2002-01-28-10:54 p.m.

I took notes one day last week so I could write down some of the things that go on around here that are probably (hopefully) unique to our family. They're not in any order and don't make much sense so they will be pretty much representative of an ordinary day at our house.

Andrew sat in the middle of the kitchen floor this morning with my toolbox open in front of him. He was working on the Little People airplane with a screwdriver. He shook the plane and told me, "Dere's sumpin in nair."

I knew that he thought there were dead batteries in there and that, if he could only get them out and replace them with new batteries, that airplane would do something. I tried explaining it to him, but he was not convinced. He shook the plane and said, "See? Sumpin's in nair."

I told him it was the wheels rattling, but he didn't believe me, so I held the wheels still and shook the airplane. It still rattled. Andrew still wanted batteries. I held the wheels on the front and the wheels on the back and shook it and it still rattled. Finally I had to hold three sets of wheels, the door and the wings still and shake the plane, and I had to do it with only two hands. But I did convince my son that there were no batteries in there.

***

Benjamin came in my room holding a crayon and asked me what the word on the crayon's wrapper said. I said, "I'll bet Andrew knows. Hey, Andrew. What does that say?"

Andrew took one look and said, "Orange." And Benjamin was duly impressed.

You see, I knew that Benjamin was so hung up on the word that he couldn't see the color. So his little brother got to seem really smart.

***

I spent a few minutes getting hair gel out of a container that Andrew broke when he was pouring the gel out in a puddle on the back porch. I put it in a small plastic container and put it back in the cabinet.

***

Daniel came into the kitchen where I was making lunch. "You're not going to burn the fishsticks, are you?" he asked.

"I always burn the fishsticks," I said.

"I know. I hate it. They get real small and brown and hard."

Becky told me I'd have to get in the corner if I burned them again.

I don't really burn them. I overcook them.

***

I was early picking Abby up from school so I went by the office to get some more Little People that the kids wanted to play with at home. We dumped them out of the box they were in and, later, Andrew put the box on his head and crawled around on the floor.

***

We listened to John Williams & The Boston Pops during lunch. First was Opus One and Daniel asked if that song was in The Rocketeer. I said I didn't think it was that song, but it was that style. Then we heard Begin the Beguine and I told him I thought that was the song he was thinking of. He said yeah, it sounded familiar.

I broke my crunchy fishstick with my fork and said, "Do you remember the name of the guy in that movie?"

Abby guessed Cliff and I remembered Secord, so we had his whole name. Then Abby said, "What's the bad guy's name?"

We couldn't think of it so she told us: Neville Sinclair.

Nobody could remember the girl's name, but now we want to see that movie again.

***

Daniel got thirsty after eating those really small fishsticks, and we didn't have any good water or milk so he went to the refrigerator to see what he could find. He pulled out a bottle of sparkling cider and brought it to the table.

"What are you doing?" Abby was looking very horrified.

He made a face or a snide comment or something and went on with what he was doing, which was asking me if he could have some of that sparkling cider.

Abby looked pretty horrified.

I told Daniel sure he could have some, and Abby's eyes got real big, and by this time I was pretty sure that I could have some fun with her because she thought it was a bottle of wine.

While she was busy making a sandwich I whispered to Daniel to pour a big glass and drink it as fast as he could, making sure Abby was watching.

He did it and the expression on Abby's face was priceless. Daniel was a good little actor, drinking his "wine" with much relish and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand when he was finished.

We decided to go ahead and tell her it was cider. After we let Andrew drink some, of course.

***

While I waited for Abby at the college I noticed that the people in the Fine Arts building seemed to be having a lot of fun. The people who were going in wore very casual clothes and weren't in any hurry. Some students I could see through the window were pushing each other on a flat cart and laughing.

Next to that building is the Academic Science building. The people coming out of that one were all older-looking men. They wore more formal clothes and did not push each other on a flat cart down the sidewalk. I was all ready to put the people in both buildings in little categories in my mind when one man who looked like a professor walked toward the parking lot with his head down. He had on a jacket and dress pants and was half bald and carried what looked like a brief case or satchel or something. He was almost to the parking lot and I had almost labelled him when he stopped and turned around to finish watching a squirrel scamper across the sidewalk and climb a tree. And I noticed that his briefcase was really some kind of purse-type thing.

I like it when people won't let you label them.

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