Extended Stay

Robbie and I have extended our stay in Kentucky by five days! I don't know the last time I spent a full twelve days at home... Probably not since I moved to Georgia over seven years ago. Granted, we were home in July for eleven days, but two of those were mostly spent driving and I was gone to Cincinatti for two overnights.

This has been a real trip home. It's strange, isn't it? When we're in high school and college, we are in such a rush to leave home and be on our own? I don't know about you, but now that I'm in my thirties, there's nowhere else I'd rather be. But maybe that's because I've spent the summer being a stay-at-home mom and have run out of entertaining activities to keep Robbie occupied until bedtime. It's nice having people around who want to play with Robbie when I grow weary of proclaiming, "Yay, Robbie," and clapping everytime he says, "Light!" and points to one. Of course, Robbie and I are also finding new ways to keep ourselves entertained while the rest of the family is at work.

Today, he was given a balloon at Kroger. That poor balloon. It went all over Hilary's house, up the stairs, down the stairs, around the kitchen, through the ball pit (it didn't easily fit through the opening when Robbie took it through with him), and to the bathtub. Robbie has also learned the beauty of climbing the stairs while we've been home. I find that if I turn around - even just long enough to sneeze - he's halfway up the stairs before I turn back around.

We've also started going to the local public pool,which opens at 4:00 during the week. Normally Robbie loves it. But, buddy, not today! Let me preface this by saying that it was cloudy and cool (yes, I know it's August in Kentucky, but it was cool!). And we were the only people there, except for the older women finishing water aerobics and the people in the lap lanes. And young Robert screamed the entire time we were there. The entire time. The life guards loved us.

I think he has freaked himself out about this whole walking thing, and he started doing it at the pool. He seems to know that he's done something big, but I don't think he's quite sure how to feel about it. So he screams. It probably didn't help that he'd only taken an hour nap this afternoon. But, did I take him home after he'd cried for five minutes? Nope. I figured there wasn't anyone there that we were really disturbing except for the life guards. And, let's face it, they always look like they're bothered when people get in the water. So he fussed for an hour before I finally decided to pack it in. I didn't spend all that time wresltling him into his swim diaper and trunks for five minutes of aquatic fun.