No posts for a week and suddenly three in one day. Such is the sporadic nature of the inner workings of my mind.

The children have become fast friends with the other children in the neighborhood. I’m not sure what prompted this, although, in the Boy’s case, I’m sure it has something to do with his newly acquired level of sentience. The neighborhood boys one day adopted him as a mascot of sorts but he has quickly become their feared leader. The Girl found this change disheartening at first, but after a little cajoling by me and just a few false starts, she has now successfully infiltrated their ranks. Another girl in the neighborhood has also joined the gang and their numbers now stand at six: four boys, two girls.

They play almost daily now that the weather has turned pleasant. Most afternoons now you’ll most likely find the lovely and talented wife (LATW) and I sitting in lawn chairs out front, watching the little ones running amok throughout the cul-de-sac, yelling, “Car!” as the situation arises, and acting as referee for disputes and contests of all kinds.

A few days ago, I participated in a race against two of the older kids from the top of King Kong hill to the Jeep two driveways down and back. I rode my daughter’s scooter and they were on bikes. It was a tie to the Jeep and I made it back second to the hill. I won on the technicality that the quickest boy hadn’t touched the Jeep as per our agreement and I had called “no changies” before the race. I did an obnoxious victory dance while mocking their slowness. It’s nice to know you’ve still got it.

The LATW quipped to me one day, after yanking a little one out of the path of one of our neighbor’s cars coming home from work, that she feels like a lifeguard. All she needed to feel complete was the proper accoutrements of the office, namely, a t-shirt and a whistle. Of course, being the geek that I am, I designed a shirt for her. If you buy one too, know this: you have joined an exclusive club with a worldwide membership of, probably, two.

Comments

1. maggabee on 2005-05-13 05:09:31 wrote: Please hyperlink “sentience” to dictionary.com for us dummies out her in cyberspace.

2. maggabee on 2005-05-13 05:20:44 wrote: “no changies?” again, help me out here…

3. john on 2005-05-13 07:23:06 wrote: When I was a kid, you had to call “no changies”, otherwise anyone could change the rules during the game. :-)

4. HapaKorean on 2005-05-18 08:11:27 wrote: Ha! That’s quite clever! =) I say good on ya for the victory dance too. =)