Papa in Mexico, Day Six

First thing's first. I woke up late enough to have missed the garbage truck, but early enough to see the recycling truck. Thus, I now have proof that you don't have to have your recycling in a blue bag: Day Six I didn't do anything at all. I gloried in the freshly arrived Radiohead tickets and posted on message boards to show how smart and lovely I am. I talked about shipping out a Domestic Greening order that was placed last week, but decided that I was too lazy to mess with UPS at the moment. I stayed in pajamas at the table, helping Ana decide between the Britax Frontiers and the Radian 80s for her kids' new car seats, the sounds of video games beeping in the background.

While I enjoyed an omelet for breakfast at 2 in the afternoon, Aleks rejected the "milkiness" of the peanut butter on the sandwich I made him, insisting that it was the fault of the bread. None of which makes any sense to me. His solution was to acquire a spoon and the jar of peanut butter and circumvent the whole bread situation altogether.


We are now nearly out of peanut butter. Bastian's breakfasts are in trouble...If only I could ever remember to take the plastic tub to the Co-op for bulk peanut butter like I intend.

Beside Aleks on the table, Papa's pepper plants are starting to look like actual plants. He will be so excited when he returns from Mexico. I'm still not sure why we're only growing peppers, however.
Bastian brought me a Darth Vader action figure to show off how he reattached the arm himself. He was quite proud. I didn't mention that it faced the wrong way and that he'd have to have his elbow relocated, something I'm pretty sure hurts like nothing else.
At around five in the evening, I decided that I'd really put off going outside to enjoy the weather long enough and that we must leave. Initially, I just thought we'd go to the park or on a walk to the library to return the videos, but then Ana and I talked about getting together so we headed across town to share pizza with her, Jonas, and Lavinia.

In the car, Aleks asked if it was Spring. I told him it was. He asked if Spring meant that there were pink flowers on trees. I talked about all the different colors of flowers on different plants and how so many come out in Spring, but especially on trees. Then he pointed out a white flowering tree, excited to see a different color.
Bastian just discovered the kaleidoscope, which he brought in the car with him to take to Ana's. He seems quite fascinated by the spinning shapes. I remember being roughly his age and using one and loving it. Aleks has shown no interest in it or the nicer wooden one I bought him last summer.
Ana and Lavinia were matchy-matchy. Lavinia was very tired. I offered to try to be her mommy and to nurse her, but she just screeched and clung to her real mama, whining to be carried around even while Ana tried to throw things away and pick up the house and order pizza.
After dinner, the kids all played in the backyard, jumping on this mattress left behind by a neighbor recently moved. It was kind of gross, but kind of fun too.
We tried to discourage them from touching the mattress with anything other than their shoed feet, advice that went completely unheeded like most things that exit our mouths.
We set up an "obstacle course" for them that involved jumping off the picnic table onto the mattress, going down the slide, then rocking on the see-saw.
The bouncing on the mattress was my favorite part, but then I'm a little big for the other toys. They were sufficiently worn out as Bastian fell asleep on the car ride home.



Just before leaving Ana's house, Aleks and Jonas were playing Lego inside and Aleks kept talking with a robot voice. At one point, we overheard them discussing a bad guy scorpion who was really just looking for its mother, who was also a bad guy.

My mother pulled up to our house a few minutes after we returned form Ana's. Bastian woke up when I put him in the bed, but went back down easily. Aleks took a little longer, but Grandma read to him while I took a break.