451.

Friday Harry came over to pick up Natasia. William asked if he could come over too. He went with Harry, aside from staying with Natasia, but also to be with Emma and AJ. When he came home later, he'd clearly had a good time, and was in a good mood. We played until he had a meltdown, it was quite late but I wanted to enjoy his good mood. We have stacking cups and he wanted them arraigned in a certain way. My inflexibility led me to want to stack them the way I felt they were "supposed to go." Of course my instincts are important, I am trying to inculcate to him some order, but not obsessively. I find my flexibility and desire for order are two hard things to balance at times, and my need for order wins out, and I have a bit of a tantrum. I sometimes feel tantrumy, being influenced by my boys.

I look forward to the day the boys can hike with me. When I was climbing up Breakneck Ridge, outside Cold Spring Saturday, I met a father with a 7 year old. I asked him when he'd started taking his son hiking. He said around 5, but this was his first time up Breakneck Ridge. I wrote about my hike on my other blog.

Virginia took Andrew, and Diana had William. When I got home from my hike, Diana was at her mother's. She'd taken William to the park, and then went to her parents. William watched Dumbo on TV. When he got home, he had Ice Age, and wanted to watch that. They brought home Lilo and Stitch, which is what I wanted to watch. No budging from him, so it was Ice Age. I go into the room to read after a while, but he joins me and we play some and then he goes out. He went to bed before it was finished. I think Diana was troubled by Andrew's first sleeping out. Maybe not first, but it's pretty rare.