Over the weekend Mom made some more progress on the tree house, with a bit of help from Corwin.
As a result of these improvements, Mom let Alice go up for the first time. Even I went up for the first time since there was a floor.
Alice’s first ascent
[Corwin wipes his mouth on his shirt at dinner]
Dad: I’m going to get a wide pendant for Corwin to wear while he’s eating. It will have lots of little spikes on it. I figure after two or three months, it will encourage Corwin to use napkins.
Alice: Don’t do it, Daddy!
Dad: Why not?
Alice: He’ll die.
Dad: No he won’t.
Alice: Yes he will.
Dad: Hmmm. Well, what if you get all his stuff after he dies? Is it OK then?
Alice: Yes.
Charles: And I can get some of it too!
Alice: Yes!
Corwin: I have such nice siblings.
The gang on the field
Today was Charles’ last T-ball game of the season. It wasn’t originally scheduled but was a make up game for one that was rained out. Both teams were hitting better than usual, so Charles was able to do some fielding. Charles hit well, although he needs to get a bit more upswing for better distance.
Polynomial has a number of odd habits, but the oddest one (in my view) is that she likes to go outside to sun herself on the porch. In the middle of summer. As a furry, black dog. I am surprised she hasn’t spontaneously combusted yet.
Dad: Here comes the Evil Charles-Eating Daddy!
Alice: No! [attacks with Lego] I am swinging this like this to stop the Evil Daddy.
Dad: But then the Evil Charles-Eating Daddy will starve!
Alice: OK.
[Alice’s guilt over her cruel indifference catches up with her]
Alice: You could eat Corwin!
Charles and Alice had been playing with the blocks and Charles had been lecturing Alice about having to feed and care for her “workers” (the wood colored small blocks) and how they would die if she didn’t do that at least once a week. Naturally, I wanted to find out how she’d resolve that dilemma…
Today was a Mom-induced cleaning frenzy (mostly for Mom — the kids were not terribly frenzied while out of Mom’s sight). This was all just preparation for re-arranging the furniture. Mom and I moved the small couch from the media room to the living room and then big blue couch from the basement up to replace the small couch. There are frequently arguments and fights about seating space in front of the most important object in the house. We’ll see if the increased resources lead to less conflict or just increased consumption.
Today was Charles’ last officially scheduled T-Ball game. The real last game is next week on Tuesday, to make up for a game that was rained out.
The batting this game was much better, leading to some actual fielding. Charles snagged a few one them and made good throws back to the pitcher (there were no throws to a base). Charles had to play pitcher for a while, which he didn’t seem to like much. He prefers second base or outfield, even to first base.
This evening was the final gathering for the swim team. It was at the pool and didn’t start until 8PM, after the normal closing time. The evening was somewhat cool (especially for late July) but that didn’t stop the kids from swimming. Various awards were handed out and Corwin got a nice plaque for completing his first swim season with the team. There was a bit of an organizational problem as the coach apparently had to search the entire pile of items for each child, so that took quite a long time. Finally, though, the kids were released to eat junk food and swim. Corwin had a good time, despite forgetting to bring a towel to a swimming event.
Charles insisted on coming along, but I told him that since he had gone to the party, he had to be on the team next year. He responded to that with non-committal grunts. Charles had fun in the water, but managed to lose his goggles somewhere despite a complete search of the pool area just before leaving. Charles was rather distraught over the loss. We’ll see if he was distraught enough to be more careful in the future.
Sunday was the big paintball outing that had originally been scheduled for last week. We had 7 people — Corwin and his Dad, Jack and his dad, Keith and his dad, and Josh who was too scary to have a parent along.
We met at noon and managed to get on the road by 12:30, which I thought was excellent since I had started prepping the equipment at 6:30 AM. We got everyone checked in and started shooting around 1:30 PM.
There was another son and dad there, plus a few guys from the team that’s based at the field. I had been worried about playing with random people but the other guys all played well so it was a good time. It was about 95° and humid so it was some tough playing. Josh and I were the only ones who played every game, about 10. We mostly played in wooded fields with lots of junk for cover, and a couple of games on a speed ball field. No one was much for speed ball, but the other guys wanted to and I thought it would be good to at least experience it before judging. They still didn’t like it much afterwards, but now they can say “I’ve tried it”.
