can I play? Can I play?" When they said yes, she said, "OK. I'm going to be scissors." Jack, wise to the game of course, made rock every time.

- Kate didn't listen to Mommy tonight, repeatedly, so she had to go to bed without stories. Naturally, this gross injustice made her cry. Jack soothed her: "It's OK, Kate. OK Kate. It's OK." He petted her hand reassuringly. As I was putting him to bed, he said, "Can I go hug Kate again?"

Friday today

A lot happened today.

- We met with Jack's teacher for Parent-Teacher conference. She said he's smart, bright, funny, competitive, kind, likes everyone, and is well-liked. After the meeting we met up with him in the auditorium, where he was waiting with his class, and hugged him goodbye, until I'd pick him up later.

- At the meeting, Kate sat at a desk and on paper we'd brought drew little pictures of faces. As she finished each one, she ran over to us with it, then ran back to draw another one.

- Kate and I went to the grocery store. She helped by pushing the cart, by which I mean hanging on it with her hands and letting her feet dangle. She was disappointed that the deli guy didn't give us a piece of turkey to taste.

- We read a book together, from Aunt Linda, where you make different faces by turning flaps of the book. She was really into it, it was nice to see her talk about each different page.

- We had lunch, she napped, I painted.

- I woke her up and we went to get Jack. She was groggy or cranky (not much difference) and clung to me the whole time. Jack was red-cheeked but happy looking; it was windy and a little cold.

- At home, we played football in the yard for about half an hour. We threw the football around, and when I had it both of them tackled me around the legs. Whenever Jack got the ball he talked about "and it's an interception! and Percy Harvin takes it in for a touchdown!" He's still learning the difference between offensive and defensive players.

- They had their apple and Pirate's Booty snack, then tried to recreated Backyardigan World, a big lego block world they built last year and put the stuffed Backyardigan characters all over. It showed up on the calendar this month. I noticed Jack bringing all the Legos up to the kitchen from the playroom. Um...what are you doing? I asked. Jack said, "We have to look at the picture." Of course.

- Kate ran by, heading upstairs. Where are you going? I asked. "I need to get something," she explained. Of course: her Backyardigans.

- They drew pictures. Jack drew all the NFL team names and logos he could think of. He asked me for some spellings, and I gave him them, and then I told him he could try on his own. I liked his spelling of Seahawks in particular: SEWHOKS.

- Kate drew a picture of a face, with squiggly hair, and the letter she knows how to draw: P. All over the page. She brought it to me and said, "You can keep it if you WANT to." There's only one answer.

- Emily came home, having picked up Kate's preschool formal pictures. Stunning. She's become a little girl almost overnight, it seems.

- We made pizzas for dinner. I shaped Jack's like Scooby-Doo, as requested, and Kate's like a kitty. Kind of. Hers looked like a sock and his looked like an alien or something. They covered them with cheese, and ate a whole lot of cheese and a whole lot of tomatoes.

- They ate. "I eat my whole dinner!" Kate said, as she took about her third bite. Great, Kate. "I'm going to eat my whole dinner," she said again. She didn't, but she did OK.

- They ran around the playroom throwing the toy football against the wall and jumping onto the futon. Over and over.

- I started reading Kate's book, What the Ladybird Heard, while she was still dawdling with her teeth getting brushed. She heard, and got serious. "Oh! Daddy is reading. Without me! Daddy, wait." She ran in. "You forgot ME," she said. Nope, I couldn't.

- Jack came down to say another good night.

Just another Friday today.

playing together

Today I played some football in the backyard with Jack and Kate. I held the ball, and they took turns running up and kicking it. We've done it the last two days, it's become a routine now I like to think.

I went in after that, but they stayed outside. I checked on them every few minutes. At one point they were sitting, facing each other, holding their hands up. Patty-cake I think. I checked again a few minutes later, and they were standing up, pretending to fall down, laughing.

Then Jack was teaching her how to do animals. Arms over head, giraffe. Arms swinging low, elephant. Lion. Other animals.

They started singing bedtime songs to each other. Edelweiss, Mr. Sun, other staples. Sometimes Jack was louder, but Kate's voice would seep in every now and then.

Not aware I was watching them, they played and laughed and made up games and songs and dances for each other.

