I haven’t ever written about reading – Alexsa first started reading maybe 6 months ago.

Alexsa is finally wearing pants to school (yah!), she still loves her dresses but the playground at school is covered with wood chips so I have told her that if she wears a dress she can’t play on the playground.  Now, because she wears pants and fancy colored sneakers, I have lots of fun dressing her up “cool” for school.  Sandra and I bought her a pair of sneakers with different colors and sparklies on them that all the kids are wearing and I told her that she should wear them without the laces because its “cool.”   “That’s what your cousin JoAnalise does, she never uses laces.”  I asked if any of the other kids wore them without laces and she said no.  I then explained that she could be cool by wearing them without laces and that when her friends asked why, she could tell them “because it looks cool.  My older cousin who is in high school always wears hers like this too.”   …and then I said, “Then you wait for a few days and you will start to notice that some of your friends will start showing up without laces too, copying you.  And then you can know that you started that style in your class!”  However, we got up this morning and she said she wanted to wear laces just for the first day.  Funny.

Still the same routine with the mid-night or mid-morning pee pee calls.  “Papa, I have to go pee pee.”  But now I don’t rush out, we meet at the door usually, then I send her back to bed and tell her I love her.  So it has gotten a bit easier.  So cute – the other night she woke up a little freaked out, sad, and disappointed, “Papa, I have to go pee pee.  Papa, I went pee pee. “  It was dark and I was sleepy, so I picked her up (with arms extended so as not to get myself wet with pee pee) and sent her off to the toilet.  I then grabbed a clean pair of panties from her drawer, and reached over to feel her bed.  All dry.  I went in to the bathroom and gave her the new pair of panties, told her to change them, and said with a sleepy smile  “you must have been dreaming, there is no pee pee in your bed.”  She smiled real big with her sleepy eyes.  The next day I saw that her panties were a bit wet and I praised her, telling her that she apparently had just started to pee, but then sucked it up and stopped peeing, holding it till she got to the toilet.  “That’s great, that’s what big girls do!”

She has gotten tired of the “I see something that starts with the letter…” game and the I see something that rhymes with…” game that I always play with her in the car to keep her brain working…and I have gotten tire of telling stories which usually make me really sleepy, so I started telling her about cars.  “Look, that one is a Honda, it has the H.  Toyota has the funny T with a circle.  Mercedes, Acura, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, she started recognizing them all.  We would be driving and “Look, there is a Ford.  That’s a BMW.”  I explained what a convertible was.  And one day, “why is that girl named Mercedes like the car?”  Then, “what do you like better Papa, a BMW or a Toyota, a Mercedes or a Ford…”  and I explained that some cars are built nicer than others, higher quality, more luxurious.  I told her I had always wanted a Mercedes convertible.

So, this past Saturday, Alexsa is in bed with Mommy, and “Do you like Mercedes, Mommy?”  “Yes I do.”  “Can I get one when I get older?”  “Oh, they are very expensive.”  and Alexsa then says, “Well maybe when you and Daddy go to Heaven you can leave me your money so I can buy one.”   ha!!!!  Where did this girl learn about inheritance????  Mommy and I started laughing and laughing, then we taught her about inheritance.

She still continues to sleep the full night, after getting up to pee…however, for the past four days now, she has been waking up super early in the morning.  Twice at 6:30 and twice at 7am.  Ouch.  She comes into our bed, shifts and turns and tosses, as Sandra and I go in and out of sleep.  I eventually tell her to that if she wants to she can go play with her toys or put a dress on…she then gets out of bed happily and goes off to her room for maybe 15-30 minutes until she comes back and begs us to get up with her.  Somehow, the two days that she was up at 6:30 she lasted for an hour in her room playing – we didn’t get up ’til 7:30.

Tonight, I started with the story of David and Goliath.  Then I read the following story, which is about how David played the harp for King Saul, but soon had to leave because the King became jealous when he thought that all the people liked David more than they liked himself.  The next story is about how, after the King died in battle, the people remembered that God had told them David would be their next King.

Then I asked out loud, but more to myself while thinking of and trying to remember the earlier books that we had read in the nights before, “Where did David come from?”  I quickly thought of the baby floating down the river…no, that was the story of Moses…

“From Jesse” replied Alexsa, as I was paging back in the bible looking for the story of when David was a kid out in the field with his sheep.  “Who?” I asked.  “Jesse” she replied.

