Today went by really fast. We woke up this morning, ate breakfast, brushed our teeth and played with the marble track until J arrived. I rode off to work as Leif watched from the sidewalk.

Work flew by. I was in and out updating computers, solving network issues, managing printers, scoping out the new library, and all kinds of fun stuff. Soon enough the end of the day arrived and I hopped on my bike to go see Leif. When I arrived home, Leif was on the couch watching Bolt looking very wiped out. I was informed that they just arrived back from the pool. It was a beautiful day for it too. Anyway, he was happy to see me. And he was hungry. We bade goodbye to J and I set off to the kitchen to cook us some Fettuccini Alfredo and broccoli.

We ate up our dinner all fast like. Then we ate M&M’s and a Ghiradelli Mint chocolate bar for desert. Upon chocolating ourselves up, we decided to play a little Wii. One of the remotes is broken, so that didn’t last all that long. That’s ok though, cause it was bedtime. Leif raced me upstairs to the bathroom and undressed. He took a short bath, hopped into his Dora pajamas, read his 3 books, and said goodnight. Once again, he was out in less than 5 minutes. But not before saying, “I love you dad”. I love that boy.

Oh. And there was the Lychee Martini I started preparing the previous day. It was really yummy. Could have used a little simple syrup and St. Germains though. But then I guess it wouldn’t be a martini. Oh well.

Day 5 was a good day. Leif woke up a happy boy at 6 am. That’s earlier than I usually get up, but it was fine, and it gave us more time to spend together before I had to go to work. Like trying on dad’s boots, watching Simon’s Cats and things like that. The morning was off to a good start.

J showed up right on time again. She told me that she was going to be taking Leif to Waiahole farms for the day’s main activity. So far she’s done something nice every day with him. That makes me happy. And of course Leif enjoys it as well. He likes be out and about. Plus, they would be harvesting peanuts that day. Nice.

After work, I arrived home and Leif ran out and Gave me a huge hug, barely giving me enough time to get off my motorcycle. So sweet. For dinner we had some leftover shoyu chicken and rice. Yum. Then to get out, we took a trip to the playground. Besides getting him out of the house, I was really feeling like I wanted to do something fun with him besides playing with marble tracks and reading books before bed. We had a blast. Leif pretended that the slide was a cliff and at the bottom was lava. Then he would slip down the slide slowly extending his had for me to save him saying (and I don’t know where he got this), “I promise, I promiiiiiisssee”, as he slid down. Sometimes I could save him. Sometimes he sacrificed himself and let go and sank down into the lava. Such a selfless child.

After the playground, I still wasn’t completely satisfied. Earlier I had sliced up a few lychees and put them in a container with the last of our Beefeaters gin (I must make it better somehow). This called for a trip to the store. I had to replace and upgrade our gin. Tanqueray it is. And because I can’t get myself a treat without offering Leif a treat, we picked up a Crunch bar for the kid. Totally balanced right? He couldn’t wait to eat it. We plopped down on the first bench we came to, tore open his candy bar and observed all the peoples as they walked by.

Our time on the bench was only put to a stop because Leif declared he had to use the potty. Between having a race down the sidewalk and me scooping him up and bouncing him as we ran, it didn’t take long to make our way back home. By this time, it was dark and bed time. Leif used the potty and we started bedtime routine. Leif chose Buzz Lightyear pajamas again. Probably to go with his new Toy Story book which we’ve read every night so far. As a matter of fact, he’s chosen the same three books every night; Clifford and the Big Leaf Pile, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Toy Story. He made it through all three books, at which time he rolled over and said, “Good night dad. I love you.” And just like that, he was asleep.

Today was a simple day. The boy woke up at his normal time of around 6:30 am. He told me it was morning time so we got out of bed, picked out some clothes for ourselves, got dressed and headed down stairs. We both had our bowls of cinnamon cereal. We had a little time to kill so we played with a funny little iphone app called Talking Tom. We made strange noises into the phone to have them repeated back to us by a funny sounding cat. It’s amazing how much time you can kill doing silly things like that.

J showed up right on time again and told me that she wanted to take Leif to the Orchid farm here in Kaneohe. I agreed and so it was. I packed Leif a little lunch to take with hime and hustled off to work while Leif and J headed off to the Orchid farm.

I came home for lunch once again to make sure all was well. They weren’t back yet from their excursion, so I decided to transfer my Hefeweizen to the secondary. Halfway through, Leif and J returned home and Leif showed me his cool new toy that he got while they were out. He was very excited and had a good time. During all the excitement, I lost concentration and hosed the living room down with beer. Oops. All was well though. Most of it made it’s way to the secondary. I did my reading, cleaned up my mess, put the secondary back in the mini fridge and snuggled with Leif just a bit before having to return to work.

It was a busy day at work today and in the middle of it all, I took a break to head over to the observatory to check out Venus passing in front of the sun. I got to see a glimpse of it before the sky blanketed itself in clouds. So I turned my attention to a 3D radar view of Venus and headed back to the office.

Soon enough, I was back home again. It was dinner time and spaghetti and meatballs was on the menu. You think an almost 4 year old would love this, but dinner proved to be difficult. He had his first lets-test-dad routine at dinner and played with his food, ignored anything I said (or even did the opposite), and flat out refused to eat his dinner. He received a time out. It wasn’t long before he apologized and was released so he could finish his dinner. A few minutes later, he was in time out. He apologized again, told me he loved me and didn’t like being sad, and came out of time out to finish his dinner. A few minutes later he was crying because I took his plate away due to his lack of eating. He cried again. 🙁 Poor kid. We worked it out though. He got a glass of water and that was that. Dinner was done and he didn’t need desert.

