— 1 —
Five-day work weeks after holiday weeks always feel especially long.
We made it feel a little longer this week by adding a Lego camp for Leo, which meant extra driving and losing my lunch hour to my part-time job as my children’s chauffeur. It was worth it, of course, because our 6-year-old got to join forces with one of his friends to build a robot.
And a house.
And a maze.
And a spaceship and some transmissions and a conveyor belt and part of a bridge and a car and probably other things I never heard about.
“How was Lego camp?” I asked him at the end of the first day.
“Mama, it was medium,” he said. Today on a scale of 0 to 10 he ranked it “between a 5 and a 6.”
That’s high praise from our boy, especially since he had argued with me about even doing the camp. And I watched him in action yesterday. He loved every minute.
He’d just rather be at Grandma’s house. But who wouldn’t?
— 2 —
We celebrated the Fourth of July with pie.
Daniel and I also went to our neighborhood bike parade, though we didn’t take his bike. We’re still figuring out how to work the brakes.
Because our boys are a little older this year, we decided to try to see fireworks. We climbed in the car and drove to a spot where I was fairly sure we could see them. I was right. There were people sitting there in lawn chairs, waiting for the show to begin.
Then we turned around and looked at the boys. They were fast asleep. So we drove home.
At home Daniel woke up just before the fireworks started. And it turned out we were able to see some fireworks from our front yard.
This is what they looked like.
I don’t think we’ll be selling tickets next year, but Daniel could not have been happier.
— 3 —
I have no idea where to put the furniture in our living room. But my husband resolved one question when he installed our TV on the wall this week. Daniel helped him. He just loves to work.
“I want to be a workerman,” he said yesterday as we drove past some construction workers. “But I don’t want to sweat.”
It’s a fine goal.
Now if someone in the family would just become an interior designer and help us figure out where to put the sofa.
— 4 —
Our friends invited us over to swim in their pool the other day, and the boys had as much fun as you can imagine.
Afterward I asked Daniel what he liked best about swimming.
Daniel said, “1. The big fish. 2. The big boat. Second, the water guns.”
My favorite parts? 1. Seeing Daniel showing off his swimming skills. 2. Enjoying our friends. Second, I liked hearing our little guy show off his growing vocabulary.
— 5 —
I see photos of many children who need families, and sometimes I can’t get them out of my mind. This is one that is tugging at my heart.
Read this little boy’s story. I want to go bring him home. Maybe he could be your son?
— 6 —
It was raining the other day and when it stopped, the sun came out and the rain started evaporating into the air. When Daniel and I walked outside together, we thought smoke was rising from the road. I tried to explain what was happening, and yet again I wished I had paid more attention in middle school science.
As we started driving, Daniel said, “Mama, what’s evaporation?”
I gave a feeble explanation I won’t offer here since my father (and most third graders) would be appalled.
“So…is evaporation like seat belts?” he said.
“Um, no, not really,” I said. Wow, I thought. I am even worse at explaining this than I thought.
“But the water comes down from the sky,” he said, “and then it goes back up. Like a seat belt.”
“Oh,” I said. “Yes, that’s right. OK, so yes. I guess it is sort of like a seat belt.”
Maybe our children will teach me some science after all.
— 7 —
The other day Daniel mentioned that there were fire ants in the sandbox at school.
“At least I think them are fire ants,” he said. I am going to be sad when he starts saying “they” instead of “them.” “Them are red.”
“Really?” I said. “Did you tell the teachers?”
He said he did. Then a few days later he announced that they have tarantulas in the sandbox, too.
“Them have hairy heads,” he said, “and two or 10 eyes.”
And here I thought the biggest risk of playing in the sandbox was bringing sand home in his shoes.
Bees by our 4-year-old; can you tell he used bubble wrap?
Read other quick takes at Jen’s Conversion Diary.