Weekend
I was away for the weekend. I was hanging out with 3 girls in a lovely town north of Chicago. It just so happened that I nannied these three girls for many years before we went to Scotland. I started my second year of college when the oldest was 15 mos and the middle was nearly arrived. Now they will be 11 and 10 respectively.
Even though the longer-than-normal drive up there was swealtering without air con in the car and probably nearly gave my thick-furred bunnie a heat stroke despite the frozen water bottle she was cuddling with…even though we had strong thunderstorms, torrential rains, and tornado warnings…even though we thought we lost the youngest when she wandered outside the tiny toy store thinking we had left her (fortunately she had enough wits about her to go straight to the stroller where we left it down the road!)…even though mom and dad got stuck in Boston for an extra night because of the storms in Chicago, it was a fab time.
We ordered pizza (twice), had popcorn and movie night, snuggled with Lady Grey, went to the library (twice), went to Caribue Coffee (twice), played at the park, researched how to care for tadpoles (I arrived to find 3 which one of the girls brought home from school that day), ran around the house acting like maniacs, baked a cake, baked cookies, read lots and lots of books, and took lots of pictures and gave lots of hugs as they got on their buses Monday morning.
It is so much fun to see the girls growing up. When I came home and talked about things the youngest said and did, Josh said, “I can’t picture her talking. I still see her in a stroller babbling nonsense.” She will be in her last year of preschool this coming year. They are all so beautiful and creative. I see the oldest as an author or an editor doing something sporty on the side. She elected to read 2500 pages for the library summer reading programme and will probably be half-way there before the end of the week. The youngest will be a conservationist or zoo keeper (she says she wants to work at a zoo). She absolutely loves nature and animals (she’s the one that brought the tadpoles home). I remember her at age 4 crying her eyes out because the neighbors were cutting down a tree. And the youngest will be a drama queen. 
On the way out I made a much longed for trip to Trader Joe’s. I am really excited about the barbecue teryaki chicken that I had last time I babysat the girls, and the yummy fruity frozen bars. I managed to keep the bill to $50, with much restraint, though it was still difficult to part with that much money. After a visit with Joe, I had a visit with Andrea, one of the dear friends that came out here last week. Her little girl had fun with Lady, though it was difficult to get the bunny out of her carrier.
It was a very nice weekend. And now I guess I am officially OFFICIALLY starting my holidays. Yay!
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