Poor Gav gets overshadowed by his sister sometimes. I was going through my notes, looking at what I'm going to write about, and the poor kid was fairly absent. So, to compensate, I'll gush over how big he's getting. We went to FunTown amusement park today, which I've managed to avoid for 20 years, and rode the rides. He was big enough for most of them, and he took them on bravely. He was pushing to ride the bumper boats, complete with lawnmower motor, by himself, and I was pushing to ride with me. The attendant took pity on him and let him on by himself. He did it. It took a while to get going, then quite a while to park afterwards, but he drove it all on his own. I learned that the Thunder Bolt is no longer fun when you are thirty and your shoulder gets sore from being banged around, but Gav had a great time sitting next to me. As he put it, "I was scared until you put your arm around me, then I wasn't scared and it was really fun". So he still needs his mother.
We also went to Reid State Park yesterday, and the kids found dead crab shells. I managed to get rid of Annah's before it hit the car, but Gavin magpie'd his out, and then it somehow ended up in my purse. Which I discovered when he asked for it. Then he looked at me rather accusingly and asked "Where's it's mouth?" Um, apparently still in my purse. Ew.
Annah has had a great time these last few days. She's been getting wiped (they've both slept in the car on the rides home) but they've managed to find the energy to wake up at 5:30 AM. This morning I sent them both back to bed. For some odd reason, that worked. They were in their rooms for another 45 minutes. Must have been a fluke, but I was pleased! Then Annah wandered into the bathroom as I was using the "water closet". She looked at me and asked "You peeing?" "Yup." Then she smiled, patted me on the arm, and said "Good job mama!" It reinforces the potty training, but in the wrong direction!
She dragged this purple blanket all around the beach yesterday. She is sleeping with it now. I have not yet washed it. I'm glad no one has yet nominated me for the Wretched Mother of the Year Award. I may be a shoo-in.
Poor Gav. He's getting the photo shaft today.
Other memorable Ani quotes recently have included a declaration of "I not rude" in the car on the way home from ice cream. Mind you, no one was making such accusations at the time. But she was adamant about this. This could, in some circumstances, be interpreted as indeed rude. She also likes randomly telling her father "It's okay, Dad." Our little mockingjay.
I'll finish off with a cat/dog tale from this morning, when Barker saw fit to run after Toodles, who, realizing she was out of the vicinity of her usual "safe house", decided to go for the space between the window and the screen. I am so glad we have "golf-ball grade" screens. Because they can apparently take a 5 lb cat! She was fine. Miffed, but fine.
