We’re full-on into week 2 of summer break. Week 2, and I have but 7 left before I go back to work for the school year. Something about that seems ridiculously unfair.

Last year I was so apprehensive about being home with the kids. J was so young and not so much into playing on her own or with her brother (that came about over the winter). A was independent, but not as much as he is now, what with his reading, computer games, bike-riding, and ability to operate the DVR (let me digress here for a moment. D purchased the DVR over the winter. I imagine that his original intent was to be able to record the old movies he loves to watch, or to save old sitcoms... and it did come in rather handy with Dancing with the Stars and American Idol... Well. I flipped through our saved list today. At 84% capacity full, there is not a single program for grown-ups saved. It’s all Big Comfy Couch, Grossology, Popular Mechanics for Kids (yes, we breed them geeky around here), and a couple kids’ movies.).

Anyway.

Today was really the first day we didn’t have a whole lot planned. I had a quick appointment in the early afternoon, but knew it wouldn’t take long. So we took off to the movies this afternoon (J’s first time). It was fun, if not so relaxing. I realized that it’s nice to just have the time to be patient with their whims and to give a little more than I feel I can when I’m working all day long. I even notice things about them that I hadn’t really paid all that much attention to...like J’s chubby little upper arms that call to mind her baby days even as her body grows taller and more lean, and A’s sprinkling of freckles right across the bridge of his nose and under his eyes, precisely where my freckles would come out each summer when I was his age. It’s not that I let these little things completely pass me by, but something about the long days of summer and the stretch of hours that we spend together each day brings a heightened awareness of their kid-ness.

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J was on the phone with my mother the other night. Completely out of the blue and unprovoked, she yelled “DOG FART!!” into the phone. Mom asked her to repeat what she had just said (as I’m peeing my pants), and she gets her little sing-songy voice on and said, “A is a fart-dog. A is a fart-dog...” After we hung up, I turned to D and asked him why kids do things like that...you know, pick some offensive word to use only on the phone with a grandparent... And J piped up as if to answer my question, “ ’Cause! Mimi is a grand-fart!”

She is so going to get suspended from preschool.

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A’s favorite pastime these days is taking the dog out for short runs around our backyard. In the event that the dog has to #2, A stops in his tracks and crouches down to get an eye-to-rear view of the action. It’s pretty funny.

Last night he came tearing into the kitchen to tell me that “There’s something interesting about Annie’s poop. Uh...it has corn in it.”

This is a child who seemingly doesn’t notice when a whole flipping container of Legos is strewn across his bedroom floor, but now he’s keenly interested in and aware of our canine’s bowel habits.