Saturday January 2 – My Brother Bill

Another quiet day, another sleep-in morning. I realize that we are going to have to get the children into school hour mode very soon. School and ‘normal’ life starts again in 2 days.

The children have their friend, Saxon, over to play. Tara got a ‘Spa Science ‘kit for Christmas. She has been keen to make some special soaps and bath salts. Tara and Saxon experiment with the oatmeal facial mask they made and made a good sized mess. They also convinced poor Quinn to be a victim and they gooped up his face and then his hair. Gosh he is such an easy-going guy.

When New Years day and a weekend coincide, they make the perfect storm for lots and lots of football. That is a big yawn for me. I can watch baseball, but football just annoys me, I can’t watch it. I write the journal and continue to catch up.

Juanita and Wayne take the children to the movies. Maddie stays with us and is suppose to nap … she doesn’t. She is too busy calling for “Mummy” “Daddy” and when that didn’t work she moved on to “Tara’” and “Quinn”. While the children are at the movie, we watched a movie. A new movie with Adam Sandler. You watched the movie, I listened to Maddie calling out names for almost two hours. She is a focused child. She reminds me of Tara at that age. Focused and determined.

Until today, I didn’t think you had the attention span for a movie. I felt that the channel surfing was an excuse so you didn’t have to watch a program to the end. But today, you did it. You watched an entire two hour movie ... and followed the plot.

Over the last few days, you have been referring to Bill as your brother. Your gratitude is beginning to extend to non-material acts, but not completely.

Your Grandfather worked at the mint in Ottawa. As a result, you have a small collection of collector coins that he gave you over the years. There are a handful of silver dollars. You spent a good couple of hours today going through your room, looking for the collection. You wanted to find coins minted in 1972. The year Bill was born. Years ago, when Bill, as a teenager lived with us for a year, you made him a yo-yo with a 1972 penny embedded in the body of the yo-yo.

You couldn’t find a 1972 coin, but you gave him a 1964 coin, the year you were born.