Yes. Too long. Hello. The kids are great. The yard is growing in, as you’ll see. It has been a busy month, as much for trying to figure out what to do next as for having actual things to keep us busy. The kids are excited about the changing seasons. We have done more things outside, which is exhausting, but fun for them. The past two Fridays we have taken a walk in the morning through downtown Maynard and back. Maxim got a red scooter for her birthday that rides. Noah insists on us taking the carriage, although he will often get out and run on his own. All the way Maxim shows off her new tricks. “Look daddy, see how I can make it turn by leaning?” “That’s great, honey.” “I can balance almost standing still, Daddy, did
you see what I did?” Noah likes to play “red light green light” when he’s up and running. He isn’t quite in sync with the game – he is still just barely three – so when you say green light, he takes a few seconds to get moving. Likewise when you say red light, although when he eventually freezes, he puts his body into a form
as if he was running. We round the corner near the Maynard ice cream shop. “Daddy, can we get ice cream?” Maxim asks. “It’s 10:30 in the morning,” I reply. She looks at me with a look that says, “and…?” “We don’t eat ice cream in the morning.” “Please Daddy!” “No.” Today we pulled out the swimming pool. Maxim insisted. At first I said it was too cold, but it was quite warm and she knows
how to read the thermometer. “Look Daddy, look how far onto the warm side it is.” “Ok. In the afternoon.” I say. For the next twenty minutes: “Is it the afternoon yet?” And so by mid-morning, they were both in bathing suits playing in the water, making mud of sections of the backyard, despite my objections. And then they ate lunch with that hunger that comes from playing all morning in the sun. Summer hunger. And they went to sleep almost without a peep after a story about a girl and her imagination. Noah has finally decided to begin using the potty. This is a nice change. He has boundaries, times, places, etc., that only he knows when he will cross, but we are off to a good beginning. Today, he awoke from his
nap, took off his diaper, and sat on the potty himself. Baby steps and big ones. What else? The house is still on the market, we are still tired of cleaning it, and spring is still coming in. The yard needs a regular weekly mow these days, and the recent rains have caused everything to leaf and flower and fill in with a sudden pop. I looked out the door this morning and swore it was summer. Wasn’t it winter just yesterday? The long light is welcome.
Has it been two and a half weeks? One of them, at least, it rained. Our open house was a wash (*snicker*) that weekend, and we broke down and went to the Salomon Pond Mall in Marlboro. We had taken the kids to see the Curious George movie when it came to Maynard. We took them to see Ice Age in Marlboro. It rained for seven days. We have had regular visits to see the house none the less. So, regular cleaning up. Marcela and I now joke that we ought to make the weekend mop down a regular habit. It certainly leaves the place clean all of the time. Outside, in the yard, everything is returning and regrowing. The grass has come in thick since the rains. Violets are growing everywhere. 
Two weeks ago, after trying all day just to get a balance, Maxim mastered riding her bicycle without training wheels. You can imagine, she was thrilled and now cannot wait for warm nice days when she can ride back and forth on the right-of-way. Twice, now, we've ridden all the way downtown. Noah is being equally ambitious and has decided to begin the transition away from diapers. Hooray! He also continues his officious ways. When we visited Zach, Shanna, and Erik last weekend, Shanna sat down on the living room couch and started typing on the laptop that Zach had earlier been working on. "Hey!" Noah said stepping into the living room. "You're not supposed to play with that! That's Zachary's!"
Maxim has incorporated two new phrases into her conversations. One, when she doesn't want to repeat something she has said before, "I went downtown on my bike, THE END," she will say. Or, adding her other favorite: "I went downtown on my bike, blah, blah, blah, THE END, ok?" We have managed to grill twice already this season. And we tried for a third last night, but the thunderstorms they warned about blew in just after the coals were ready. We had to open all the windows to blow off the steak smell from the house before the showing this morning. Spring drifts into summer; school starts again tomorrow for me. Six weeks.
