Today may be the day on which the childhood memory of fun with the cousins gets its start for our kids. With my sister and her family in town visiting, we had a full day of kid craziness.
The Fasts got in Sunday evening from Uncle Mike’s family reunion in Oklahoma, so Monday was kind of a down day for everyone (except Shar who took the kids to, and taught at, their summer preschool fun camp).
But today was a different story.
First, a rousing 6:30am start (thank you Joslyn) on a vacation day was all the inspiration I needed for the comfort of a fast food breakfast, so I retrieved a bag of biscuits from, as the kids say, “Chick-a-Lay.” Sounds funny but it was truly a bag full. Enough to feed 9 mouths of varying sizes.
After spit and shine platooning we got out the door for the early bird matinee of the new Pixar rat movie. Can’t go wrong with Pixar. Someday people will look back on this time as the golden age of animated movies. I’ll look back on this time as the golden age of ill-timed pooping, but more on that later.
Following the movie, for which our collective broods (ages 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1) sat surprisingly still, we ate at Panera Bread. Alas, the good times weren’t meant to be, as the last energy bar on Christian’s screen blinked out and he started to break down in the restaurant. And I don’t mean do an 80s dance. Compounding the problem, he couldn’t receive the proper Parent Treatment for cleaning the floor with his shirt, with Dead Weight Joslyn on my chest and Shar pinned in the corner behind the table.
After the restaurant things picked up with some quote-unquote quiet time at the house and some outside fun and games. We drug out the slip-n-slide again, this time for Madeleine’s benefit (the 3-yr old). When it popped a stitch we turned the house on the plastic slide out back and kept going as the rain clouds bumped about overhead. (Weird when the kids complain about it being cold on July 4th.) Joslyn, who is still potty-training, had no qualms about pooping in her swimsuit. I didn’t mind, since with a hose handy it made good compost for the yard. Also outside: the kids found five frogs.
The day wrapped with Shar’s yummy western dish and age-grouping baths: 1 and 2 together, and 3-5 together.
We all commented to each other that this was the kind of cousin-bonding day that will have them eager to see each other again, and may be the root for some memories as they age. At the very least, it’s a memory for us of the disconnect between vacation and rest when parenting young-uns.
Posted by Len 