S wasn’t very happy about it and wondered how I could have slept through the crying.  More than anything, it scared her because, while A can get the door open from the inside, she cannot get it open from the outside.  If she had already left, A would have been stranded outside until I woke up.  I don’t know what to do about this, even if the door is locked she knows how to unlock it.

When she wakes up I’ll have to talk to her about leaving the house without an adult.  I hope it makes sense to her but I have my doubts because her plan worked.  She went outside to get her mommy and that’s exactly what happened.

The food is really good though because it’s not food that we eat regularly.  Saturday we had black bean nachos with salsa and sour cream (on the girls’ half, I’m not a fan).  They also, had chocolate-covered bananas, which could have had some health benefit if they hadn’t eaten the chocolate coating and tossed the bananas because they were too hard, as they were frozen.  Oh well.

The elementary school is downtown right where most of the food vendors set up so we ended up playing on the play ground for a good part of the day.  Eventually, though they wanted to walk around so we decided to walk the strip, down and back.

One of the wife’s friends was with us and A wanted to be held by only her, and she obliged.  This friend doesn’t have kids and doesn’t want kids but mine have taking a liking to her, although it’s been a long process.

A few years ago, when she first started hanging around it was hard to tell who was more afraid of whom.  The girls have always been shy around new people and we encourage them to trust their instincts about people.  We don’t rush them off to someone and promise that they will be safe, instead letting them gradually feel comfortable enough around people to embrace them (and subsequently talk their ears off.)

With this friend, though, I could see her tense up as my kids began approaching her.  She had no idea what to do with a kid or what to say.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching that scene because it was so strange to me and also because I could tell the kids to do things to her and she grew more uncomfortable the closer they got.

These days she’s been around enough that she’s almost as comfortable with the kids as they are with her and that’s why she was the only one A wanted during street fair.  Near the end of the day we were back at the playground and she said she was exhausted and didn’t know how we did it everyday.

I just shrugged my shoulders and said that we didn’t have a choice, but there are other reasons that were able to do it everyday.  One, everyday is not like that, where you’re walking constantly and carrying a child. Two, is that we’ve built up to this point by being with them when they were so little that there were days that we never left the house.  And three, is that they are our children and if we’ve done a good job we can delight in them a bit more than those who aren’t their parents.

The last reason is that we know how much more difficult it can be to stay in the house when there is something to do with the kids.  When we keep them occupied and entertained they are less likely to get bored and whine at us.  And not having them whine at us is golden.

Having worked on that for a couple days and still not finished I had neglected to really play with the kids much.  J stayed home from preschool due to an illness and if I let her she’d watch television all day, which I don’t want her to do.  So it’s best for everyone to get them out of the house and one of the places they like to go is called Rollandia Magic Castle.  They have an outdoor area that we’ve never used but the indoor area has a soft play area (think restaurant play land on steroids) and it also has video games, some of which are age-appropriate for the kids and some are not.

So when they said they wanted to go, I told them to get ready and I finished up my work.  I checked my email before we left and sent all the work I had completed.  Then we left and had a wonderful afternoon without any interruptions.  The girls are getting really confident at climbing through the maze of tunnels to play games like hide and seek.

They also really like the games because they earn tickets good toward cheap garbage made in China.  I remember getting these things when I was a kid and really placing much more value on them than they actually had.  One reason was that it was something I felt I had earned.  Another was that I got to choose exactly what I wanted.  One more reason, though, was that it reminded me of the good time that I had had.

Spending time with them at a place that eliminates distractions and entertains us is great for building memories and confidence.  There is a game there called Deal or No Deal based on the television show.  When you play your top prize option is 200 tickets and your lowest is 1.  Two visits in a row J has won 200 tickets playing that game with no help from me other than a boost to reach the buttons.  I don’t know how she does it.

When we go back home I checked my email and the client had decided to make major changes anyway so the work I was doing or would have done during that time was not that important.  Spending time with the kids is always worth it.