‘Nahh” I said, not remembering ever reading the name Jesse in the bible.

Then I came to the story…”Samuel asked Jesse, ‘Do you have another son?’   Jesse said, ‘Yes.  His name is David.  He is out in the field with the sheep.’”

I gotta say, I was impressed.

Last I posted about our sleep was in February of 2011.  Here it is May 28, 2011….. and…..

Sandra and I got our third-in-a-row full night of sleep last night.

So, back in February 2011, Alexsa was still sleeping in our bed.  Sometime in late February, early March, with all her tossing and turning, and her getting to be a bigger little girl …with our queen sized bed it just wasn’t working.  All three of us seemed to be always tired because none of us were sleeping well.  Sandra and I waking up with Alexsa’s kicking and tossing, and Alexsa was not sleeping well as she couldn’t get comfy between the two of us.  The bed was just too small.

“Alexsa, this just isn’t working.” I told her one morning.

I explained that the bed was too small for the three of us and none of us was sleeping well.  “You need to start sleeping in your bed…I’ll sleep there with you.”  “Ok” she smiled.

So for maybe a week I would lay down with her until she fell asleep and would then get up to work.  A few days I fell asleep too, and because I had fallen asleep early at 8:30 pm, I would then wake up at 12 or 1 a.m. and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  What a headache I had in the morning.  Not working.   But on the days I would get up and work, that seemed to work out ok, she would usually wake up at midnight or 1 a.m. “Papa??? Papa??? Where are you?”   and I would quickly get up and snuggle in next to her in bed and sleep.  This lasted for maybe a week and then, because I had more work to do, I started telling her “I’m here doing work, go back to bed,” and she would fall asleep.  Aha!

So for the next two weeks or so, nightly at about midnight, “Papa? Papa? Where are you?” and I would quickly get up and get to the hallway outside her door and quietly say, “I’m here working, go back to sleep.”  and she would fall back asleep.

Sometime around this time she stopped peeing in her diaper at night so we broke her in to sleeping in panties and she would yell out at about midnight “Papa! Papa! I have to go pee pee!” and I would quickly get up our of bed with Sandra and get to the hallway outside her door and flip the light on in the bathroom and my office (just across the hallway from the bathroom). On my way to her door, I would say loudly, “ok, good, go pee pee” and I would meet her outside her door to lead her to the bathroom.  Then on her way back to bed, I would tell her, “I have to do a little more work, go back to sleep.”  I would then spend maybe three minutes in my office with the light on leaning up against the wall with my eyes closed, waiting for the minutes to pass by to a time when I was pretty sure she was asleep again so I could turn out the light and go back to bed.

Alexsa always sees my working during the day at my desk with shorts and a shirt, and one time, when I met her outside her door so she could go pee pee, she looked at me in my underwear with no shirt and said “You don’t look like you’re working!”  I mumbled something back to her like “Yes, I have just a little more to do” or something like that.

I would guess that for the past three weeks I have been waking up every night when she yell “I have to go pee pee” and then waiting a few minutes for her to sleep again before I go back to bed with Sandra in our room.  Then, this past Wednesday, I woke up in the morning and thought to myself, she didn’t go pee pee last night.  Ouch.  She drank a lot of milk just before she went to bed, too.  I went in and check and no pee pee.  And then Thursday night, no midnight “I have to go pee pee.”  And then last night, no midnight wake-up call.  Three night in a row, constant sleep, in my own bed with my wife with the daughter happy and comfy in her own bed.

It was nice snuggling, but our bed is just too small.  And mixed in with the end of February/early March, there were maybe three nights than I, to get more sleep, slept on the floor at the foot of our bed while Sandra and Alexsa slept in bed.

Alexsa, Mommy and I were having breakfast yesterday.  I had already complained that there was no milk and I was going to have to buy some.

I don’t remember the exact situation, but I think Samara had said “I’m thirsty” and I was going towards the fridge to get some milk when she commented,

“Dammit, there’s no milk.”

I turned in total surprise and asked “What did you just say?”

And she repeated, not knowing it was bad, “Dammit, there’s no milk.”

Hmmmm.