Half an hour later, maybe longer, they came in, their cheeks red and eyes bright. It was kind of cold out. "Daddy!" We lay on the rug together, catching our breath and being happy.

Pre-Halloween

- Jack's class's Halloween parade was today. I brought Kate, in her dragon costume. We stood along the sidewalk and watched his class, all the classes, walk out. Jack was in his orange astronaut uniform. Next to him was a boy named Isaac, in a white astronaut uniform. They both smiled and waved. Jack saw us, big grin, pointed. It was very Right Stuff.

- Afterward we came home, and they played a little, at one point going upstairs, then Kate came down in her Olivia costume/outfit. "I Olivia!" she said happily.

- We carved, well I carved, two pumpkins. One Thursday night, happy and goofy, same one I always do. One this afternoon, scary. I lit them both up for the kids to see. Jack looked sad. What's up, I asked. "I wanted you to make a 'Jets' pumpkin," he said. He showed me the picture he had drawn of the model for the scary pumpkin. It had the word "Jets" on it. I carved the word "Jets" into the back of it. Jack was happy.

- Jack got a "make your own ghost" card from Grandma. He diligently sat down, before he had breakfast, to make a very detailed and happy ghost with the stickers on the blank white page.

- We sat as a family on the couch and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." When Snoopy is imagining his fight with the Red Baron, and the colors change and go wild, Kate reported, "He's purple." Pause. "Now he's blue." "Now it's all blue." "Now he's red."

- They got musical Halloween cards from Nana and Baba. They played them over and over and over, dancing around in their costumes.

getting pumpkins

Last Friday Kate and I picked Jack up at school. It was overcast and seemed like it might rain, so I gave them a choice. Do you want to go home, or do you want to go and get pumpkins? "Get pumpkins!" they shouted. So we did.

As we drove into Sam Bridge Greenery (or whatever it's called, Davy Crockett Motor Lodge or something), they saw the pumpkin patch. "Yay! Pumpkin!" We parked, grabbed a wagon, grabbed a big golfing umbrella from the back of the car. Passed a mom and child near the parking lot at a little stand of pumpkins. She said to us, Are you going all the way down to the big patch? She looked at the sky doubtfully. I said, Sure! And indeed, we were.

On the way there were scary decorations hanging from trees. Bats, skeletons, ghosts. The kids pointed and properly appreciated them, it was nice. If it had been dark and scary, they'd have been freaking out, but instead it was just an overcast Friday afternoon. With occasional raindrops.

At the patch, they jumped out of the wagon. First they ran around the pumpkins. Then a hay maze. Like your Minotaurus game, I should have said to Jack, but I forgot. Then over to this huge bear made out of hay bales, and a huge spider or something made out of hay bales. I wanted them to pose for pictures, but Kate was wary. She agreed ultimately, but didn't stand as close to the thing as Jack did. In fairness, it was very big and imposing. But it had a goofy smile.

We picked our pumpkins. And then picked some more. And then found better ones. And then they went back to the hay bales. And then they got their little pumpkins. And then it rained, and we loaded the pumpkins in one wagon, but they of course both wanted to ride too. I said it couldn't be done, and Jack pulled Kate in one wagon for about two minutes.

Then I with no small exertion pulled both wagons back to the parking lot.

We paid for our pumpkins. Near the registers, they had a smoke machine. One of the staffers turned it on to startle us. Then showed Jack and Kate how to turn it on. Then they filled the store with fake smoke. I said to them, well, I could have told you this would happen.

A guy gave Jack and Kate each a hardened ear of red, Halloween-y corn. They thought it was pretty great.

We piled into the car. I don't remember what we talked about, but everyone was happy.

At home, I read Jack a story. Jack said, "Can Corn read with us, too?" I said, corn? He held up his ear of corn which he had named "Corn."

Good time.

Jack the artist, Kate the singer

- Jack decorated my keyboard by taping smiling paper Halloween spiders, purple and black, in a row across the top of it. He wrote "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" on a piece of Scotch tape and stuck across the desk.

- Kate this morning was singing to her stuffed Backyardigans toys. She lines them up in her bed, heads on her pillow, and sings to them individually. "Uniqua, Uniqua....Pablo, Pablo..." She does it in a sweet, soft, high, sing-songy voice.

