Best Weekend Ever (Day Two)

Day Two (Friday) started with me making a frantic call to the pediatrician's office to see if they could work Lou in for an appointment that day.  I think I called at 8:20 and the only thing they had all day was an 8:45.  The office is about ten minutes away.  I threw some clothes on and hightailed it out of there.  BVZ was already on the way out the door for work.  Thank goodness for friends who will make coffee and feed your other kid breakfast.  

Shockingly, Lou did not have an ear infection, just a random, high fever.  The doctor was confident it was some random virus but just to be on the safe side since we had a house full of people and a long weekend ahead of us, she had some blood drawn to check for anything out of the ordinary.  I was expecting the worst from a blood draw, but to my surprise the lab tech said that they would just be pricking his finger and collecting the blood that way.  I thought there was no possible way you could get enough blood in that manner, but she told me that when you have a fever your blood is much thinner and it will "flow out like water."  Totally gross, right?  But sure enough, they stabbed him with the finger stick and flow like water it did.  He also lost his ever loving mind with the finger stick, to the point where I had tears as well (and I am tough when it comes to that kind of stuff).  By the time we were pulling into the driveway, we had the results that he checked out all clear.

The weather was spotty and thunderstorms were predicted and I knew that if we were going to go to this super splash pad it was now or never.  Plus, there was no way I was even entertaining the idea on a weekend, so this was going to be our last chance.  Thankfully, Bubby was available and willing to come over and hang out with a droopy Lou.  He's been to this splash pad before and even though I was sorry he was sick, I was mostly glad he couldn't go. Water activities are rough for me with a kid in diapers and he's just bananas and hard to keep up with.  He pretty much needs man on man defense at all times.

Norah is so much braver than she used to be, but she's still a big chicken about a lot of things.  She likes to survey the scene and take things in before making her move.  Ruby and Lucas, on the other hand, are dynamos who dive right in.  I love having them around because they really push Norah to do things she would otherwise shy away from (especially with Lucas being so much younger).  They went down this slide a couple of times until Norah scraped the side of her ankle and wanted to sit out for a minute.

The other thing about Ruby is that she is extraordinarily friendly to other kids and makes friends wherever she goes.  Norah is stoked when a kid at a public place approaches her and will gladly play with just about anyone, but she is very, very (very) rarely the one to make the first move.  While Norah sat out for a bit, Ruby made friends with a similarly outgoing girl at the top of the slide.  They went down together several times, came down and said something to Norah, and then started to move off to a different fountain area.  As they walked away, Norah started to cry.  I just assumed it was because they were moving on and I reminded her that we were there to do fun things, not sit on the sidelines and she couldn't expect everyone to just stop what they were doing because she didn't want to do the slide or anything 'scary' anymore.

She told me no, the reason she was crying was because Ruby had introduced the girl to Norah as "my best friend."  I told Norah that she must have misunderstood and that there was no way, no how, no chance that Ruby actually said that.  Norah insisted that she had.  I was about to launch into an explanation of how we sometimes hear things incorrectly when Megan said, "um, I actually think she did say that."  Uh-oh.  Long story short, Ruby makes a best friend wherever she goes.  In fact, when we first moved she would talk to kids at the park and tell them that her best friend Norah had moved away and so she needed a new one that day.  In a move that I would never had expected from a not even five year old, Ruby returned to Norah's side, reassured her that she was her one and only best friend forever and she loved her with her whole heart and could they please go play in the water fountain and do something fun?  All was well.  It was heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time.  Lucas probably thought they were nuts.

It was hot but overcast, so somewhat tolerable.  They played in the water and then the sand pit, and then the water again.  We finally convinced them to take a break and have some lunch.

Which may or may not have included gummy worms.

Norah was exhausted and I thought for a split second she might curl up in the grass and fall asleep.  She did not.  She did however, play a rousing game of hide and seek with Ruby and Lucas.  At one point she was hiding and I could not see her.  My eyes had not connected with her face in about ten seconds and my heart pretty much stopped.  Myself, Megan and Aileen all had a moment of panic and I yelled for her only to discover she was hiding next to a wall about a foot from where we were sitting.  I could have reached out and touched her.  She was super pissed we outed her hiding spot.

As we were getting ready to leave a very scared and very lost two year old kind of wandered up to us. She didn't have words yet and so we did our best to keep her calm and find her mom/dad/whoever she was with.  Finally after about ten minutes, her mom wandered up pretty nonchalantly to claim her.  Different strokes, I suppose.

Not too long after we got back to the house, the skies literally opened and it POURED for several hours.  Not only did it pour, but the thunder and lightening was pretty spectacular.  The kids watched another movie in the movie room and although I don't specifically remember, it is quite possible we partook in an early happy hour.

This dude had about 75 popsicles and was feeling much better.

I made a lasagna while Aileen and Megan made a grocery store run to restock some supplies (ie, wine and gummy bears).  The kids were getting antsy and the rain had stopped so I took them on a walk to look for worms.  Four kids, just me.  If it hadn't have been for Lou it would have been a perfect outing (he's ahem, a runner).  Lucas held my hand the entire time and sang songs.  We found a lot of worms.  As Ruby would recount later, we found one dead worm being eaten by ants, one dead worm that had been smushed, and one alive worm.

After dinner the kids made their own desserts by frosting a gluten free muffin (which we convinced them were cupcakes), crumbling on "dirt" (GF oreos) and topping with a gummy worm.  It was a perfectly appropriately treat following our walk.

I can't remember if we got in the pool that day (likely no because of the lightening), but once the skies cleared the girls got in the hot tub.  There is nothing worse about being a pool owner than having wet bathing suits in your house.  That combined with the fact that taking wet swim suits off kids might be one of my least favorite tasks of all times, means that I let my kids take their suits off in the water.  Which of course leads to skinny dipping for a minute.  But who doesn't like skinny dipping?  Norah always loves it but she especially loved it with Ruby.  I think they probably spent more time naked in the pool and hot/tub than they did in suits.  Hey, they were on vacation.

Another late night, another midnight bedtime.  Another glorious day.