Maybe 10 minutes went by and I heard the drain open and the water draining out of the tub.  I got up to see why she was letting the water out rather than her normal “Papa, I’m ready to get out.”

I looked in and saw her in a half-full tub of water with a bunch of bubbles (bubble bath type of bubbles) and there was a lemony scent in the air.  I immediately knew Alexsa had snuck some of Mommy’s bubble bath that Alexsa knows she isn’t supposed to mess with.

“Where did all those bubbles come from?”  I asked nicely.

She didn’t answer.

“Alexsa, where did all those bubbles come from?”  I still asked nicely, but not quite as nice.

“ummm, uhhh, I don’t want to tell you.”

<< this same type of thing had happened the day before.  she did something “bad” and when I asked what happened, she said she didn’t want to tell me.  over and over again.  she wouldn’t tell me.  I told her that because it was her first time, it was ok, but that in the future if she didn’t answer me when I asked her something, she was going to get in trouble >>

“Alexsa, tell me…what happened?  where did the bubbles come from?”

…and again “I don’t want to tell you.”

This went on a couple more times, I reminded her what I had told her the day before, that she was going to get in trouble.

And I asked again, and again, and again.

She refused to tell me.

So I grabbed her arm and lifted her up out of the water and slapped her bottom.

“wahhhhh!” she cried.

“Tell me.”

no response.

“Tell me where the bubbles came from.”

“I don’t want to tell you.”

I slapped her bottom three different times, and realized I was getting nowhere with the physical punishment (after the third slap she actually stopped crying, probably realizing that the slaps really weren’t that painful.)  It reminds me of when I used to get a spanking from Dad, and used to cry even before I was spanked, thinking that this might help.

I pulled Alexsa up out of the shower, took her to her room, and gave her the towel to dry off with.

Alexsa, I need to know where those bubbles came from.

“I don’t want to tell you.”

Over and over again.  So after threatening, I followed through with my threat – I brought in a plastic garbage bag and collected all her princess toys and dresses, and then took them out of her room and into my office.  I then reminded her that she was going to wear pants for the rest of the day and pants to school tomorrow (which is today).  She hates pants, loves dresses.

After withstanding probably 45 minutes of crying about having to wear pants, she finally calmed down.  I felt bad that I was doing this, but felt I needed to – to teach her that when Mommy or Daddy asks her a question, an acceptable response is not “I don’t want to tell you.”

I didn’t want the rest of the day to be mad, so I started complimenting the pants and telling her how good they looked, and that her friends and the teachers were sure to notice how good she looked.  The first few comments didn’t go over too well, but soon enough she was smiling again.

Then night came, we put her to bed (in her own bed – she has been there now for maybe three weeks.  Sandra and I were just too short on sleep with all her tossing and turning, and we think she wasn’t sleep well either as she seemed to always be yawning and tired looking.  But that’s all for another post.)

Then about 11:30 when I was ready to go to sleep (Sandra fell asleep on the couch) I still felt bad about the whole affair, so I decided to sleep with Alexsa in her bed.  I have to give thanks to you, Dad, who taught me “over compensate with lots of hugs, kisses, and affection” and “talk to their subconscious.”

I snuck in bed next to her and whispered numerous times, “I love you so much. You’re the best daughter ever.  Mommy and I love you so, so much.  You’re the perfect little girl.  You are always happy and smiling. I love you so, so much.”  And then again, after waking up in the middle of the night I whispered some more.

—

I woke up at 6 this morning, got out of Alexsa’s bed quietly so as not to wake her, and went into my office to do some work.  Sometime around 7, when Sandra was in the shower, Alexsa woke up and walked sleepily into my office.

“Good mooooorning!  How did you sleep?” I asked her with a big smile on my face.

“Good” she replied.

“I got snuggles last night” I bragged.

“I know, I remember you sneaking into bed.”

I gave her a big hug and then urged her to go brush her teeth and get her clothes on so we could go downstairs and eat some breakfast.

“What clothes am I going to wear?” she asked, as if wondering if she still had to wear the blue jeans.

“You know which ones” I replied.  And that was it.  I went downstairs to prepare her breakfast and lunch for school, she got dressed and brushed her hair.

Then she came downstairs.  “Wow.  You look great!” I told her.

