September 2008

Summer is over and September was a mix of good and bad weather, as it usually is. Many people claim that fall is their favorite time of year, which I don't really understand; isn't warmer weather better than cooler weather? On the other hand, fall isn't typically as busy as summer.

Kyla started going to a soccer club on Sundays. One of the large fields in Central Park gets divided up amongst the various teams and there are easily over one hundred kids there. Of course she has several buddies on her team and it is a big social event for the parents who can chit chat with each other on the sidelines. There aren't any real games though at the end of practice the teams will usually divide in two and play scrimmages.

On the 20th Becky and the kids left to go camping with Linda in Winthrop for a few days. They relaxed, went swimming, and roasted marshmallows by the campfire. I stayed behind to do some chores and enjoy the quiet house (though I did miss them).

Kyla's interest in death has abated a bit, though it still comes up from time to time. She explained to Becky that if I were to do then she'd need to learn to drive so that she could go to work and make money for the family. She's pretty sweet in a morbid kind of way.

I may have dropped a notch or two on the pedestal children put their parents on. Kyla came home one day and explained that she figured that her Uncle Casey, who is a gymnast and with a burly physique, could lift about 10 giants, and asked if I could lift that many too. Trying to be honest and show a sense of modesty I confessed to only being capable of lifting eight or nine giants.

Her academic talents now include some basic arithmetic. Kyla can perform addition and subtraction on her fingers so as long as the numbers don't go higher than 10, she's fine. I suppose our next objective will be to get her to include her toes.

Blake's new favorite activity is turning lights on and off. He'll walk up to one, point at it and yell "on!" over and over until I pick him up so he can work the switch. I wonder if children in the 19th century found candles this exciting.

The election season is in high gear and is dominating the news. People are talking about it constantly (well some people are anyway). We haven't seem much of the presidential campaign directly since the primaries because Washington isn't a swing state, which must help prevent North-westerners from getting too sick of it.