July Celebrations

Well, Little Girl is officially five years old now, and is becoming a Big Girl all too fast for our taste!! Monday night was the big party at her house, and Strawberry Shortcake was the theme. She sure has changed since my childhood -- grown up a bit, I guess. :) LG got a lot of loot, as always -- the poor child is always so deprived of toys, you know.

I spent the night with her Monday night, and Tuesday, she was thrilled to learn that she didn't have to go to daycare because I was staying with her. Shortly after my sister left for work, though, we got a big scare. There was a knock at the door. Not expecting anyone, I cautiously peeked around the corner from the hallway and saw through the window a big man standing outside the door. "Do you know that man?" I asked Little Girl, thinking perhaps it was a neighbor, and she said, "Noooo..." Okay then, I thought, I'm not answering the door. The next thing I knew, the door was opening!!!! I grabbed Little Girl and pulled us both back into the stairwell where we couldn't be seen, while trying to think fast and sort out what on earth could be happening here!! He hadn't broken the door in or anything, so he must have had a key, but how on earth did some stranger have a key to my sister's house? Finally I tentatively called out, "Hello?" The man says, "OH, I'm sorry, I didn't think anyone was home -- I'm the electrician!" Whew. Apparently this guy was hired weeks ago and just now got around to showing up so this is why I wasn't told to be expecting him... anyhow, what a relief that we weren't about to be killed or kidnapped or something. :)

I took Little Girl swimming for the afternoon, and Baby Boy and his mommy met us at the pool. We had a great time. Baby Boy is growing up so fast, he is ten months old now. He loved crawling all over the baby pool chasing his ball, and splashing with his hands.

That evening, I took Little Girl to a local amusement park, one of those age-old small parks that has somehow stood the test of time, and every generation of children grew up going there, so it holds a lot of sentimental value for all the parents and grandparents bringing little ones now, even though the park itself is getting to be rather pathetic and run-down, so that making fun of it is the thing to do.

My favorite part, therefore, was when we were riding the kiddie wooden coaster, and at the end, the coaster stops before slowly rolling into the exit area. Well, as always, the coaster stopped, but it didn't start again... so there we sat on the track. Finally the ride operator, who was 70 years old if he was a day, came teetering out, walking on the track, edging around the coaster, getting behind it, and pushing us to the exit. Yes, you read that correctly, he pushed the rollercoaster down the track. I was laughing so hard. And then when we got there, everyone else raised their safety bar and jumped out and ours wouldn't lift. Finally the guy barks at us, "Get off the ride!" and Little Girl wails, "I caaaaaan't!!" "Oh..." he mutters. "Forgot that one sticks." He had to kick something on the bottom to make it release. Doesn't that make you feel safe on these rides? :)

She rode the big wooden coaster this year for the first time, and declared it "super fun", more proof that our Little Girl is becoming a big girl very quickly. However, she still refused to ride the Haunted House. "The ghosts scare me," she informed me very seriously. "Even though they're only hanks." "They're only WHAT?" I asked. "Hanks!" she exclaims. "Hanks??" I asked, bewildered. "You know... tissues?" she says. I have NO idea where she has heard someone call them HANKS -- handkerchief and hankie aren't even terms we usually use, but I could see her having heard those terms, but hanks?? Okay!! So she thinks the ghosts in the haunted house are made of tissues, apparently. :)

The park was due to close at 7:30, so at 7:25 as she hopped off one ride, I informed her that she could ride one more thing before it was time to go. She scampered up to the entrance of some little cars (there are never any lines for anything in this park), and just as she did, a lady called out to all the kiddie ride workers, "Last ride -- time to shut down!" The girl running the cars looked down at Little Girl and said, "Sorry, ride's closed." She immediately burst into tears and ran into my arms. It was so sad. Now, yes, she IS a mite spoiled, but at the same time, it wasn't fair -- it was five minutes before the park was supposed to close and those cars had to run the full track anyway before the ride could be shut down so it wouldn't have even slowed them down at all for her to have hopped in one and ridden it. So I really did think the girl was out of line. The girl gasps when she sees Little Girl's reaction and says, "I feel mean." I felt like saying, "You are," but of course, I refrained. Then the lady who had called out to them to close down the rides came over, looked at Little Girl in my arms sobbing her heart out, and said to the girl, "What happened?" The girl said, "Well she had just gotten in line when you said to shut down the ride, so I had to tell her the ride's closed and she cried, so now I feel mean." The lady threw up her hands and said, "If she was in line, you're supposed to let her go!" So Little Girl got to ride her cars after all, and it was a happy yet very tired Little Girl I carried out to the car, instead of a crying one, which was a much more pleasant ending to our day. :)

We celebrated the Fourth by going over to my sister's house for lunch. Watching Baby Boy and Little Girl playing together was the entertainment, and was much more pleasurable than anything else we could have done, in my opinion. :) It's so amazing to see how quickly babies learn and grow. Just ten months ago, he was a newborn who could do essentially nothing, and now he's got so much personality and interacts with us like a real little person! He was very into playing chase with Little Girl -- she would peek around a corner at him, squeal, and run, and he would grin and go crawling after her as fast as he could. She would then go around the house, and sneak up behind him, and call his name. Startled, he would turn to look at her, she'd squeal and run, and he'd go crawling madly after her in that direction. Again and again, they played, it was so cute to watch his reaction each time she came up behind him. :)

We took the kids to the park for the evening, and then it was time for me to return home. The fun is over, and back to work work work....

Happy Independence Day!