The boys played well, especially for first timers. They used cover, they kept low while moving fast, and actually shot at the other players. Their accuracy wasn’t bad either. The one thing they did wrong was bunching up too much, sometimes having three of them behind a small bunker with barely enough cover for all of them. Jack’s dad was particularly aggressive. He would have done great if the kids had provided better fire support. But as it turned out, at least once Jack’s dad took an excellent forward position which was, unfortunately, past an opponent who was able to just turn around and take him out. The last game went much better, with the boys doing very well in helping out on a right sweep, spreading out across the bunkers and moving up as the point man (one of the team guys) pushed forward. Since it was the last game, and we can’t re-use the paintballs for another day I told the boys to fire freely, which they did, leaving just 500 rounds of a total of 3000 as remains.
I think everyone had a good time. None of the markers failed in the field and we didn’t even run out of CO2. The one thing that I will need to have people bring next time is belts — I don’t think anyone else had one and I only had two spare.
I managed to get some serious bruises. I need to wear some arm protection next time.
I had called the field the day before, to verify that it would be open, and the owner mentioned to me that there was a large group (~40 people) arriving later. I thought we might mix with them, bt they didn’t arrive until just as we were leaving (a bit odd, given that it was 4:30 and the field officially closes at 5 on Sundays). The funny part was that the boy’s class mate and soccer team mate Nolan was part of that crew, on his first paintball outing. I wonder if they’ll get around to comparing notes, later.
I was so tired afterwards that I just lay around the house until it was time for bed.
Leaping Corwin at Fred and Jennifer’s house in California (2001)
We were visited by other long term friends this morning, Fred, Jennifer, and Doug (aka “Floop”). Fred dates back to high school. Jennifer was a house mate of Mom and I in college and eventually married Fred. Floop was a student eventually ended up as a co-worker for most of a decade.
Fred and Jennifer brought their children Sean, Clara, and Samantha. We felt for having to squeeze them in just in the morning, but we had already committed to the swim meet. Floop, Corwin, and I headed off to the swim meet when it was time to go while the rest of the crew stayed behind to visit. Floop enjoyed the swim meet for a bit, but really there’s only so much entertainment to be had if you only know one of the kids. Eventually Mom came and rescued him.
We had Sean and Clara until late evening, while Samantha (the baby) was shown off to various kinfolk. Charles and Alice were gracious hosts, involving the two of them in Charles’ elaborate alternate reality. We let Sean go up in the unfinished tree house with Charles, which he thought quite a bit of fun.
It was so much fun even Corwin popped up to join them, although the unfixed ladder upset him and he wouldn’t go all the way until I told him I wouldn’t let him off ladder until he did. For all the kids they couldn’t get up or down unless I belayed the ladder bottom. After a while I had to roust them out because the mosquitoes were chewing me up and I couldn’t leave them there unsupervised.
Alice and Clara had some fun in the Barbi car, scouting for Charles and Sean on the tree house / command center.
Today was the big conference swim meet. We thought it might get canceled because it was raining, once again, in the morning. Mom said we had to go anyway because they were more likely to hold for rain and not give up for the conference. Mom, for once, turned out to be right and after a couple of rain delays for the morning session (for 10 and younger) the day cleared up in to bright sunshine and the meet could go on.
Corwin swam 5 events, 100m medley, breast stroke, back stroke, free style, and free style relay. That was his first time this season for swimming the maximum number of events. For the back stroke, Corwin swam alone in his heat and I over heard a couple of other people commenting that it was hard to do that. Corwin swam OK, although his final relay finished last in its heat, slowing losing the lead on the final length and finishing just behind.
We’ll see if Corwin goes back next year, when he has to show up for the long morning practice instead of the shorter late morning practice.
Charles went to his acrobatics class today and participated fully, apparently fully recovered from his surgery yesterday.
Grace, Alice, Charles, Noah
Immediately after my day of flying I headed home, showered up, and headed back out with Alice and Charles in tow to see Laurie who was in town for a bit. She’s a very popular person and so Friday was the only evening available. Mom couldn’t attend because she had to go off to rescue Corwin from the bugs in time for his swim meet tomorrow. But that’s a whole different adventure Mom won’t be writing up.
We managed to make it to Laurie’s parents’ house within the specified time window, if just barely. The kids hit it off and disappeared in to the basement to play after dinner. Grace and Alice are fun because they’re just one month apart in age, almost exactly the same relationship of Laurie and me (even the same two birth months — that’s planning!). Charles was fine because he spends a lot of time playing with Alice so Grace was just a doubling of the fun.
