Mundania 33

Today was the March for Life in D.C. Darren has attended the last four or five years, but had pretty much decided to sit this one out. Until Addi informed him last week at church that she was planning to go in with him.

So, complete with a new umbrella and backpack, she walked with Darren. She held a sign that she'd gotten from someone else ("I am the pro-life generation") and apparently thoroughly enjoyed herself. It's possible that Darren was pretty proud to have his daughter at his side.

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Oh, right, the backpack. I mentioned the backpack on Facebook, and forty-one of you liked it. Forty-one! I was exclaiming over the number, and Addi agreed that it was a big number "... for one of your posts. I mean, I bet rock stars get forty-one Likes in an hour." Thanks for the perspective adjustment there, darling.

Here's the post that so many people Liked:

Addi needed a new backpack for her library books. I found an LL Bean one for $7. I figured we could overlook the fact that it's already monogrammed. Until we all realized that the monogram "ALB" obviously stands for "Addi's Library Bag." A happy accident that makes me smile every time I look at the backpack.

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Pip has come a long way since his second birthday (in June) when he could say two words: Mama and Dada. Now he says quite a lot, and some of it is even understandable. Most of his conversation deals with choo-choos, for which he has a deep and abiding love. He watches me put together puzzles, and remarks that the linked pieces are "choo-choos." He also loves "twucks." He also loves starting his own Netflix shows, usually ones that deal with choo-choos and twucks.

But the single most important concept in Phillip's life is: turns. More specifically, his turn. It's his one weapon of power against three older siblings. In Pip's world, it's always "Pup's tuhn."

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For Christmas, we got Daphne a tea set made up of real, mismatched dishes from the thrift store. It turned out to be hard to find a good time for a tea party because it is, after all, always Pip's turn to have the teapot. So most nights a week, Daphne and I have a tea party before bed. We take turns being the shopkeeper and customer in a magic tea shop, where you can get any kind of tea you think of. There's a set script, and she and I have a good time trading roles. For the record, Daddy also has tea parties with her, following the same script, but he forgets to be charmed with the experience.

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While Darren and Addi were at the March for Life, and while it was Pip's turn at the computer, Stuart and Daphne and I held a simplified D&D campaign. As usual, I struggled to keep all the numbers in order. But Stuart didn't mind, because while I was trying to keep straight which dice scored damage and which one to use for a difficulty check, Stuart's creativity was on a joyride. "I yank off the spider's leg to use as a club!" "You can't carry around a spider's leg! Look, okay, you can have the spider's fang. It's poisonous." "Yeah! So it gives extra poison damage, right?" Or, "You've defeated the evil skeleton!" "Yeah! Awesome! I take one of its bones to use as a club!" He scored a pretty good shot on a dragon when he set an arrow on fire, attached it to a shovel, and whacked the ice dragon's underbelly with it. It's a wild ride through a labyrinth with Stuart.

Daphne participated, too. Mostly she was pleased that her character name was her birthstone, Peridot, and that she paid 50 gold pieces for a horse halfway through.

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Darren got me some chocolate wine for my birthday (in two days). It's good.