So I am on vacation with the FAM down in Myrtle Beach, NC, and I forgot the attachment for my camera. THIS IS A TRAGEDY. The cutest child in the world, and her incomparable older sister, are at this moment going unphotographed. I am dying to share pictures of them but won’t be able to until I return to Washington where I have DSL and a connecting cable. At the moment, they are being fed cheerios and yohgurt and making each other laugh which is the most hilarious thing. "Ha ha these idiot grown-ups," they are saying to each other in baby babble and carefully choreographed sign language. "They have NO IDEA that at this very moment we are coming up with a formula to crack cold fusion. Too bad we will forget it by naptime."
Jane (aka, Sack of Sugar) is the social butterfly and also younger of the two. She is instantly aware of any audience for her astonishing cuteness and will not brook a gaze turned away. She must have all your attention. Anna (aka Annabean) is more mobile, more thoughtful, and more introspective than her Look-At-Me sister. She can amuse herself for hours with the curtains or opening and shutting drawers or a pile of boxes. She understands everything we say to her and a good deal else, but she pretends not to, which is a very clever way of doing exactly what you want whilst retaining the ability to get your needs met.
The trip down here proved as eventful as all the trips we ever took in childhood, when there were no such things as car seats or seatbelt laws, and my mother had to deal with three of us under the age of six AND A DOG by herself. On this trip, the van, a vehicle to which my father is only slightly less attached than he is to my mother, burst its head gasket and black smoke billowed out, enveloping LS’s car (in which I was traveling) in a cloud of oily antifreeze. Ick. Eventually all got sorted out with a tow and a rental car and a very depressing (at least for my father) diagnosis of what it would cost to repair the van. I’m telling you the man moped about it for two days. He waxed lyrical about how he had driven it on so many trips with all of his four children in the back and pulling a camper behind and how it was the end of an era. I’ll spare you the details.
I also have to report that before going to Atlanta all those weeks ago (see this is why I do not deserve this blog), the Cartographer and her boyfriend, RockStarTony came for a visit. RockStarTony is very cool, very cute, and lots of fun. He is also very patient, I have to say, with all my squealing and talking at a million miles a minute. On one occasion, the boyfriends met and Bartender Dude introduced RockStarTony to kittycannon, this video game where you shoot a kitten out of a cannon and see how far it bounces without hitting various spiky or explosive obstacles. The Cartographer and I reconciled ourselves to never being able to talk to them again. So instead we talked to each other, about the genetic evolution of dogs, my new favourite subject. On the last day of their visit, I defied the second law of thermodynamics and rose from my bed before 8:30 am VOLUNTARILY to meet them for breakfast at The Diner (local 24hr joint). It was pouring with rain of Biblical proportions. Water was rushing down the streets and pouring off of rooftops. I hope all the rats in DC drowned that day because I hate them all with a white hot passion.
We are staying in a condo-resort type thingy right on the beach and very much enjoying it. LS is already as brown as a native and I am already as red as a lobster. Tonight we are going to navigate the Charbydis and Scilla known as Taking The Children To A Restaurant With Grown Ups For A Nice Meal. We have to eat at 5 pm!!!!!!! What a reversal of nature. That is tea time, not dinner time. But of course the children’s schedules must prevail. And they are so cute I will forgive them.
Now I must go put on my cute bikini and lobsterise some more. Think of all the vitamin D!, I keep telling myself. Luckily I have a hat so my face is well preserved. More than I can say for the skin on my bosom!
Shame on you! Rats are wonderful animals! I know you are referring to wild rats, but remember, they are just trying to make a living.