Exactly!

Jack is well-loved on the playground. This I have stated before. The moms love him and he's got a whole group of girls who follow him around, doing whatever he demands. If he wants them to chase him, they chase him. If he wants to walk WAY over to the rainbow on the wall, they dutifully walk over there with him. If he wants to make bark hamburgers and ice cream, they pretend to eat it with him.

Of course, sometimes, he has had enough of the girls and just wants something a little more real - like warmer hands, food not made of dirt or bark, a drink of water, a kiss after he's fallen down, or, in yesterday's case, a can of seltzer water.

My friend was just carrying this half-full can of fizzy water around, torturing poor Jack with it. As I was talking to her for some time, he had plenty of time to notice it, want it, and repeatedly ask for it. As it wasn't mine to give him, I told him I'd find him some water elsewhere, but she stepped in and offered the rest of the can to him. I let him have it, fully expecting him to dislike the bitter fizziness.

His reaction to it was priceless: He took a tentative sip, smacked his lips, sighed, and said, "Ahh... Exactly!"

He then wiggled to get down and carried the can around the area, taking tiny sips and savoring each one in a similar manner. Not quite ready to be done running around, he did keep leaving it with me with the instructions "Keep it safe, mommy! Don't drink it!" and would come running back to me later in a panic crying, "Where's my drink?!"

There are clearly some very simple ways into my youngest child's heart.

Fetch, Fetch!

Ben came home in the funniest mood today. He was bursting with energy (more so than usual) and was being so contagiously silly. Where he gets the energy for this sort of thing in the second half of the day, I have no idea. It must be that getting-out-of-school freedom feeling. I remember it from my school days, but I also remember falling asleep in the car on the way home quite a bit too...

Anyways, like I said, he was being quite silly. So silly, in fact, that he decided he was going to be a dog the rest of the day and we were required to call him Fetch. Can you guess what Fetch's favorite game is? Fetch! Mitchell kept throwing a large stick for him, while I threw the frisbee. Ben would pick it up and come bounding back, drop it at our feet, and whine or bark for more with his tounge hanging out. Even Jack got in on the game by chasing him around yelling, "Fetch! Come, Fetch! Come here, doggy!" and petting him with "nice pets."

So when Matt asks what I did today, I can tell him I literally played fetch with my son, I mean, dog, Fetch!