As sometimes happens when you are away from your children, or when they have experienced something out of the ordinary, my kids emerged from the other side of their Dad-only weekend something like six months older, and in Naomi's case, really, it feels like two years older. She is bursting with these long, excited ideas about things, which just pour out of her. She's always been reasonably chatty, but the enthusiasm and clarity she has when she talks about all these ideas has me flabbergasted. I have doubts about this lasting, though I hope it does, but for now I am really enjoying her new persona.
Wait, though, not all of it. On Sunday afternoon she became convinced that we should go swimming. It was already too late to go- we had to figure out dinner and stay on track for the inexorable march to bedtime (especially since Muriel had eschewed her nap). She did not like my answer, and began a ruthless lobbying campaign. It wasn't a friendly one, either. She suggested we vote. I voted against. She and Muriel voted for. "We have more votes, so we should go swimming," she said. I am pretty sure I didn't teach her about voting, so...? I told her my vote was bigger than hers and Muriel's. The idea spigot opened, and she began explaining that if Muriel stood on top of her, they would be bigger than I, and that would prove that their votes counted for more. I was laughing out loud at this point, and of course that made her furious (this is a great problem of ours- when she gets really serious about something, it is often side-splittingly funny, in the most charming and wonderful way, and I have only so much control over my laugh impulse). So I had to go along with her plan, and held Muriel up on her shoulders. Sure enough! The two of them are bigger than I am. But we still did not go swimming.
Both girls were extremely tired after dinner, so we jumped into Muriel's bunk to read a quick story. Occasionally they ask me to make up songs before bed, which, like the results when they ask me to make up stories, are super random and usually ridiculous. They always involve some player from whatever we just read or looked at (an elf, a seal, a snowy owl) getting ready for bed and falling asleep. This time, because I was thinking about how glad I was to be back with them, I sang a song about two girls whose mother goes away for a trip. The refrain had "Come back to me, Mama" a few times, and I noticed after the second repeat that Naomi was rubbing her eyes. "That song is too sad!" she said, and then started to cry for real. Which of course made me cry. Dumb, dumb Mama. What was I thinking? And then Muriel said, "Mom, something is coming out of your eyes." Hee. I had a reasonable save with a song about Brown Bear, headed to his lair with his brown bear hair, and then some loud snoring noises. Whew!
The ladies out luncheoning with Dad at the German Deli. Javol!
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