After climbing up into her chair to eat breakfast, she looked at me and said…

“Papa, I’m sorry for not telling you what you wanted to know yesterday.”

Wow.  She’s only 4 years old, and here she is apologizing to me without and prodding.

I gave her a big hug and told her I love her so, so much, and that I was very sorry for having to spank her.

It must have been the best hug ever.

As the song ends, Alexsa stands tall in her finishing pose.

Sandra encourages her “stand very tall, head up high, back straight, tighten your leg muscles.”

“Thhhhwwwwpt.”

Sandra didn’t say anything, but made her eyes bigger, as if asking “what was that?”

Alexsa notices that Sandra heard the noise and quickly blames an imaginary friend.  “It was her” she says pointing to the non-existing girl next to her.

‘Hmmmmm?” questions Sandra.

“Yeah, it was the girl in the purple dress.”

I wanted to go see a new client tonight to sign up.  I had asked Sandra about what time she would be home with the car.  Sandra said 7:30, then changed it to 8:00, and when I called at 8 she said “I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”

While Alexsa ate dinner, I changed into my “fancy clothes” because “Daddy’s going to go see a client.”

I had postponed my client until 8:45 or 9 pm.  I was anxious for Sandra to get home so that I could leave and make it to my client’s house by 9.  Alexsa saw that I was anxious and heard me mumble a few times “hmmmph!  Mommy is late!”

Sandra finally called and said she was just a few minutes away so Alexsa and I went outside on the front porch to wait for her so that to save time I could stop Sandra in the street rather than her pull the car into the garage…Sandra would get out, I would jump in, and continue driving.  I was late.  She finally got here, and I walked out into the street and stopped her from pulling into the driveway, urged her to get out, I jumped in, said goodbye and drove off quickly.

I got home a while ago, about 10:30 pm, Samara is asleep, and Sandra called me into the other room with a big smile on her face.

“It was so funny” she says.  “Alexsa sometimes acts so grown-up.”

“After you left and we got in the house, I asked Alexsa ‘was Papa mad?’ “

“No” she replied, “he was just in a hurry to go see his client.”

“Are you sure?  Was Papa mad?”

“No.  He was just in a hurry to go see his client.  Why do you think he was mad?”

“Because he just kicked me out of the car.”

“No” she says, matter-of-factly.  “I saw him.  He didn’t KICK you out of the car”  she says, enunciating the word ‘kick’ as if Sandra had really thought I had kicked her out of the car.

Then Sandra continues…

“and when I put her to bed, I was laying down next to her for a few minutes.  And then I told her I had to go do some work.  Alexsa pleaded “no, stay here with me.”  and I told her that no, I had some work to do, I had to get up.  Alexsa pleaded some more.  After a few more repetitions of this, I bribed her.

“If you let me get up and do some work, we can do something fun this Saturday.”

“What will we do?” asked Alexsa.

“I don’t know, you tell me” replied Sandra.

“Go to the shopping mall?” asked Alexsa.

“Where at the shopping mall?”

“Can we go to Nordstroms?” asked Alexsa.

(a  4 1/2 year old asking if we can go to Nordstroms.  I’m in trouble if this keeps up into the teenage years.)

“Ok” replies Sandra, thinking that was it.

“And then we can go to Starbucks” Samara tells her mom.

“And what are we going to get there?” continues Sandra.

“I’ll get a cookie and you can get a FANCY coffee” Alexsa replies with a big smile across her face.

We first dropped off Sandra.  Then Alexsa and I found a park within a few blocks of Sandra’s work…and it was loaded with kids, probably 9.

I was very surprised and happy that Alexsa, after the previous day spent with Audrey, showed so much more confidence with these other kids that she didn’t know.  Previously she would have sat by my side and maybe ventured out to a close bar or slide, and as soon as another kid approached she would return to me.  But not this time.  She ran all over the playground having fun, standing in line with others to play on a hanging bar, venturing off to the slides where other kids were, she even went to the area of the playground that was furthest from me.

It was great.  I’m determined to have more of those confidence-building playdates with her friends.

Sandra and I have been too busy to have these “playdates” as they call them here in San Diego (a time when you meet up with another parent and child to play together at the playground/park/wherever).  One time I dropped Alexsa off at Audrey’s house for about 1 1/2 hours and when I returned, she had so much fun that she didn’t want to leave.  That was about 2 months ago.

