Star Wars

Will got a Star Wars: The Clone Wars book at his school's book fair last week, based on the new animated movie. He wants to read it every night, even though there's not much story there.

Tonight in bed, Will says "Daddy, you can call me Luke Skywalker. You can be Obi-Wan Kenobi. Charlie is Rex (a storm trooper, back when they were good guys)."

"Who can Mommy be?"

"Hmmm ... who's a girl who's good?"

"Princess Leia?"

"Yeah, that's perfect!"

Think Charlie's teething?

And here I thought he might just like red peppers.

Our baseball field

Every couple days Will says something that makes me really happy. Like Monday night, for instance, when we got home from watching a JV football game and he said "Daddy, let's play baseball!"

Sunday evening, we were having a fire in our backyard, using some scraps from the deck we built three years ago. Will said "Daddy, let's make a baseball field!" So we came up with this below. Will found special flat pieces to be the bases. He also suggested adding "base lines" that ran not on the perimeter of the diamond, but instead diagonally. Not sure if this is how Abner Doubleday drew it up. Notice in left field the Wood Monster, my special touch.

Charlie's baptism: The Wheelhouse

After the baptism we headed to one of our favorite Waupaca restaurants, the Wheelhouse, where we enjoyed pizza and cake -- Charlie's baptism cake and Andy's 29th birthday cake. Sara and Will also hid behind pine needles.

Baptism pictures: The church

Charlie was baptized September 14 at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Waupaca, with my cousin Erin and brother-in-law Nick as godparents. We were blessed to have much family in attendance and it was a really good time.

Business bib

Here's a cute picture of Charlie modeling a 'business bib' made by our friend Sharon Bartsch. Jana will put more up later, but this is a good start. Isn't that a cute product? Looks like he has my sense of style.

From the living room floor

Pictures from Charlie's baptism ...

... are still on our memory card, but the memory card reader is at work. Argh!

To tide you over, a quick Charlie update: this morning in his crib he rolled from his stomach to his back. We were quite surprised! Usually it goes the other way, doesn't it?

Baptism day photos coming soon ...

Divine

Will's Grandma Clary is visiting this weekend, and as usual is preparing excellent food for us. Including this frosted brownie dessert.

Upon seeing it, Will said, "Grandma, that dessert looks divine!"

Divine, eh? Pressed for context, Will demonstrated he knew what the word meant, and that he had learned it at day care when a teacher commented on Chex Mix.

Later, when eating a tomato Uncle John had sent along with Clary from the UP, Will declared the vegetable "scrumptious." That one he learned from the Backyardigans.

Gotta love the vocabulary ...

Recent shots of Charlie

Here's a few recent shots of Charlie ... for those of you who like to play, "Who does he look like?"

Water works

Charlie has discovered the joys of splashing ... and the joys of not obeying his mother.

First day of school

Will went to 4K for the first time today. I was all geared up to cry, had my camera out and everything.

Will had other ideas. He made a bee-line for his classroom, placed his backpack and on his hook and then pretended he didn't know the crazy lady chasing him with a camera (me).

Here are a couple shots I managed to get ... you'll notice his back is generally pointed away from me.

Also take note of his backpack which he declared "awesome." His is the Star Wars one, not the High School Musical "I Love Troy" backpack.

Negotiating for Babies

My friend Karen taught me this trick when Will says he's too full for dinner, but has plenty of room for dessert.

"How old are you?" I ask.

"I'm four."

"OK then, four more bites."

I thought it was brilliant and have been using it for a good year now. Will has recently upped his defenses, however.

"Four more bites," I say.

"How about two?" he answers back.

"Nope, four."

"How about three?"

And so it goes until one of us starts to weep. (Yes, it's usually me.)

Tonight, Will wanted to take some of his Hot Wheel cars into the bathtub. He's got roughly three trillion, so I told him he could take just three into the tub.

"How about four?"

"Three or none, Will," I said, trying to get tough and end the negotiations early.

"What about two? Or one?"

"Huh?" that threw me for a loop.

"I could take none, or one, or two, or three."

Damn my "three-or-none" ultimatum.

I decided to make lemonade. "That's true. Good counting."

"Three is the most I can take in the tub," he said. "That's my ob-so-va-shon."

I'm pretty sure that last word was "observation." But that would be scary if he knows that word.

That's my observation.

The guy who drives a blue minivan

Tonight we were sitting at the Wheelhouse, a popular Waupaca restaurant, when a man walked in and sat down at the table next to us. He looked over at me and Will and said "Excuse me, do you have a blue minivan?"

"Yes, I do."

"The side door of your van is open."

"What kind of van was it?"

"A Caravan."

"Oh, that's not ours, we have a Honda."

"Oh, sorry about that."

OK, so not the most exciting conversation. The point of this boring story is that I look like a guy who drives a blue minivan. You can pick me out of a lineup! Not the guy who drives a Hummer or a Prius, the guy who drives a blue minivan.

He even got the color right! It's clear now that other people, judging me upon first glance, see a middle-aged man who likes the roomy comfort and relatively good gas mileage of a minivan, and chooses blue instead of red or black because those colors might be too flashy. It's so practical!

I suppose there are worse things people could assume of me upon first sight, like the guy who forwards bad jokes to his co-workers and friends, or the guy who tucks in his shirt but doesn't wear a belt, or the guy who doesn't shower after basketball.

But for someone who still, perhaps erroneously, considers himself young, the guy who drives a blue minivan is a label I'm not ready to embrace yet.

Two brief ones from Will

Basement musings from Will on Monday evening:

"Daddy, when are you ever going to be right?"

Response: I think it was rhetorical, but for his sake let's hope I'm right when he starts asking homework questions, or when the returns for his 529 college savings fund come full in 2022.

(While working on a Hot Wheels ramp that was clearly not working his way but actually worked with my intervention.) "Daddy, you took what I made and made it not cool."

Response: Won't be the last time, son!

Diversity Day

Living where we do, in lily-white Scandinavia, we worry sometimes that our children might not be exposed to as much diversity as members of 21st century America should be exposed to. Our surroundings can lead to instances like one we experienced at a park in Stevens Point on Monday, one in which Will quickly learned and moved on.

"Look, a black man," Will said, pointing to a well-built African-American fellow at the beach where we were swimming.

"Will, don't point," I said. "Yes, he's black, but he's just like us, even if his skin is a different color."

Will paused. "No he's not, Daddy."

"Yes, he is, Will."

"No he's not — his muscles are lots bigger than yours!"

Will strikes again ...

Will can't believe it

Sunday afternoon, as we were hanging out in the air conditioning on a hot late summer day, Will was having a fun time playing with Charlie. All of a sudden he looks up and says "I can't believe how much I love Charlie and Mommy! I can believe how much I love Daddy ..."

He then went on to elaborate and clarify how he loved Mommy and Charlie more than Daddy.

Ouch.

Interestingly, after his nap he was all about Daddy, telling Jana how we were going to make a fire, offering to help me with the dishes, shooing Jana and Charlie out of the house for a walk, then giving me a big hug while we were looking at the stars.

It was like he knew he had hurt me a little and was trying to make up for it. Last week he said something similar near bedtime, then spent the morning trying to be like Daddy, packing my lunch and one just like mine for himself.

Recovering quickly from saying something wrong without directly addressing it -- he's training to be a husband already!