'Bye-bye, Play!

I took the boys to the play place at the mall again today. They didn't have as much fun as they usually do. There were some "big kids" there (those rowdy three- and four-year-olds), and Drew got a little nervous and clingy. It didn't help that one little girl kept following Drew around and bumping him with her belly. I suppose I should have said something, but she wasn't hurting him, and I kind of wanted to see how he would handle it. He handled it by giving her a very dirty look and walking away. But she kept following. Finally, she did it when her mom was looking, so her mom gave her a good scolding.

At last, all the big kids left, and Drew and Owen had the place to themselves. They had a little more fun then, but they still didn't get into romping like they usually do. I guessed it was about lunch time, so we geared up to head over to the food court. The boys seemed very glad to leave. Drew even waved and said, "'Bye-bye, play! See ya!"

We had corn dogs and fries from Orange Julius. We also had a strawberry banana Julius. The boys each got one, but they had to share with me (that way, I could drink most of it, sparing them the sugar high; I'm so thoughtful). Drew had his first experience with throat-freeze. He put his little hand on his throat and said, "Ow" and gave me that same dirty look he'd given the girl at the play place.

Lunch ended about the time Owen started throwing his fries on the floor and Drew started flicking his straw, thus getting Julius all over everyone. On the way back to the car, I stopped to rinse out one of the cups and fill it with water from the drinking fountain. Suddenly, I heard this strange voice, like someone had a very hoarse throat. The voice came closer, and started talking to the boys. I turned around, and there was this nice older lady, a mall maintenence lady, doing her very best Donald Duck impersonation. The boys didn't know what to think. The lady said goodbye (in her Donald Duck voice) so I told the boys to respond, which they did, but they both had this look on their face like, "What in the world?!" It was so funny.

The mall is a great place to spend our mid-morning: nice and air conditioned. And by the time we got home, the boys were ready to nap and sleep away the hottest part of the day! If only I could do the same, but it's too hot in my room for me to sleep, and I've got to get stuff done while there aren't four little hands around undoing everything.