At the urging of Alexsa’s teachers, I decided to set aside a day for a playdate.   A week ago I decided it would be today, Friday.  I asked Audrey’s mother and father if they would like to get together or even drop of Audrey for the day at our house, as I was taking the day off.  They seemed happy with the idea, as Audrey is at home on Fridays with a sitter who is in charge of Audrey and her 4 month old brother – so the sitter doesn’t have much time for Audrey.  So it would be me, Alexsa, and Audrey for the day.

Yesterday, I called Audrey’s mom and asked if they wouldn’t mind if I drove Audrey around, as I would like to take them to feed the ducks at a place near our old apartment complex in UTC.  She said no problem.  I told her I’d stop by in the morning to get Audrey.  I asked what time she and her husband would be home from work.  She told me she would be home at 3:30 or 4, but not to worry, I would return Audrey to the sitter at whatever time, even if it was just an hour or so.  However long I “was able to make it.”  I expressed my confidence and told her I thought I could make it all day, “but give me the sitters phone number…just in case.”

For the whole week, Alexsa has been so excited…  “I can’t wait until Friday!”  “why?”  “because Audrey is coming over!”   And then last night she could barely sleep, it was as if it was Christmas Eve.  I put her to bed at 9 and at 10 she was still awake.  She probably fell asleep around 10:45.

This morning I put our 2nd car seat in for Audrey to use.  We drove to Audrey’s house at about 10 am.  The sitter opened the door and Audrey immediately poked her head around the sitter’s legs and exclaimed “Alexsa!”  and off we were.

Alexsa and Audrey have been in class together for about 6 months now, best friends, and “chatter boxes” as the teacher says.  But as much as I have tried to befriend Audrey, she would never smile at me, she wouldn’t say hi, she wouldn’t do much more than look at me.  When I asked the teacher about this, she told me that Audrey was quiet.  Well, I was determined to change that today.

For the morning fun, I packed 2 cheese sticks, apple slices, 2 drinkable yogurts, and 2 juices.  I wanted their stomachs to make it a while.  I wanted both girls to have an absolutely wonderful time and I didn’t want the day to be cut short because of hunger.  I planned to take them to feed the ducks, to the bouncy house and play area at the mall, to a nice walking area near the ocean and waves, called La Jolla Cove, and then to the park for them to play in the sand and on the slides.

Off we drove, 35 minutes or so to UTC, on the other side of San Diego where we used to live and where the ducks were.  We parked the car, went in to the CVS Pharmacy that is right there by the ducks and bought a loaf of sandwich bread, and walked the minute or so it takes to get where the ducks are.  The girls loved it.  They fed the 30 or so ducks the full loaf of bread, laughing the whole time.   Every now and then, they would look at each other, squeal in laughter, and then both would take a bite of the bread.  I don’t know if they thought this was funny because they were acting as if they were the ducks, or if they thought they were cheating the ducks out of bread.  But they sure did laugh.  20 minutes or so later and the bread was gone.

“All right, lets go to the bouncy house!” I told them.  (The bouncy house is what we call the air-inflated jumper that they have at the UTC mall, about 3 blocks from where the ducks are.)

“Lets go to the bouncy house!” they both cheered.

The bouncy house is located right next to a small play area they have with benches set up so that parents can let their kids play.  I gave one ticket to each of the girls so they could, on their own, go through the gate and give the young guy their ticket, take their shoes off, and climb up into the bouncy house.  I stood, as I always do, just on the outside of the bouncy house watching and making sure there were no bigger kids getting a little too wild.  Yes, in the past with Alexsa, I have told other kids to be careful and calm down.  Today, their were 3 other girls bouncing, all three a bit younger than Alexsa  and Audrey, so I asked my girls to be careful of the smaller ones.

Alexsa and Audrey had a blast.  Alexsa had been there many times before, but I had never seen her have so much fun.  Many times she climbed up a small slope that is on one side of the bouncy house where the kids can then slide down.  Alexsa had never wanted to do this before when she was by herself, even though I always urged her to do it.  But with Audrey she seemed to have lots of confidence (I noticed this throughout the day).  Alexsa and Audrey used the slide area many times.

