Busy day

While they both woke up well before seven this morning, the girls had a basically uninterrupted stretch of sleep last night. Good thing, since we've had quite a busy day so far, including a trip to the Y, then another trip to the Y to pick up my cell phone (left behind by accident), preschool for Julia, a trip to the woodwind repair shop with Madeleine, as well as some outside time. Our initial trip to the Y took much longer than expected; I wound up attracting the eye of one of the trainers there, who decided to put me through the wringer with an exhausting kettle-bell and push-up workout on top of the run I had done. While I could see Julia hopping up and down at the child-care window waving at me, I was powerless to escape without making myself seem like a weakling (totally unacceptable, of course.) Once I had finally collected the girls and gotten everybody into the car, forgetting that I had put my cell phone down on the windowsill by the weights, we were ready to head home. As we were pulling into our driveway, the girls and I had a conversation that went something like this:

JULIA: (randomly) But Mommy? Why were you just talking and talking?

ME: What do you mean?

JULIA: Why were you just talking?

ME: You mean to the man in the gym?

JULIA: Yeah, why were you taking so long and talking and talking?

ME: Because he's a trainer and he wanted me to do all kinds of hard exercises over and over again. I'm going to be so sore now!

JULIA: Why are you going to be so sore?

ME: Because of that stinky trainer!

MADELEINE: (Staring at me somberly as I unbuckled her from her car seat) Stinky BUM!

After dropping Julia at school and feeding Madeleine some lunch, we had to zip over to a repair shop to get my flute fixed, and as we drove home I was feeling guilty that so far Madeleine hadn't had any time outdoors, on a really lovely day, because we had been driving around all over the place. I decided to surprise her with a quick stop at DeFazio Park, the wonderland of playgrounds in our town, figuring we'd play for 20 minutes and I could still get her home for nap at a not-unreasonable time.

Wonderland it was, as she traipsed around enjoying all the play equipment - the little slide, the big slide that one must climb about 20 stairs to reach, the wooden house with slats you can peek at Mommy through, the bouncy seahorse and zebra riding toys, the swings, the bus with a wheel you can turn, etc. After making the rounds and then some, with 20 minutes of time elapsed, I told her it was time to go home for nap and then had to carry her kicking and screaming to the car. As we drove out of the parking lot she wailed a lament not unlike "A sheep a hoooooorse!", mourning all the fun things she would have to leave behind. "Fwiiiiiide!! A zeeeeebra!! A house a peek-a-boooooo! A fwiiiiiiing! A fun a plaaaaaaayground!"

At least our early morning was fairly relaxing, playing Little People, doctor, and singing: