Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

Due to plans that are in some flux, I am taking all of next week and possibly the first day or so of the following week off from blogging. I'll check email periodically and I may post the occasional Tweet. I expect to be back here no later than June 23.

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1. It was a long time coming, partly due to the pandemic, but a few weeks ago, the kids hosted their first sleepover. Cousins were here from out-of-state and they finally got to use their bunk beds to full capacity.

I am happy to report that I managed a full night's sleep, despite concern that they'd keep each other up late and raise a ruckus.

2. Time flies: My son just turned eight! His slightly younger cousin, on video to sing Happy Birthday to him with his sister was not to be outdone: He created an instant family classic by angrily shouting FINALLY! before storming off at the end.

This was funny anyway, but it was more so, because it was so much like something my son might do in a similar situation.

I told my son as much and he appreciated the humor. He told me to thank him especially for the song.

Image by Richard Barnard, via Unsplash, license.

3. My daughter loves tomatoes, and I pack small ones in her school lunches most of the time.

Usually, I pack Wild Wonders brand medley tomatoes, which she reports differ slightly in flavor by color.

(I agree and highly recommend this brand. These are easy to find in stores and are consistently high in quality on top of having a festive look. I first bought them after a batch of another brand had put her off of having tomatoes in her lunch at all.)

But one day, after the tomato plants in our container garden started producing, and I slipped a couple of those in. She'd had some of those before, so she recognized them at school and got to talk about our garden with her classmates.

Our plants are ugly, but very productive. I picked sixteen off of two plants yesterday, which is my record for a single day's output this year.

4. I learned the hard way that my son wants more grown-up-looking swim gear. One Friday, my daughter's class was having an end-of-year pool party. The original plan was for Mrs. Van Horn to take my daughter to the pool and for us to offer my son the choice of swimming or going home.

Then my wife had to take a new patient at the end of a busy day. Oh, and I realized that the park pool didn't have a lifeguard, so coming back later for my daughter -- which I had foolishly mooted, violating my own policy of managing expectations -- was not an option.

My son was a complete pill for about the first twenty minutes of this. Once he calmed down enough, I learned that his real problem was that his Spider-Man swimsuit made him "look like a four year-old," and that he was also embarrassed by his Mickey Mouse towel.

He eventually did jump in, and I think he had an okay time, but thanks to that and further discussions with our daughter, it looks like we have some swimsuit purchases to make...

-- CAV