Homework and Playing
playing
Energy
Kids, Dog, Ball, Swing, and Trampoline
The Boy loves playing with the dog — sometimes, he gets a little too excited about it.
The dog occasionally gets a little too excited as well, taking matters into her own jaws.
And all the while, the Girl has been working on her flip.
Down at the Swing
Long Saturday
Saturdays these days start with soccer at 9:30. Today, it was tough to get him out the door. K had surprised him the night before with a bunch of Star Wars toys from my childhood that Nana and Papa had saved. He complained about his busy schedule, about his inability to have any time “just to relax.” He just wanted to have some time to rest and play with his new toys. And it grew to a fuss-fit. So I gave him a simple option: “You don’t have to go play soccer today. We can spend the time packing up all these Star Wars toys and taking them back downstairs.”
Needless to say, he was very willing to go after that.
Soccer was fairly typical: after a twenty-minute practice session, the kids played a game. And the Boy played as he usually does, drifting around the periphery, watching, not quite sure whether he wants to engage with the other players. That’s a fairly accurate description of many of the players, to be sure, but for me, knowing him as a parent, it’s a natural outgrowth of his personality.
It’s not something I’m really interested in trying to change. It’s part of his personality. While I think a little more assertiveness might be beneficial later in life, it’s not something I’m terribly worried about for a five year old.
Besides, there were certainly enough assertive players out there today, enough that E’s team won 4-1 (though one goal wasn’t counted, I believe). Again, I don’t care whether his team wins or loses — and E even less so — but I find it ironic that, given all that, his team is so far undefeated.
When we got home, though, the real fun began.
And in the evening, a rarity. The Boy wanted to play instead of reading — nothing really new there. What was surprising was that the Girl wanted to play.
“I thought you hated Star Wars,” I asked.
“I do. But the toys are great.”
So the three of us played for a little while.
“Daddy, is this a good guy or a bad guy?” was a common question. We didn’t really worry about it. Han Solo battled Luke and the Empire collapsed on itself in a grand civil war.
Evening Soccer
Batting Practice
Thursday Evening
We get our shoes on and head down to the swing. Mama has kicked us out: she can only do two things at a time, and she's currently baking and helping L with something, so we're on our own.
We play around a bit, here and there, but a hard-workin' fella can play only so long before he grows restless. He'll pick up any sort of tool he can find and get to work, because what's the point of doing otherwise?
You might protest and suggest, "You're just a kid. Take it easy!" But you'll get a protest in return.
Eventually, I manage to get the hard worker to take a break and play a little bit. We go exploring, looking for more honeysuckle. It's all dried up. We head to our favorite spot in the creek. But nothing's really satisfying.
We head to our hideout to spy on our neighbors, but they leave soon and we sit there.
"What do you want to do?" I ask.
"I don't know. What do you want to do?" he responds.
"Whatever you want to do. I just want you to be happy."
"I just want you to be happy."
What makes us both happy for a time is to carry on with such silliness, but it's getting late, and soon, the Boy will need a bath. Tugging off his shoes, he notices how dirty his ankles are at the sock line. Smiling, he repeats his favorite saying: "It was a good day."
K is still baking when we get back in the house. The cake didn't turn out as she wished, so she's doing it again. She's like that. A perfectionist. I'd probably just go buy something, but not our K.
In the house, the Girl is being silly. I take the camera and snap some closeups. Instantly, the silly faces appear.
A satisfying Thursday evening.
Jumping
Rain
It's been raining since Saturday night. It's rained so much that our sump pump, installed well over a year ago and never actually in use, got a chance to kick in. Granted, that's because there was a bit of water in the basin, though not enough to raise the float and trip the switch, and so I manually pulled the float and it hummed on.
I'd thought about it on and off today, wondering how it might work after so long of just sitting there. While doing our kitchen remodel, I added an outlet for the sump pump on its own dedicated breaker for extra security. The last thing I wanted was for it to happen to throw the breaker and flood the crawl space again.
When I got home from work, I knew the Boy would want only one thing: time in the puddles. Much to my surprise, he wanted first to take a bunch of random pictures with my phone.
He's asked for a camera a couple of times, and this of course thrills K and me endlessly. I'd like to let him use one of our digital cameras, but unfortunately, they're a bit on the too-expensive-to-let-a-kid-touch-without-immediate-adult-supervision side.
But some things are free and unbreakable, like puddles.
We first headed to our backyard theoretically to check on the level of water in the creek, but in reality, to explore for puddles.
I still don't get what's some much fun about splashing about in gum boots in dirty rain water. I'm sure at some point in my life I loved it too, but I watch E and think only one thing: "I'd hate to have my pants partially wet like that."
We also headed over to the low point of the creek behind our neighbors' house to see how it was flowing. It's at this point that it first jumps the banks when it's a real flash-flood-inducing deluge like it did a year and a half ago and three years ago and four years ago. By then it was already subsiding, though, and with the rain supposed to stop before the evening's out, it looks like we won't have to worry about a serious flood.
That didn't keep us from checking the neighborhood to make sure, though. E armed himself with his plastic assault rifle and out we went, searching for puddles for him to walk through.
Toward the end of the adventure, he found a stick at the edge of a puddle and stomped on it to break it. Water went everywhere.
"We have to go in now," I explained.
"Why?"
"Because I told you not to stomp in the water, and you just did. You disobeyed, and what's more, you're wet now."
We began walking back up to the house, and he said, "That was a good idea."
"No," I corrected, "that was not a good idea."
"No, I mean the idea I just thought of."
"What was that?"
"I should have taken it out before I stomped it."
"That was a good idea."