Asides

Yesterday was a rare beautiful, sunny, somewhat clear-skied November Seattle day. We spent most of it inside - Lucy in her nightgown. The kids were incredibly busy all day, but somehow, at 3 pm, we busted out to a big city park - Woodland Park - to play with friends. The beautiful park is a favorite of mine and Lucy's for the big trees, but also, it turns out, the park and trees have another use as a guys-meeting-other-guys hang-out. It doesn't feel dangerous but four young children and two, well, kind of elderly moms bounding around amongst the woods while gentlemen are cruising around looking for love is a little awkward (not to the kids who are oblivious but to the moms and the guys, presumably). So we will be switching to one of the plethora of other options for city forest adventures. But kids had fun.

On our way home, we picked up Rob who works close by. We started making our way through the nightly traffic jam back home, feeling cozy, perhaps partly because of the mesmorizing sea of brake lights before us on I-5. Rob and I are chatting in the front seat while Lucy and Jasper are grooving on an old old Lucinda Williams CD I got at the library. It is good - I think called Happy Woman Blues? A younger, simpler Lucinda. But anyway, Rob broaches the topic of an upcoming party and needing to get a babysitter. Suddenly from the backseat, Jasper, who'd been pretty sleepy-headed, warns us: "Don't think about getting a babysitter or there will be a consequence." Rob: "Oh really, what consequence, Jasper?" Jasper: "My consequence."

Then moments later, Rob is snacking on the crackers I'd brought for kid-snacks, Jasper pipes up again: "Dad, don't fill up on those crackers."

Later in the evening, I escaped the house again - the kids hardly noticing - and went back out into the night for Thai food and a walk around Green Lake - with my friend Jennifer (a dear fellow INFP) and the full moon (well, technically starting to wane, but full-looking) for company. Back home to a sweet, funny husband who'd done all the dinner dishes, and two soft, sleeping cheeks to kiss.