Young padawan

If I had to pick one thing I want for Dash to look back on his spring break and remember, it's not any elaborate trips to the city or organized events, not finishing* the original Star Wars trilogy (as we did last night), not any new toys he may or may not score on a milk-run to Target, not the haircut I swear we're going to get tomorrow, and certainly not the optional homework packet that I have no intention of downloading from the school website. I want him to remember that he spent lots of time outside in windy, sunny playgrounds, riding his bike on the street with his friends, playing like a kid, doing nothing like a kid - outside, with other kids, without recourse to television.

He's outside right now, while Mabel naps. We live on a quiet court, so he's allowed be out without a supervising adult if he wants. I look out the window every now and then and can usually see what he's up to. A little earlier he was pacing up and down behind the seven-year-old from across the way, with the three-year-old from two doors down following both, the three of them looking very serious; two small disciples following their preacher, who was probably intoning deep thoughts on the various colours of the Power Rangers and what each can do. Then he was lying on his stomach beside the three-year-old watching him dig intently in some mud, no doubt filling him in on all the Star Wars spoilers he can lay his mind on, passing down the sacred creeds from one to the next, as the older boys have done to him.

*If it can be called "finishing" when there were quite a few bits we fast-forwarded past. He didn't want to watch the rest of Return of the Jedi, but I desperately needed to use it for speedy-bedtime-preparation bribery, so I promised to skip all of Luke's battle with the emperor and any and all further scary/exciting bits that might crop up. With the result that every time he and Mabel asked, "What's happening now?" I had no idea, because we'd missed all the explanatory dialogue, and I don't really know the stories too well myself once you get past the basic premise as explained in the lyrics of Star Wars Cantina.

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And then we ended up going to Target for bread (got milk, thanks) and buying him a new, blue, Anakin Skywalker light sabre, which has now been secreted away for his birthday in three weeks' time.