(Mis)adventures

Wednesdays in winter tend to be loooooong, long days, so I try to attack them with some type of action plan in the hopes of enjoying the time instead of sitting on the couch while Meet Strawberry Shortcake plays on repeat and my house becomes trashed by the dragging out of every single stuffed animal and dress-up item we own. Yesterday after naps, we headed to the pool. It was especially warm, the girls were especially happy to splash and play and jump in to me, and Lucy plus family showed up half-way through our time there. She and Annie spent almost half an hour racing one another, chasing, paddling, and having a blast. I had just started the "Five More Minutes" countdown and was on minute three when I noticed the lifeguard sauntering over to get the big net-on-a-pole thing lifeguards use to fish things out of water. Holding Jemma, I watched as he stuck it down to the bottom and brought it back up with something that looked suspiciously like a turd on it. I caught his eye and raised my eyebrows questioningly. He nodded affirmatively. I had the girls out of the pool in 2.4 seconds and had Annie out of there before her hysteria could set in.

*************

After the pool, I made an executive decision to eat dinner at Panera since I knew we wouldn't see Jason any time before bedtime. We got there, ordered our food, and found a quiet table. The girls were being adorable with each other and were just happy to be doing something different for dinner. We started to eat our food when, two tables over, a 2 or 3-year-old girl started losing it. Full-on tantrum in the middle of the restaurant. I'm pretty tolerant of minor meltdowns, but the mom (who was with a friend) pretty much ignored it and it went on for a good 15 minutes, at which point the entire restaurant was shooting her pointed looks. Annie had a lot to say about this. Her (loud) comments included:

"Mom, why is that girl crying?"
"Mom, she is making so much noise it's hard to think."
"Well, SOMETHING'S wrong with her."
"Maybe she's SICK."
"Mom, I'm tired of that girl crying. I want her to leave."

Jemma merely pointed, said, "Sad," and nodded at me meaningfully.

*************

This morning, we spent a little time at the bookstore (Annie's request) before heading to get groceries. I made time for a little detour to see the trains and let the girls throw a penny in the fish pond. (Side note: When I asked Annie what she was going to wish for, she said, "To have a baby." When I explained that she could someday in a long, long time, she said, "No, to have a baby right now when I'm a kid." Her back-up, second wish was "To get married" and her third wish, when I pressed her to name something - anything! - that might actually happen, was "To watch a real wedding." I need to get this child some career-woman role models.)

We were kneeling down watching our pennies disappear amongst the fish when who should walk by but SANTA. Apparently he was coming back from a break and was heading to his chair for photos. He kindly stopped to talk to us from across the little fish pond. He and Annie chatted about the weather while Jemma gaped, open-mouthed, until I asked her who it was. "Santa," she whispered.

"And what does Santa say?" I asked.

Right on cue, Santa let out a hearty "Ho Ho Ho!" and Jemma broke into the biggest smile I have ever seen. Later, as we were leaving the fishpond, Annie remarked to herself, "Santa is everywhere."

*************

Today was our niece Marta's first birthday and the girls wanted to call her on the phone. So we called and Trevor held the phone up to Marta's ear while Jemma mumbled "Birthday" and Annie said, "Happy Birthday, Marta!" Then the girls pretended to bake a birthday cake and our after-dinner time was spent pretending that it was each member of the family's birthday in turn. We talk all the time about how it will be Jemma's birthday soon, plus we have a book called "What is Christmas?" where it talks about Christmas being Jesus' birthday, so there is a lot of birthday talk going on in the house lately.

I was putting Jemma to bed tonight and she had chosen two books: Carl Goes Shopping (which we read every. single. day.) and What Is Christmas. When I got to the end, Jemma pointed to the baby lying in the manger and brought it all together for herself: "Baby. Jesus. Birthday. Cake. Jemma. Two." Birthday cake for Jemma and Jesus, coming right up.