After the bouncy house they girls ran over to the small play area.  There are toy cars, a big turtle, a small, knee-high slope that toddlers can crawl up and then slide down, a 4 foot long, 3 feet high tube that kids crawl through.  Together with Audrey, the two girls tore through this place as I had always seen other “bigger” kids do, but never Alexsa.  By herself, she would slowly wander from turtle to car to mirror to kangaroo, never overly excited and always keeping a close eye and distance to where I was.  However, with Audrey, it was totally different.  They were running around, laughing, climbing over/under/through everything, paying no attention to where I was, or if I was even there.  They then got bored with that and started playing hide-and-seek.  This is when I realized how much work it must be for parents that have 2 or more kids.  Alexsa or Audrey ran to hide while the other counted.  I had to keep one eye on one girl who was at one end of the play area hiding, while also keeping an eye on the other girl who was counting to 10 in the other end of the play area and who would then wander around looking for other.  And while this was happening, there were maybe 10 other kids with a few parents wandering around as distraction.  I found this to be a challenge.  I don’t know how some of these ladies do it, the ones that I often see chatting up a storm with their friends, appearing to not watch their kid at all.  I felt I had to stand up and move around to make sure I always had my two girls in sight.

So here it was, maybe 11:15 and I saw my first possible spat between the girls.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked.

“Yes, lets go” replied Alexsa, “No lets stay longer” said Audrey.

Hmmm.  I should have taken control and told them rather than ask them.

“Ok, three more minutes and then we go.”  That seemed to take care of it.  There was not problem when we left.

“I have to go pee pee”  said one girl.    “Me too” said the other.

Ouch.  This was another challenge that I had thought about the past few days.   How do I handle the bathroom situating with another parent’s daughter.

Being a guy, when its just the two of us, I have to take Alexsa to the guys bathroom, which are usually pretty dirty.  Being a germ or clean-freak, upon entering a bathroom I always tell Alexsa, “don’t touch anything”  and I’ll say, “dirty dirty dirty.”   I then follow a process: the first step is to wipe the toilet down with toilet paper.  I then wrap one side of the toilet seat with about three or four of the paper seat protectors, and I again tell her not to touch anything.  I pull her pants down, place my hands under her arm pits and lift her up with  while she holds on to the the bicept area of my shirt.  I carefully seat her on the toilet seat sideways so her bottom only touches the side of the seat that I covered.  With her hanging on to my shirt for balance, I then reach with one hand to grab toilet paper, I give it to her and she wipes herself.

But Audrey is not my daughter.

Luckily, we were near Sears which has a 2nd floor bathroom that is not used much and is usually fairly clean.  Off we went.  Walking towards Sears, and then through Sears, and then into the bathroom, my thoughts were on how I was going to handle the bathroom situation with Audrey.   Clean the toilet but then step out of the stall and let her pee on her own? or stay in the stall? or hold her up like I do Alexsa?

As we entered the handicap stall (I always use this as it gives the needed extra space for the side-sitting on the toilet) I still had not yet decided what I was going to do with Audrey.  So, I cleaned the toilet, thinking as I cleaned.  I cleaned it again with more toilet paper.  And I cleaned it again.  After the 4th, yes the 4th, wipe-down of the toilet, I felt it was clean enough.  I stepped back to the other side of the stall and Audrey quickly climbed up on the toilet to pee.  I looked at the side wall, in part to give Audrey privacy if she wanted it and in part because I felt a bit uncomfortable and didn’t want to look at Audrey while she was peeing.  However,  I made sure I could always see out of my periferal vision that everything was ok.  Funny how lawsuits make you worry about these types of things.   Alexsa then got up to pee on her own, just as Audrey had.  I then made sure they both washed their hands with lots of soap.

Off we went to the car.  My original plans were to now take them to La Jolla Cove to a nice walkway near the ocean.  But, I had noticed up to this point in the morning that Alexsa, and Audrey following Alexsa’s lead, didn’t obey me very well.  “Stop!” I would shout as they ran off.  And rather than stopping, Alexsa would turn around and look at me, and then continue running.  I would have no choice but to run after them.  I didn’t do any scolding for this as I didn’t want to put a negative on Alexsa’s first visit with a friend.  I figure I can always correct that in the future.  But, I didn’t think La Jolla Coves, with the big waves and ocean, was the best place for two girls that weren’t obeying.

