Boundless Energy

Daughter has boundless energy. Yesterday we ran errands, I stopped by my boss' house for a couple of minutes, ran into the ubiquitous Wal*mart, the fabric store, and she was very good. I took her to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Not so much for the delicious, nutritious, lunch but for the play structure. Chick-Fil-A has the only indoor play structure around... and the humidity is killing me here. 'Course we weren't the first ones there. There was a brother/sister duo happily playing inside. However, after five minutes daughter had scared them away.

It might have been her insistence on playing with them, and them playing her game by her rules, or if it might have been the Charlie Manson mark still prominently displayed on her forehead. Most likely it was the high-pitched whale song she warbled going down the slide. Five minutes after they left the whole restaurant had emptied. It had been two-thirds full. I don't know if it was coincidence, we did eat lunch late, or if that glass surrounding the playstructure wasn't sound proof.

Finally more people show-up, one of them looked quite Mansonish, so I decided to let those people eat in peace and that we'd leave. Not without fanfare. Daughter is a robot duck on the way out. I have to explain this one, as much as it is possible explain a child's decision that they are a robot duck, when I was pregnant with squareboy (#4), the other boys were quite young. I was constantly counting noses whenever we went anywhere, desperate I'd lose one the way I'd lost number two... twice. Anyway, I found that making them walk single file served two purposes; 1) we didn't take up quite so much space & other people had room to walk too, and 2) I could put eldest, or the dad, in the rear to keep the other "ducks" in line.

I would yell "walk like a duck" and they would single file it neatly behind me. Eldest happily bossing them into the straightest line possible. Unfortunately, pregnant with squareboy, I waddled like a duck. The boys got into the habit of waddling like ducks as they single-filed behind me... much to the amusement of passerby's. I stopped doing it for a while but then squareboy started walking, and then daughter came along, we began walking like ducks again. So we are ducks a lot. No idea though why daughter had to be a robot duck. However, once again passerby's were laughing.

It was great to be home from errands and Chick-Fil-A ! The daddy was home too, after a 4-day trip away, and I happily deposited daughter with him and went straight to my sewing project. Only to have my own boundless energy snap my favorite ruler in half. No other ruler will do you know. Double unfortunately the fabric store here is woefully inadequate. So the dad and I packed up daughter and drove to "town". An hour away. With daughter singing along to The Offspring, no Baby Beluga for her.

While I perused rulers, the daddy kept an eye on daughter, only briefly losing her behind the fabric bins. Not really losing her, but the space was so small he couldn't fit and when he went to one end, she'd crawl real fast to the other end. And over and over and over again. They had a job opening, and I need a job, but I don't think I'll be applying there.