The favorite toy was a book Grace had which folded out in to a 360° play house. Alice thought that was very cool. It’s also handy for traveling.
Because it was a special visit, I let the kids stay up until 10:30, but eventually I decided they need to get some sleep, even though they were still going strong. Although, on the way home, Charles remarked that he was very tired and was going straight to bed.
Jules Verne 29 / G80 - 4
I spent most of today launching rockets and taking pictures of them. It was the annual launch for a summer class at the local university. It’s really a week long camp in which high school students learn about aeronautical engineering by designing, building, and flying boost gliders and egg lofters. At the end of the week the club sets up to let them actually fly and see how things go.
This year we set up early because the park district had some other sort of camp (I never did hear what kind) and asked the club to do a demonstration launch where we fly rockets for the amusement of the crowd. We did about 150 launches in 20 minutes which is a lot faster than our usual rate. Because it was a demonstration everyone had rockets prepared before the start so we could fill the rack, launch, then immediately fill again. I flew my Barracuda on an E30-4. It hadn’t been out for 4 or 5 years, but still flew very well. I had my JV-29 all wood rocket on the second rack on a G80-4 which went well from the audience’s point of view, although I think the delay was little short and chipped the top of the body tube a bit. I had taken the rocket out to show the crowd before the launch, making it nicer for them to see it fly. I brought it over to show a few of the kids as they left what it looked like after a flight. I think some of the kids found it interesting.
That was it for me flying, as I didn’t have time to prep anything else. The rest of the day (until about 6 PM) was helping with the camp students (over 40 of them, each launching a boost glider twice and an egg lofter once or twice). That went OK, athough the failure rate seemed higher than normal. One of the rocket guys remarked that we were teaching the wrong values, as the failure were far more exciting to the crowd than the successes. Still, even he had to admit that watching an instructor’s boost glider shed both wings on boost was funny.
Sorry I am so far behind, it was a very wild weekend and we’re still recovering. I will try to get caught up again this week as things settle a bit.
Today was the big day of surgery for Charles, who lost another tooth on Tuesday, leaving him with no upper front teeth. It was only fitting that they scrape his adenoids out as well.
Charles wasn’t allowed to have any food or drink after midnight, which he took as major suffering, even though he had to be to the hospital by 7, an hour or so before he normally even wakes up. Still, he managed it and was being prepped by 8:30. Mom ended up staying there for a good while because Charles was slow to wake up from the anesthetic. Charles was a bit woozy afterwards, but by 1 PM he was able to suck down a cheeseburger at Steak and Shake, along with a chocolate shake.
When he got back, I gave him a cheering up present, another 200 planks of Kapla so he could make a bigger mess to drive Mom crazier even more elaborate play scenarios. He slept a lot in the evening. I suspect he’ll be bouncing around the house by 5 in the morning though.
We went out to the Boy Scout camping area (a 45 minute drive) because
Bug Row
The reason for the latter was that Corwin wanted to plead to be taken home, although he only asked a couple of times in a despairing voice, correctly anticipating the denial of his request. The troop had already lost two boys — I need to ask Uncle Evil if that was a normal loss rate from his day, since I wasn’t a Boy Scout myself. I didn’t even consider letting Corwin come home given the near perfect weather. Corwin’s main problem is not liking the bugs, which were extra pesky this year because the tents in use didn’t have connected bottoms so there was no way to seal off the great outdoors. The kids all had to have mosquito nets, and we got Corwin the wrong kind (“there are kinds?”) because he didn’t pay enough attention to point out the right kind. A personal growth experience, that is.
On the other hand, Corwin did seem to be enjoying the activities during the day. He’ll make some good progress on some merit badges, which is good. He was going to work on his Tenderfoot rank, but it turns out he’s so close that he was set to work on 2nd class instead.
Because of the conference swim meet on Saturday, Corwin will escape the last night of camping with bugs and get to sleep in his own bed, although he’s going to shower very thoroughly before that, no matter how tired he is.