So we played. First with is train set, then with the iPhone, then with crayons. We colored a little, but mostly made a long row of crayons that was apparently a boat. Then the boat crashed. Time to put away the boat says I.

Once again, it was time for the bedtime routine; bathtub, pajamas, brush teeth, 3 books, lights out, and goodnight. Once again, he didn’t make it to the end of the 3rd book.

It was a simple day, but that’s ok. It’s only Tuesday. We have a long weekend coming up, and it’s going to be awesome. I feel a trip to the zoo coming on.

J showed up right on time. Always a good sign. Leif decided he was going to sleep in and didn’t wake up until almost 8 am. He picked out some clothes (which I put in a set of drawers for him so he doesn’t have to live out of a backpack), changed, and went downstairs. He did his bathroom thing while I got him a bowl of his cinnamon cereal. While he ate, I got ready for work. He asked me what I was doing. “I have to go to work”, I told him. “Can’t I come with you?” said he. “Sorry sweetie. You can’t come with me to work” said I. “Can you stay and watch me?”, replied Leif. “Daddy has to work today. I can’t stay home” replied me. So Leif looked at me hard and said, “Oh. Ok. Well you go to work and I’ll stay here and play. Then later you come home and we play together”. And thus I put on my gear, gave a few last reminders and suggestions and tips to J and headed out the door. I miss him already. I’m sad I can’t spend every moment with him, but I’m so glad he’s here.

On my lunch break I went back home to make sure that Leif wasn’t tied to a chair while the sitter was emptying our house of all it’s goodies. That wasn’t the case. Leif was playing with his toys and being happy and J was happily playing with him. He gave me a big hug and told me he was happy. All was well. I spent my lunch there playing with him and eating a ham sandwich. Then I went back to work a little less worried then before.

So I forgot to tell J that she should use the deadbolts to lock the doors and not the knobs. So when they headed out to Temple Valley, she sort of locked themselves out of the house. Luckily, it was close to the end of the day and I was able to head home to break in unlock the doors. Leif told me of his adventures and showed me a coloring book and Toy Story book that J had bought him. That was very nice. He was in a good mood and said that he like J. We said our goodbyes to J and thought about food. After all that shopping, I forgot to thaw out any meat. Instead of waiting, we headed up to the Drive In to grab us some chicken and rice. After playing with his toy truck, eating some chicken and broccoli stir-fry, and picking flowers for mom, we headed back home to play in the yard until it got dark. Leif collected an impressive pile of sticks that he will, no doubt, toss down the hill at a later time.

Leif let me know when it got dark and that it was almost bed time. But before bed could come, we had some chocolate and watched a small bit of Ponyo to wind down. Such a pretty movie. Before long, it was time to take a bath, brush teeth, and put on his new jammies. Then, of course, we read his three selected books (which included his new Toy Story book) and hunkered down for the night. He was out in no time. Another successful day.

Sunday was an easy day. We only had three things on the agenda; talk to Gavin, go grocery shopping and introduce Leif to the baby sitter. And that is what we did. We spent 2 hours on FaceTime with Gavin and Mary. He told me all about the train and the bunnies and being sick. Then he talked a bunch about Dragonvale and how good it is to have internet again. He’s having a good time and that makes me happy. Afterwards, I made me a shopping list while Lief watched an episode of My Little Pony. With that out of the way, we headed out to Wal Mart where we stocked up on all kinds of goodies. It was kind of nice. I haven’t actually been shopping like that in months. And I certainly haven’t payed for a large load like that in month. It was good. Anyway, Leif was happy. He was able to get all kinds of snacks and treats. I was happy. I stocked up on things like coconut milk, garlic, shoyu, and M&M’s. The only thing that would have complete my list was some sort of booze. Maybe a good bottle of scotch or some good gin. Anyway, it was good. Leif picked out some new pajamas since his Spongebob ones we deemed too small. We both walked out happy people.

Leif napped on the way home, but quickly perked up when we arrived and I fed him a ham sandwich and a snack back of cookies (courtesy of our shopping adventure). We played and hung out for a few hours before the baby sitter came over. I was in a particularly good mood  so I made us some chocolate ice cream. I actually planned ahead a bit and bought some cream, sugar and eggs to make real ice cream, not the frozen yogurt I made previously. For dinner we had simple shoyu chicken and rice and beans.

The sitter (J) came over and Leif took to her pretty quickly. She was real good with him and he showed her all the things. They sat and played with Micro Machines (remember those?) for a bit. All the black or dark colored cars were bad guys (they were stealing cars from buildings) and the light colored cars with flames on them were good guys (they put the bad guys in jail). It was really cute. All went well though. I think they’ll get along great.

J hung around for a bit and played with Leif and had a good time. Then it was time for her to go, and time for Lief and I to spend more time together. He really is loving having me around and wants me to sit next to him, play with him, watch him, be with him, and just plain be attached to him whatever he’s doing. And every 20 minutes or so he gives me a big hug and tells me he’s happy and he loves me. I’m so glad to have him back for a bit (in case I didn’t mention that before).

When bedtime came near, we sat and watched a little Wall•E. He laughed his deep belly laugh and told me how funny it was. After about 20 or 30 minutes, we put Wall•E on hold to start bedtime routine; take a bath, read 3 books (“That’s how many books mom says we can read at bedtime”), turn the lights out, and go to sleep. Sweet child.