Our new neighborhood park

If we end up living in the house we currently plan to lease, this playground will be down the street.  The landscaping is clever, so that the two play areas are in the shade (at least in the afternoon when we went yesterday).  It's not the greatest park ever, but it's pretty good -- here are two photos of the kids checking it out.

 Tommy is really funny at parks when there are kids he wants to play with.  He starts the introduction process with a performance of something that to him seems very tricky (see below).  Then, he starts yelling irrelevant things (yesterday he kept yelling a sentence that included the word "attitude" but the usage was incorrect).  Finally, he goes in for the kill and speaks directly to the kids.  Yesterday he told two eight year old girls, remember, after running around crazily and yelling to draw attention to himself, "I'M GOING TO CALL YOU TWO CRAZY!"  I suggested that they might wish for nicer nicknames but they just sort of smiled at him and shook their heads.  I think this behavior might be common to five year old boys? It really, really, really makes me laugh.  And, he seems to make friends easily so I've decided not to worry about it too much.

One thing I'll tell you about Tommy is that he has made one solid friend at school.  Yesterday at pick up, I noticed that each child, including Tommy, now has a poster on his or her locker with a self-portrait and a sentence about two things they like.  Tommy's says, "I like wrestling with my Dad and playing Lego."  Tommy's new friend's says, "I like ice cream.  I like candy."