Girls' Weekend

Jim's Father's Day present, besides the disastrous garden stone, was a plane ticket to California. As delightful as family life is (and it is), I had to admit to myself that getting out of my deeply carved role for the few days I was out of town for my reunion weekend was more than a treat- it was (in a small but good way) life altering. So now it's Jim's turn, and this is the weekend- he's visiting our good friends who used to live in Minnesota, but have since moved to San Clemente, which from the sound of it is very nearly paradise. Who knows what he will get out of it, besides the dual treasures of seeing old friends and eating a lot of fresh seafood. What I am getting out of it is a weekend with the girls, in a more concentrated than usual sense.

This, too, has been good for me. I am having a lot of fun with them, of course. But it is also liberating to know that EVERYTHING is on me, and there's no grousing or resenting (my perception) that I have to do it all. I can't even resent Jim for being out of town- I sent him there. It feels good to just do what needs doing and not think anything of it. Can I carry this with me out of the weekend? I hope so.

So, what's been going on? Kid's choice dinner, Friday night = macaroni and cheese, shrimp gyoza, and corn. With chocolate milk. I ate a lot of gyoza. This morning we went to our favorite breakfast place, ate some eggs and pancakes, and rode the mini-carousel. Our friends came over to play after breakfast. We ran around, created a stressful and messy group painting project (not my best idea ever), and waved our ribbon sticks (more props to Gramma for the mad present buying skillz). We planted peas in our garden this year in an effort to just raise pea vines, our favorite veggie dish at the Chinese restaurant, but we don't really know how or when to harvest, and the result is that instead we just have a whole bunch of peas. Which little girls, it turns out, love to pick and eat. When I went out this evening to put away the wacky pop-up gazebo that I got as my latest free Employer Swag, the picnic blanket inside, strewn with eviscerated pea pods, looked like the set of a pea horror movie.

While Muriel napped, I tried to debut a new movie with Naomi- Babe. She was not having it. I am not sure what she didn't like about it, except maybe for the part where she had no idea what was going on. She convinced me to turn it off in favor of her favorite DVD- Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants. So many of these wacky songs are firmly lodged in my mind's ear, and I know the same is true of my kids, because the other day when I was absentmindedly singing a refrain that is something like, "I C U, I C U, and U R OK..." Muriel said, no, I don't like that song, and agreed to hear "QU" instead (one of my favorite videos in the collection). Then at dinner, Naomi was singing "The Alphabet of Nations," which is extra fun to hear a kid sing, since they have no idea what the sometimes obscure country names actually are. Except for West Xylophone, of course.

After an extended laundry folding session in the basement (which is much cooler than the rest of our house), we decided to hit the pool. Last time we went Naomi had been been kind of rotten, outright ignoring my direct requests (for example, to get out of the pool and come to the locker room right. this. minute, that kind of thing). The consequence was to be not coming along next time we went swimming. But since today was the next time, and there is no option for leaving her behind- the only option was not going at all, and it was a HOT day! So we agreed she would wait ten minutes to get in the pool after Muriel and I went in. This worked out pretty well, though if Muriel could have at least tried to pretend she was having a good time without her sister, that might have made the consequences more consequential... Eventually, we all enjoyed the swim, if you can call scuttling around in a foot and a half of warm water swimming.

When I posted my temporary single mom status on FB today, someone made a crack about how now I'll have to take all the photos. I took this as a challenge. And since I am being all self sufficient and grrl power, I am downloading, exporting, and posting those photos, with no coaching. So there! They're not great, but they are pictures.

Getting ready for the trip to the pool. I wasn't able to actually get any photos at the pool, which is too bad, because the look of intense concentration on Muriel's face the whole time made it seem like she was not into it at all, when in fact the opposite was true.

After the swimming, we spent a few minutes on the playground at the club. Naomi figured out to get out on one of the bars to hang- it was pretty impressive. Muriel wanted a piece of that action.

OK, yes, I'm holding Muriel up. Was it convincing?

This girl just passed her 2 year old doctor check up with flying colors, and came out between 10th and 20th percentile for weight (I was thinking she was terribly skinny). Yea, Muriel!

So yeah, fun abounds on our girls' weekend. If I can just keep the yelling under control. Ha.