Julia and I just dropped Dylan off for the last day of his park program. In a few short hours we will ride the bike trailer rig to pick him up, then on to the elementary school for our last lunch, as that program is ending as well.

As a stay at home dad, I realize the importance of socializing with other kids. He can’t just play with me all of the time. The park program has been great for the boy, exposing him to new things, new ideas, and new people. Wednesdays are show and tell, Thursdays are reserved for swimming, and there are fun things to do at the park rain or shine.

The free lunch program has been great as well. Dylan has been learning the importance of taking the top tray from the stack, even when it is pink, and how to open a carton of milk. Julia gets to try new foods and experiment with both eating and throwing them. We hang out with a variety of summer friends in the lunchroom, and some of the Headstart kids point and call me “Juggle Man” because they remember me from my show at the Moorhead library in June. I love it.

The past five weeks of structured summer mornings has also been great for Julia and I. We have had one-on-one time to read letter books, play ring around the rosie, and watch signing time videos (while Daddy cleans the kitchen and sweeps the floor). A few days we have been able to go out on two hour radventures, biking and running around town, just the two of us. Like Dylan and I used to do.

It is tempting for me to feel sadness at the end of something, but of course it is also the beginning of the next stage. The moments flow in unending sequence, each one as powerful and fraught with possibility as the last. Next week we will be coming up with our own adventures, loading up the trailer and setting out for days of unstructured fun, building on the lessons we have already learned.

It is hot, and I love it! Summer is not merely my favorite time of year, it is my favorite of everything. Last night our family camped in the backyard, all four of us in the tent, and had a blast. The children did a great job swimming at the neighborhood wading pool yesterday, and the forecast calls for more swimming this afternoon.

Dylan has been attending his park program for several weeks and we still have several more weeks of structured summertime fun to look forward to. The Fourth of July is just around the corner, the local elementary school serves up a free lunch program, and everything worth doing in the F-M area is a short bike ride away.

The Spring is dead! Long live the summer.

We just finished mowing our lawn for the first time of the season. Yahoo! My wife and I decided soon after purchasing our first home that we were reel mower people. You know, the kind you push and doesn’t make much noise and doesn’t use gasoline or electricity? Yeah, that kind.

Well today Dylan (my four year old son) announced he was going to help me mow the lawn. He grabbed on to one side of the handle, I held the other, and we talked about why I use this type of mower and being careful to stay away from the spinning blades and a short time later the lawn was mown! Now I cannot claim that he helped me the entire time. After all, the Jump-o-Lene has been transformed into an impromptu sand box filled with the foundation sand from the shed I dismantled earlier this spring. But it is kinda cool to hold a conversation related to conservation with one’s child while mowing, doncha’ think?

We use a Great States brand mower, there are others out there of course and they are reasonably priced. There are definitely downsides to using this kind of mower, however. For instance, it only works when pushing it forward, not backward. Also, the reel and blades are inside of the wheels, so the cutting swath is not as wide as someone used to a conventional mower might expect. These two factors lead to a bit of back and forth and re-mowing places you have already been, as well as satisfyingly tired arms.

I can’t recommend this type of mower for everyone, but if you are into doing things the “hard way” for all the right reasons, I encourage you to try mowing the reel way.

Julia started singing the birthday song a few weeks ago, which is so very adorable, but it was difficult to capture on video to share the joy.  At seventeen months old, Julia understands quite a bit about the world, including the melody to the birthday song, how to blow out the candles at the end, and the fact that when you are cute (or hungry for crackers) you don’t always have to do as you are told.

https://daddydispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/skies-and-trees1.mp3

Dolorous days of winter’s making

Hide the sun’s great undertaking

Warming earth and melting snow

Remind the mimes and those who know

Hope springs eternal, yea forsooth

Rejoice! Those trapped in unseen booths

Shine down on just and un alike

Behold the end of cold and night.

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Today I find myself sniffling and sneezing my way through the first cold I have endured in a long time. But I earned it!

Yesterday was another warm, melty February day, perhaps the sixth in a row, and we took full advantage.  After the long dark days of housebound isolation (and one week of self-imposed technological isolation) it is so gratifying to see the massive snow mounds diminish, to shovel the roofs of our sheds, to dig out the downspouts and hear the water moving away from our house prior to the ground thawing.  Will the Red River flood this spring?  Does a bear go potty in the woods?  But at least the small scale watershed in my basement will have an easier year thanks to this run of warm weather.

We went on our longest radventure since December today, loading up the bicycle trailer (both kids packed in tightly due to wearing all their winter stuff) and pedaling to Davy park.  Dylan wanted to see the river, so we wandered over to the gazebo where the homeless and shiftless often gather in warmer seasons and took a gander.  I couldn’t believe it, the pedestrian bridge was down and open to cross into Fargo’s Oak Grove park!  It was a bit of a challenge due to the snow pack on the bridge, but I was able to drag the bicycle trailer with Julia inside (while Dylan pushed) into the cleared paths on the Fargo side of the river.

Do the cities of Fargo and Moorhead work together to maintain the bridges in our community?  I had a similar rough time crossing the Center Avenue bridge on foot and bicycle last week.  I imagine they do, in a spirit of competitive cooperation as in so many other things.  Tomorrow we expect a return to colder temperatures, another season of locking before the great thaw.

Peace on the journey, see you next spring.