Music, Parties, and Squished Bugs

Today is my first day back to work after eight nice, long vacation days. Not long enough, but still nice. It never seems to be long enough, no matter how many days I take.

It was nice, though. We celebrated my son's second birthday by getting a full "Thomas and Friends" train set for him, then drove to see my family in Ohio for an impromptu birthday party for my son. I haven't seen my brother or sister since my son's first birthday party, so it was nice to get together.

I took my wife to the cool new scrapbooking stores while we were there, as well as a few of the major retailers we don't have in Smalltown, Indiana.

We made a quick trip to the Outlet stores in Edinburgh, Indiana, and Columbus, Indiana, and just had a nice enjoyable time at home.

My son loves ducks. He's a nut about ducks. One of his first five words was "duck." We took him to one of the local parks to let him feed the ducks, which we do every now and then. He sat on the ground surrounded by duck droppings and slowly tossed his bread crumbs to the 20-some ducks that gathered round. One duck even came up and nibbled on his shoe. If I got as close to them as he did, I would probably have been attacked, but somehow the ducks must sense that he meant them no harm.

My son starts Musikgarten classes next week, and his pre-class homework is to listen to the music they'll use in class and get familiar with it. He loves music (I do, too, but his love of music runs so deep that he must have inherited it from his mother). The class CD came with two wooden dowels about eight inches long and almost an inch in diameter that he's to use to make music of his own with, clapping them together to the beat of the music. He gets so into it, and with such rhythm (another thing he must have inherited from his mother), that he'll probably take over the class when he gets there.

Last night, while listening to his music, he did something else amazing. There was a fly buzzing around the TV, and our Dalmatian (who usually seeks and destroys all flies and crickets that invade our home) was having a little trouble locating it. My son, in between songs, walked up to the TV and with the end of one of his wooden dowels reached out and squished the fly on his first attempt. The first bug he's ever killed, and the fly never saw it coming.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Vacation is over, and I'm back at work, sitting at my desk, in my office, writing this on my Palm Zire with my Wireless Keyboard and posting it by email with my Wireless Modem. The fun is over for now, and I'm not quite back in the swing of things yet. I'm ready for another vacation already.....

Next Friday, we take our son on his first trip to Paramount's King's Island. It will be another day of smiles, laughter, and new memories made. I'm looking forward to it like I look forward to all of my time with my wife and son -- with eager anticipation.

Joe

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Sent from my Palm Zire 72.