AN UN-EXTRAORDINARY DAY

I just want to jot down some things we did on Monday because it was a FUN day with the kids. Nothing too exciting and just sort of ordinary, but oftentimes those are the best days. We first went to storytime at the library, which was one of the better ones they have offered there. Gage and Bella loved the songs and the books about fall coming and the change in color of the leaves(ha! ha!). I pointed out the squirrel puppet to Bella, to which I was quickly corrected by the librarian that it was, in fact, a chipmunk. Duh!?? Paisley was very wide-eyed and looking all about. Then I let them each pick out some books that we read all in one sitting later at home. That was at their request, not so much mine.

After the library we walked over to the Riparian Preserve to see the ducks and hopefully that cute little turtle we saw before. Gage talked about how "beautiful" the ducks were and he wanted to know where the baby ducks were. Bella kept quacking while Paisley slept. There were dragonflies fluttering about and it reminded me of summers in Lakeside at Grandma's cabin when I was little. (Funny how these really insignificant things stay with you.) It was really hot that day, but I was determined to pretend it was fall - after all the librarian said so. Then we walked over to these fun concrete walls that have hills and form a sort of maze. They do require some balance though. Par for the course, Gage was scared and would only walk on the shortest wall. To help ease his fears, I got up on the highest wall with the most hills and pretended to be confident in my flip-flops. A passerby said, "What a great mom!" and I got embarassed and almost fell off. It almost blew the whole thing. Finally, with lots of prodding, Gage started to get a little braver and do a little taller wall. And he said, "I'm so proud of myself!" Meanwhile, Bella has already mastered most of the low wall and her brave little head is way ahead of her clumsy feet. I ran over to her to hold her hand and guide her through the rest of it, but she would have none of that. She screamed, "No!" and pushed me away, which caused her to fall off the wall. It was about a four foot drop, which doesn't sound like much, but it was. She cried so hard and I was trying to comfort her, but after a few seconds she pushed herself off of me and went right back to that wall. How different these two kids are. And Paisley slept. As we walked back to the car, Gage said, "What a great day this is, Mama!" I couldn't agree more....

Note: Knowing it wasn't an extraordinary day, I failed to bring my camera. I was kicking myself the whole time about it. So no pics....