Father's Day

Alice remembered this morning that she would be "performing" in church for Father's Day. All the Primary kids had prepared a song to sing during Sacrament Meeting. If we hadn't been so rushed to get out the door in time, I would have taken a picture of her. She decided on her purple dress which isn't very fancy, but I distinctly remember her saying, "Now I need jewelry. Lots of jewelry," as she dug through her dress-up box. She settled on classic white gloves and a simple bracelet. Then she was ready for a hairdo: three braids sticking out so she could see them herself in the mirror. She selected two red bows and one white bow to accent the braids, slipped on her fancy black Sunday shoes (without tights...too hot!) and declared herself ready.

I gave Robert a choice between two ties and a bow tie and he pounced on the bow tie. Bobby and I agreed he kinda looked like a moonshining gangster from prohibition times. The cutest one ever!

Sacrament meeting itself was less than pleasant. Poor Robert was so tired. He's a bit crazy when he gets tired: loud, obstinate, aggressive, reckless. It's hard to keep a hold of him when it's just me in the pew. Alice gets a bit jealous when he's tired, and she clings to me all the more, but she was a real help in the end. I must remember to let her know how much I appreciate her help.

Alice paid tithing for the first time today, filling out the tithing slip herself, sort of.

After church, Robert took a nap and Alice and I had a silly lunch together. She was in such a great mood today. I couldn't believe it. We frantically tidied the house in preparation for someone to come by and see it (6th prospective buyer to come by since the house went on the market two months ago, no offers yet), then took a long stroll in the sculpture gardens at Meadowbrook Park. I have no doubt we'll get an offer tomorrow morning from them. Our raspberry canes are burdened with the biggest crop of raspberries we've grown in 3 years, my garden is flush with ripe peas and chard, and there's the promise of sweet corn, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. How could anyone resist wanting to own that?! (Or maybe I'm just a bit disgruntled to leave it...if we do.)

We came home from the park and made dinner. Bobby had a choice between salmon fillets or tofu sweet potato jambalaya :) Good thing he picked the salmon because Alice could actually help with a lot of that. She's really helpful when she's in a good mood! When she wasn't dipping the fillets or rolling them in seasoned crumbs, she was playing silly games to make Robert laugh. Holy moly, she's a wonder. She does have her bad days, though. Remind me to tell you about the afternoon I heard, "Mommy, I don't know why I'm crying. I want to stop but I just can't."

We played a whole bunch of imaginary role playing games after dinner: cops and robbers, princess at the ball, prison escape, doggies, and doggie sandwich making to name a few. Robert played along or found compatible activities/skills to work on. He decided to work on his walking-in-huge-shoes skills today. He made many frustrating attempts with my sandals before I put him into Alice's sandals. My sandals were too big for him to walk in. He kept stepping out of them and couldn't get back into them. Alice's sandals were much better. Too much better, in Robert's opinion. Walking around in them was too easy. He stopped several times just to take them off and try to put them back on by himself. More frustration. I let him work on it for a while, but before frustration turned into tantrum, I declared, "I'm gonna gitcha!" and he ran off giggling and squealing at the prospect of a chase.

All in all, it was one of those days you want to remember about raising your young family...except for the Sacrament meeting part. That was no fun :)