Primarily because I haven't posted in a week...

...but today was one of those days where both kids were just a joy to be around. So when Clare suggested we head to the playground before dinner, I was happy to oblige. We were the only ones there, other than a random black lab who roamed around, much to Danny's delight. For a neighborhood of approximately 1,000 homes, it always amazes me how little the playground is used. We get our money's worth, and have been doing so for about three years now, as these similar photos of Clare (at age two-and-a-half) and Danny (now also two-and-a-half) will attest. This of course reminds me that Clare was potty-trained in the above picture, and Danny is not...but no, no, it was a GOOD day and I will focus only on the positive!

Fort Seymour

What to do when you have a whole lot of timber and two imaginative kids? Build them a fort, of course!


Tim and I rolled up our sleeves yesterday and capitalized on my dad's idea to use the chunks of wood from our felled trees to make the kids a fort. Tim's original intention was to stack the pieces 2-3 levels high, but he quickly realized how unstable they would be, and didn't want somebody getting crushed (and the likes of Eric B. suing us). Still, the one-story fort - and the process of creating it - met with the kids' ecstatic approval. Danny particularly enjoyed hauling wood as he "helped" Tim.


Clare immediately set about creating a password for it, which shortly transformed into a password/song.


Then the playing began. Enemies, beware!

Can we go to the zoo?

From the annals of the masters of the obvious: Kids have selective hearing. Over the past few months, Danny has misheard me on multiple occasions and hopefully thinks that we're headed to the zoo. Other times he has just flat-out asked, but at typically inappropriate moments, such as bedtime. Yesterday, though, things finally worked out in his favor. It was a stunningly beautiful fall day, and we had a free post-nap afternoon. So when I greeted him after his nap by asking if he'd like to go to the zoo, he eschewed his typical groggy/cranky state and was more than ready to go. As we put on our shoes, made final pit stops, and gathered coats, he kept saying, "C'mon dudes, let's go!"


It was a bit of a hurried trip, because our 3:45 arrival only gave us about 45 minutes before the zookeepers would begin putting the animals in for the night. But we saw plenty, including the most up-close encounter with lions we've ever had at any zoo. The mom and her cubs were separated from us by mere feet (and a glass wall), and they frolicked and in general put on a great show.


We also lucked out in that they keep the kids' area operating until 5 p.m., so even though we missed out on the kangaroos, we did get to ride the carousel and run around the playground. So despite the hype, I think the trip to the zoo lived up to Danny's expectations. He already asked to return this morning...

Finicky Files alert

http://mairecipes.com/2008/11/the-finicky-files-if-she-makes-it-will-she-eat/

Tim can do it. We don't help.

At my wedding, as part of my dad's toast, I recall him joking about the dismaying day when I announced that the steep tuition money he was spending on my Notre Dame education was going to go towards an English major. To paraphrase quite a bit, he offered Tim his condolences. Sure, Tim was a fellow English major, but his double major in economics helped land him a more lucrative job in the financial world than the one I scraped together in magazines. Well, that and the greater amount of drive and ambition Tim possesses when it comes to careers.

Never having made a great deal of money in my various positions, it was an easy decision for me to stay at home with the kids, particularly since I wanted to do so. There are days when I know that Tim is relieved that he gets to walk out the door while I change the diaper, referee the arguments, and prepare countless, unappreciated meals. But regardless of how appealing it is to leave the house for a few hours - and of course there are many times when he'd prefer to stay and hang out - the burden of being the sole breadwinner is firmly planted on Tim's shoulders.

I try to appreciate this as best I can, knowing when to ask him about his day, and when to let him leave it at the office door. Kids being kids, though, Clare and Danny live in their self-centered worlds where the food always shows up in the kitchen and the clothes always fit. While "Hi, Daddy-at-work!" is a phrase the kids and I routinely call out whenever we drive past his office in Home Depot's headquarters, I know they don't give much thought to that "work" part. It's a large, imposing, and elusive building where Daddy has a lot of meetings. And lunch.

