Weather

The Weather is Beautiful! Kate & Jack have been having so much fun splashing in the lake and, when they've had enough time in the sun, playing in the sprinkler set up in the shade. They are always trying to catch the water sprinkles on their tongues, and, this is another activity that I really ENJOY supervising... cool drink, shady chair, good book - far from the reaches of the laundry room and kitchen dishes....

Discovery Launch

On Sunday Jack was thrilled to watch the shuttle Discovery launch, from our front lawn! Scott had the great idea to watch the actual launch on television (so Jack could actually see what the shuttle looked like) and then step outside just in time to see it racing through the air. It was another beautiful clear Florida night, and the shuttle was a bright streaking spark across the sky. Jack kept asking to see it over and over again - and was still talking about it Monday morning when I dropped him at preschool. He walked into his classroom and heard another little boy talking about seeing a rocket - Jack got so excited he yelled " I saw a rocket at my house too!!, Mommy, Barry had a rocket at his house just like me!!". As I was leaving I could hear all of his classmates chiming in about the rockets they saw at their house too. Next time, we will drive out to the coast for an even better viewing position.

Our visit in Connecticut & SNOW

Clearly these are not the best photos. There were many excellent photo opportunities, although I missed almost every one of them for a host of reasons;

• Camera back at hotel (along with spare diapers, spare clothes & everything else I needed)
• Camera in car (too cold to retrieve it)
• Camera downstairs (by the time I assigned someone to watch Kate, lest she tumble down the stairs, and raced down and up, opportunity over. Clearly I need to work on traversing stairs with greater speed. Florida is mostly one story... need more practice)
• Child in arms (pictures taken while in this state always depict a chubby hand over lens as child attempts to gain control of camera)
• Picture blocked by child racing towards me once they caught sight of the camera
• Crushing feeling of defeat prevented me from trying.... (by trip end)

Never the less, we had a fantastic trip and I can not wait to go again. My preference would be to go in warmer weather, and, I think the kids would prefer that too. While they both really liked the idea of snow & the way it looked out the window, both seemed generally unhappy about how it felt on their hands when they tried to play with it. Of course, they would not leave their mittens or gloves on, that being a completely foreign idea to them; in Florida, if you want to touch something, you most certainly don't (as Jack would say) wear hand socks!

Siblings

Yesterday when I picked Jack & Kate up from preschool/daycare they were both out playing on the playground. Usually the minute I walk within view of the playground one of the many children starts shouting JACK JACK JACK YOUR MOMMMMMMM IS HERE!! This pretty much makes it impossible for me to sneak up and see what they are doing.

But, yesterday, a large van obscured me from view until I was almost at the gate, and how happy I am for that van.

As I approached, I could see Jack on the far side of the playground struggling to pull a wagon. He had both hands on the handle and was walking backwards, clearly pulling a heavy load. I paused, waiting for the passengers of the wagon to make it into my view, hoping to identify them before being shouted out by the other kids. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Jack was pulling Kate, and his little girlfriend Lexie, in the wagon. How SWEET is that? Kate's presence in the wagon does explain the heavy load... Lexie is a mere slip of a girl.

Later that day as I was loading the kids back into the car after an errand, Jack sneezed. To my utter amazement, Kate said "bless you". To an outsider, this would have sounded like "bleshoe" but I recognized her words immediately. To top that, Jack said "Excuse me". Once I was done marveling at my children's phenomenal good manners, I lavished praise on both of them for being so polite. Jack smiled, looked up at me and said in the most serious tone, "that's right. You say excuse me when you sneeze. You do not say G*d d*mmit". Again, a long pause from me as I tried to follow this strange turn of events. I agreed with Jack, telling him he was right, that you should never say G*d d*mmit, sneeze or no sneeze. This ended the conversation, and I was left to puzzle the apparent connection these words and phrases had in Jack's head.