Thundering Normalcy

Rainin' down on us like lead bricks of joy from Heaven.

Janneke was away in Amherst, MA, for the weekend, participating in an alumni get-together based around requiems, a subject that interests her greatly. The kids were very glad to see her come through the door this morning - Papi can be a bit Prickly when Mami is MIA. But we all made it through.

My strategy, when Janneke is away, is to cave in on everything. So Saturday we had pancakes in the morning, and then settle in for some TV and snugglin'. Which we followed with a trip to the mall, where I bought two new shirts for m'self, and let Q blow some of his pocket money on a nifty Lego attack vehicle. T was satisfied with a new batch of Barbie clothes. We then sat down in the food court, where Q had Hawaiian pizza from Pizzatella, while T had the pepperoni. Me? Big Mac. Remember the strategy? That's right: Cave 'til it hurts - be it to the children, or to your own inner gluttonous pig. It was all part of the plan.

As we sat there and ate, I praised them up and down about how well-behaved they always are on these trips. They don't cause any trouble, they listen to me when I need them to do something, etc. They nodded in agreement. T, though, did shrug and look up at me with her saucer-sized eyes and say, "Pero, a veces, hacemos desastres." (But, sometimes, we make messes.) I had to admit that that was indeed often true.

Supper was more difficult. Q is forgetting his table manners a lot, and laughing even more when it's the worst thing he could do (like when Tie is playing with her food. He laughs, she sees that she has brought this about, and tries to repeat the action that caused it as often as she can for the duration of the meal). So we had a bit of a meltdown. But we kissed and made up afterward, and they piled into bed pretty happily.

Did some cleaning around the kid-feeding and such, but I was able to do a lot more of it once Janneke came home again. I must have thrown away thirty pounds of toys today. Anything in their rooms that was a partial toy, part of a lost set, broken, cheap, old, unused, or had ever been acquired as a bonus in a fast food meal, either got tossed into the trash or brought downstairs to await its eventual transfer to Goodwill.

Janneke has a lot of nifty thoughts around pacifism that she came away from her trip with. We had a chat about it as we readied the kids for bed. Janneke thinks war should be universally abhored the same way theft, murder and rape are on the smaller scale of societies, because it's so obviously bad for all concerned, at least in the long run. I think that, while that isn't untrue, it won't happen, because there is no authority to which countries must bend, so they do as they please. And it pleases them, often, just as it often pleases individuals, to behave badly, taking what they want by force. The only impediment is that a country has to do some convincing, talking enough of their population into a war to make it seem justified. And the countries around them are fools if they don't prepare against that bad behavior. It's "Lord of the Flies" on a global scale, despite how civilized those same countries might be inside, on the interpersonal scale. It's an interesting discussion.

Despite the impression that this retelling may be giving.

She also came home with tangibles - two new pairs of shoes for T, and a football and a soccer jersey for Q. (I got squat.) So he and I played some catch in the living room this evening as we talked about killer whales, octopi, and wolves.

Pretty good weekend. Keep 'em coming, please. Another hundred years should be enough for now. After that, we'll see. Maybe I'll be tired of it by then.