October 24th, 2010

Rachel got to have a sleep-over at my parents' house along with her cousins Brady, Brock, and Sam. Lilly did not make the cut-off for this particular slumber party, which I knew could be disastrous for our mostly peaceful little home. I asked Rachel not to talk about the sleep-over, and in the mean time told Lilly that me and her dad were going to take her on a date to McDonald's. Mostly this all went over very well and when the time came for Rachel to leave and us to go on our date, she only complained a little. On the way to McDonald's, we let her sit between us in the front seat. She linked arms with us and told us how much she loves us. When we got there, we ordered her a whole happy meal that she didn't even have to share, and an ice cream cone for dessert. The big thing was the ice cream cone, and the chance to play at the jungle gym. The first thing she did when we got there was climb to the top of the jungle gym. And that is where she stayed the whole time. She was too scared to go down the slide and too scared to climb down the way she came. There was no real way for us to go up to get her, so the two of us, along with several kids and one old lady tried to talk her into coming down. Finally I said "Lilly if you don't come now we won't have time for ice cream." The response was a rapid "OK!" and down she came.

At church today the primary kids did a program for sacrament meeting. Rachel was having none of it. It took forever to convince her to go up with her friends. Once we did, she lasted less than five minutes before she came crying back to our bench. I asked her what happened and she cried (loud enough for all to hear) "I don't want to go with my class today, it's BORING!" There were giggles aplenty, including our own.

Carson likes to play musical people. He starts in my arms, then moves to Shelby, then to the nearest other person whether he knows them or not, then back to me. I don't think it is a game to him so much as it is that he can't decide who he loves the most. When he is with me, he loves dad, when he is with dad, it is the stranger who he prefers. We went to the Hyde Park Street Fair the other day. We took our eyes off him for 1 minute, and he ran straight for a questionable, shady looking man and climbed into his lap. The guy had a look on his face of sheer confusion. I would not be surprised if he had never held a child in his life.