Well, today we cracked open this mysterious world just a bit by joining Daddy for lunch in the Home Depot cafeteria. Clare has been clamoring to do this - specifically to eat pizza - for quite a while, so we took her unexpected holiday from school as the opportunity to do so. As Tim said, after three-and-a-half years, the cafeteria has grown a bit tired for him, so he often prefers to venture out. But to Clare and Danny, it was exciting. In fact, Danny walked through and exclaimed, "Wow! This is amazing!"

And if he thought the cafeteria was amazing, you can only imagine his thoughts on the museum, which we visited next. (Yeah, the place has its own museum. It's pretty big, this headquarters.) Clare remembered the Mickey Mouse at the entrance to the museum from the last time we visited, which was approximately two-and-a-half years ago (Danny was soooo tiny, and we did not eat in the cafeteria). Danny was wowed by the tools, and construction guys, and the baseball bat! And football helmet! (No, I have no idea what those things were doing in there. You think I read the plaques?)

I'm not going to say that the kids walked away from their visit with any greater appreciation for Tim's hard work. (Although Danny did ask him how his meetings were, so he clearly has a general concept of what Tim does all day.) I do think it helps them to have a visual of where he spends his days, and over time hopefully this will blossom into understanding. In the meantime, we sign off with not our usual mantra of "Just work harder, Tim" but rather, "Thanks, Daddy."

Ah, Autumn

The Indigo Girls have a fabulous song called "Southland in the Springtime." And I'll grant you that the spring here in the South really is lovely, unlike anything I experienced growing up in Southern California. But for my money, autumn is the truly stunning season around here. Sure, New England gets all the glory for its fall color, nor do take anything away from them. But Atlanta is no slouch in the foliage department, either. For one thing, the sheer number of trees around here is astounding, particularly for those of you who have no idea what the geography here is like (perhaps I'm projecting my own cluelessness from before moving here). Over the past week, the color has just exploded, and it's impossible to adequately capture in pictures. So I just stuck to pictures taken within my own neighborhood, to give you a mere glimpse of our current surroundings. For me, it's breathtaking.

I find it appropriate to post this on election day, too, because when I think of "America, the Beautiful," I think of the golden glow of fall, and Thanksgiving, and the Pilgrims, and where it all started. In the midst of a lot of bleak news, I'm thankful for this spectacular show nature puts on - and the freedom to write random posts about it.

Halloween!

I just stole a piece (okay, several pieces) of candy out of Danny's trick-or-treat jack-o-lantern. He's still young enough that he has no idea what was in there before he went to bed, unlike Clare, who catalogued the items with glee. As I poked around in there, I caught a whiff of that smell I remember so well from my own childhood Halloweens. You know, that smell of a big pile of candy, all mixed together and just waiting to be devoured.


We've had the decorations, the orange lights, and the Halloween books out for a few weeks now. The costumes have been waiting in the closets, the subject of plenty of conversation and planning. Compared with our childhoods, Halloween has a lot more fanfare these days, which is fun. But I also worried that with so much build up, the main event would wind up disappointing. I'm happy to report that this was not the case for Clare and Danny today - and not just because they both wound up with a hefty supply of treats, though that didn't hurt.


No, from the minute it was time to put on the costumes, they were fired up. This was particularly fun in Danny's case, because at his age we couldn't be guaranteed that he'd be willing to wear his shark costume, much less be excited about it. Fortunately, he loved it, and embraced its spirit whole-heartedly. You may not have known this, but sharks roar.


For the third year in a row we participated in the neighborhood Halloween event, whereby the kids line up in one of the neighbor's driveways and then parade down a designated street, "trick-or-treating" along the neighbors that have lined up to watch them process by. It works very well for our neighborhood, because we have so many small children, and our streets are so hilly. After the procession we all get together at one of the neighbor's homes for a happy hour-type event that this year involved pizza. The weather was spectacular, so we were able to stay outside the whole time and chat with each other while the kids enjoyed the swing-set, or played baseball (Danny), or just ran around and enjoyed their sugar highs.

Halloween is pretty darn great for kids. But we're finding that it's also pretty fun for we parents, too!