Summer Fun in the Sun...with a tangent rant

Well, summer's almost gone and I haven't really posted much about what we've done and I'm too tired and too old to even remember what all we did so here's a brief summary of our summer in GP. We love that we get to go to our community park and pool. BBQing in the summer is the best way to eat. Keahi and Jarom took a 2 week swim lesson at the pool and now Jarom is less afraid of going under the water and Keahi can do the backstroke across the width of the pool and loves to jump off the short diving board and swim/paddle his way to the side. I also love that each GP neighborhood has their own park which we can visit with a guest pass. So far GP Farms is my favorite because the splash zone is amazing for Jarom and the playground part is way bigger and involving for Keahi than ours. Plus we love playing in the sand and the little beach and Keahi loved trying to catch tiny ripple/waves with his kickboard. Too bad every time we went there I forgot to bring the camera. GP Woods pool was fun, too, with a rock climbing wall in one pool area. Keahi was pretty disappointed at the GP Woods pool that he didn't meet the height requirement for the 3-story high waterslide. At his growth rate it'll be a long while before he'd get a chance at it. Anyhow, here are some pics to remember our watery fun at the parks.

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Two other fun things we did outside this summer were Greenfield Village (part of the Henry Ford Museum) and the state fair (which is supposed to end after this year except that people told us they say that every year). Bettina and I took the kids to Greenfield Village on a day when they were having free train rides and activities--just exactly what the boys ordered. They got to ride a steam engine and watch all the black smoke chug out when the stopped to purge the boiler? maybe. They made engineer hats and bandannas--well, mostly I dragged them from playing at the Thomas train table for quick spurts of random stamping and coloring--and got to explore a real roundhouse with turntable. And we roamed through the time-capsuled village and looked at people riding old-fashioned bikes (with the one huge and one tiny wheels), farmers plowing fields with horse and marveled at the waterwheel and ducks--because somehow that was the most exciting thing for the kids. And we dashed back to the van when it began to pour down on us.

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Last Friday we joined the Kalcich family at the state fair. While we didn't do any of the carnival rides (too expensive and the kids didn't usually make the height requirements and one required shoes when Keahi was, of course, wearing slippers), the kids loved the inflatable bouncy houses/slides, the one woman variety show, the live animal show and the miracle of life exhibit. It always amazes me how much fun it can be jumping around with your friends and falling down. Over and over again. Luckily for us, the girl taking tickets was talking on her cell phone and didn't care that the kids went way over the 5 minute limit. The one woman show was pretty entertaining with the usual juggling, balancing, and magic acts. I particularly liked the illusion with the spinning spiral that makes her face look like it's shrinking or expanding. Keahi's friend, Zeke, even got to participate in part of it. The animal show they liked so much they sat down for the second showing after the woman and we had to drag them away from it to see other things. Highlights included a dog catching frisbees, a girl from the audience squirting milk from a goat into the dog's mouth--after squirting it all over the trainer's legs, feeding the animals, and playing with a little piglet--who ended up escaping the circle of kids and running around causing mayhem.

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I had my own excitement when I clashed with an elderly woman who voiced too loudly her parenting advice to me. I had thought I'd left all the strangers with their parenting opinions behind in Grenada but it followed me to NY and now it popped up here in Michigan. I normally don't snipe back but this woman really annoyed me. While the kids were sitting in a circle trying to get the piglet to come to their side so they could play with it, Keahi squealed with delight each time it came by him. First he touched it gingerly with an index finger and then more bravely held his hand to its nose like the man had shown them. Then he grabbed at the hind leg for seriously a second. Then this woman yelled--and I mean really yelled--at him to stop grabbing the pig. When he did it a second time she then yelled at me, "You shouldn't let your child be so mean!" If she'd just gently asked Keahi to stop or pointed out to me that he was doing something she felt was bad, I wouldn't have snapped. But who yells at some kid like that? Or screams at the parent right next to the kid--not off somewhere ignorant of what havoc the kid was wreaking--that their kid is MEAN? So I snapped back at her that he wasn't being mean and that the Farmer Ben had shown them all that grabbing a pig by the hind leg is the proper way to transport it so that sometimes a farmer might grab 4 at a time. "Oh, well, I guess that's different." Seriously. I have never had the instinct to yell at someone else's kid or make just snap judgments about their behavior or their parents. What's up with that?

And that reminds me of the elderly woman in Brooklyn who cussed at Keahi. We were at the copy center that has snakes in an terrarium and two very fat cats, both of which make going there with kids so much easier. There's a stool that the kids use to stand on when the cats are too high up--either on the copiers or the counters. Keahi and Jarom were both standing on the stool, petting the cats when Keahi fell off and bumped into the woman's leg. I apologized, he apologized and I thought that would be the end of it. But she grabbed her leg like he weighed more than the 31lbs he weighs and started cussing loudly about how much it hurt and how rude he was and how I shouldn't take my kids anywhere if I can't control them. She insisted that kids shouldn't be in public and that I personally had no control over my kids either outside on the way here or inside. I kept apologizing and telling her that it was an accident and he wasn't being rude. And eventually her bile simmered down and I finished my business. At least another customer caught my eye and rolled his eyes at the bitter woman with understanding and sympathy. And I snidely warned the next mom who came in with her daughter who immediately got up on the stool to be extra careful she didn't fall off. All in all, I think I showed admirable restraint. Especially since on some days I could see where she might question my control--as if a parent controls a child like a remote or something--but this day they'd been perfect, holding my hands the entire way there. Plus they were wearing their elephant rain jackets. I've had people follow me across the block and into a store just so they could ask me to have them turn around so they could see the front. Just the other week, a guy--not a mom like you'd expect--at the Science Center asked where I'd gotten them since they were so cute. I can't count the people who'd turn and smile as we'd walk by in the downpour. These are magical raincoats that brighten people's rainy days. Just not this woman. And here ends the rant.

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