Adventures in Aunthood: Social Climbing?

Took my nephews climbing yesterday at The Peak of Fremont with some friends of mine and their kids. The Peak is a pretty cool little climbing gym - notably, it has 9 auto-belay routes, which is handy if you're short of belayers. (We had 6 kids and 5 adults, two of whom could belay, so the auto-belay was kind of a necessity.)

I think the nephews had a good time with the other kids, even if they were occasionally impatient at having to share Aunt Wendy's belaying services with other people.

Younger nephew very sweetly tried to console a 4-year old who was disconsolate because she couldn't manage a 5.11 route: "When you're big like me, you'll climb that with no problem!"

After climbing, we took the kids to a nearby pizza place. The boys were initially not keen on pizza, but when I explained to them that they could get a personal pizza and pick any topping they wanted, they got very excited. Older nephew chose tomato sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Younger nephew chose tomato sauce and cheese.

Older nephew was very impressed that I had a booster seat in the trunk of my car for his brother.
Older nephew: Do you just keep that there just in case?
Me: Yeah. Do you remember that time I drove you a few blocks in my car and I didn't have any booster seats? I felt bad about that.
Younger nephew: Why?
Me: Well, because I want you to be safe and comfortable in my car.*
Older nephew: And besides, you don't want to break the law.
Me: Well, yeah, I guess not.
Older nephew: When I break the law, I feel bad. It makes me sick to my stomach.

I was too busy getting Younger nephew settled into his seat to inquire about what sort of life of crime Older nephew thinks he's been living. I do think this conversation demonstrates that Older nephew is Lawful Good alignment whereas Younger nephew is definitely Neutral Good.

Older nephew also described to me with great interest the political coverage he'd been reading in that morning's New York Times. He's passionately interested in the presidential election campaign. Perhaps we ought to just give nine year olds the vote.

*Actually, it was also that Younger nephew slouched down in his seat and proudly proclaimed, "The police won't be able to see me!" I wasn't sure if I was fostering the correct respect towards law and order.

Slow-cooked sweet potatoes

I was braising some chicken in the oven this afternoon for dinner, which involved having a pot in the oven at 300 degrees F for a couple of hours. I scrubbed a few sweet potatoes, pricked them a few times with a knife, and put them on a foil-lined baking sheet in the oven for 2 hours while the chicken was cooking. They were probably some of the best sweet potatoes I've ever eaten - sweet, slightly smoky, and so tasty that we ate them without any additional toppings. (Although, they'd probably be even more delicious with a bit of butter.)