First of all, Whew! What a week. Everyone is back to work full time and the kids' schedules changed from a full and two half days to two full days and with all these new schedules something was bound to go wrong, but mostly everything didn't. We had a lovely lunch last weekend with old family friends, John and Carol Brewer, who drove all the way up from Hull. Noah and Maxim hid at first when they came, but were friendly before they left. Monday was Martin Luther King Day and everyone stayed home. I would like to recall some of the things that happened at home between Monday morning and today, but until last night at 7:00 when I got home from my Thursday classes, I was pretty much face-in-books trying to finalize lectures and syllabi. I know they were all around me all week, playing well, visiting friends. Maxim's first crush (such as it is) a boy named Joey Luciano came to visit Monday afternoon. I caught Maxim trying to kiss him in her room, much to her embarassment. Later that day, Noah called the fridge the 'frigalator" and we all got a good laugh and made him say it several times. Try it. Say it out loud. It is funny. Wednesday he decided we should fight the cold (it wasn't really cold) by building more indoor tents, "We can make a tent and camp inside so the winter won't come in our head," he told me. I love the way he constructs compound sentences and finishes them, even when he doesn't have all the right words for the concepts. Then the snow returned, sort of. It snowed at the same time the air was just above the freezing mark. It left another new layer on the ground, but not for long. The weather has been unusually warm, in the 40s and 50s, even coming close to the 60s the day before yesterday. It wasn't long before everything melted again. Tuesday, the snow was still on the ground when I went into the city. It was on the ground when I walked home from the train station (6 miles!) at 10:30. It was on the ground the next morning. And then, it was gone. "I think they must have heard me when I said I wished that it could be warmer," Maxim told me. "Could be," I said. Wednesday all day writing another lecture. Marcela home with the kids. We will get this rhythm, but it will take another week's practice at least.

Just to show what I mean, here's the yard from the end of the day yesterday and at the bottom of this post, I will put another picture of the yard midday today. It is spring, in January. The opportunity to play outside again without multiple layers of clothing made Maxim delighted. It seemed to make Noah delighted too, until the plastic wheels on his plastic car got wet and covered with sand. That condition violated one of those aesthetic hangups that he has, like not liking to see doors left open and hating to have things on his plate that he isn't going to eat. "Clean it, Daddy!" he screamed. Most assuredly, no, I thought. He screamed more and ran into the road. Tired, I thought, grabbed him took off his shoes and put him in his bed with a small cup of warm milk. "I don't wanna sleep," he muttered as I walked out of the room. "I know." I said without stopping. Maxim made round-trips up and down the right-of-way for a half an hour. She would ride by me sitting on the porch with a new trick each time. "Look Daddy, I can pedal with my feet up here." "Wow!" "Look Daddy, I can hold the handles like this." "Isn't that something?" "Look Daddy, I can make the back part spin." "Mmmmmm" Then she parked at the base of the porch and asked about the book I was reading. "Should we get chalk?" I asked. "For what?" she said. "To draw on the street." She looked at the street and thought about it for a second, then nodded. "We could get the big chalk," she said following me inside with her instructions. "This is my favorite day in my whole life," she exclaimed, looking for superlatives and finding a few too many. She drew heart-headed stick figures and clothed them in t-shirts and skirts. She drew a sunflower and then copied the word 'sunflower' from the side of her bicycle. Catherine came by after 3:00 and the two of them composed a masterpiece of chalk art along the street by the side of the house. Later they played quietly in the playroom while I worked in what has become my new office. It is part of a convertible set, the office components tuck away for meals and family time, and I feel less awkward eating at my desk. Anyway, the snow melted. Completely. The kids asked if they could camp outside. Another week behind us. Another strange January.

