I don’t give a damn about your reputation
[/JoanJett]
I had a pretty mediocre day, today, Otto: a lot of impromptu meetings about whether we could get the server and/or disk array we need for our project, or do I have to go find 1.2 million dollars lying around somewhere. And it’s raining and blustery and I have eaten to much glorp.
But since you started this yesterday, I will tell you about my day yesterday, which was much nicer than today: I decided to take the day off as a whim (the weather was unseasonably fair and warm), slept late, ran a couple of errands. After my daughter caught her bus to school I loaded my son and Mrs. ShibbOleth into the family truckster and we searched about for a place to eat lunch. The place I had in mind was closed, so we went to Zip’s which is a throwback little hamburger joint. A nice, greasy little burger is $2.50, add a quarter for cheese. My son enjoyed all of the old sports equipment on the walls and asked a lot of questions about the items he hadn’t really seen. I explained to him that the lacrosse sticks are not used to grab fish. We watched the little scale train that circles above the dining room. He ate some french fries and about half of a mettwurst.
After lunch we made our way back across the streets, with the boy pushing all of the buttons for the crossing lights and explaining to his parents when it was okay to cross. We got back in the car and drove on the residential streets, keeping an eye peeled for Halloween decorations while we sought the back entrance to Ault Park. The boy noticed the playground equipment right away and we had to explore. The playground in this park is old but still fairly nice: there is a small wooden ‘house’ for climbing in and on; a small jungle gym with two slides and a bridge; a big kid and little kid swings; a couple of balancing sort of apparati; and a round barrel with handle for rolling.
We played the Three Billy Goats Gruff with the bridge on the jungle gym. We made friends with a little girl about my sons age named Helena. We found a fuzzy caterpillar and some ladybugs. We took turns rolling on the barrel. We slid down the slide together and the boy climbed back up the slide. I sat on the swing while my son sat facing me on my lap, and he laughed with delight as we went higher and higher. He threw his head back on each backward arch to try and see the ground.
On the way back toward our house we stopped and checked out the costumes at a Halloween store. He wants me to dress as Robin this year to his Batman. Maybe. We stopped and shopped for shoes and underwear and medium weight coats. We got two soft pretzels, sweet mustard and lemonade from Aunt Annies. I made him save one for his sister. Then we went to school to pick up his sister from the Math Monsters after school program. I think they were learning to count with M&Ms.
The girl’s after school class was still going, so I took the boy to play some more on the school’s playground equipment. This is much more modern stuff than the park, with the spongey ground rubber kind of surface, but also a bridge and plenty of things to climb and slide on. Now we were princes in search of treasure.
Shortly after his sister came running out from the school and he ran, squealing with joy to see here, and threw his arms around her. It is very satisfying to see them display so much affection for one another. They often go about hand in hand. She told him she had saved some M&Ms for him and he told her about the pretzel.
Now there was a prince and a princess to explore, so I got to sit on the sidelines for a while with Mrs. ShibbOleth and watch. The girl has mastered swinging from on bar to the next on the monkey bars. Yesterday was the first time I saw the boy take a shot at this on his own (normally he insists I hold him as he goes from bar to bar). He made it for one, but he is still a bit too small, so had to let go and drop to the ground. He tried once more but was fairly tuckered out from his day. They soon decided to abandon this area for the tetherball courts. Unfortunately neither one is coordinated enough yet to really do this, so there were a few bopped noses.
We soon made our way back to the car. The boy was tired and insisted on being carried. The girl decided she wanted Daddy to carry her, too. I tried to hand the boy over to his mother, but he got down and walked away. I set my daughter down for a moment and went to check on him. He was upset, and I suspect that it was at least in part due to the nice time we had all day long, he knew now that his sister was back in the mix that he wouldn’t have me to himself. I talked to him and explained to him that he had to share with his sister and we had done nice things together all day. He was still a bit sobby, but he said that he understood, so I let his mother hold him while I carried the girl for a moment. My daughter has a very high level of empathy for her age, but also likes to get her way. She struck on a compromise, counting ten steps, then told her brother, “It’s okay now, I just needed ten steps, Daddy can carry you know.”
We loaded up into the car, all feelings soothed, and drove home for dinner.
[sub]sorry if that’s a bit too much detail, but it was a very pleasant day[/sub]
Ah, seeing him always makes me happy!