It used to happen more often: the kids and I would play something together and for a while, everything else disappeared. It’s been a long time since that’s happened. This afternoon, we had a little reminder of what that was like.

As the Girl gets older, she’s less and less interested in the things the Boy loves. He can’t handle the ever-decreasing attention and resorts to the old tried-and-true method of getting attention: he pesters her.

“That just makes her want to spend even less time with you, buddy,” I’ve explained more times than I can recall.

“Okay,” he grudgingly admits. And then heads off to pester her again.

Today, though, we went down to the trampoline/swing/hammock area and managed to play like we were all five years old again. There was laugher. There was silliness.

And then we came up to get dinner ready, and it all disappeared.

“E!” cried L, stretching his name into a three-second yell. “Leave me alone!” He was at it again.