Saturday morning I was out with the girls at a playground, killing some time while A browsed the used books at McKay's.

J was playing hide and seek, and at some point as I was running around I clocked my head on a set of monkey bars. I smacked it pretty hard and couldn't get off the ground for a few seconds for the stars dancing around. Both girls piled up on top of me, J saying, "Are you going to be okay?" and C exclaiming, "I sorry, daddy, it'll be okay!"

I have to admit, even though it wasn't all that bad (my head is used to such clumsy maneuvers, thankfully) I had to sit there a little longer to enjoy the sympathetic attention from the girls. The fact that I get to hang out with such silly, sweet little girls on a regular basis is an indescribable joy.

October was a pretty packed month!

We visited A's family in Texas. It was great to see them and I'm always happy to see the girls play with their cousins.

While there, we procured a minivan to accommodate our expanding family.

If you've had nothing but Folger's coffee your entire life, you wouldn't really know that it's not great coffee. Similarly, if all you've had is Kraft cheese then to you, that's cheese. You don't know that there is better coffee or cheese out there. However, once you've acquired a taste for the fresh ground coffee or fine cheeses, it's really difficult to go back. That's what it is like to drive your kids around in a quad-cab pickup for five years. Sure, it works, but you're constantly trying to change diapers in bucket seats that are horribly inconvenient: your poor kid's head is rolling around banging against either the seat-belt or the handbrake. Still, if you don't want to buy another car, you make do. People have had to deal with much worse.

But then when you upgrade to a minivan... you can appreciate the difference. Nice, level places to change diapers. Kids can climb in and out more easily (you never noticed before that a quad-cab that sits up high and has running boards was so difficult to get into!). Groceries have a place, rather than rolling around in the back of the truck.

In short: it's quite nice. Don't knock the minivans.

October also introduced the obligatory winter stomach virus. I hope now that we've done that it's out of the way and we don't have to worry about it again 'til next year. That would be fantastic.

C is talking up a storm these days. She's in the throes of "I want it done my way." With the 2nd kid, you know it's a phase so it's not as scary as it was with J. With the first kid you just assume that you're condemned to dealing with a child that is stubborn and hateful forever.

A has also been hard at work on her class. We get to work together most Thursday mornings (I work from home or a coffee shop alongside her).

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While we were visiting A's family in Dallas last week, we purchased a 2006 Honda Odyssey. Our family is outgrowing the quad-cab Tacoma, and my old 1995 Honda Civic is simply no longer practical. It only rides four, and A can't drive it (it's a stick-shift). Hence, it is with much sadness that I published it on Craigslist last night.

We bought the Civic in 2004 after, within six months of getting married, I totaled my SUV. The story of it's procurement is one we still marvel at. After weeks of trolling newspaper classifieds (Craigslist didn't have wide adoption in rural Tennessee in 2004) I found a Civic with 125,000 miles for $3300 in Chattanooga.

We drove an hour to go see it. The owner was an older lady (a smoker) who had bought it new. I offered her $3000.

"You can have it for $2800, dear!"

I still don't know why she did that, but as A is my witness, that happened. Furthermore, this did not throw red flags for me (although it did for A), and I happily paid the sum.

It was certainly well spent. The car rolled over 201,000 miles a few weeks ago.

Within two weeks of owning it, I parked it in my driveway without engaging the emergency break or putting it into gear. It rolled into a tree, denting the front bumper and putting it on the straight path to cosmetic obsolescence.

I slapped my "Geek Patrol" magnetic signs on it and drove it to freelance consulting gigs all over east Tennessee.

We first visited NYC in 2006 with my brother and my cousin. The four of us squeezed into the Civic for the 14 hour overnight drive. Your knees were pretty much at your chin. I can still see my brother wearing headphones and headbanging to metal all the way up I-81 through Virginia.

When we first moved to NYC, we didn't take any vehicle with us. That lasted less than a year. I flew back, drove the Honda to NYC, and became one of the car-driving elite. We would bundle into the car with friends, go hiking in New Jersey or skiing in Pennsylvania or Vermont, and be back by Monday.

On one of these trips to the Catskills, I was pulled over at a checkpoint. The nice police lady asked me where I was headed.

"That way." I pointed ahead.

"And where are you traveling from?"

"That way." I pointed behind me.

"Have you had anything to drink?"

"Yep, we just ate a huge meal after a hike."

"What did you drink?"

"Water."

"... You learned that in Tennessee didn't you." (I still had Tennessee plates at this point.)

She waved me on.

My brother in the back-seat nearly died laughing as soon as we pulled away. He couldn't decide if I was stupid or just trolling her.

