Climbing the sawdust mountain

Lisa went to yoga today at 5:00 and I wanted to get Gabi out of the house. It was hot, so I wasn’t sure she’d go, but I was able to convince her to go for a walk in her stroller. Lisa had prepared everything Gabi needed while she was gone, so all I had to do was grab a few of the things and go. Here is a list of what Lisa fixed:

1. Macaroni and cheese
2. Peas
3. Raisins
4. Bottle of juice
5. Bottle of milk
6. Cheese sandwich cut in the shape of a heart, in case Gabi wouldn’t eat items 1 and 2
7. Small cupcake for dessert in case Gabi ate a good dinner
   

Gabi had eaten a few peas and a bite or two of mac and cheese before declaring it “too crumbly”. She ate a bunch of raisins. I packed her bottle of milk and cheese sandwich along with a couple of frozen plastic blocks in her snack bag and strapped her in the stroller.

She seemed to be having a great time during the walk, even though she said “faster, daddy, faster” a bunch. I’m still feeling lousy, so I didn’t comply. We walked to the park, past a couple of guys playing tennis, past a small group of Mexican soccer players, and stopped behind a little league baseball game. I let Gabi out of the stroller and she wanted me to sit on the grass with her to watch.

She quickly lost interest, and we walked down to the park. Gabi went down a few of the slides, insisted I do the same, and then wanted to climb a huge mountain of sawdust. (It’s actually more like mulch than sawdust — stuff to spread on the ground to keep the kids safe). A 4-and-a-half-year-old girl named Lilly wanted to know how we got to the top. She also wanted to know if Gabi wanted to play, so we climbed down and Lilly pushed Gabi on the spinning-metal-plate ride. I don’t know what you call them, but I know they make me hurl. It’s kind of like a merry-go-round without any of the creatures or music.

Lilly’s older brother Will, a 7th grader, monitored things to make sure they weren’t going too fast. He told me their brother, (who was in the one of the little league games that they weren’t watching), had already been to the emergency room 16 times. Lilly wanted to know how old Gabi was in days, then she wanted to know how old she was in days.

Gabi had her milk bottle on the way home and wanted the shade of the stroller pulled completely over her head. She couldn’t see a thing, but was content because the sun wasn’t in her eyes.

I was giving her a bath when Lisa got home from yoga.