It was a real scorcher this weekend.
In that wonderful, yes we are seriously experiencing global warming, WTF happened to spring NE way, we were introduced to the height of summer after exactly, what, 3 days of spring? It went from 60ish degrees to 90 degrees in one day.
Which then turned this daddy's-not-around-he's-at-a-conference-the-bastard weekend into a how-do-we-keep-the-kiddies-from-frying weekend.
Which in turn meant shelling out over $200 to (re)join our local swimming hole/"acquatic center", which we probably don't get the full use of, but you haven't seen the lines to get inside when you aren't a member and it's a hawt (and not in a good way) day.
Loo got in the spirit of things quite quickly and she had a blast. I didn't even end up having to keep much of an eye out on her, since 2 of her friends and their 'rents were also at the pool, and there was a tag team effort going on to keep track of the three girls. Kali was more of a challenge because she fell into the water, face first, within minutes of arriving at the pool, which scared the living bejeezus out of her and me and set the tone for the rest of the day... which she spent hovering right at the edge of the pool playing with a pail and a couple of shovels. Oh well, can't really complain - she had a blast. If only we were all so easily amused.
After the pool, Loo kept her swimsuit on and went to a birthday party, where she proceeded to spend two hours outside, running around a back-yard which had been set up with various novelty sprinklers. Unlike Citymama, who had to face the inevitable question of what to do with the second born when the first born gets to do enviably fun things, I was able to drop Loo off at the party (which happened to be just down the block from us) and return home with a snoozing Kali, exhasted from her pail and shovel exertions.
But here is the real kicker. What do you do when your 3-almost-4 year old insists on going to visit her friend down the block all by herself? Loo has done this several times now - she's figured out how to get out of our apartment and apartment building all by herself, and will literally walk down the block to see if Rebecca is around (and if Rebecca isn't, to hang out in Rebecca's awesome cool backyard which has a swingset). Usually, I'm alert to her disappearing act and will run out of the front door just as Loo is setting her feet onto concrete. Luckily, the street is a dead end and so has very little traffic. Unluckily, there is no sidewalk.
We've tried everything short of actually running her over with our car to try to convey to Loo that this is unacceptably dangerous. She is, unfortunately, fearless.
In the meantime, I've settled with teaching her that whenever she walks on the street, she must hug the curb. She's taken this (as far as I know) to heart. So it was only slightly surprising to me when, two hours into Rebecca's birthday party, I hear the intercom buzz, and when I run downstairs to open the door, who should I find standing there but Loo, apparently finished with playing for the day.
Which meant that I had to then grab the baby, leave Loo at home with a juice box and a video, and run down to Rebecca's house to let her parents know that they had not, in fact, lost a child under their care.
*sigh* You know what they say about payback being a bitch.
Wow fearless indeed. need to nip that spirit in the bud. I hear you about "what happened to spring"? We had snow in April and then hot hot hot!
Nothing in between.
Posted by: david | June 10, 2008 at 09:29 AM
oh no. i guess you've just given me one good reason we live in a condo even though i've been pining for a house. because i can totally see our noah doing that.
Posted by: jooliyah | June 10, 2008 at 06:55 PM