While torturing Corwin with the thought of how close yet inaccessible escape was for him, Alice and Charles had some fun as Corwin showed us around the camp in his glum yet resigned manner. Mom pointed out poison ivy and poison oak, which we fortunately seemed to have avoided. I noted that Charles’ penchant for wearing long pants and sleeves even in the heat of summer paid off for once. although Charles admitted that he was sweating (apparently rare enough to be worth specifically remarking on). Naturally, while Alice was flouncing around in a short dress, spaghetti strap dress with sandles, it was Charles who ended up with a tick on his leg. It was just below the knee on the inside, which I found impressive for the tick. Such pride didn’t stop me from taking it off Charles and disposing of it. Charles was very cooperative and patient with me as I gathered my equipment and read up on tick removal on the Internet. I got it off without leaving the head behind. I made Charles take a bath afterwards to verify that there was only one, although Charles remained a bit more phobic than usual about bugs post bath.
Yesterday Mom decided that she’d pick up Alice via bicycle instead of car, having had such a grand time with Alice in the bike trailer on a previous occasion. In order to have maximum fun, she made Charles bike with her as well. Mom tells me that things went well on the way there, but unraveled a bit on the way back (despite stopping at the coffee shop just down the block from daycare to boost the moral fortitude of Alice and Charles via snack bribes). Alice waited for a few blocks then declared that she wanted out of the trailer so she could walk home. Mom wanted to get home before it was time to leave again in the morning so Alice’s freedom was callously suppressed. Charles tried to be a trooper but it was a very long trip for him so that he went gradually slower and s l o w e r as time wore on. Eventually the journey was completed. Now Mom’s looking for one of those half bike attachments so Alice can pretend to pedal with Mom and fall off in to traffic.
The kids, mostly Charles and Alice, have rediscovered the Kapla blocks and smaller domino style blocks that Mimi gave them several Christmases ago. I think that’s cool, but Mom’s been a bit stressed over having the blocks scattered over large chunks of the main floor. Charles does most of the building, but Alice is starting to build things The two of them use the buildings as backdrop to some very elaborate imaginary worlds. They have also gotten better about fighting over who gets to use the last pieces. On the other hand, yesterday when Mom made Alice and Charles pick up the blocks, Alice insisted on cleaning up the same stuff as Charles, and Charles insisted on not being copied. And by “being copied” Charles meant picking up the same type of block as Alice. Sadly, Charles was forced to accept copyright infringement.
Woo woo! Corwin is gone for a week to Boy Scout camp. We’ve been preparing for it on and off for the last couple of weeks but it was took a morning of frantic Mom to get him ready to ship out. Unfortunately, it looks likes it going to be a week of gorgeous weather, especially for this time of year. How can it be real camping if he doesn’t get rain and / or tornados?
Corwin had to borrow a back pack from Charles because at the end of school, he left a mushed up banana in his and only now got around to trying to clean it out. For some reason it proved difficult. So difficult, in fact, that Corwin was driven to actually ask Charles for a favor.
In addition to his normal camping supplies, Corwin took a good supply of beating sticks. That should make things a bit more entertaining. We thought about sending his cell phone along, but decided against it. After he left, however, I remembered that I had set it up so he could send pictures to one of my online pictures sites so he could have sent us near real time updates. Oh well, next year!
Corwin will also be working on some merit badges. I looked through the requirements and gosh, Boy Scout badges are a lot harder than Cub Scout / Webelos. It’ll be something to keep Corwin busy during the year.
Last week Abby told Alice that her real name was “Abigail”. I noted that it was an appropriate name, since it was really “Abby-Gale”, therefore blending perfectly with our little Alice-cane.
The swim meet was canceled again, due to torrential rain and lightning. Naturally, it cleared up around 10 or 11 in to a beautiful day, until about 5 when it started raining again.
The day before, at practice, I noticed a B-17 bomber flying overhead while Corwin practiced and Charles had swim lesson.
It was in town for rides and walk-throughs. Charles though it would be cool so off we went. Mom wanted to go along so the entire crew decamped for some vintage airplane experience.
I had thought that we had seen this plane before, but that is not the case — the previous excursion was for a B-29 and B-24. Still missing the B-25 for a complete collection.
P.S. We got out of there with only Mom getting a patch for her purse and Charles yet another metal toy airplane, because we don’t have enough of those yet.
Yesterday was a game for Charles. We were a bit late because it was at a field I hadn’t been to before. But we got there just a bit late in the first inning. However, it was a very short game, just two innings, so that tea pictures could be taken. Charles was semi-cooperative, despite the fact that I was taking pictures as well.
