Good Morning

I came into the kitchen this morning as the boys were finishing up breakfast. Michael promptly declared, "I don't think you look quite as old as you really are. I think you look five years younger." This comment seemed to me to be completely out of the blue (but reasonable). However, I imagine that it was not truly out of the blue. I imagine that while I was upstairs getting ready for the day, the boys were eating their breakfast and having a serious discussion about age, what factors can be examined to determine age, what characteristics are affected by age, etc. I would have liked to listen in, unobserved, during that conversation. I think it would have been quite interesting. And perhaps it would have given me some insight into Spencer's next comment that when he looks at how tan my skin is and how clearly my veins show through my skin, he thinks I look exactly as old as I am. "As you get older your skin gets thinner," he explained. "Look at my arm," he said as he showed me his arm. "You can hardly see my veins, but look at yours. I can see them all."

Summer Pictures

Animal House

After breakfast this morning I asked Spencer to make his bed. Now, although I do not require the boys to make their beds every morning, I recognize that this is a fairly ordinary request. Of course, now that I say this (or write it), I think I am being altogether too lax and that I need to institute a far stricter bed-making regimen for the boys. Hmmm. At any rate, back to this morning. I expected that Spencer would (1) make his bed, or (2) argue with me about making his bed, or (3) bargain with me in some manner, which, long story short, ends with his bed still unmade. Spencer did not argue with me. Nor did he bargain with me. He did in fact make his bed. And, he went a little farther. A new and higher level of bed-making. I went to check on him. He was working busily, arranging (some of) his stuffed animals atop his blue satin blanket (a Christmas present from Santa Claus). I noted that the animals were grouped by type, i.e., bears together, dogs together, etc. If I had not noted that on my own, Spencer (helpfully) pointed it out to me. He also pointed out which animals were putting on the "show." Which animals were the audience. And which animal was the host of the "show." I did not ask Spencer what exactly he meant by "show," but my sense is that the "show" was like a circus performance.

Michael, now done with piano practice, must have been intrigued (or at the very least, interested). He came upstairs to see what was happening. Spencer began explaining to Michael the intricacies of the animal placements, and also told Michael that he, Spencer, had not used any of the stuffed cats in his show (Spencer knows that Michael loves cats and would want to include cats in his audience if Michael made his own show). And so he did. Michael later retrieved me from the kitchen to "see what they had done." Michael had followed Spencer's lead and had his animals arranged in groups that included a grouping of extinct animals and a grouping of underwater animals, among others. But the boys had not stopped there. They had added new levels to the animal groupings. They detailed the familial relationships between various animals, and who had adopted whom, including four generations of monkeys in which each generation had adopted the next generation.

One thing I notice and admire when the boys play together like this is that they bounce ideas off of one another. They look to the other for approval. They are encouraging and supportive of one another. And very creative in a cooperative way. It is so sweet. It is possibly my very favorite thing about how they play together. It makes me glad they have each other.

Vacation

The boys and I are on vacation this week. On Sunday we went to a lake resort. Upon arrival, both boys exclaimed repeatedly about how nice the hotel was, how nice the room was, etc. I am not certain if they really believed it was an incredibly nice hotel or if they were trying to make me feel good. We were a little late arriving on Sunday due to a long, unexpected detour. While I checked in, the boys checked out the flatscreen tv which was hanging in the lobby and showing film of the water park. Although it was nearly dinner time, neither boy was hungry (or so they both claimed), and so we went directly to the waterpark.

The waterpark was good. Both the air temperature and the water temperature were comfortable. The park was not terribly crowded and was of a manageable size. There was an area for smaller kids and an area with three big slides. The three slides were at the top of what seemed to be five flights of stairs. One slide required the rider to go down feet first while seated on an inner tube. The other two slides were feet-first body slides. All three slides went very fast and contained tunnels which made it impossible to know which way you were going to be thrown. It turns out that I may be a bit of a wimp. But the boys are not. They did not think the slides were too fast or too scary.

The weather on Monday was not particularly warm, but we spent some time out by the pool and inside at the indoor pool and playing pingpong. Both boys have improved their pingpong skills since last summer. After lunch we decided we would rent jetskis. I have never ridden one, but it was very fun. Michael rode with me for most of an hour. He was a little dismayed that I opted not to drive super fast. He kept encouraging me to "crush it" and asking me "are you going to crush it?" and complaining "you should have crushed it." I'm not sure if that is a new term that means "to go really fast." Or if it was a reference to the action of "crushing" the throttle with my hand. At any rate, it was fun. And I did crush it a few times.

At dinner the first night, Spencer ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm not sure why the kitchen does not make the sandwiches themselves, but they do not. Instead they buy these (I'll call them) sandwiches which are made by Smuckers and come in a cellophane package. This is how Spencer's dinner was brought to the table. In a cellophane bag on top of a plate. Spencer was not sure what to make of it. It did not look like they used real bread. In the end he thought it was disgusting. I don't blame him. The next morning at breakfast I read the breakfast menu aloud to Spencer. One of the options was silver dollar pancakes. He said that was what he wanted, but asked if I could first check to make sure that the pancakes did not come in a bag. Again, I do not blame him.

We spent the day yesterday at my mom's house with their cousins. All four boys spent some time in the pool. After swimming, everyone except Spencer played guitar hero. Cole asked me at one point, "Are you even trying?" I was.

Today was a lovely day. We did not have any particularly interesting activities planned for the day. We slept in a little. Or at least I did. The boys got up at 6:47 and 6:52 (they are very exact) and started playing with legos. I want to take a picture of the lego room, but I know it will not do it justice. Every lego is on the floor. They do not want anything moved. They have a system. We went to an indoor play park after breakfast. This was nice for me as it allowed me to read my book for nearly an hour. The boys enjoyed it too.

In the afternoon we went down to the river. We brought a sifter and looked for gems. We did not find any, but we found a lot of other rocks which we brought home for their rock collection.

Later in the afternoon, Spencer came in from playing outside with Michael and announced "We have an injury." Of course I thought it was Michael. But it was not. It was a young bunny. It looked like a part of it had been bitten (perhaps off/away). Anyway, the poor bunny was in our yard and not moving like a rabbit should. I made some calls and it was determined that we should bring the bunny in for care. Mom arrived (she and Patty were coming over for dinner) and we put the bunny in the box. Actually my mom put the bunny in the box. I had a notion that it might bite me. I'm not sure where that idea came from, and it was certainly unfounded. The injured young bunny was completely docile. Weird. Not at all what one would expect from an injured young bunny. At any rate, we got into the car and took the bunny in while dinner cooked away on the stove. When we returned home 40 minutes later, dinner (at least the vegetables) was a little worse for the wear. The meal was nevertheless enjoyable. After dinner we played games. The boys are now upstairs asleep. Lovely.