A Week Away

We escaped a brutally hot week in Maplewood last week by heading to Connellsville—we didn’t plan the trip because of the weather, but we wound up choosing very luckily. Even better, Molly and Luca could join us for a couple of days. Lucia and Greta had a splendid time from beginning to end. What’s not to love about Gra and Pop-Pop’s house? A pool, marbles for the pool and other pool toys, sidewalks for scooter-riding and stroller-pushing, wonderful books, a veritable toy store in the attic, monstrous My Little Pony structures (which I purchased last year at a Cville yard sale and hadn’t taken back with me), a visit to Grandma and Aunt Florence, ice cream at Dairy Queen, undivided attention, new ballerina dolls from Uncle Don and Aunt Joanie. We even squeezed in a visit to the Clarks in Pittsburgh and went out to lunch, all nine of us, each kid accompanied by a Beanie Boo.

Now we’re back home, with lots of rain but at least no 100-plus temperatures. Greta is having more toddler moments than usual, perhaps due to teething, perhaps due to imminent two-year-old-ness. Lucia is readjusting to having to actually do things for herself since there is only one adult—me—to keep things running during the day (“Maamaaa…I can’t get the toilet paper….The toilet paper’s not woooorkingggg…”). I had to—gasp—cook my own dinner last night. (Well, Andrew put frozen fish nuggets in the toaster oven. Tonight I’ll cook.) Back to reality.