You do what you have to do
Yesterday our family went to a birthday party in G-ville. It was our friends' soon to be adopted daughter's second birthday, and I mention that not to be like Royal in The Royal Tenenbaums, who was always saying "she's adopted" after introducing his daughter to people, but to explain that it was even more special than a regular second birthday. Special enough to rent a huge inflatable waterslide. My superstar husband wasn't sure that he wanted to go, since it was so hot, but I talked him into it with perfect logic. "What's better, to sit here by ourselves being hot and then figure out how to eat without cooking? Or to go sit somewhere else being hot, somewhere with friends and food and cake?" So we went.
We ate some food, and then opened presents. The mom happened to mention to me that the birthday girl liked my gifts more than any other gifts, and then they were all she or my kids wanted to play with, and something went wrong inside my brain and I couldn't stop talking about how great the toys I bought were. I was shameless, babbling on and on about how you just have to think about what kids will really want to play with and how much I loved the detail on the little plastic cauliflower and wow- there's even an eggplant! and I got outside my head for a minute and said, Rae! Shut up! but I couldn't stop. It was the heat. Must've been. (113 yesterday, in G-ville) I don't think anyone really minded. They know me enough, I guess, to know that sometimes I'm quiet, and then sometimes I open my mouth and my whole strange mind spills onto the table.
My kids didn't feel comfortable going on the inflatable slide, so they just stayed in the inflatable kiddie pool that still had a pretty cool slide in it. I was standing around, getting increasingly hot and uncomfortable, when one of the adults mentioned that they were going to play on the slide. It was like a big ol' slip n slide, but better, with water shooting down from overhead and a big pool of water at the end. It occured to me that I could do it too! I mean, I didn't have any other clothes with me, but I probably wouldn't be wet long, considering that it was 113 degrees out. (Did I mention that already?) So, I took the plunge, literally, and I discovered something.
I'm going to buy one of those inflatible waterslide thingies, because that is the most fun that I've had in a long, long time.
Really, it is so rare that I really have kid fun these days. You know, fun like roller coasters and boogie boarding and stuff like that. The closest is probably Killer Bunnies or something. I know how to kick it and I know how to have vague fun surfing the net or watching The Office or that show that I'm now addicted to that I will not mention here. But shooting down a waterslide head first into a pool of somewhat muddy water on a day that was even hotter than the day before it? It was an unexpected joy, like walking into a meadow full of flowers or finding a love poem in your locker.
Needless to say, when one of the kids wanted to cut in front of me, an hour later, I said firmly and politely, "Get in line."
We ate some food, and then opened presents. The mom happened to mention to me that the birthday girl liked my gifts more than any other gifts, and then they were all she or my kids wanted to play with, and something went wrong inside my brain and I couldn't stop talking about how great the toys I bought were. I was shameless, babbling on and on about how you just have to think about what kids will really want to play with and how much I loved the detail on the little plastic cauliflower and wow- there's even an eggplant! and I got outside my head for a minute and said, Rae! Shut up! but I couldn't stop. It was the heat. Must've been. (113 yesterday, in G-ville) I don't think anyone really minded. They know me enough, I guess, to know that sometimes I'm quiet, and then sometimes I open my mouth and my whole strange mind spills onto the table.
My kids didn't feel comfortable going on the inflatable slide, so they just stayed in the inflatable kiddie pool that still had a pretty cool slide in it. I was standing around, getting increasingly hot and uncomfortable, when one of the adults mentioned that they were going to play on the slide. It was like a big ol' slip n slide, but better, with water shooting down from overhead and a big pool of water at the end. It occured to me that I could do it too! I mean, I didn't have any other clothes with me, but I probably wouldn't be wet long, considering that it was 113 degrees out. (Did I mention that already?) So, I took the plunge, literally, and I discovered something.
I'm going to buy one of those inflatible waterslide thingies, because that is the most fun that I've had in a long, long time.
Really, it is so rare that I really have kid fun these days. You know, fun like roller coasters and boogie boarding and stuff like that. The closest is probably Killer Bunnies or something. I know how to kick it and I know how to have vague fun surfing the net or watching The Office or that show that I'm now addicted to that I will not mention here. But shooting down a waterslide head first into a pool of somewhat muddy water on a day that was even hotter than the day before it? It was an unexpected joy, like walking into a meadow full of flowers or finding a love poem in your locker.
Needless to say, when one of the kids wanted to cut in front of me, an hour later, I said firmly and politely, "Get in line."