1/18/1999
Monday

Building

10:53 a.m.MLK day today. Daniel's school is closed, but the university is not, of course, so Tab is at work. Stephanie picked up Daniel last night and he spent the night there. She'll probably bring him back later today. It's a relief not to have all three of the boys today. I really need to get some work done.

When Stephanie picked up Daniel last night, Matthew was in one of his moods and refused to hug or kiss her. No matter how much she pleaded or threatened ("I'll take away the Oreos I brought you!"), he refused. She was actually pretty upset by it. I saw her eyes starting to tear up. I wish she wouldn't take these things personally, especially when it involves Matthew. That's just the way he is sometimes. It doesn't mean that he does not love her. Stephen tried to make it up to her by being even more demonstrative than usual: "I love you, Babci."

I told Tab just to drive himself in to work today. I get so tired of being the chauffeur. It will be nice not to have to pick him up in the evening. I'd rather hoped that, since we didn't have to get Daniel to school, Tab would get an early start today and be at work by 9 a.m. so he could leave at a decent time tonight. Of course it didn't happen. At 9 he still wasn't completely dressed. What annoys me is that he was up at 7:30, so he had plenty of time. When I got up at close to 8, he was still sitting on the couch in his bathrobe, drinking his tea and watching GMA. Since he had to drop something off at the Press for me, he will not have arrived at work before 9:45 and so will probably end up staying at work until at least 6.

Aside from doing the dishes and wiping down the kitchen counters, I haven't done any of the cleaning projects I had planned. Although I have a good excuse as I have spent the morning playing Duplos with the boys. We recently consolidated two good-sized bins of Duplos into one mondo-sized bin. We must have several thousand blocks, animals, people, vehicles, and other assorted pieces. I made my specialty, "Tower with a Hole In It." It's constructed of four of the longer blocks arranged to form a square. In the next layer I alternate the placement of the blocks to add stability. I add windows in a few of the levels. When the tower is about two feet high, I let the boys drop Duplo people down through the hole in the center. They like to see the Duplo people plummeting past the tower windows. I then used the tow hitch to create a tow truck and play-acted that one of the Duplo guys had a car breakdown and the helpful tow truck guy was towing away his car. Matthew loved this scenario, and immediately took over the tow truck and added it to his train. Stephen and I created a pool out of blue Duplos for the big and little whale. ("Stephen Whale and Mama Whale!" Stephen christened them.) While he played with the whale pool, I noticed a few of the cars Matthew wasn't using and hitched a few together. I attached a barred wagon to the top of one and looked around for some of the Duplo farm animals. We used to have cows, sheep, pigs, even chickens, but I suspect they are lost under the furniture. So I took some of the Duplo people, put them in the cart, and pretended they were aristos in a tumbrel on their way to Mme. Guillotine for execution. Stephen and Matthew were not amused, but I had fun.

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