However, simply watching the boys isn't enough. Anyone can sit around the house and watch two boys play. I need to up the ante. I need to take it up a notch. So, when I'm in charge of the boys, I like to get them dressed, fed, and out of the house. I like to take them places. Saturday morning, that place was the neighborhood playground.
Wendy left the house around 8:30, so once I finished feeding the boys their breakfast, I loaded them in the car and drove to the playground. We arrived at about 9:15 and stayed for about 2 hours. There was already one little girl playing when we arrived. Her name was Lilly and she was four years old. Phoenix immediately introduced himself and the two started playing. They chased each other around the playground, they pretended to be dragons, they ran from "monsters," they built castles with sticks and rocks, and they climbed up the slides and slid down the slides. For a while, Phoenix just referred to Lilly as "Friend," because he either didn't hear her say her name, or didn't want to take the time to learn it. So, he would just run around and say things like, "Hey Friend," or "Follow me, Friend."
Fox, meanwhile, tried his best to keep up with the other two. If they climbed up the slides, he wanted to try. If they ran around to a certain spot on the playground, he ran there too. Mostly he stayed with me, because he's still a bit too little to be climbing on the playground equipment by himself. He really enjoyed the tunnel slide. I held him in my lap and the two of us went down that slide repeatedly. Once we were at the bottom, he wanted to climb back up. He would scurry back up into the tunnel and try to make his way back to the top. He wouldn't get very far, before sliding back to the bottom. He did find a small hole in the slide that he used to play peek-a-boo with me.
Once we left the playground, I decided to run through Chick-Fil-A's drive-thru to buy lunch. Fox was already tired and promptly fell asleep on the way to the restaurant. Once we got lunch, I drove over to my parents' house to watch the Alabama-Penn St. football game.
Mom and Dad actually traveled up to State College, PA for the game, but my brother and I had arranged to meet there where we could all hang out and watch the game. Since Wendy and I don't have cable or satellite, watching live sports is a bit tricky. Mom and Dad graciously invited both Steven and I to watch the game at their house while they were out of town.
The game wasn't until 2:30, but I arrived with Phoenix and Fox around noon. We all ate lunch at the kitchen table while watching the Auburn-Miss. St. game. After lunch, the three of us played around the house. We started off in the kitchen where both boys spent time spinning pot lids on the floor (sidenote: when it comes time to buy Christmas presents for small children, forego the epxensive kids' toys. Just get them some pot lids, cardboard boxes, or paper towel rolls).
After the seemingly-endless fun of pot-lid-spinning wore off, we took the party upstairs to the playroom where Phoenix played with trains. Fox busied himself with opening and closing doors. That child can spend hours simply opening a door, walking to the other side, and closing the door. He then repeats the process.
The one thing I've noticed about children at play (especially my children) is that they don't settle down in one room to play. They really move around the house. They take advantage of every room. It's like a whole new adventure every time they open a new door. Like Christopher Walken in the now infamous "cowbell" sketch, my boys really "explore the space."
Around 2pm, we went out to the front yard to play. We took a few balls with us and we tossed those around and chased them. Then Phoenix wanted to play hide-and-seek in the bushes. Then we went back in to the garage where Phoenix played with cars and Fox played with more balls.
I was watching my time carefully. Kickoff of the Alabama-Penn St. game was at 2:30, and if there's one thing I want to teach my boys, it's that you are never late for the kickoff of an Alabama football game. At 2:30, I changed the channel on the kitchen TV to the Alabama game and I shut the garage door, so they boys couldn't escape into the front yard and beyond. I herded them inside where I could watch the game (and them, of course). Steven and Michelle arrived with their dog Buster right at kickoff, so Buster kept the boys occupied.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the football game. Wendy arrived around 3pm, but didn't stay too long, because Fox was getting tired. She soon took him home for a nap. Phoenix stayed with me, Steven, Michelle, and Buster. During halftime, we all took Buster out for a walk and Phoenix got the chance to spend some time with his aunt and uncle.
Steven and Michelle left with about 5 or 6 minutes left in the game because they were meeting friends for dinner out in Trussville. So, that left me and Phoenix. He told me he was hungry, so I gave him a snack of fruit and potato chips and he and I sat together in the kitchen watching football. He asked me some questions about the game, like which team we were cheering for. Alabama was wearing their road white jerseys, so I told him we were cheering for the team with the white shirts. He asked, "Why?" I explained that we were cheering for Alabama, because that's where Daddy went to school and Alabama is "our team." He asked who the team in blue was. I told him that they were called "Penn State." He asked why we weren't cheering for the team in blue (blue is his favorite color). I again explained why we cheer for Alabama (sometimes Wendy and I have to repeat ourselves when answering Phoenix's questions).
In all, it was quite an adventurous day, filled with all kinds of activities. All of us were worn out at the end of the day, but that's the kind of exhaustion that feels really good to a young Daddy like me.
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