The boys, sitting with their backs against the water tower.

Caleb, during his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool.

John, the jungle gym/reading machine.

Caleb, at his own makeshift piano, just like his dad! I thought this was ingenious!

Things I found myself saying today:

1) "Why sit still when you can donkey-kick at the table?" Me, to John, about Caleb's behavior at Panera.. John almost choked on his soup because he was laughing so hard. The 4 of us had lunch together today; what a treat!

2) “Caleb! You should NOT be outside without pants on!” He’d taken off his pants like I’d told him to but then when he heard the door open (I’d gone outside to get something out of the car), he ran after me and waited for me in the breezeway.

3) “I feel like the richest mom in the world!” Me, exclaiming to Caleb and Matthew. We 3 had stopped at “Rachel’s park” (a park near our house where we’ve met Caleb’s friend Rachel a few times, aka “Watertower park”) after lunch with John at Panera. Anyway, the sun was shining, and the sky was blue. It was a bit chipper, but that’s alright. Once we got to running and laughing, we were warm again. The park is built nicely around a huge, turquoise water tower whose gates are ALWAYS locked. But, today, the city must’ve been doing maintenance or something—the gates were wide open. So of course, Caleb, Matthew and I ran around the water tower, laughing and hollering for each other. At one point, we sat down, against the water tower, and I was holding Matthew against me (to keep us both warm), and sitting, squeezed next to Caleb, with our backs against the water tower, and I thought, “Man, it doesn’t get much better than this…” Hence, the above quote.

4) “Caleb, what does mommy do all day?” “Plays when John goes to work.” I was asking him what Mommy does. I was hoping he’d say “she’s a nurse” or something.. because he knows what John does when he's at work. He’ll often come up to me and say, “Mommy, my dad works at church.” “Oh really? What does he do?” “Plays piano.” So I was hoping for a similar response. But oh well; I’m glad his perspective, in the midst of my cleaning house, childrearing (setting boundaries, etc) paying bills, sorting school stuff, is that I play with him…