Beyond the pictures, I realized that Charles hadn’t been doing much fielding because very few batters could actually hit the ball past the pitcher’s mound. That somewhat reduces the amount of fielding required. It seems to me that there was more long hitting last year, but perhaps I just remember it incorrectly. Of course, a two inning game where we missed have an inning has even less fielding scope.
P.S. At least Charles can usually hit to the outfield, if not much further than the grass line.
Last night was the big Boys vs. Girls Soccer Rematch. This featured Corwin’s team vs. Mara’s team. I was expecting our babysitter Christi but she was a no show, along with Anwen.
It was a good game, with the girls making the first score, followed by two scores by the boys, then a tieing score by the girls in the first half. There was a lot of good game, plenty of passing and close calls at the goal.
The girls started to fade in the second half. Only 11 of them showed up, so they had no substitutes at all. The boys had one substitute in the first half, but two of the faster players showed up at half time to fuel a fresh offense and provide three substitutes. The girls held out for a quarter or so but around the start fourth quarter the boys scored three goals fairly rapidly to seal the final score at 5-2. The girls had several very close shots at the boy’s goal but didn’t quite make it in. The boys had one that, as far as I could tell, literally bounced off the top bar of the goal and landed just short of the goal line, having bounced off the ground behind the goalie. The boys had to work for their victory, which was a good thing.
On the other hand, the girls had cool looking team shirts. They must have got the sizes wrong, though, because almost every girl had pulled out a section of the shirt near the bottom and put an elastic band around it, presumably to tighten up the bottom hem. Or maybe to look like little bunny tails. I guess I’ll find out in 6 years or so when Alice is that age.
Also, the boys had a ringer — a boy named Eric, who we referred to as the “Anti-JackP” because he was so much like Jack, but Evil, because he played for another team. He plays in the serious soccer league now, with Jack, actually. His sister was playing on the girls team, and there was at least one other brother / sister pair on the field. The best interaction was Eric’s sister trying to psyche him out after a play with “Eric, I love you”.
After the game the boys’ team and parental units had a nice picnic.
I like being mean to the kids (why else have them?) but Mom demonstrated a true artistry that left me breathless in jealousy. She actually made Corwin cry without laying a hand on him. Now, you’re all wondering, what subtle, complex psychological path did she have to tread to achieve this? It’s a bit involved, but if you read carefully you’ll be able to follow it —
Did you catch all that? I can go over it again if you missed it.
The best part was hearing these little soft yet full of pathos “…applesauce!…” wimperings every so often. I don’t know how Mom figured this out — Corwin likes apples and apple juice. But sauce — genius!
Alice: This is Charles and my bunny.
Dad: What’s its name?
Alice: We haven’t decided what to name it yet.
Dad: What about “Dad is super cool”?
Alice: [giggly] Noooo!
Dad: But that would be a great name. Any time you wanted to talk to the bunny, you’d say “Dad is super cool”!
Alice: No. This is a girl bunny and that’s a boy’s name.
Mom, of course, being Mom, was unable to take it easy over the Independence Day weekend (and it was very wrong of me to be mistaken on that point — terribly, horribly, unforgivably wrong. Wrong wrong wrong!). She focused on making progress on the tree house in the way only she (frighteningly) can. The results were
Still a few bugs in the system, the biggest one being the lack of any railing on the top. The ladder is a bit of a problem, as we haven’t found a good way to anchor the bottom for people heavier than Charles. Once the bottom gets loose, it’s very difficult to finish the climb, with the lack of hand holds at the top.
Mom will persevere. I am hoping that this will keep her busy in the spring for a couple of years, as we’ve already discussed additional features to put in next year. But don’t let her know I’m plotting to keep her occupied that way.
We’ve never gone in much for the Tooth Fairy. It was mostly a matter of Corwin losing teeth in both meanings of the phrase, so rarely would there be a tooth to leave under a pillow. This week, however, we had a rash of loose teeth, Charles losing one and then a day later Corwin losing one, and another the next day.
Charles was able to give Mom his tooth to leave out for the Tooth Fairy, who brought him a dollar coin. Corwin did that with his first lost tooth but even though the Tooth Fairy left his coin on his desk in his room1, the same place as Charles’, Corwin didn’t find it for a day or so. Corwin’s second lost tooth he managed to drop down the sink. Corwin wanted his dollar anyway, but hey — no tooth, no cash.
1 Given the boys bizarre sleep motions and general bed disarray, any coinage left under a pillow would never be found again.
