Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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