It’s a rare occasion when I get one-on-one time with Liam, but recently one evening he asked to play Uno and, because this coincided with another rare occasion, which was that all three kids were having school lunch the next day so I needn’t pack any, dinner was easy and already ready, and the other two children were happily engaged together elsewhere in the house, I actually could stop what I was doing and sit down to engage with him. We played two rounds of rip-roaring two-player Uno, and I commented on how much I was enjoying it. Brian overheard this and said, “Right?! Life with one!”, meaning “How different and great (at times) would it be to only have a singleton as offspring!”

A few days later:

Arlo: “Does anybody want to play catch?”
Alison: “Sure, I’d like to play catch with you!”
Arlo: “No, I asked if anybody wants to play CATS.”
Alison: “Oh.”
Summerly: “I’ll play cats!”
Alison: (to myself) ‘Thank god I have all these kids because I have absolutely no desire to play cats ever again until maybe I’m a grandmother but probably not even then.”

And a couple of nights after that:

Alison (to Brian): “It’s been the kind of day that, if a person could die from being tested by one’s kids, you’d be writing my obituary.”
Brian: “How many years ago?”

As of this writing, the “Falcon’s Flight” rollercoaster in Saudi Arabia is in the design stage, but when completed, it will edge out Japan’s “Steel Dragon 2000” to take the title of “longest rollercoaster in the world” with a ride of approximately three minutes’ duration. According to a press release made by the Six Flags Qiddiya’s CEO, Falcon’s Flight “won’t be for the fainthearted”. Take a knee, Falcon’s Flight. The longest rollercoaster in the world will always be Parenthood, and the ride lasts for a minimum of eighteen years.