A Day With Alex

Alex fills Papa in on his adventures.

  I spent yesterday babysitting Alex. He'd been diagnosed with scarlet fever last week and very dutifully takes his antibiotics -- he even announced to Rebecca that it was time for his medicine just before dinner -- and was back to being his usual energetic self.

  I made the trip Sunday evening so as to avoid Monday morning rush hour traffic and, worse, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to beat it. I also managed to avoid the thunderstorms that were forecast. And, best of all, I got to their house just as someone pulled out of the parking space right in front.

  Alex did not know that I was coming and, since I arrived after he'd gone to bed, he did not find out till Chuck told him when he woke up at 6 a.m. that Papa was there. Upon hearing this news, he insisted on coming downstairs immediately to wake me up, which he did by tapping me on the arm and shouting "Hello!"

  Over the course of the day we played with his trucks, played in the sandbox, drew with chalk on the sidewalk in front of the house, walked from one end of the block to the other, played with his trains (including building a set of tunnels for the train to drive through), read books, watched videos, played in his kitchen, and, when we ran out of other things to do, played with the trucks some more.

  And we talked. He told me about things he did at day care, about things he did at home, about things he did when he visited Papa and Grandma's house, pretty much about anything and everything. When Rebecca mentioned that he needed to get a haircut soon, he reminded us that we go to the barber to get a haircut (and he remembered that the barber's name is also Alex), "then I get a lollipop, and then we go to McDonalds."

  When he's not talking, Alex likes to sing. One of his current favorites is "the railroad song" ("I've Been Working on the Railroad") and it amazing how much of this song he knows. He will sing it while strumming on his guitar, which he also refers to as his ukulele. When he runs out of songs you might recognize, he makes up his own; there was one yesterday that he called "The Papa Song," which was mostly strumming the guitar and singing "Papa, do da do" over and over again. I was honored to be immortalized in song.

  Thankfully, the little dynamo does need to recharge his batteries from time to time and took a nice two-hour nap after lunch, during which Papa was also able to cop a few Z's.

  After dinner and his bath, he insisted that Papa be the one to put him to bed, (After all, Mommy and Daddy are there to do it all the time!) We read a book and then he said, "Tell me a story." So I told him about a little boy named Alex whose Papa came to visit, recounting all the things we'd done, and ending with "when their busy day was all done, Alex was so tired that he wanted to go to sleep."

  Satisfied with this exciting tale, that was exactly what he did.