Reading: The first chapter of The Artist's Way in preparation for our Artist's Way group for online journalers.

Weather: Warm but not hot, slightly humid but not muggy. A middlin' sort of day.

Background courtesy of
Ace of Space

"Watch Me!"

11:40 a.m. I'm at the Benjamin Franklin school playground with the kids this morning. We just dropped Tab off in Lambertville where he will be shooting a wedding today. Poor Tab's lower back has been bothering him for the past few days. Hauling photographic equipment around all day will not help matters.

The soft surface used at this playground is composed of tiny, smooth, buff-colored stones. I suppose it works as well as the mulch some playgrounds have, with the added advantage of not being as messy. It is slightly less forgiving of falls, however, and poses a bit of a temptation for the kids. Stephen had a timeout a little while ago for throwing a handful of stones, something the boys know they are forbidden to do. Daniel is sulking across the picnic table from me right now, in timeout for having dropped a stone from the top of the tower down onto Stephen's head.

"But Stephen told me to drop something on him!" was his excuse. Fortunately, Stephen has a hard head and doesn't even have a bump.

I just brushed an ant off my foot, the third one in five minutes. Or perhaps it is just one particularly persistent ant with a foot fetish. Maybe wearing sandals here was not such a good idea.

Having watched Daniel cross hand over hand on the monkey bars for months, Stephen has now learned how to do it himself. At this playground there is a small set of monkey bars he can reach if he jumps straight up. "Mama, look at me!" he calls, his small, stocky body swaying back and forth as he traverses the short expanse. He makes it all the way to the end, drops to the ground below, and with an elated smile looks at me for my reaction.

"Good for you, Reno!" I tell him, applauding. "I'm proud of you."

"I'm proud of myself," he responds, modestly.

Out of timeout now, Daniel races for the set of rings. "Watch me, Mama!" he calls.

The rings are harder to cross than the monkey bars because they swing back and forth, causing Daniel to swivel about. Yet Daniel crosses from one to the next easily until he is at the other end. "How was that, Mama?"

"Excellent job, Dans."

The boys dearly love an audience, the bigger the better. Now they've waylaid another mother who is helping her toddler on the climbing equipment.

"I can do a back flip," Daniel tells her. "Want to see?"

"Watch me on the monkey bars," Stephen begs her.

"That's great," she tells them.

I am tired, having worked on a Press job last night until 1 o'clock this morning. I wish I could look forward to going to sleep at a decent time tonight; unfortunately, this project is due tomorrow morning, and I have a feeling it is going to be a late night. I rest my head on my hand and close my eyes.

"Mama, Mama! Watch me!"

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