The snow has melted today even further than in this photograph. The January thaw has been unusually long, it seems, and we're expecting one or two more warm days before it's done. The kids don't mind. It means they can play on their bicycles and cars outside. Tuesday, we drove into the city and visited my school, they got to see my office and classrooms and walk around downtown Boston a little bit. Noah's favorite part was the Red Line subway, or, as he called it, the "red train." He was great. He walked up and down stairs and escalators and sidewalks and elevators, never once asking to be picked up. Maxim also absorbed the city with excitement. And paid attention to everything that was going on around her. That night we finished taking down the Christmas tree, packing everything into boxes for next year. Yesterday Maxim and Noah both did a half day of school, grudgingly, and then came home and napped with me. They napped, I worked. Before her nap, Maxim found a cut-out puzzle in one of the magazines she got from school. Without asking for help, she figured out how to cut out the pieces and then assemble it into the final product - a picture of a girl that, when held up to a light, showed her bones and internal organs. "Daddy, can I have some glue," she asked me after everything was cut out. "For what?" I thought she was making Valentines cards. "To make the girl. I need to glue it to a paper." I gave her tape. She assembled it. The kids have also gotten an early start on camping season. They drape blankets across their camping mats and crawl into their sleeping bags. If they leave the tent assembled, Bones will always crawl in for a nap. Today they moved the tents upsatirs to their bedroom. "Daddy, tonight I want to sleep in my tent. In my sleeping bag." I look at her without response. "Can I?" "Sure." "I wanna, I wanna, I wanna sleep in my tent too," Noah stutters. He likes to be like Maxim. "Can I, Daddy? Please can I?" "Sure." These kinds of questions and ideas and questions run along all morning long. We walk to the Post Office, the dialogue continues. Coralie and Nico visited us for a few hours this afternoon, but by 3:15, everyone was in bed, in their tents... I could use a tent myself today. But this quiet time is too tempting to sleep through, so I'll keep building a syllabus, listening to the afternoon traffic slowly pick up, and watching the bright yellow sun warm the winter landscape like a Durham winter.

There has been a little more snow since last weekend, a wet snow in the middle of the week, followed by rain and more wet snow. This has been a week of changes as we prepare for the upcoming winter and spring. It has also been the final end of our holiday season. We had brunch with our neighbors Kerry, Jason, and Emmeline on Monday. We didn't see the Healey-Weeks as much in the second half of 2005 as we had in the first half. Maxim goes to school with Emmeline, but our schedules didn't overlap for months. It was nice to catch up, and indulge: homefries, grits, bacon, blueberry muffins, and poached eggs. Emmeline and Maxim play together. Noah wishes he had more friends his age and gender. On Tuesday Marcela got another promotion at work, she is now the full time Preservation Specialist at the Schlesinger Library in Cambridge. This means switching Maxim and Noah from Monday, Wednesday, Friday, to a Tuesday - Thursday childcare schedule. And it means I'll have the kids at home on the opposite days. We moved Maxim's gymnastics to Wednesday and stopped Saturday dance for the time being. They will no doubt build dozens more tent structures until warmer weather comes and they can ride their bicycles again. "Daddy?" I don't look up, I know the question. "Daddy." She walks in closer and taps me on the shoulder, "Daaaaaadddyyyyyy!" "What is it, Maxim?" "What day do the camels come? Is it tomorrow?" "No, not until Friday, sweetie." Following Argentinean tradition, we celebrate Three Kings as our gift giving day. January 6 was the twelfth day after the birth of Jesus, when Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, three wise men, astronomers of the highest order, arrived by camel in Bethlehem bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh. On Thursday night, the kids left their shoes under the tree along with some bread and water for the camels. Maxim was smitten with excitement in the morning when she found gifts with her name and Noah's. Noah was less enthusiastic. He sat on my lap and let Maxim open everything - her gifts, his gifts, the gift for both of them. "I'm cold, Daddy." He fussed. After some warm milk and the opening of his new train tracks, he became a little more animated. This year, we remember Christmas 2002, when Jodi, Jim, Nathan, and Amelia stopped in to Somerville and left us with, among other things, a plush giraffe child's chair. This has become not only Maxim's favorite chair, but Bones's as well, who will sleep most mornings, including Three Kings, in the giraffe's arms. Today we took down the lights, Marcela went into Cambridge to take a placement test for an English class she wants to take this spring. Catherine stopped by and we all went to the library. The tree comes down tomorrow. They predict there will be more snow. The temperatures dropped today back to a seasonable 20 degrees F. Winter is here.