The Final Days of Summer

The mornings are quiet. Once the afternoon hits, the fun starts and doesn't stop until bedtime. The pattern has held all week.

Shane and Tae rode bikes to start the week.

Here's Shane recounting how "AWESOME" his close encounter with a parked car was. He swerved like "VRREEE!" and it was "COOL!"

And here's Tae holding a bike while riding a bike. Shane was too tired to ride back up the hill.

Tuesday ended with more Tae time. Her mom and I talked for a little bit. Tae's moving at the end of the month and has said she's going to miss hanging out on the circle.

The kids were stalking crickets in this shot.

Wednesday, quiet time ended with a trip to the Discovery Museum. Our chicken coop is not nearly as clean as theirs.

We bumped into a family from NC who is moving to our area.

The kids hit it off and we stayed three hours. That's long enough I had to pay for parking.

I'm glad we stayed though. The mom, Ginger, and I exchanged information. The kids will probably make more friends once they start school, but for now they at least know someone in the area. The older daughter, Lilly, wants to learn more about Pokemon cards.

Raheem was at the door when we got home for lunch. I asked him to wait a second, so I could settle Shane down for some lunch.

He came back five minutes later and sat on the porch. I let him in.

Henry was outside and we played hard until Shane's belt test (Well, the kids did).

Thursday, I told Shane the creek ban was over.

I noticed a black snake inches from my shoe (Those are the good ones). I sent Carrie a text saying, "You don't see these in Ireland!"

Raheem greeted us when we stepped back onto our street. The boys tried to play Monopoly together. I half-pretended to read a book in the other room and listened in. They're a funny pair. Shane is 100% sure of everything he says.....even the made up stuff. Raheem will call him out on it some.

I went ahead and let them use the hose again after a while.

Shane's fascinated with where the water goes. He wants to look down the gutter.

And through the storm drain.

And lay in the street (It was warm).

I like it when the boys push each other's buttons, but not in a mean way. Here, Shane said, "Give me the hose!" and Raheem gave it to him....just not in the way Shane expected.

Next, Shane learned that holding up his arms and making tough noises does not block water.

They worked it out and there were no hard feelings. I didn't say a word.

I took Shane to Pokemon night next. We were early birds. The family we met the other day had wanted to come, but had to return to NC a day early.

Which was fine, because Shane was happy to play anyone his size.

The crowd started to pick up quickly.

Shane won his second match by talking nonstop. I heard the older boy say, "Can you please finish your turn?" as Shane elaborated upon his entire thought process and how his cards worked. The boy eventually forfeit. Oops.

Shane was having a hard time sitting down by his third match. I'd left him on his own most of the time and stayed out of his games. He needs to fly solo to be more independent in the game and socially. The Pokemon League is a very accepting and patient crowd, so it's a good place for that.

I spent a lot of time talking to the grandpa, Dick, of Shane's third opponent, Britt. Dick had thought the cards were more like baseball trading cards and hadn't realized it was a game. We loaned them one of our decks to play with. Dick and I talked and he asked questions about all sorts of things in the store (It turned out he was talking to the right geek: I knew all about everything he asked about...)

Britt turned out to have a lot of cool cards. He just hadn't known how to build a deck or play.

And that's how we spent the final days of summer.

Not pictured: I introduced Shane to X-Men Evolution and The Amazing Spiderman cartoons, because I get sick of Pokemon. He wants to talk about it all day. I can go to the bathroom and he'll run to the door to give me the play by play if he's watching an episode. I usually don't even feign interest, but nevertheless he persists.

Also not pictured: Raheem ran up as we got out of the car to say good-night.

Also also not pictured: Shane went to bed at a decent hour. I stayed up too late and I'm going to pay for it tomorrow.