First Day at the Pool
the boy
Laundry
“G, oh G, why did you do this?”
I was in the kitchen, having just returned from taking out the compost and checking on our garden — removing suckers from the tomatoes, looking in wonder at just how prodigious our cucumber plants will be, winding our bean stalks around the twine they’re supposed to be wrapping themselves around — and so I was confused. “What did I do?”
“You mixed the dirty clothes in with the clean.”
“No, I didn’t. I was in the garden.”
All eyes fell on E, our little helper.
Goodies for the Teachers
The chocolate treats we sent L’s teachers were such a hit we decided to do the same for E’s teachers. And when I say “we” in that sentence, I mean K.
Eating Meatballs
We were heading out to check the mail this afternoon, L riding her scooter and E in my arms, when a old, loud pickup truck roared up the street. The Boy waved furious and shouted, "Hi Truck! We going to eat meatballs!"
In short, the Boy gets excited about the prospect of Swedish meatballs.
Dzień Dziecka
We were in the backyard, blowing bubbles, chasing bubbles, popping bubbles -- just a bit of outside time between our return from Mass and the Boy's nap time.
Suddenly, Mama appeared.
"I've got surprises for you two!" she said, in Polish of course. "Today is Dzień Dziecka."
It sounds so much more natural to me in Polish: Children's Day. Nah. Dzień Dziecka. In the States, we only have Father's Day and Mother's Day; Poland adds Children's Day, Grandparents' Day, Siblings' Day, Uncles' Day, Aunts' Day, Cousins' Day, Second Cousins' Day, Cousins' Twice Removed Day. Well, perhaps not to that degree, but they don't stop at just two family days.
One could argue that every day is Children's Day, especially in big families. Still, it's nice to have an excuse to give kids a little something to make them smile, like new books or a new train for a growing Thomas collection.
Shoots and Roots
This year, our garden is much bigger than previous years: more than double the size, in fact, which only means we've added two more raised beds. We had slowed down significantly the last couple of years because of the additional joys and responsibilities the Boy brought, but now that he's growing, so is our garden.
Gardening is one of those things that reminds me how much I've changed as I entered adulthood, married, and become a father. As a teen, or even in my early twenties, I couldn't imagine spending the amount of time I do setting up lines for beans to crawl up, hunting suckers on young tomato plants, looking at several sprawling cucumber plants and wondering if they can be enticed to climb (they can), examining leaves of radishes to determine what's eating them -- and doing all this willingly and even enjoying it.
Boys’ Afternoon
What do you do when the Girl is off with Nana and Papa (or "Papa-Nana" as the boy calls them) and Mama is not scheduled to come back until a full hour after her usual time? What are two boys to do? Playing with cars is a definite must, including lining them up, rearranging that lineup, and directing the Older Boy to play with this one, not that one while the Older Boy tries desperately to provide the Boy with yet another opportunity to practice sharing.
Dipping your bread into your soup when there's no one else to give you dirty looks -- well, K wouldn't do that anyway, but that doesn't sound as good -- is another must.
Sick Sunday
Sick Saturday
The Boy always stays sick. Or is it a dairy allergy? At any rate, he’s always coming down with something, and so when we took him to the doctor ten days ago, this weekend’s plans wobbled just a little: “He might not be up to camping,” K said. I was optimistic, though: “He’ll get better.” But as he was getting better, K started feeling worse. “Perhaps you and L can go on the camping trip instead of all four of us,” she suggested. Then Wednesday, L returned home from school feeling positively awful and slept from four to seven, then went back to bed at nine and slept till seven the next morning. Three out of four, that meant only one thing: Tata has to step up his game.
Cleaning, diaper changing, cut bandaging, medicine dosing — I usually miss these things on a spring Saturday morning. This or that gardening/hardware/tool store is calling, or the lawn beckons, or the Leyland cypresses stretch out to remind me they need a trimming. It’s always something. This morning, though, it was just an ever-running laundry, new adventures with a fussy son, a cat in the laundry basket, and cold coffee.
Enough to make me appreciate again all the things that K accomplishes inside while I’m outside on a Saturday.
By the early afternoon, the kids had both rebounded almost fully. The Boy and I went on a little field trip while L was up the street at a friend’s house. By the evening, K was once again exhausted — she insisted on cooking dinner — and the kids were tired from their newly-rediscovered outside freedom.