A somewhat maudlin post about superheroes

It was the first day back at school for Conor, after missing almost two weeks recovering from his -ectomies (tonsil and adenoid). He told me the best part of the day was when his teacher noticed that he was back (I think he was somewhat worried that no-one would). It was also the last day of music at Finn's preschool, which caused no small amount of anxiety the night before. Lisa sagely noted that there are lot of big changes going on for the boys, and for Finn in particular - new room, new sister, new school coming up (for Finn), and the consequent leaving behind of his friends at his old school. I think that I sometimes forget how powerless one is as a little kid, and how utterly scary that can be. It's probably one of the reasons that kids love big, powerful, dangerous things, things that can't be pushed around - monster trucks and dinosaurs and superheroes. I'm fairly certain that if Superman's parents told him that he was having a little sister, he could have reversed the world's rotation to go back in time and stop that from happening, and in the process ensure that he'd have at least a couple more music sessions with Jingle Jeff at preschool.

So as a tribute to the superheroes that my older son loves, and in recognition of their fairly heroic acceptance of the inevitability of the arrival of a sibling and all of the changes that are coming, I'm attaching a photo of some spiderman cupcakes that Lisa made a few months ago for the son of a friend's sister. Next time, less maudlin.

In which I am happy to be proved wrong

Last week we finally got around to building a sandbox for Finn. Building is really too strong a word - I dug a hole in the ground and lined it some time ago, and last week filled it with 1500 pounds of sand. I also ringed it with river rocks, ostensibly to keep the sand from going all over the lawn. Finn came and helped me choose the rocks, and only when I laid them out did I realize that he'd picked them with an eye to whether or not they fit in his dump truck. So the rocks, instead of bordering the sand box, are now scattered through it for various construction related reasons.

Yesterday, we had folks over for a spontaneous Memorial day barbecue, and Finn and his friends Jack and Joss took over the sand pit and decided that the rocks were all dinosaur eggs that needed to be buried. And this morning at breakfast, for the first time in quite a while, look who made an appearance.