At the park

Pretty girls

Today is Julia's picture day at school.  She was so excited for it.  She dressed up extra fancy and took a lot of trouble to make sure her hair was well brushed.

Before driving her and Paul to school, Steve walked into the house shaking his head.  "Julia was just standing on stoop, kind of dancing around, and didn't have her backpack or anything with her.  I had to remind her that it is still also a school day."

I laughed a little.  "I'm glad she still has some little girl in her."

Let's pretend

One of Nathan's favorite things to say lately has been, "Let's play we're pretend superheroes."  Today he was Brick Man, and I was Tree Woman.  He suggested that Maggie could be Wind Dog, and I thought that seemed appropriate.

This morning Petra and I pretended to be birds while she waited for the bus.  She did not like my idea of Andes Condor because she doesn't know them, but instead suggested we be barn swallows.  So we swooped and flapped and dived for a while until the bus came.

Nathan and I spent some time at the YMCA today.  In the block room we were approached by a little girl on hands and knees who was meowing.  She didn't really jive with Nathan's vision to build structures to roll balls down, so he walked off.  I asked her what kind of kitty she was.  This is always a winning question.  "I'm a kitty with white legs, and I have rainbow fur, and I have wings, and they are brown when they're folded, but when they open up they're..."
Yeah, I remember being that girl.

Nathan and I were dragons while we waited for the afternoon bus to pick him up.  I was a fire dragon with red wings, and Nathan was an ice dragon with blue wings.  He iced some cream and eggs into ice cream for us.  He made it snow and we sledded down the bank of the driveway.  He froze my nose, but of course I could melt it because I had fire breath.  He caught the melt off in his imaginary cup and drank it.  Mmmm... fresh nose water.

Knowing your audience

The setting: It is Tuesday night and the Kuhlman children are getting ready for bed.

Sarah: Paul, I need you to read to Nathan.  Nathan, I need you to let Paul read to you tonight.
Nathan: (Grudgingly) Okay, but I get to pick the book.
Paul: Nathan, how about this, "The Emperor's New Clothes"?
Nathan: No, I don't want that one.
Paul: In this version the he walks around in his underwear.
Nathan: Okay, I'll listen to that one.
Sarah: Paul, you are very persuasive.
Paul: You have to know your audience.

Boys and damage

We got Paul a smartphone for his birthday.  I was a little reluctant to have a 13 year old with a phone.  It seems extravagant to me, maybe because I got my first mobile phone when I was 22 year old (which now also sounds really young).  And I was concerned about him running over data limits with our phone plan or getting in trouble at school with it.  But Steve pointed out that since Paul travels with the scouts and stuff, there are times when it would be nice for him to be able to call. 

Last Friday I took the kids to the park where Paul and Julia rode off on bike and scooter, and I played on the play set with Petra and Nathan.  Toward the end of our visit, Nathan fell and scraped his hand pretty badly.  It was all my fault, really, because I had made him walk over to a boring old trail marker, and when I said it was time to walk back to the play set he turned so quickly that he tripped and fell.  I sat down with crying Nathan, and I have to admit, it was really nice to be able to call Paul on his phone and say, “I need you and Julia to come back NOW.  Nathan hurt his hand.”

It took a minute to turn Paul’s attention over to coming back to the car.  Some very nice family was letting him and Julia take turns flying a ~24 inch wide, quad propeller drone.  “Mom, look!  Look over the field… um…past the bathrooms.  Can you see the drone in the sky?  Julia is flying it!  Look!  Can you see it?”

“Sweetheart, that’s cool, but I don’t see you right now, and I need you to come back. Now!”  I would have been in a pickle if Paul hadn’t had a phone.

The very next day Paul accidentally destroyed the phone.  He bicycled to grandma’s house with the phone in his pocket.  Steve had told him to put it in his backpack instead.  He came home in tears because the phone had slipped out of his pocket and he didn’t find it until after it had been run over by a truck.  Completely destroyed.  It was kind of impressive.

We had insurance on the phone, and Paul had to help pay out the deductible to replace it.  Maybe he has learned a lesson too.  Last night he went biking with the scouts and followed his dad’s advice to leave the phone behind, which is probably good because he accidentally ran into another scout’s bike and found himself rolling on the ground. Fortunately, there were no injuries (or damage to property) to report.

Nathan has mostly recovered from his hand scrape.  Yesterday, we finally got to the point yesterday where I felt like he didn’t need to keep a band-aid on it any more.  Then he and the dog tripped over each other and he split the scar back open. 

Maybe this is sexist of me, but, “Arg.  Boys!”