Nicholas finally woke up and we headed outside, to the playground, around the lake, our usual trek. We're enjoying some gorgeous weather. The first official days of winter have been more fall-like than the bitter weather we've had the last months of autumn. Today was milder than yesterday with sunny warmth, a chilly wind that only bit once in a while, and temperatures so high that I left the door open for most of the afternoon.

We walked outside for two hours and went to Quizno's for lunch. We go there alot because it's the healthiest alternative within walking distance. They also give the kids pretty cool prizes with their lunches, like Discovery Kids magazines and Jump Start CDs. When we returned home, today, they spent an hour or so playing around with their new space CD and had fun with that.

On the way to Quizno's we pass a preschool/childcare place in the same strip mall and the boys always stop to admire the window displays. They also wave at the kids inside and it always give me a little pang to see the kids' faces from inside, usually watching TV, look up to the windows, a flash of excitement, then little waves, a little sadness in their faces. Or maybe I'm just projecting, I dunno.

We watch TV, don't get me wrong, and we spend a fair amount of time inside, too. But it's different to be home, to be able to go out whenever you like, to have unstructured play, to be able to follow whatever interest strikes your fancy.

This morning, we watched half an hour of Magic Schoolbus and talked about exercise and how the muscles use the oxygen provided by the blood cells. Later when we were having lunch, Jonathan made his usual suggestion that we have another baby. He started off by saying that he thinks Papa should send me some of his cells so that we can start working on growing the baby. I asked him if Papa should email them to me, and he laughed at me. Nooooo, they come from his brain, silly! They come through his skull and then go into your skull and through your brain and then down into your uterus and then the cells divide and multiply and then the baby grows and when it's big enough, it crawls out of your anus. The older couple eating behind us choked on their sandwiches. I couldn't stop him, though. I laughed and said that was an interesting theory. When we were walking home, I straightened him out a bit on the details.

Also on the way home, we came across a utilities guy checking water and electric meters behind the strip mall. Jonathan was curious so we walked over and he asked the guy what he was doing. He was very sweet, even though it was clear he was hurrying. He showed the boys the tool he uses to open the covers, showed them the water down in the holes, where he read the numbers, his meter thingy where he inputs the numbers, how the address and account number were right there in the pad (Jonathan called it a squack pad like they use on Cyberchase), and he explained how the numbers changed as water was used, how they used those numbers to calculate the bill, etc. Then he walked us down to the electrical meters and went through all of those details with them, too. Jonathan thought that was the coolest job in the world and said he wanted that job when he grows up. The guy gave me a look like, Nooooo! Jonathan thanked the man and wished him a happy holiday and we headed down to the lake again. He and Benjamen went on to play "electric water man" while we walked the circuit around the lake.

When they were playing hide and seek we picked up some more pine cones and we're going to paint them with glitter glue today or tomorrow. Since we've been home, Benjamen colored a few more of his pages: the nativity, the drummer boy, and the three wise men, all in magic marker.

Now we're home, Nicholas is asleep again, I'm about to bake some biscotti, and the boys have locked themselves in the playroom to escape my Tony Bennet Christmas music. Heh.