- Jack drew a picture of a Haunted House, with all kinds of ghosts, bats, cats, skeletons, etc. There were a lot of bats and goblins. Some came from the Ed Emberly book, some from his mind. He made a card that said "Happy Halloween," "Merry Christmas" and other holiday salutations. Oh yes, Robin, his birthday cards for the twins also say "Happy Halloween." I'll mail them soonish.

- I got Kate up this morning. Kate, do you want breakfast now, or do you want to watch football highlights? "Foohball highlighs!" So we did.

- I took Jack to the doctor yesterday; turns out he had strep throat. While we sat in the doctor's office, he grabbed some crayons and drew pictures on the paper roll on the examination table, and then on her clipboard when she came in. Cats, dogs, and bats. Halloween pictures.

- When I put Kate to bed, she likes "Swing on a Star" the best. She likes to start singing it, then asks me too when she can't remember any more words. "Would you like to swing on a stahr....cahry moombeans home in ...jahr.....and be better off than you are....or would you rather be fish. Fish is a aminal" (that's how she says it, it's awesome) "that lives on a farm. ...likes to read book...has lots of charm...Your turn, Daddy!"

Kids

Jack and I went out to buy Halloween decorations today. We got decorations for the windows, the doors, the porch, and of course Jack's room. We found these things that fit in windows, big full poster-size images. First we saw pumpkins....then black cats... (got those for Katie)....and then -- and Jack actually chortled with glee -- scary ghosts.

He had to have them. I said, are you sure? He was sure. Not the pumpkins or the cats? No. No! The ghosts. The ghosts are perfect. He was certain.

We bought the ghosts, and we came home. Jack and I put the ghost poster thing up on his closet door. We both reveled in it and pretended to be scared.

After we put the kids to bed tonight and we're sitting on the couch, Jack came downstairs.

"I'm scared of the ghost on my door," he said flatly.

I went back upstairs with him, opened his door so he couldn't see it, and that was OK.

Guest Blog: "You teach me how to swim, right mommy?"

I've been too busy to blog, and so has Emily, but she still made the time to do a guest blog tonight. And here it is.

By Real Mom.

Toward the end of summer I figured I should sign Jack and Kate up for swimming lessons. Jack had been taking lessons through the Y’s daycare program for about 2 years. Kate had some mommy and me lessons when she was about a year old but we stopped them because I hated them. The pool was always freezing, plus the water was fairly deep and even I had a hard time standing up and keeping my balance. Anyway, they both had started to really love swimming at the beach this summer. Kate would hold on to my hands, arms outstretched, kicking, saying “Mommy! I swimming! I swimming!” So, I really wanted to keep up with the lessons so they would stay comfortable in the water, since they both tend to…shall we say, be a little tentative with the unfamiliar.

So, after first signing them up with the Y – where they all but promised they’d turn into Michael Phelps after about 2 lessons – I ended up changing over to SUNY Purchase, where their cousins had taken lessons. Plus, bonus: it was $100 cheaper, each. Jack would take beginner-intermediate lessons on Wednesdays after school. I took a leap of faith and signed up Kate for solo lessons (without a parent in the water), for Saturday mornings.

Two weeks ago, Kate had her first lesson. She had to get a swim cap, so I got her a cute little red one with a kitten’s face on it. It even had little ears. So cute. I walked her over to where the lesson was happening. As we neared the end of the pool, she immediately started shrieking and crying and holding on to me with all the strength her little body could muster. Somehow I pried her away from me and handed her over to her very nice and patient instructor, Caroline. All the other little girls and boys were gamely standing on a little platform in the water. Kate was busy shrieking in poor Caroline’s ear, reaching for me. So after about 5 minutes of that, I said, well, why don’t we try watching for a while. Caroline handed her back over, and Kate and I sat by the side of the pool and watched. After about 10 minutes, I said, hey Kate, why don’t you try getting in again? And she nodded (she was sucking her thumb, of course, so didn’t actually speak.), but then once I started handing her over and the shrieking recommenced. That poor teacher. Anywho. After about 5 minutes, I got her out again, we watched about another 10 minutes, and then, I thought, oh hell, let’s just get out of here. And I was ticked at what I viewed as the weakness in my children that they were always the ones to shriek in terror at new things while other children seemed to just go happily with the flow. And, PS, I was soaking wet. Not surprisingly my pants got wet sitting on the side of the pool, so it kind of looked like I peed in my pants. Excellent.

