This was the conversation in the back of the car as I drove the kids to school this morning.
A: Say “See.”
P: “See.”
A: “Three.”
P: “Three.”
A: “Pee.”
P: “Pee.”
A: “Oh.”
P: “Oh.”
A: Now, put it together!
P: “See-Pee-Oh.”
A: No, you lost the “three!” Let’s try again…
Alex now has a favorite album: Peaceful, the World Lays me Down by Noah and the Whale. It’s full of catchy and upbeat tunes. He started absorbing the music by osmosis as I piped the music through our Sonos player. It’s one of my favorite albums.
But here’s the thing: When I listen to music, I hardly pay attention to lyrics at all. Not so with Alex. He’s now learning and singing the lyrics that I’ve been ignoring, like the opening verses of Jocasta:
When the baby’s born
Let’s turn it to the snow
So that ice will surely grow
Over weak and brittle bonesLet’s leave it to the wolves
So their teeth turn it to food.
Its flesh keeps them alive
As death helps life surviveThe world can be kind in its own way…
It’s really an excellent song, on many levels… but it’s a little disturbing to hear a five year old sing it. (Alas, much of the album pairs catchy music with dark lyrics. Nothing’s safe.)
Sure, that redhead looks innocent enough. But see that scratch under Alex’s eye? It’s from Patrick, who without warning or provocation attacked his brother’s face. (Aside from a few minutes of crying, Alex was OK, and I now get to tease Alex that he looks like Scar from The Lion King. Alex then corrects me. “No, Dad, Scar’s scratch went through his eye, like this.” Then he draws an imaginary line from above his right eyebrow down to the top of his cheekbone. He’s very precise.)
As for Patrick: He actually shows signs of maturing. October was a rocky month. (Those who saw us during our trip to Virginia know that well enough!) But the last several weeks, Patrick’s been very even-tempered and upbeat. Our trip to Minnesota stands out in particular: Patrick was much, much better behaved than he was on either our summer vacation or our trip to Virginia. But every now and then he does something unexpected, like deliver this scratch.
I imagine this is what it must be like for one of those crazy animal people buy a tiger cub and bring him home. He may live in your house, eat your food, and act cuddly most of the time… but the day always comes when you remember he has claws and is a wild animal at heart.
Alex picked up a new habit this weekend. When he gets mad at me, he picks up a pen and a stack of purple post-its. He then writes “dad” or “you dad”, crosses it out, and then sticks the post it on something… the bathroom door, the refrigerator, anything.
The power of the written word at work!
Alex asked that to nobody in particular on Friday afternoon as I picked him up from daycare.
Alex and Jia-Fang, his current teacher.
He knew it was no ordinary day, though. After almost five years, it was his last day at Bright Horizons. I went to his class in the early afternoon with a tray full of homemade mini-cupcakes as a goodbye treat. Alex very politely gave a cupcake to each of his classmates out on the playground. Three of the girls serenaded him with a song they made up: Happy Last Day to You! And Alex got lots of hugs from teachers and classmates. Some of the teachers have known Alex since he was five months old. They were as amazed as I am that his last day finally arrived. Out on the playground, one of Alex’s favorite long-term teachers, Kidy, fought back tears and told me, “I remember him when he was a baby, and always carried his blanket around…”
“He’s got that blanket in his backpack now!” I told her.
“Save it for him. Give it to him when he graduates high school,” she told me. Just then, though, I had to dart away. On his own, Alex had punched in the door code on the keypad that leads from the rooftop playground to the rest of the daycare. “That’s when you know it’s time to let them go,” I told Kidy as I left. “When they know how to open the door by themselves!”
Alex and Kidy.
One of the nice things about having little boys is they don’t have complex emotions. Alex was a little hyper, and a little happy at having a special day, and a little perplexed at all of the hugs. However, he lives in the moment… so unlike the adults, and maybe some of the little girls, he wasn’t at all sad or nostalgic.
After cupcakes, we picked up Patrick. Before we could leave Bright Horizons, though, Alex wanted to say goodbye to his friends one more time. We did one more trip out to the playground and said our final goodbyes. As we left, his classmate Annika gave him one last hug and said, a little wistfully, “You were one of my good friends.” Yes, I suspect girls are more complex…
Alex and Annika.
This picture’s been sitting on my computer for a few weeks now. It’s a postscript to our strawberry picking adventure from the beginning of July. One of the things Molly did to preserve some berries was make strawberry sorbet. As you can see, it was so good Alex had to lick the bowl!
