Driving The Children

I was in college when I first moved into my own place.  I don't count the dorm room a place of my own, I mean my first apartment, or in my case, townhouse. I was almost twenty and this fifteen-hundred square foot, three bedroom town home was the "House Mahal" to me.  I lived in that house for over seven years, eventually buying it from the owner.

It was during that time that I made many friends that weren't my typical same-age peers from school.  In the community I lived in there were people of all ages; some were retired, some were parents of multiple children and a few were young like I was.   My neighbor became one of my good friends, and I eventually followed her when I moved to the new neighborhood she went to.

Marla had three children and they were all cute and sweet and fun to be around.  I played with those children all the time.  I did lots of fun things with them, including going to their birthday parties and lighting sparklers and I even got to wipe my first baby butt on a potty (which is a whole other story) during that time. 

One day Marla asked me if I wanted to go to a show at the big amphitheater with the children.  I was glad to go with them.  They had great seats and the children were well-behaved.  I remember Marla gave me twenty dollars for food for the children, which I thought was a crazy amount of money at the time.  When the day arrived, we all got ready to go and we all loaded into my car.

I think they were all under ten and I'm fairly sure the youngest was about four.  I remember driving very very carefully because I had three little lives in my hands and I wanted to be sure I did my best job.  The show was fun, we spent that twenty dollars on food and then we came back home tired and happy.

What I don't remember is a single car seat.  Don't we have to have children in car seats until they're eight or a certain "almost a tween" weight now?  The rules were different back in 1991 I suppose, because I don't remember there being car seats in Marla's car either.  Then again, I remember going to preschool in my parents car and not being in a car seat.

I don't see Marla much any more.  Every now and then we run into each other and catch up.  Her children are grown, her son can even say, "gloves" now instead of the little toddler version of, "glubs."  He also doesn't need help from his neighbor because he'll fall in the potty if he tries to wipe his own bottom.  But I miss those days back in my first town house with the fun children next door.

The Big Boy Update:  He "NEEDS" to do a lot of things.  Be it ice cream or getting down from the chair or having that thing over there that his sister has that he most definitely didn't want two seconds before until she decided it was interesting.  Bottom line, we're spending a lot of time asking him to use his "polite words" because he sounds like a very demanding little boy of late.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Falling asleep in the swing.  She didn't nap for the longest time today.  When Madison, our neighbor, went out to play on her swing set we went to join her.  But unfortunately the swinging motion was too much for her and my little girl fell straight asleep with the swaying motion.

Someone Once Said:  A diplomat must always act with confidence; it is often his only weapon