1m2aSandbox

God bless Texas.


I forgot when we moved back here that we were returning to the land
of competitive gymnastics; our area’s fostered several
Olympic gymnasts over the past decade or so, and there are four
huge training facilities within perhaps five miles of us.


What does this have to do with me and a bored two-year-old? I have
two words for you –


Open. Gym.

Since moving to Texas we’ve been
“church shopping” on Sundays – going to a
different church every week as we try to find our new parish home.
We’re enjoying seeing the different types of churches out
there, but it also means Maddie is in a new environment every week.
How’s she handling it?


It’s a bit mixed.

Our new playground has some features
Maddie hasn’t encountered before, and one is a covered spiral
slide. Madeleine’s been eyeing it since we moved here; she
loves going down the regular slide, and with the spiral slide being
the tallest of the five slides on our playground here, I think she
considers it the Mount Everest of the playground – to be
trained for and conquered.


The first couple of weeks Maddie eyed the slide but wouldn’t
go near it, deeming it too high and too fast. About two weeks ago,
though, her longing looks drew her ever nearer, until she was
staring wistfully into its open mouth. I could see she wished she
had the courage to go down but simply couldn’t talk herself
into it.


And then Elmo came to the park.

Cora’s finally settled on a lovey,
and unfortunately, it’s me.


Or, to be more precise, my hair.

As we drove to our new home from the
airport a few weeks ago, I gawked out the window at our new
neighborhood, trying to figure out where “our” spots
would be. Driving past a Starbucks, I did a double take, unable to
believe what I’d seen. A few moments later, I was
breathlessly telling my 17-year-old niece that our neighborhood had
“a Starbucks with a DRIVE-THROUGH! How amazing is
that???” I swear, my niece looked at me with a mixture of
contempt and pity and said only, “I’ve seen it.
It’s not the only one.”

Cora’s been a pickier eater than
Maddie was, and I think part of it is that I simply haven’t
had the time and energy to devote to the whole Starting Solid Foods
thing that I did the first time around. Our lives have been in such
upheaval that I haven’t exactly been the picture of
consistency about her meals, if you know what I mean; she
hasn’t had homemade baby food for several weeks, and I keep
forgetting to introduce new foods every four or five days, but the
worst is that I sometimes just forget I’ve got to feed the
poor kid!

If I had the guts, here’s an ad
I’d be placing in the local paper this week:


“Single white female seeks female of any ethnicity for good
times. I like play dates, swinging, cooking up yummy treats, and
going for long walks. YOU must love to laugh and sing, and at least
tolerate Elmo. If we hit it off, age is not an issue.”