CTKS

Daddy Nut was leaving the house to scout out power steering hose lines for BoB (the van) which was sitting, dead, in a parking lot across town.  Four saw him get ready to go, and cried out: "But, I haven't seen you guys get married!"

Number One Nephew has begun his first job, delivering newspapers in our neighbourhood. He's been gearing up to this moment for a while now, planning what he would do with his earnings (having come to an agreement with mom and dad that he could spend half if he saved half) Yesterday, his first batch of papers was dropped off.  Mom counted and sorted them, stuffing them with fliers and so on.  One's job was to load them into his wagon and walk his route.  Mom cautioned him to stack them carefully or they would topple over.  Which of course they did.  He grew frustrated with how arduous it was - putting newspapers in the wagon.  In the way of adults, mom and dad told him basically that it was work, and what did he expect? His plaintive reply: I didn't think it would be this hard!


When Four and Five play together, this is how they narrate sound effects and actions:
"axe axe axe" 
"firefighter firefighter firefighter"
"motorcycle motorcycle motorcycle"
It's very simple actually; anyone can do this: no matter what it is you're playing with, merely repeat its name three times.  "Zebra zebra zebra." "Metro Man, Metro Man, Metro Man".... you get the idea.


We've been on a West Wing kick of late, watching season by season on dvd.  Pop always called President Bartlet 'The real president' and over time we began to call the show "The real president'. The little boys, Four and Five refer to it as 'The president' They enjoy this political drama; they know the characters by name, and love the music. During one episode, Four asked, "Why is Josh being so mean to Donna?" Mama Nut explained that Josh wasn't being mean, he was just upset. "Josh isn't being mean to Donna, Five. He's just upset." he told his little brother.  "Yeah, Josh is just upset." agreed Five.

We stopped by to visit our old neighbour after a walk this afternoon. She loved watching the boys play, and misses them since we moved eight houses away.  The boys (Four and Five) have really gotten over their shyness of strangers, making small talk with anyone within earshot. They're rather free with what they will share as well, evidenced by Five telling Miss Anne: "I did two poops!"

The 'two poops' has to do with toilet training.  He's been told that if he can figure it all out, he can take swimming lessons like the big boys, who have all turned out to be fishes, and Five wants to be just like them.  Three, who was a tad reluctant at the start, has really knuckled down, giving it his all. He was recently advanced a level (from guppy to sea otter, or whatever the swim-grades are called these days) which means that he has to swim eight lengths of the pool instead of six. At first he went a little pale, but he took a big breath, squared his shoulders, and just went for it. He went for it with such determination and single-minded focus that he was mowing other swimmers down as they swam their laps - some of them he rammed more than once, causing heads to bob up from the water in confusion as they tried to figure out what happened to them, while Three manfully back-stroked his way, lap after lap.