Look who appeared coming down the hallway, with his favorite new toys. He loves to scrub at the toilet with the brush. Who can stop him? Yesterday I found a missing toilet brush while emptying the diaper pail into the washing machine. I figured it would turn up sooner or later.
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Today Ulysses and I went to the playground at Berkeley Park around 7 p.m., after the heat of the day had subsided a bit. That is, it was only 89 degrees.

U wasn't interested in climbing the stairs and going down the slides today. A few steps after we walked onto the gravel, he fell to his knees and happily started digging in the rocks with a stick he had found there. I picked him up to carry him to the base of the stairs. He began to wail. I put him back down. Except for one foray up the ...   more »

We had been playing at the Warner Park playground for at least an hour. Ulysses headed to the far end of the jungle gym/slide contraption, whatever they call those things, the location of the only set of stairs that led up into it, presumably so that he could traverse back along its length and go down one of the slides. He had done this several times earlier in the evening.

But since our last trip to the stairs end of the gym, a trio of loud-talking teenagers had migrated there from the nearby picnic table where they had been sitting. ...   more »

Ulysses and I went to the Lakeview Library. There he fell in love with the fish in the tank in the children's section.

A girl of about 5 was also watching the tank. "What a nice fish tank!" I said to her. "Look at all the pretty fish!" It turned out I was way out of my league with these simplistic comments.

"It's not very clean," she replied.

She went on to point out how green residue was built up in several areas of the glass. I could see streaks where a scraper had been. But I didn't know enough ...   more »

Hot, hot, hot! This Wisconsin summer has finally begun in earnest. Yesterday evening, Ulysses was desperate for a drink of water, but unfortunately we couldn't figure that out before first offering hot dogs, crackers, the breast, Children's Tylenol (in case it was teethin pain), all the games we could think of, a Teletubbies episodes, play session with the ferrets, etc. Finally I thought to offer a soda bottle of water. When he gulped down half of it, and then instantly quit screaming, we knew it was the right choice! It was a hot and sunny day and we spent most ...   more »

After going out to the Coppertop for breakfast to celebrate our wedding anniversary, we stopped at a playground we noticed on Segoe Road.

A boy of about three ran over to meet us, smiling. He approached Ulysses, who was smiling at him, too. As they neared each other, they slowed down and then stopped, their faces about a foot apart. "Hi, baby! Hi!" said the boy. Both faces were lit with curiosity and eagerness. I marvelled at how naturally adept they each seemed to be at appropriate social interaction, the way the boy had stopped at a distance that was ...   more »