TWO FRIDAY NIGHTS AND A SATURDAY

Mick was given 2 Oakland A's tickets for Friday July 20th; we were also given 2 San Francisco Giants tickets for the following Friday.

The first Friday, Mick took Aubrey with him to the A's game. They ate their packed snacks, plus hot dogs, cotton candy, and Tic Tacs. Aubrey sang "Take me out to the ball game" the whole time, sat on her dad's lap, sat next to him, met the people in the rows near her. She sacked out happily and suddenly within the first 5 minutes of their ride home, after chattering wildly about how she drank Diet Coke and how that has caffeine and how she wasn't tired at all.

In the meantime, Dane and I spent a specially planned evening home. Earlier that week we'd bought "Dino Dig" from the Discovery Channel Store. Dino Dig is like the game Battleship, but with raptor fossil parts to discover in your opponent's grid instead. Dane was incredibly focused for 2 hours as we used coordinates to guess where the others' bones were. Afterward, we curled up on the couch and read books until late.

In both cases that first Friday, Mick and I reveled in how sweet each kid was -- doing something special with our undivided attention. The following Friday, we swapped kids and had similar fun.

Dane went with Mick to the SF Giants game -- along with his friend Jacob and Jacob's dad, Mike -- where the boys watched Barry Bonds hit his 754th homerun, leaving him just 1 homer shy of tying the record. (The boys were ecstatic, although I'm not entirely sure they grasped the actual significance of the momentus occasion.) They snacked, ate ice cream, talked about baseball, held up their mitts, and stayed for the entire game.

At home, Aubrey was beside herself with enthusiasm and plans for our evening alone. The week before, we'd bought a special craft kit (also at the Discovery Channel Store) and she'd been waiting patiently since then to delve into it on our special night. When the moment arrived, we sat around coloring and framing our artwork as she chatted happily about the markers and designs; then, we played Pokemon Yahtzee and Disney Princess Dominoes, and looked (and found) every item in the Find It - Incredibles book while we sat propped up in bed side-by-side for over an hour. Of course, we also painted our nails.

Mick and I agreed that while it's always fun to do things together as a family, there's so much to be said about spending time with just one other person, devoting all kinds of love and attention and interest to that person. We're definitely going to be doing this again with the kids.

That said, Mick and I also got to spend time alone recently when the kids spent a few hours one evening at our friends' the Neilsen's. Instead of trying to do a big bike ride or go out to dinner, I found a scrumptuous curry recipe online and we went to the market to pick up all the ingredients, then came home and drank wine together while preparing and cooking it all up. We threw on some Morphine -- a band we listened to a lot that first summer we met -- and spent a sweet, chill kind of evening together.