And naturally, there was no lesson the next week because of Yom Kipper, so it’s not even like we could go get back on the proverbial horse right away.

I considered just cancelling the whole damn thing, but then, I thought, no, I don’t want them to be quitters. So I told Andy to see if he could call and maybe transfer her to a class where the parent was in the water. Surely she wouldn’t shriek and cry if we were in the water with her, right?

Last night: I’m putting Kate to bed, talking up today’s swimming lesson. “Are you going to cry in the pool tomorrow, Katie?” “No!” she says: “I swim like this:” and proceeded to lay down on her belly, kicking behind her and thrashing her arms some, pretending she’s swimming. “You teach me swim, mommy?” She asks. You bet, sweetie, I tell her.

This morning she couldn’t wait to get her suit on. She kept saying, “You teach me swim, mommy?” And I answered yes over and over. We got to the pool, and she even let me put her hair in a ponytail so her swim cap would be easier to put on. And we walked over to the side of the pool.

And the same thing starts happening. There’s crying, screaming, wailing, shrieking, and she’s got the death grip on me again. I kept reassuring her: “Sweetie, I’m coming in with you. I’m coming in with you this time!” I pried her off me to hand her over to the teacher (oh, poor Caroline again), so I could climb down the ladder. The water was definitely warmer and more shallow then the Y’s so I was feeling much more at ease. But she kept crying and shrieking, and I was doing my best to be calm and happy and peppy, but I was kind of thinking, Jesus Kate, get it together! Six other kids in the class, all of them bobbing happily up and down in the water with their moms or dads. And Kate, shrieking, “I want to get OUUUUUUUTTTTT!”

But, we kept on. I pried her off me to hand her over to the other teacher, Jennifer for a bit. She kept crying but at least she kind of kicked as the teacher handed her back to me. But she kept CRYING.

After about 10 minutes of this nonsense, I said, “Kate, if you stop crying, we’ll go to Wendy’s when we’re done!” (What can I say, I was desperate.)

Bingo. She stops crying. For about 5 minutes it was touch and go, she’d be fine and be laughing, and then start crying again. And then she got into it. She starts doing all the activities. Lays down with my hands supporting her back for a back float. “Ooooh, this is nice…” she says. Lets me tie a floatie backpack on so she can practice kicking while she throws a little rubber duck as far as she can (must mention, the swim teachers were impressed with her arm strength.) Now she’s laughing. “This is FUN, mommy!” she says.

Then the teacher gets out a hula hoop. She holds it half in and out of the water. The point being for the parent to be on one side, teacher on the other. The parent’s supposed to hand off the kid, while the teacher swoops the kid’s head underwater. So, we’re going around the circle, the whole time I’m debating with myself, “Should I have her try or not?” Then it’s our turn, and I decide. I tell the teacher to please only put her chin in the water; it’s been going so well I don’t want a setback. She nods in agreement and gets dips chin in the water. “AGAIN!” Kate says, but we each only get one turn. A father next to me turns and says, “Smart move. Why push it, right?” I shook my head in agreement and said, Yeah, no kidding.

Then. THEN. It’s time to learn how to jump from the pool deck into the water. Has Andy ever mentioned how much Kate loves to jump? She jumps off every step, rock, ledge, and curb she can find. I stay in the water, lift Kate out to the edge (my god, a challenge for those of us who are just as tall as the edge of the pool). “One. Two. THREE. JUMP!!!” She jumps in. “A-GAIN!” So we do it again. And again and again and again. I think she could have spent the whole class just jumping in and out of the pool.

Finally it was time for class to end, and we did some variation of wheels on the bus as sort of a class goodbye. Kate was fantastic. Laughing and giggling, even though she was starting to shiver and her lips were turning purple. And class ends and we get out of the pool, and she turns to me and says, “That was SO MUCH FUN, mommy!”

As promised we stopped at Wendy’s, and brought it home to eat. We sat in the kitchen and ate our lunch together, just the two of us. And she kept saying, “You teach me how to swim, right mommy?”

And for awhile I thought my chest was going to burst, such was the pride I was feeling for my brave little girl.