Hanging around

We had to stay close to home this morning so the Verizon guy could come to hook up our TV for service through them. While we're hanging out here the kids have been playing pretty much all morning with toys that we got from friends that Chris has known since college. We've been so fortunate to have friends with older kids who give us their old stuff. I sorted clothes last night and it was like Christmas day - "look at that!, look at this one!" Our kids have always been well-supplied with hand-me-down toys and nice clothes. Our friends have good taste and their kids go to schools where they have to be well-dressed so we get some pretty nice stuff.

Anyway, last night I showed Dima a Leapster that at first he seemed really interested in and he was excited to use it this morning. After he played with it for a while he stopped using it and Josh picked it up and hasn't put it down since. He's been really good at figuring out how to do the games and he even figured out how to change his name in the list of players, but he changed it to JJSSJJJJJJJ. One of the games on this cassette - we got a few of them - involves moving little shapes around and he's already learned what a trapezoid is from this thing.

Now Dima' splaying with the huge aircraft carrier and doing a good job of playing make-believe with it. If I'd had to guess which toy which kid would pick I would have guessed wrong, who'da known??

Now that Josh has officially changed his own name (though I'm not sure how you'd pronounce that} going to do something I've been thinking about for while.


I JJSSJJJJJJJ BY TYPING MY NAME BELOW DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR TO REMEMBER ALL THE TIMES MY MOM THREW BALLS OF EVERY SORT OUT IN OUR BACK YARD, BATTED, PLAYED BADMINTON AND VOLLEYBALL AS WELL AS HAULED MY BUTT TO SKATING AND SWIMMING LESSONS TO HELP MAKE ME A BETTER ATHLETE AND PERSON. IN RECOGNITION OF HER EFFORTS I WILL GIVE HER AT LEAST A 10% FIRST-COACH FEE FROM MY PROFESSIONAL EARNINGS FOR EVER AND EVER, AMEN. ("OK, Josh, by typing here you're saying Thank you Mama") "Okay" JJSSJJJJJJJ


"he-he-he-he-he-heh"

Okay:

Josh and I spent some time at my cousin's house over the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he got along with the other kids both at a pool party on Saturday night and on Sunday just goofing around with his two cousins. Of course all of the toys are new to him and so he was amused just by going around and checking out all their stuff. We all went for a walk around a park yesterday afternoon and had a nice time. While we were outside I kept getting weather updates on my cell phone for Chester county - I have it set up to get them cause if we're ever at the pool and something's coming I want to know about it. Except for a short afternoon storm we had sun and a little breeze. For August it's been exceptionally nice weather - wise. Yesterday afternoon it was stormy all day here including a power outage. Other than being sassy with me in the morning he got along pretty well and played nicely - the dynamic with his cousins was interesting since they both wanted his attention and tried to keep him interested in whatever they were playing with. He tried again and again to shoot a small play ball into a real basketball hoop and did get better as he was out there doing it and his cousin Helen was encouraging him and throwing balls too - then his cousin John brought out different vehicles to interest Josh and then would get upset if Josh wanted to touch them and if he was driving wildly with the "mokena troll" that's how Josh pronounces remote control.

Dima has ice hockey camp from 8 to 4:40 each day this week so it'll be a good test of how things will go once he starts all-day school. Josh and I will be taking it easy around here so he can recover from not having a nap for two days and going to bed late on Saturday night. I'll have to decide if we'll be skipping nap today it's after 8 now and he's still sleeping - unusual for him - he likes to open his eyes early and start yakking - "I'm ready!!" There are times he's up there yelling that he's ready to get up and then he's still so tired that he's up there sucking his thumb once you get to him - yeah he's 5 and still sucks his thumb when he's tired I know it bothers some people but I don't think it's a problem and I know he won't go to college doing it so it'll get resolved sooner or later. The thing is since we have to get Dima at 4:30 I can't let him go in for nap too late cause I'd hate to have to wake him to get going - there's potential there for a very, very sassy little kid in the car in that case. I'd like to go to the pool or something like that after Dima's done but if it's still chilly we'll find something else to do. He'll have to be in bed at a decent time so he can get up for camp tomorrow so we really won't have too much time.

Recent deaths: 1. Bernie Mac 2. Isaac Hayes 3.? If I were a funny black man I'd be very afraid right now - these things happen in threes.