Painting

I must be crazy, but I offered to let the kids paint the other day.  Malcolm is very good when it comes to paints, but Dorothy is...well, not.  She likes to wander around and isn't really worried about keeping paint on the paper.  I decided that it would be better for everyone (me) if I put her in her high chair to paint.  Here are the results:

This is how Malcolm paints.  He sits still, concentrates, and tells me when he is done and needs help to clean up.  He was very proud to figure out that he could make green.

This is how Dorothy paints.  She gets easily distracted...

...she's not sure if she should use the brush or her fingers...

...she eats paint...

...and she get very upset when I say that she has to get cleaned up before I will let her down to go play.

Alex P. Keaton

We have a wedding to attend in a couple of weeks, so I bought Malcolm a suit, and he has become obsessed with wanting to wear the suit.  A couple of weekends ago, I sent him upstairs to pick out something to wear.  His entire closet was shorts & shirt sets, except for the suit.  He came downstairs, naked, and proudly showed me what he picked out to wear.  When I explained to him that a suit was not appropriate for playing in the yard on a hot day, he countered by saying that he would just stay inside and be very careful.  He also proudly pointed out that he chose blue underwear and black socks, so everything matched.  I told him that he did a good job matching, but needed to go pick out something else, or I would do it for him.  Here he is pleading his case (somewhere in there, he put on the socks and underwear in an effort to convince me of his incredible fashion sense).




Last week, he informed me that his suit would be the perfect outfit for his first day of school. If we had already been to the wedding, I probably would have just let him wear it, but I don't want anything to happen to it before we need it. After the wedding, I might let him wear it to school if he really wants to. Do you think it would be too much for picture day?

First Day of School

Today was Malcolm's first day back at school.  He's going to the same preschool as last year, and while I think he was happy to go back, he didn't have the same enthusiasm as last year.  Last year, he was up and dressed before 7:00 am.  This year, I finally went in and woke him up at 8:17.  If I had waited any longer, there was no way we would have made it to school on time.  As it was, we were a little later than I would have liked, but not too bad.

I tried to take a couple of photos outside our house before we left, but he was being goofy and they ended up out of focus. Someday I will learn to set Dorothy down before trying to take a picture instead of holding her on one hip while taking pictures with the other hand. Those pictures never turn out well. I did get a descent picture of him just outside his classroom door.

Ready to start a new year!

After dropping him off, Dorothy and I walked home, then headed out for our annual celebratory breakfast where she ate more food than a person her size should be able to consume. On the way home, we went to the grocery store, then she had just a few minutes to play while I hung up the laundry. All too soon, it was time to go pick him up. I learned my lesson last year, and brought the wagon so that he could ride home instead of whining about how tired he was and how hard it was to walk. Once he gets used to going to school again, he can walk home. Right now, it is such a change from summer, that I'm not going to fight him on it.

One of Dorothy's favorite things is joining the big kids on the playground when we go get Malcolm from school. She doesn't seem to notice how much bigger all the other kids are.

Debating joining in at the snadbox.

Dorothy having a chat with a little girl who befriended her last year.  I'm not sure what they were talking about, but they went back and forth for quite a while.

Malcolm on the playground.

It was odd to see all the kids playing and to see that Malcolm wasn't one of the smallest there anymore. He was playing with a group of boys who are all about the same age who were in the same class last year.

The ride home.

He was so exhausted that he was begging for a nap about an hour before their regular nap time. Hooray for school!

Camp Out

At the start of Summer, I signed Kevin and Malcolm up for a family camp night at a local park with a small zoo.  The camp out was scheduled for the Friday of Labor Day weekend, but it was unfortunately cancelled due to bad weather. I'm not sure who was more disappointed, Malcolm or Kevin.  Next Friday, there will be a family camp fire at the park where they will get to roast marshmallows, sing songs, and tour the zoo. For some reason, they are not going to have folks set up tents and spend the night though.


Kevin decided to try to make it up to Malcolm a little bit, so they had a camp out in the backyard. Earlier this week the kids had a blast when Kevin set up the tent as a trial run and they rolled around in the sleeping bags in the living room for a day or two. Malcolm felt very important to get his own flashlight and they only came in once for a potty break because Malcolm, "Ate too many marshmallows."

Before the boys tucked in for the night, we all roasted marshmallows at a tiny fire Kevin set. It was a beautiful night and a lot of fun, but I was happy to sleep in my own bed. I think Kevin found the ground a bit harder than when he was younger.

The fire.

The camp site.

Malcolm roasts his first marshmallow.

Ready to dig in.

Enjoying his hard work.

Dorothy gets a little help eating her first marshmallow.

Once she had the hang of it, she got to eat them by herself.

A good time was had by all.