Today was Corwin’s swim meet, the first one of the season that I have actually seen. This was was versus the swim team Corwin was on several years ago.
Having partied late the night before Mom decided that Corwin could bike by himself to make the 7 AM arrival time, as the swimming pool is basically across the street from the park. Mom even made him use his cell phone to check in once he had arrived. I hiked over a little while later, as it as a choice between biking or having a mug of coffee. There was, obviously, only one choice. Mom, Alice, and Charles arrived later in vehicular, air conditioned comfort after a hard, exhausting bike ride in the heat and humidity while hauling Alice in the bike trailer.
Corwin did OK. He wasn’t the slowest kid on the team, and I think he’d do noticeably better with some will power, as he tends to slow down once the tiredness sets in, rather than pushing through. He did win one heat, although a cynic might suggest it was because he was the only swimmer in it, but we all know better than to give in to such. Corwin swam four races, which is quite a lot (the maximum allowed is five). He’s old enough that he has to go 50 meters, which is a goodly distance. Still, he seems to be enjoying it.
We took it easy this Independence Day, not making it out to the parade. Charles’ scout den walked in it, but we hadn’t planned to put Charles in it because of other conflicts, which fell through in the end. Charles indicated that he’d rather not, even after he was available and in the end we were unable to generate any enthusiasm from the kids for going out to the parade despite the excellent weather.
I thought they wouldn’t be up for fireworks either, but that turned out to be something they wanted to do. The neighbors were setting off some minor fireworks around supper time and that cue is probably what got the kids on the track. We didn’t go last year because of the anticipated horrible traffic conditions (new location, with road construction!), anticipation that turned out very accurate. But, there was less road construction this year and better traffic management planned so off we went.
We got there a bit early but fortunately ran in to Josh’s family so Corwin and Charles had something to do (we also saw Erica’s brother in passing). Alice spent a lot of time wondering why the fireworks hadn’t started, and I almost convinced Charles at one point that he’d missed them. There were 3 or 4 private shows off the edges of the park, which seemed to go on longer than the real ones, if much less spectacularly. When the real show started, the kids thought it was very cool, and none of them cower from the sound anymore.
It was a good show, but the traffic out was still horrible — we were one of the first to try to leave (due to our fast departure after the show and Mom cleverly having parked in the furthest out, and therefore closest to the exit, spaces) but it still took 45 minutes to get clear. The kids were all passed out when we arrived home, in preparation of having to get up early the next morning so Corwin could be at his swim meet by 7 AM.
So we were at dinner, and Charles was attacked by Charles eating spiders. Charles overwhelmed, while Alice just watched. I asked Alice why she hadn’t helped defend Charles after a couple of attacks. The first time she said “I didn’t want to”, and the next time “I was busy”. I am sure Charles appreciated the sisterly concern.
We’ve been taking Charles to the various medical inspections over the last couple of weeks, which has lead us to schedule some repair work on him.
First we went to the dentist, who told us that Charles doesn’t have enough mouth for the teeth he’s going to get. Sadly, he gets that from me — I still have teeth that overlap each other in my lower jaw, the one tiny flaw in my otherwise perfect physique. This means braces for Charles, first to widen his jaw and then others to straighten his teeth afterwards.
Unfortunately, the dentist told us that Charles has nasal problems that will negate most of the effect of the brace. Charles has always been kind of wheezy, but we figured he’d grow out of it. Turns out, he would, but too late for the braces.
Next stop was a nose specialist, who told us Charles had enlarged adenoids. These are little lymph like nodes which normally shrivel up and disappear as a child grows up. If they’re a problem, they’re dealt with as Mom deals with the little obstacles in her life — total annihilation. The procedure requires anesthetic but is done on an out patient basis, so Charles would be home the same day.
That day was originally today, but we got a call Tuesday saying that the anesthesiologist had been called out of town on an emergency and we would need to reschedule. So now we’re waiting for the next attempt at Charles repair, who seems rather blasé about the whole thing.
Alice has discovered rules. I threatened to pinch her butt while she was in the bath and she announced “You can’t do that! That’s the rule!”. Later she made a rule about not making farting noises on her tummy while she was in bed. She’s been setting a lot of other rules, most of which I can’t remember anymore. Still, it’s good practice for when she starts having relationships with boys. If only Alice were as concerned about rules that apply to her.
