This Friday I got word from my sister that her husband was going to be working a really long shift, and as such she wanted to come up and visit with her two kids. Since Tamara has been working her butt off since as long as I can remember, I knew it was going to be up to me to entertain the lot.
Luckily for me, Madison and Marni hit it off really well, and that lessened my load considerably. Picking up and tossing one three year old is a lot of work, according to my lower back — but surprisingly put two of them together, and you just have to herd them rather than entertain.
Unfortunately, we forgot to clear *all* the monsters out of the house, so when Madison woke up crying from being chased by one, we had to move her to another room as not to wake the other kids.
In the morning, Mike caught a baby rabbit with his bare hands and we had a BBQ later that night. Perhaps I should add we let the rabbit go and ate cow instead.
In the morning (now Sunday in the story) my parents came over, and Marni had to go to church. Madison wanted to go very badly, and just didn’t understand why mom felt it so important to go home and see dad near the same time.
I taught Madison a new trick; after learning to drink from a straw, she now knows she can blow bubbles. She also knows if she blows really hard, she can make the liquid shoot out of the cup. With this knowledge, we went outside, and I showed her how to suck up water in a straw and then shoot it (or at least dribble it in a nasty mess). We practiced a lot.
Madison got so good she wanted to show grandpa. So, we egged my dad outside, but instead of shooting at the rose plants as we had done before, Madison unloaded a mouthful all over him. She’s now officially ready to send home to my brother-in-law. I bet she’ll be moved back to sippy cups within the week.
The evening concluded with my wife joining Mark and Michele in seeing Riverdance at Wolftrap. We started off the night with a picnic. One squirrel was acting a little weird, and was draping it’s self all over picnic tables, trash cans, and tree trunks the way a dog wipes it’s rear on a lawn when it has worms. Michele tried to ward off the squirrel by throwing food at it. It had about the affect you’d expect, the squirrel started stalking Michele until Tamara chased it off.
The show was fairly well, but the band looked further away and smaller (which usually happens when you put something further away). I don’t know what it is about Riverdance, but each show I see gets worse and worse. The timing between people is off, sometimes I swear I hear clicks and stomps when there is no activity (or the reverse), and symmetry and equi-distances just degrade. It’s unlike the very first show I ever saw.
It could be me, but it seems like the troop size is decreasing as well. I heard that in 2005 they’re returning with a cast of just five. And in 2009 it’ll just be one guy doing quick changes and running back and forth to simulate the appearance of multiple people on stage.
The best part came when we exited the theater and walked back to the parking lot close to the woods where we ate. I took my water bottle, snuck up behind Michele, ran it up the outside of her leg starting at the heel very quickly, and screamed out “Oh God it’s an attack squirrel!” Michele flipped and flailed screaming “Get it off me!” Yes, the squirrelhad targeted just her out the the crowd.
She paid me back by filling my shirt pocket with ice when we got back to her place. Which reminds me, I need to set up Tamara’s glass cutter.