Max and Esme

Thou shalt not covet... Last week at pre-school Max made a lovely beaded necklace that he wore home. He gave it me as a gift, with the caveat that it really belonged to both me and him. I asked him if I could wear it out to the fair last weekend and he paused for a moment, taking the question very seriously. "Yes, as long as you are very very careful. Because some other lady might see it and think it's very beautiful and want it." I'll guard it well, Max.

Vehicle Fair On Sunday we spent a good portion of the non-napping, non-eating part of the day at the Vehicle Fair - a fund raiser for the library where they have vehicles ranging from police cars to school buses to giant excavators on display for kids to crawl around on. Not to promote gender roles, but almost everyone there had a small boy in tow. This was our third annual visit with Max. He checked out every vehicle, danced along to the live children's music and cut his way through the jumping/tumbling games. The highlight of my visit was a ride with Max in the Con Ed cherry picker. If you ask Max what his favorite part of the day was, he'll tell you about the ice-cream he ate on the walk home.

Ouch! Max scraped himself up twice yesterday. First when we arrived at Caroline's in the morning he went running toward the house and tripped over the hose. Got a skinned knee and elbow from his effort. The promise of a Sponge Bob bandaid to show off at preschool left him in good spirits. Then when we arrived home last night to find the neighbor girls waiting outside to play, he went tearing across the driveway and did a facer. Nothing broken or bloody, but a good set of scratches and bruises across the side of his nose and his cheekbone. You could tell it hurt because he actually cried all through the cleaning up. But Max is a tough kid and very focused. As soon as we were done with the bactine and neosporin he headed right back outside to ride bikes with Emily.

Busy weekend. Hair cut. Swim class. Picnic lunch. Playground. Breakfast at the cafe. Vehicle Fair. Mowing lawn. Grocery shopping. Bike riding. Barbeque with the neighbors.

School. Max has completed his first week of school. He attends in the morning for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week with 14 other kids. I went with him for orientation on Monday and he leapt right into the group, introducing himself as "Max the Teradactyl." To give the other moms credit, no-one seemed to think this was a strange name for a 4-year old boy and one mom introduced her son in turn as "Michael the Motocycle." As you might expect, Max has thrown himself right into the school experience. He informed me on the first morning that he was "very, very, very excited to go to school." He leaves the house each morning now with his backpack (currently empty) and his name tag on. And when the Flynn girls get home from school in the afternoons Max sits right down with them to do his homework too (actually some workbooks that we got for him.) Of course, getting Max to tell me anything about what he learned at school today is another story; I mostly get ...

Greta Having just finished viewing Rob's vacation pictures - all 150+ of them - during a lunch break, here's the picture of Greta that I think looks most like Robbie's baby pictures.

Daddy's girl. Esme has been her Daddy's girl lately. Pete and I arrived together to pick her up from Caroline's one evening last week. When I entered the room she gave me a big smile. When Peter came through the doorway soon after she let out a squeal like she was a groupie! Here's a picture showing Esme's contentment on Daddy's shoulder, and Peter is enjoying the special attention. We had a nice weekend at home. Max had his first swim class of the season on Saturday, we visited a local fair for a bit, a fishing trip for the boys, and some swing time for both the kids. Tomorrow is Max's first day of pre-school.

Stats. The kids had their annual check-ups last week. Peter got to do the honors. Max is 36 pounds (50%) and 41 1/2 inches tall (75%). Esme is 20 pounds 4 ounces (50%) and 30 1/2 inches tall (90%). Who would have thought we'd have tall kids?

Long weekend. We are one of the few houses in Rye with electricity tonight, two days after the storm on Saturday. Rain and very strong strong winds took down lots of trees and power lines around the town. Our street is still closed off to traffic, but the lights work and the phone cable is up and running again as well. The creek flooded as high as we've ever seen it, 6-8 inches high on the driveway. But the basement stayed dry, so no worries. Here's a picture of the lake in our backyard. And a nice shot the following day as if nothing had happened. (Except there's a railroad tie next to the driveway that is supposed to be back by the fence! Sunday and Monday were clear and lovely summer days. We took the kids to Playland this afternoon for a last hurrah of the season. Max and I went on the Ferris Wheel and Peter got to join him on the spinning ride.