Skipping the ocean, the next stop was the park, which is a few blocks from the ducks.  We probably spent an hour or so here.  The girls loved it, and again Alexsa showed so much more confidence now that she had a friend, rather than being by herself.  It was great seeing her run and play like I had always wanted her to.  The girls first played on the monkey bars.  Audrey then surprised me by climbing up a type of rock climbing wall they have.  Alexsa followed and did the same.   When they seemed to be getting tired of the slides and monkey bars, I offered to push them in the swings which brought back the excitement again.  After 15 minutes of swinging, they got off and went to play in the sand.  They acted as if they were swimming on their bellies in the sand “like Ariel the mermaid” they told me.  After maybe 10 minutes of play in the sand, I see them start to throw sand at each other (laughing with smiles) but I knew this would eventually lead to tears, so I quickly went over and sternly asked them not to throw sand.  To my surprise they obeyed.

1/2 hour later, I was ready to leave, but I made the mistake again of asking.

“Ready to leave?”

“No”  said one.  “Yes”  said the other.   Darn-it!

“5 minutes” I barked out.

In 5 minutes we got back in the car to head home.  They each ate a cheese stick on the way home – I had been giving them the snacks periodically to keep them from getting hungry.

On the way home, in an attempt to keep the excitement going, I asked them what they wanted for lunch, and joked with them that they couldn’t have candy for lunch.  Audrey requested Salmon, Alexsa wanted mac-n-cheese, I insisted on a negotiated 4 carrots and some mango to start.  Afterwards they would get mac-n-cheese, salmon, and then “popsicles” that I had made with fruit juice.

Arriving at home, the girls immediately went up to Alexsa’s “princess” bedroom.  I told them I was going downstairs to get lunch ready.

Luckily we had a warm day with lots of sunshine.  It was warm enough for the girls to eat lunch on the picnic table outside next to the pool.   On the picnic bench, I put a glass of milk and a plate with 4 carrots and 4 mango slices for each of the girls.  “Lunch is ready, ladies” I yelled.  Down the stairs they came in their princess dresses that they had changed in to.

I directed them outside, and Audrey saw our pool for the first time.  “Can we go swimming?…please?”  she asked.

The water is cold,  so I figured I’d just let her touch the water with her toes which would be enough to give them shivers.

“Sure, come touch the water with your feet” I told her.  I walked over the the shallow part and waved my hand for her to come to me.  I lifted her up and dipped her two feet in the water and pulled them out.  “How is it?” I asked.  “Warm” she says.  Warm? I thought.  I repeated the process with Samara who also told me it was “warm.”  Impossible.  The water is cold.  But they both insisted it was warm and wanted to swim, so I said “Eat your lunch first, then we can swim if you still want to.”

One of their requests for lunch was Toy Story mac-n-cheese, so I decided to mix it with some regular, long spaghetti noodles, thinking this might make it fun to eat.  Wrong.  When I served them the mac-n-cheese, I heard “What’s this?” and “I want more Toy Story noodles.”

Neither wanted the salmon when I served it, and both were super happy when I gave them their popcicles.  I then surprised them with 4 animal cookies each.

I gathered up their plates, washed the food off their hands and back upstairs they went….to play, I thought.

5 minutes later, down the stairs they come in their bathing suits!  Alexsa in her Ariel suit, and Audrey wearing only the bottoms of Alexsa’s bikini.   I immediately thought of Audrey’s mother who was due to arrive within 10 minutes or so.  What would she think if she came in and saw her daughter prancing around in only the bottoms of a bikini?

“Audrey, where is the top half of the swimming suit?”

“I don’t want to wear it.”

“Audrey, you have to wear it.  Boys go swimming in just shorts, girls always wear tops.”

“I don’t like how it feels” she told me.

“Well, then go ask Alexsa for one of her undershirts to wear.”

Alexsa was in the bathroom, Audrey went in and asked her, and both girls soon ran upstairs, coming back down with Audrey wearing the bikini bottoms and an undershirt.

“We want to go swimming” they both told me.

I didn’t want to ruin the day by declining their final request, so I told them they couldn’t go swimming until they asked Audrey’s mom, BUT I would let them walk along the first step into the pool (which is about 9 inches deep).  They were happy, and spent about 3 minutes in the pool.  They then got out and said they wanted to sit in the hammock.  That went fine for about 5 minutes…..until….