As you may remember – we’re not soon to forget! – Alex ruptured his eardrum back in May. The time I now call The Black Spring, with its strep and earaches and stomach flu. At the time, the pediatrician told us we shouldn’t get Alex’s ear wet, as there was a risk of water going into the inner ear and doing damage. So, dutifully, he’s kept his head out of the water since then.
Well, last week, we brought him back to the pediatrician. “Wow!” he exclaimed on looking in Alex’s ear. “I wish you could see this! It’s a textbook example. You can see the clear window where the eardrum has started repairing itself.” Alex got the all-clear to submerge his head again, but he was warned to avoid jumping into water for the next few weeks. The pediatrician doesn’t want the force of impact to tear the eardrum again.
As much as Seattle has complained of the 78 minutes of summer we’ve had so far, we’re getting the good weather when it counts: On the weekends. To celebrate Alex’s clean bill of health and the first sunny, warm day in a couple of weeks, we spent a few hours in the water at Magnuson Park. And this time, Alex happily got all wet!
Alex had his first T-Ball game yesterday. We didn’t really know what to expect. It turns out that when you’re five, a T-Ball game is just another kind of T-Ball practice. It’s all about learning the rhythm and expectations and not at all about a score. We did three innings because that’s what fit in an hour. Every kid gets to bat once in an inning. No matter how well you hit the ball, you run only as far as first base. Even if the fielders manage to get the ball to a base before a runner (which happened exactly one time in the game), the runner’s safe: Everybody gets to go around the bases, one hit at a time. The last hitter clears the plates: Everybody runs all the way to home.
The score isn’t important. What’s important: Learning to take turns batting. Learning that when you field, you need to keep watching the ball. If you catch it, throw it to first base. You’re part of a team, and you need to listen to the coach. And of course: Have fun! (Alex did.)
Tonight, after the kids fell asleep, I remarked to Molly, “It feels like we’ve already had more summer this year than we did all of last year!” Partly it’s that the kids are older, so we’re getting out to do more things. Partly it’s that the weather is simply better. (I’m still scarred from last year: The Year Without A Summer.)
After all, is there anything that says Summer in America more than spending time out on a baseball field? That’s how we started our weekend, with Alex’s t-ball practice. I don’t have any pictures, because my job was to keep Patrick from running out onto the field and grabbing all of the bats and balls. Both of our kids like t-ball so far, but Patrick seems to really like it. He can’t stand to stay home when Alex goes to practice, and if we bring him it’s hard to keep him off the field.
Watching Alex practice t-ball makes it painfully clear how different five-year-olds are from normal human beings. Yes, they’re all having fun out in the dirt, but their powers of concentration are lacking. For instance, Coach Jeff had all of the kids out for fielding practice. Each child was in position, and the coach would roll the ball through the infield to a kid. The kid had to get the ball and throw it to first base. Then the coach rolls the ball to another kid, and things repeat. With the children’s throwing and catching skills still developing, this is already a pretty challenging drill. It’s even harder when your first baseman decides just to walk off the field to get a drink of water, or to walk over to his little red-headed brother to see how he’s doing…
Another Summer in America activity? Spending a lazy afternoon at the local swimming hole. That’s what we did today. In this case, the “swimming hole” is Lake Washington. Apparently, if you’re young, it’s remarkably entertaining to just run into the water and back out again. That’s what Alex and Patrick did, over and over and over, for an hour. Well, Patrick also repeatedly tried to drink the lake water. I hope he didn’t succeed too much.
Magnuson Park also has a wading pool in addition to its rocky beach. We spent about half our time in the wading pool, which Patrick liked much better than the lake. Part of the reason was even small waves could knock him over. The wading pool was also warmer. (That the boys got in the lake at all just shows, once again, that there might not be a lot of common sense in the next generation.)
I hope your summer weekends are as much fun!
Summer weather has arrived, and we’re getting outside to make the most of it. On Saturday, our friends Dawn and Eric arranged a trip to the Skagit Valley to pick strawberries. You should read their account of their trip last year; they do a fabulous job describing the incredible berries we got to enjoy on our trip.
Our kids had a great time, but the strawberries were just a small part of it. They got to spend the day outside in the warm sun. See horses. Play with dirt. Play on a see-saw. Learn the word manure. Run around like crazy. In other words, a full dose of summer.
(And did I mention eating strawberries?)
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