Lucky number eight

Daniel is eight today, and we've been celebrating his birthday (and continuing to celebrate mine from the other day) with waffles, sunshine, Lego, books, and flowers. His plans for today include working on the fort he and Davy started the other month in Tom's shop, and which finally made its public debut the other day (Daniel in blue, attaching chains to pull the fort out into the grass):























It's two stories high, each one of which is carpeted with carpet samples. The boys added shelves for a radio, flashlight, and handy dandy manuals. There's been some talk about adding a telephone, and knowing them I have a feeling they're not talking about the paper cup and string variety. While they're hammering away, I get to work in the garden and peek into Daniel's new books, including The Dangerous Book for Boys (UK edition), a present from his grandparents, The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide (with an entire chapter on storage, perfect for the parents of Legophiles, too), and my own new copy of Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts by critic Clive James.

Tonight we're going out for dinner to his favorite restaurant, and when we get home we'll have the homemade Rocky Road Oreo ice cream cake and, as we always do, look through the birthday child's baby book and wonder where the time went.