“kBYEILOVEYOU”, - and just like that BW left the child and I alone together along with the dog and the ultimate question:
NOW WHAT DO WE DO?
I looked at the child, then the dog. Neither were giving me an answer on how to fill our day so I just tried to avoid them both and drink coffee. I figured if I ignored them long enough - they would figure things out on their own.
They did not figure it out.
It wasn’t even 9 am and I was getting questions about what to do as if I was Julie on the Love Boat.
Like I have any idea. It’s a Tuesday in September. The child should be in school and the dog just needs to be somewhere else than trying to climb in my lap.
But, here we are. Together with the entire day spread out ahead of us like the peanut butter on the half eaten sandwich I picked up off the counter earlier. We looked outside. Hot, humid - but not raining despite the forecast.
I guess we could go outside and then take it from there. She got dressed, and plopped the helmet on her pretty head and grabbed her stroller and we were off to wander the new subdivision they were building and check the status of the new playground equipment they are installing on the corner, thanks to the new development.
My watch finally woke up about half a mile in and asked me if I was walking? OF COURSE I am walking. I’ve been walking for half a mile and only now do you realize that this is not my normal activity? It has a GPS. I am a half mile from the couch..
It was hot. and humid. Which is perfect if you’re in a pool on vacation, but not so good if you’re on the world’s slowest walk because you have to watch for cars, stop and ask questions about the little “call before you dig” flags they put in the ground: “But why to they have to put little flags in the ground”, I got asked more than once.
We made it a full lap around the big block in Pleasantville and then we were going to do another lap when she decided that maybe she was getting a little worn out and we should take a break. I gave her a drink of water and we limped back to the house to refresh and turn the air conditioning on.
She took a break, and then we tidied up together. She mad her bed - actually she attempted to make her bed but considering the comforter weighs more than she does I’m okay with this and I’m calling it a win.
Before we knew it - lunchtime! I suggested she take an old towel and go outside and have a picnic. I packed her a wrap and a pepper and told her if she ate the wrap we could talk about ice cream later.
I joined her on the lawn and we talked to our neighbors, waved at others and then she started to play with the tree. I told her that our tree isn’t really the swinging tree. Then she looked at me and said” I have an idea” and disappeared inside.
A competent parent might have at least asked what she was going to do, but I didn’t smell smoke so I lay back in the chair and waited until she came back with a Pinata she made - from a cereal box no less.
She has a multiple hundred dollar video game console. We played with a cereal box that was relieved of it’s contents and filled with stale old candy, and it was the best thing ever.
Then, the ice cream cone. A deal is a deal. Also, don’t tell mommy.
We sat and she hummed and ate her cone and I lay back in the sunshine and listened to the hum of a warm and humid summer day.
With ice cream comes stickyness and so then we got the hose. I was just going to let her run around in the shorts and t-shirt she had on and just put her in dry stuff later but she wanted to get into a bathing suit proper so here we are.
You guys, the garden hose bought about two hours of entertainment! The GARDEN HOSE.
At first she wanted to wash the car, so I filled up a container with some dish soap and let her to it:
When the car washing was over, she realized that she could hang the hose in a tree so she wanted to “shower” with the hose and she needed soap. Dish soap and gentle skin probably isn’t the best so I found some hand soap and filled another container for her with that. I have no idea if it made a lick of difference, but I tried.
As we were playing, we watched a big transport truck pull up to the park next door and over the next hour they unloaded the biggest pile of wood chips we have ever seen and then the city workers got busy and loaded and spread those wood chips all over and under the new playground equipment at the park on the corner.
Once we were satisfactory wet, she went inside and changed into dry clothes and took a break on her tablet for a bit. BW came home shortly after and so we went to investigate the new park equipment.
She was the very first kid in the neighborhood to go on the new equipment. There was not another kid in sight so when BW came home we all went over to the check out the new gear and too see how it all worked. It works well, and there’s a little built in table so the adults can sit down, which is appreciated.
But the word got out and she was joined by other kiddos in the neighborhood to test the playground where they played for a good bit.
I wore her out today - and that was the idea - and we didn’t have to go further than our front lawn armed with an old cereal box and a garden hose.
I’m calling today a win and a great way for her to end her summer vacation.
Until Next Time,
TH and Co.