It was another big evening here yesterday.
First up was Jared, Jacob’s brother, who was abandoned by his Mom at our house. He and Charles had fun playing with dart rockets, shooting each other in the basement and then around the backyard. Jared spent most of his time in the basement saying to Charles “shoot your daaaaaad”.
Corwin had some fun with them as well. For a while they had Charles bouncing back and forth across the basement to cries of “shoot Corwin! shoot Jared!”. I liked it better when they were out in the backyard shooting each other. My primary regret is that I didn’t send Jared home with one of the rocket darts, but I think I can fix that at Corwin’s birthday party tomorrow…
Later that afternoon, Bear and his family (Mom, Dad, little brother Wolf, Aunt Lucy) came over for a visit. Bear was in high energy form and Corwin was feeling a little better. Charles was in a good mood as well so there was much boyish enthusiasm. Luckily we managed to keep most of it internal to the boy scrum although bits would leak out now and then.
About the time Bear arrived, Jared’s dad stopped by to pick him up. After that the rest of us went over to the pond. Bear and Corwin had on their swimming suits and hit the water immediately. Charle waded out in his shorts. He made us very nervous because he’d wade out to almost his neck deep even though he can’t swim. When we called out to him to come in closer he’d start crying and we’d get really nervous in case he collapsed in a pile of hysteria as he is wont to do. The boy simply has no fear of drowning. The pond was a lot of fun, after which we sloshed the boys home for some cleaning.
Mom cooked up a nice dinner and then after dinner Bear and Corwin disappeared in to the basement to play on the computer. Bear doesn’t have a computer at home so he was enthralled with the boys office. Charles wasn’t so happy because his computer was commandered by the older pair, but I think he’ll get over it.
From what his mother tells me, Bear’s primary memory of our last visit there was that I had a large collection of light emitting objects. His mother claims that he pestered her with questions about what kinds of light toys would be available if he visited Corwin. Well, as though who know me will attest, I don’t like to show off gadgets but for Bear I decided to make an exception. I broke out the 15” glowsticks and other assorted lesser ones. Bear ended up with a blinking daisy and five pointed star along with a couple of others I don’t remember. In the picture you can see the star blinking under his face, several light ropes in another hand and a multi colored blinkie being swung in a circle (the other helix is done by Corwin). Much photonic fun was had.
After this, Mom asked Bear’s mom if he could spend the night. Bear’s mom was stunned that Mom could be so foolish but agreed nonetheless. Bear was very excited about it - apparently he hasn’t had a sleep over before. By this time, of course, it was late and we basically just put the two of them to bed after Bear’s family left. But the boys were back up at 6 this morning to hit the computer gaming circut. Mom mentioned this to me repeatedly today for some reason, even though it didn’t wake me up. After some morning fun we returned Bear, injured to be sure (although properly bandaged up), but mostly in one piece.