“I was just wondering….my wife and I need to go to a
luncheon and we need someone to watch the kids.
You interested?”
“Am I
interested?? How much will I owe you?”
I
love their kids – three of them, ages nine, seven, and six. They are precious and I haven’t seen much of
them all summer. We all live in an ‘eightplex’
by the beach and they are my downstairs neighbors. During the school year, when weather was nice
and I kept my door open, they were up at my place most afternoons, if only to
say hi and get some snacks. (Little Ezra
told me recently, “Yeah, Miss Maria, that’s why we love to come to your
house! ‘Cause you have the BEST
apples!” Which is so cute, because their
mom knows this and has told me, “We HAVE apples.” I’m touched.
Have I mentioned that I love those kids?)
They
would be with me for two hours and I was kind of wondering what we would do for
that time, on a rainy morning. Thinking that seemed like a long time, I had a
list of possible activities (none of which we needed after all). Up they came at 10:00, library books and
sweatshirts in hand. First item on the
agenda was snacks – apples, of course, and a banana. “Little One” (Eva) wanted to sit on the back
porch to eat, so out we all filed to munch and visit. For two minutes, that is, until they were
down the stairs, over to the palm trees to check out the orange fruit on the
ground (rain had died down to a slight drizzle). EVERYthing is a game and a toy, intriguing
and fun to them. The fruit became
ammunition from a slingshot, baseballs for a palm frond bat, and things to be
squashed underfoot. Climbing the tree,
knocking off the fruit, finding bugs in the trunk, pulling off dead parts of
the tree…it’s all in a day’s play for them.
No missed opportunity for discovery or destruction!
“Should
we show her our secret hut?”
“YES! Come and see our hut!”
In
what can loosely be called our backyard, is a cluster of a few palms and bushes
that are, well, ‘natural’ (aka neglected
and unkempt) - a perfect place for a secret hideout. Into the umbrella of the palms we went,
hunkered down and watching our steps.
Lots of tenacious, thorny vines love to grow around the trees and are
vicious and prevalent. So while they
swept the ‘living room’ floor with a dried out palm frond, I headed inside for
my pruning shears and gloves. Little One
ran over to her yard to get a bucket for the refuse, and soon, dive into
cleaning the hut, we did. Pulling and
tugging, clipping and raking, we cleared out a lot of the vines and suddenly,
the hut was beginning to look like home!
A wooden plank became the kitchen table for water and apples, dead
branches and palm leaves became walls, and a couple of towels were our
furniture. It was lovely! We even found a way to combat the gnats and
mosquitos that were in on the action, too.
Alcohol, cold rages, and peppermint lotion. Yea!
Work
done and weather cleared, we were hungry and decided it was time to eat –
Waffle House, which is just down the street on the island, and a favorite of
theirs. We gathered up what needed gathering
and drove off, ready for a Grand Slam – waffles, toast, and milk. Waiting for our food was just one more
opportunity to play – forks and a napkins became a sailboat, spoon and a
napkin, a bride, and straw and wrapper, a bb gun. Way too fun! Our food was just what we all wanted and
within seconds of finishing, they were up and ready to go, play, move, now that
they were newly fueled. So it was out to
the beach (a block away) to feed the seagulls our leftover toast. What a trip THAT is!! Once a gull sees food in the air or on the
ground, all alerts are out and every gull from a hundred yards comes swooping
in. Well behaved, for the most part,
they take turns grabbing the pieces thrown in the air. On the ground, it’s another story. Man!
What squawking and yelling! Every
bird for himself at that point.
Tide
was low so we got to walk out to a shallow sandbar and cool down. Without swimsuits, full immersion had to
wait. Off to the library first, then
home for suits and towels for a return engagement (or so we thought).
Once
in the library, we headed back to the kids section. It is so much fun! There are tables of puzzles, a dollhouse,
computer games, and stuffed animals. We
were there for a good hour, and time just flew.
Ezra announced that he was ready to go; he was tired and needed a nap. (By this time, I did, too!) We checked out and headed off with books and
DVD’s on Star Wars, Caterpillars, Brer Rabbit and Veggie Tales, homeward bound
for a rest and some snacks. At home,
their mom and dad reminded them of a 3:00 birthday party they were going to (it
was already 2:00 by the time we got home!), so they had to ready for that and
our beach plans were tabled until next time.
Sad for our time together to be ending but well ready for a rest, I
hugged them bye and headed directly for bed.
A day well spent, a nap well deserved!
