On Boys Week

Boys,

Today is Wednesday and we’re on the back nine of #BoysWeek. Once again, I don’t know if by the time you’re old enough the read these posts if the #hashtag trend will not be a thing, in which case you might be confused. Like, Dad, why did you sometimes put a tic-tac-toe symbol in front of some words? Well, boys, for a brief moment in time we used to put a pound sign in front of certain words or phrases to highlight certain trends online. What’s a pound sign? It’s the tic-tac-toe symbol. It’s also called a pound sign. Why is it also called a pound sign?

….nobody knows for sure. Nobody…

Anyway, we’re on day four of #BoysWeek and we’ve had some fun thus far. Your mom flew to California for a real estate conference, and Koen still thinks she’s just chilling on an airplane at all times but that’s neither here nor there. Here’s how we’ve been spending our time while your mom has been gone.

Sunday: woke up feeling dangerous so we decided that we’d be train trackers and needed to go through the car wash. Those are two different things. One simply does not train track, while simultaneously going through a car wash — it simply doesn’t work that way. But we loaded up the LeapFrogs and snacks and hit the road. After the 4th or 5th train track crossing, we saw the ding-a-lings going down. Here’s the instant reply version brought to you by WordArt.

Anyway, so we whip around and are the first ones at the track to see the train whiz past. Reagan, you made some comments on the size/speed of the train. Koen and I nodded along, but didn’t have much else to add.

Now, we weren’t just out to see a train and call it a day. No sir! We were trackers, so once that ding-a-ling went up, we turned on the nitro boosters and headed north on Liberty Rd. To our left, we could see the train humming along. We were tempted to turn early and catch the latter half of the train, but I saw an opportunity. We jumped the shark across Home Rd. and forged ahead up toward Delaware. I hung a louie on Bean-Oller. IYKYK…

This time, we got to the crossing just as the train was coming to us — we rolled down the windows and, being as close as we were, that might have been a bad idea. But Koen, you took the loud horn in stride and we were pretty much feeling ourselves at this point, but Reagan, you weren’t yet satisfied to call it a day. “One more chance,” we said, and made it to Sawmill and again forged north. We took it as far as we could go, then began working our way east back toward the track. This time we found a train bridge, and as we went over the bridge, we saw our train venturing on in the distance. Where was it going? The north pole? Probably. But we turned south and were happy with how the last 30 minutes played out.

Next was Koen’s turn, which meant one thing…. car wash. Fortunately, there was a Blue Sky just up ahead, and since we’re members there, we could experience a new car wash without any out of pocket costs. Unfortunately, Reagan asked Koen if he wanted to do the Blue Sky car wash, or the brown car wash — aka Moo Moo Express. Again, IYKYK. Naturally, Koen wanted the brown car wash and was gesturing for the kind of brushes he was hoping to see. “Convenience and sense be damned!” we shouted and $12 later, we all got what we set out for.

Naturally, we were all pretty tuckered out by this point, so we headed home for lunch, naps , and prep work for the upcoming Lions game later that day. Speaking of the Leos, they won. We’re 7-2 and we might look back on this season as the one that got it done. Not calling it now or anything, but Lions will win the Super Bowl. Calling it.

Monday: woke up feeling less dangerous. Couple drinks to cheer along the Lions had me feeling less excited and with Deb coming in and work on the docket, less energy than the day before. Still, you boys took Deb to a park and got some exploring in while I worked from home. Koen, you came home tuckered out and Reagan still had enough gas to get though nap time without napping, so he hung out and played on the iPad while I finished up work. After that, we had a nice little dinner date across the street.

Miles’ dad had to leave town for a few days, so we packed up a bottle of wine, a cookie decorating kit, and our best behavior and went over for some chow. Dinner went well, you both got some play in with Miles and Ella, and we eventually went home, showered, and went to bed. Less excitement than the day before, but we’re pacing ourselves for these next few days.

Tuesday: realizing this has been a long post to this point, I will move in 1.2x speed. You know, not too much quicker to lose the feel of what’s being said, but a little faster than normal speed. IYKYK. Tuesday was school day for Reagan, so Koen got that prime Deb-Deb time, which means you ate everything, cleaned up after yourself, asked things in a polite fashion, and was just an all-around good guy. I went in to the office that day, but once I got home and once Koen recovered from a big brain day, and after Reagan got back from school, we headed over to Nash’s house.

Koen, not only do you have your mom and I trained, but apparently you must have pulled Nash’s mom aside and laid things out, but she was quick to offer you a waffle (2, actually) and grapes which kept you mostly happy….mostly.

Wednesday: back to work and back to school for Koen. Of the two of us, one had a Turkey Trot event and, spoiler alert…… it was……YOU! Your mom was sad she couldn’t be there and, well ahead of this point, she’s made it known how much she misses you both and how hard it’s been for her to be away from you for so long. But anyway, Deb-Deb and Reagan got to go see you rock the Turkey Trot Obstacle Course.We’re talking balance beams. We’re talking A-frames. We’re talking a future in obstacle course racing and all the lifelong glory that comes along with THAT….. But Deb took a million pictures of you going through it and sent it to us and made our day.

We got home and laid low until basketball practice. We’re all excited that your mom comes home tonight and, thus would end #BoysWeek. And to follow suit, I will wrap up this post. But before I do, I want to take this little bit of white space to remind you both how much I love you, how great it is to be your dad, and how much I enjoy taking times like this to explore your brains and get to know you both that much better.

Love you boys,

Dad