One thing about this car that was great is that it was so basic. There was no power steering, no power windows, and a stick shift. There simply wasn't much that could go wrong with this car. Of course, that had a downside, too. If I left my lights on, it didn't beep to remind me to turn them off. So leave them on I did. I've been jumped off by nearly all of my co-workers, police, state troopers, National Park foresters, and random people in parking lots all over the country.

We drove it to Portland, Maine several times to visit friends in both Portland and Boston. I don't have many pictures of the car for these trips because the car was the means, not the destination. Still, occasionally there it is, in the background (hi C and M!).

Living in Queens, I had to move it several times a week for street sweeping. The only exception was when we got a lot of snow.

NYC was hard on it. People stole my license plates, tore off the window rain guards, bumped into it parallel parking, and generally wreaked destruction on its exterior. Despite how rough it looks, though, the car never left me down. I used to be terrified it would quit on me in the shoulder-less canyons of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, but it never did.

Goodbye, red wheels! You've served us well.

Update (10/29): Sold the car last night for $1000 less than I bought it for 10 years ago. It's hard to beat $100 a year or 1.3¢ per mile!

This was C's prayer tonight.

God,

Beaver man is mean.¹
Miss Sarah is mean.²
The kids are mean.³

Amen.

1. Her daycare thought it would be a great idea to have a man dressed up in a beaver costume visit their school and talk about autumn. J was there, and reported that as soon as C saw "beaver man," she screamed and ran to her teacher crying. According to J's version of the story, the guy was so big he had trouble getting through the door. Mind you, this was three or four weeks ago, but she still tells us every day that "Beaver man is mean."
2. That's her teacher at school. She actually likes her teacher.
3. And that would be all the kids at school (who she also says "are my friends" so who knows).

Hard to believe that we have a five year old in the house!

We enjoyed a weekend in Chattanooga (with the usual corresponding trip to the Tennessee Aquarium).

A member of our small group was kind enough to bake cupcakes for J and another friend that had a birthday the same week.

J is getting very good on her new bicycle. She keeps up with A running, and I trail behind with C in a seat mounted behind me. It's an excellent way to spend the morning.

For Joe, who requested more videos.

You guys? Little House on the Prairie is mostly a bore. She spends 4 pages tediously detailing how the father built a simple door. I was impressed J sat through that because my mouth was getting dry and my brain dead. We did enjoy reading Wizard of Oz, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and Winnie-the-Pooh together this year. House at Pooh Corner had more unusual phrasing and odd plot diversions that was hard for her to follow. I think we have abandoned A.A. Milne for now. Next, I look forward to reading Pippi Longstocking, The Littlest Princess, and Heidi (by Johanna Spyri) aloud to her as these were stories I somehow missed in my own childhood (not including the movies, why would you ever include the movies).

Don't worry. C still gets a stack of picture books read to her everyday and J still enjoys that too, of course. Many people have told me their second-born doesn't like being read to... and then a few minutes later, they mention how much they hate re-reading the baby stuff, if they do at all. I guess if I want to instill a love of reading in each of them, then I can't skimp on age-appropriate books. I hope that's how that works, anyway. Please don't tell me about "personality" or "black sheep" as I have hard enough time relating to adults who hate reading. I can't imagine breeding one of those people amongst us. I will love them anyway... I think.

They have abridged versions of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books called My First Little House series and we probably should have started there. We might try Little House in the Big Woods before we abandon Ingalls Wilder until J is a few years older. I remember enjoying that book but not really loving any of the others. If you have any suggestions for great read-alouds for an average kindergartner, do share with me! Dear Harry Potter will have to wait another year. Farm animals and little girls doing little girl things are excellent for now.

In the car:

"Today is Mother's Day! So let's let mom do the things she likes to do!"

Never mind that it's not Mother's Day, let's go with this. So I reply, "What are the things that Mom likes to do?"

"Well, she likes to sleep in, sit down and cool off, and drink coffee."

After we finished laughing, I asked what Dad likes to do.

"Well, he likes to watch movies and make popcorn. And take naps."

Fairly accurate summation, if you ask me.

Then later today I had to mow the yard. I gave her the tablet with an episode of "Wild Kratts" and said, "Ok, I'm going to go mow the yard. You can watch one cartoon, but only one. After it's finished, you can play Minecraft or read books. But no more cartoons. Can you do that?"

"Of course!"

When I finished mowing I came inside and she was hastily stuffing the tablet back up into the bookshelf.

"How many cartoons did you watch?"

Her reply was a little too cheery. "Just one!"

"Are you sure?" I started walking towards the bookshelf. "I'm going to check and this is the last chance you'll have to tell me the truth."

Crestfallen, the words tumbled out: "Ok, I really watched a hundred of them."

"A hundred?!" I said, feigning shock and trying to keep from laughing.

"Ok, maybe four. I watched four."