…both girls got out of the hammock and went over to the grassy area of our yard.  I kicked a ball over to Audrey so we could all kick it around.  Apparently she has played or watched either basketball or football, because she picked the ball up, ran around the yard, periodically bounced the ball, and then would say “I win.  I win.”  She then started running in her figure eights again, clutching the ball, then stopped, bouced it, and said again, “I win.  I win.”  She did this three times and then Samara, apparently not liking the game, ran 5 yards away and said, “I have lots and lots of candy.  All mine.”   as she made a scooping motion with her arms, as if she was hoarding candy.  Audrey immediately dropped the ball and went running to Alexsa in a whiny cry, “Noooo.  I want some.  Alexsa, give me some!”  and Audrey grabbed towards Alexsa and the imaginary candy.  Alexsa grabbed back and then turned half around with her scooped arms, saying “No, all mine, all mine.”   Audrey broke out in tears and turned to me, crying “Alexsa won’t give me any of her candy.”

“Alexsa, give her some candy” I requested.

Alexsa started to cry.  “Noooo.  It’s my candy!”

I felt like my jaw dropped.  The whole day had gone perfect.  And now, in the last 5 minutes or so before Audrey’s mom arrives, I had both girls crying in tears.  I had no idea what to do.  They were fighting over IMAGINARY CANDY.  Ahhhhh!

“All right, come on, lets go inside, everyone inside, come on” I told them.  We walked inside the house, and I stood in front of both teary eyed, still upset girls.  “Ok, lets do this.  I’m taking all your candy – and I grabbed the imaginary candy of Audrey – and I’m taking all of your candy – and I grabbed the imaginary candy of Alexsa.  Now I have it all.”  I then acted as cookie monster on Sesame Street and crazily ate up all the imaginary candy.  “Ok, I just ate all your candy.”  “Here”  I said, and I gave Audrey my left hand full of imaginary candy and gave Alexsa my right hand full of the same, and said “Now you both have the same candy.”

“You gave her more!”  “No, you gave her more!”  Both girls were again crying, accusing me of giving the other more IMAGINARY candy.

Audrey’s mom was due any minute and I had no idea how to get the girls smiling and happy again.

“All right, up to your room. ”   I scooted them up the stairs.

Alexsa, being more comfortable in her own house, got to the top of the stairs first.  “I have more candy!”  “All mine.”

Audrey began to cry.  She was about three steps from the top.  When she got to the top, she grabbed all the imaginary candy, scooped it in her arms and went running to Alexsa’s room.  “I have it all.”

Alexsa burst into tears and turned to me.  I was at the bottom of the stairs.  So I scooped my hands into an imaginary bucket of candy and threw the scoop to Alexsa.  She caught it and ran off to her room where Audrey was.  I quickly scooted up the stairs and headed to Alexsa’s room as there was crying and arguing again.

“All right.  I need both of you girls to put your clothes back on.  Take the swimming suits off and put the same clothes on that you had before.  Audrey, I want you wearing your black pants and dress, Alexsa put on those brown pants and white shirt” I said, pointing to the original clothes they had worn that were now laying on the floor.

I went downstairs, sat for a few minutes hoping they would change and come downstairs.  I didn’t hear any crying and arguing, which was good.  But it was too quiet. I went back upstairs, opened the door to Alexsa’s room only to find the girls, still in their swimming suits, in the closet looking at Alexsa’s dresses.

“I need you girls to put the same clothes on as you had before.  Hurry up.  Audrey, put on your black pants and dress, Alexsa put on your brown pants and white shirt.  Hurry up.  You mom is coming soon.”  I closed the bedroom door and went back downstairs and waited.  Within  minutes they came downstairs dressed as I had requested.

Within a minute, the doorbell rang, and I said “Audrey, your mom is here.”  They both replied, “Lets hide!”  I wanted to know where they were going, and I sensed an opportunity to bring back the excitement and happiness, so in an excited voice, I whispered that they should go up toAlexsa’s room and hide in the bunk bed.  A giant smile came to their faces, and both girls scurried up the stairs to hide in the top bunk of Alexsa’s bed.

Wheeew.  What a day.  But I loved it.