Watch out for Papa

Papa, K, & D & I were sitting outside the ice cream store eating our cones. D wanted to hold Comet's leash, but he couldn't do that and hold his cone at the same time. Papa was sitting right there, but D walked over to the other bench where I was sitting and said, "Bubbie, will you hold my ice cream so Papa doesn't get it?"

Seeing is believing

A few weeks ago, a robin built a nest on top of the light outside our garage. When K & D were here, we set up the ladder so they could climb up and see the eggs, and a few days later, the baby birds.
After the babies grew big enough to fly, the birds abandoned the nest, and I took it down and showed it to the kids. We noticed that the mother bird had used grass, mud, sticks, and even a little piece of plastic, and we all marveled at how the bird could do that, using just her beak!
A few weeks went by, and then today we were at the playground. After swinging on the tire for a while, K got off and announced that he was going to build a nest. He sat down on the ground and made a little hollow in the wood chips, and then carefully filled it with grass and a few small sticks. But he wasn't satisfied--he said it wasn't a real nest, because it didn't have any pieces of plastic in it!
I tried to explain to him that a nest didn't have to have plastic in it; that the bird just used whatever she could find. K was doubtful, but finally picked up a few scraps of paper lying nearby. But I could tell he wasn't convinced--the nest he saw had plastic, so that means that a REAL nest has to have plastic!

I missed you, too

Today was the first time I'd seen K & D in 8 days, since Aunt I and I were stuck in New York for several extra days. This is an unusually long time for me not to see them, and during the week, their mother told me on the phone that D was complaining that he wanted me to come and take him to camp.
But mostly, kids of that age live "in the moment," and have only a vague grasp of the passage of time, as is evident from what K said to me today when he saw me: not "Hi" or "I missed you" or even "Where were you?"-- he said, "Your purple socks are still at our house."