Best laid plans

Friday developed into an unplanned day off since apparently Jen doesn't think the kids are able to take care of themselves.

I decided the extra day would offer a great head start on the weekend chores, planning to take care of the lawn work in the morning then heading out to Stony Creek Metropark for a nice hike in the afternoon.

Edging, mowing, weeding, I figured should take about an hour.

But then, here's why people who don't have kids (especially, unmarried, childless, associate professors of economics at the University of York who exploit minor passages from someone else's work) cannot understand why we like them because that was stretched into 5 hours, the result of many needs, resolutions and hilarity... Thankfully, Ari made lunch for everybody as I started spraying the lawn.

While concluding that process, Jared and Will raced down the driveway on their bicycles and, foreseeing the inevitable, I warned the boys to avoid the lawn until it dried.

Will conceived that admonishment as a challenge to cover himself as fully as possible in fertilizer, somehow hitting the edge of the lawn with his tricycle in such a manner as to fly several feet, landing face first then twisting as he slid, rolling to coat his entire body completely and evenly.

His first instinct, naturally, was to rub his eyes and he became very upset when, instead of allowing that and offering comfort, "Meany" dad secured his arms, rushed him inside and sprayed him down in the kitchen sink.

After several, “My no like you”’s and a hug he settled down in the comfy chair with a little milk and some dreadful toddler toon while I wrapped up the outdoors.

Finally finished I was looking forward to the trip to Stony Creek. However, on entering the living room this is what I found:



So we settled for a little quiet time, a slurpee and a trip to the nearby great blue heron rookery – what was thwarted by barricades of poison ivy, so… We just played on the swings and the slides.

And ran around pretending to be airplanes.