Last night I stayed up a little longer than usual. I was watching Letterman with one eye and reading the latest issue of "Cruising World" magazine with the other. Around midnight I heard a noise coming from Skippers room.

I prepared myself for the routine. The routine is that he comes stumbling out of his room whining. I then steer him into the bathroom, pull down his pants, get him to tinkle, flush the toilet, steer him back to his room, and lie down with him for a few minutes until he goes back to sleep.

Last night there was no whining. He went directly to the bathroom, pulled down his pajamas on his own, tinkled, flushed the toilet, went back to his room, climbed into bed, and went back to sleep. Pretty soon he'll be cooking his own meals.

Today was opening day of the Fox Point East Side Little League. Skipper is on the Union Paper Tee Ball team. The Mayor spoke at opening day celebrations. Skipper got his uniform (a green tee shirt embossed with the words "Union Paper" and the number 12) as well as a baseball cap. Hank is all worked up because he wants to play too. But by the rules, he's too young. The rules are right. In fact, even Skipper and his teamates are too young. In the games no one is ever out because neither team fields well enough to get anyone out. Each team bats until everyone has had a chance to hit and then the inning is over.

Last weekend we went to the Big Green Field to watch Brown play baseball against Penn on Saturday and Columbia on Sunday. There were double headers both days. Brown won all four games. We didn't stay more than an hour or so each day but the boys enjoyed it.

This afternoon we went to one of our regular parks and while driving there noticed some event at the Brown Football stadium (and track). After an hour or so at the park, which included consumption of Dell's frozen lemonade and hoodsies, we stopped by at the stadium where Brown was hosting a track meet. We could see women (goils, as the boys say) throwing the discus as we approached the entrance. "I hope its a doubleheader." said Skipper.

Inside the stadium we could see pole vaulters, high jumpers, and mostly runners. We saw all of the women's and men's 800 and then the 440 women's hurdle. Like a three ring circus, there are too many things going on at once and the boys were confused. They were especially confused by who they should route for in each event. Fortunately, the Brown runners had a bears paw printed on the back of their shirts, so that's who we finally cheered for. In the hurdles a young woman from Yale who was just off the lead fell over the last hurdle. Hank was upset, but finally she picked herself up and walked back to her teammates, and all was well.

Skipper came home from school the other day talking about his Chinese class. He goes to a Montessori school on Lloyd Avenue where he is learning to write some Chinese and where they also study China. Today they were studying Panda bears. "Did you know Dad that the only place in America where there are Panda bears is the San Diego Zoo?" "No I didn't know that" I said. "You know I have some friends who live near San Diego. Maybe we could go visit them and see the Panda bears." "Could we Dad?" he said.

We went to the Big Green Field Tuesday night. The first time since late October or early November. The Big Green Field is our name for the Brown athletic fields. We squeeze through a fence near our house. There is all the room in the world to run and plenty of things to scavenge.

We came back as the sun set with two yellow lacrosse balls. They reminded the boys of the hockey pucks they'd acquired a month before. In the bath that night they invented a new game which involved banging the balls with the pucks coated in shaving cream. I didn't get it but they had fun.