Reading outside

Jack and I decided to play out in the yard when we got home today. Beautiful day, and VERY warm. Perfect for swinging, spying, running, creating a fake car wash in the garage since Daddy's car isn't in there...etc, etc. I was getting pretty tired trying to keep up with Jack's whims, let me tell you. First it's get the helmet and knee pads and elbow pads on so he can ride his scooter, then it's take the pads off but leave the helmet ON so he can ride his bike, then just as I'm getting settled in a comfy lawn chair, he wants the helmet off and wants me to go find the walkie-talkies. I go in and get them, and we use them literally for 1 minute until we walk over to the swingset, where they immediately get discarded while Jack climbs up the rope ladder. But then, oh yes, did I get smart. :)

Jack: Mom, now what can we do?
me: Haven't we done it all?
Jack: (his equivalent to "I've only just begun") Nooooooo!
me: Sigh.
Jack: Maybe we can attach all of the lawn chairs together with this bungee cord and make a fort or a wall, so when Daddy comes home ---
me: (interrupting) You must be soooo tired from all the playing. How about I get some books and a little snack and we sit in the reclining lawn chairs together and read? (oh please oh please?)
Jack: Heyyyyyy, that's a really good idea Mommy. Yes I do need to rest. Whew!
me: (whew is right. I go to get him a pile of books and grab my latest book) Be right back!
Jack: (flipping through Andrew Henry's Meadow) This is SO much fun Mom. Great idea.
me: (halfway through my 4th or 5th read of A Walk in the Woods) Hell yeahhhh.
Jack: What?
me: Uh, hurray!
Jack: oh.

P.S. We read together for about an hour, Jack holding out his hand for a new book when he was finished with the last one, while the birds chirped — and our neighbor did not fire up his chainsaw, not even once!