Looking for Balls at the Mall

Well, Brigid's saga of bumps and bruises continues as she took a fall on the uneven sidewalk yesterday, scraping both knees. Daddy blames the hot weather because she then wears shorts which in turn leave her tender little knees exposed. But the rash on the back of her neck seems to be responding to the hydrocortisone cream. I'm hoping it was just some kind of contact dermatitis that caused an initial itchiness, which leads to scratching, which leads to more itchiness and redness. It doesn't help that she's sweaty there and her hair falls right at the collar line.

The last couple of days Baby B has seemed more clingy than usual, wanting to be picked up and held. She's been kind of weepy, too. It may be a transitional stage she's going through. I'll have to get out my books again, but I seem to recall this age -- the 15-month range -- as being transitional. One thing she's trying her hardest to transition to is speech. She's muttering and babbling all the time, practicing sounds, moving her tongue to see how it feels and where it goes with certain sounds. The "B" sound is popular right now, so we're getting a lot of bah bah bah boo boo boo bah boo. "Ball" is very popular, both in word and item. She loves balls -- loves to play with them, to see them, to watch them. The Oak Street School (Patricia's school) playground is in our backyard and at dinner, when we're sitting out on our deck, we can see the goings-on there. Often there are some kids playing basketball and Brigid goes wild. "Ball ball ball ball," she'll say over and over. If she sees something in print or on TV that even remotely looks round, she'll respond "Ball!"

Last night Patricia had a sleep-over at her friend, Nicole's, house, so after dinner Margaret and Brigid and I went to the mall, first to Border's, then just to walk around. Brigid loves running around the mall. She has a few favorite places to visit, like a male dog marking his territory. She knows the Adirondack store with the big stuffed bear in the front. She has to visit the bear and give him a hug. She also knows Victoria's Secret. Now, little Baby B has no need for the IPEX bra and panties, but they have a pink stuffed doggie in the doorway that she hugs. The mall has a couple kiosks of gumball machines and she has to visit each machine and open the metal flap for inspection. She then likes to visit this perpetual motion machine that drops balls in gears and moves them about, but it unfortunately has seen its heyday and that day is long gone. We then let her run around some more. After exhausting her at the mall, we went for ice cream at Harrigan's, a soft-serve place where she ran around some more in the grass by the picnic tables. A bath at home and she was out for the count.

Patricia, meanwhile, did very, very well on her report card and for her entire fourth-grade year at her new school. The report card showed straight 4's and straight "O's", the highest grades she could get. Her teacher wrote a wonderful, glowing note about his experience with our sweet, sensitive and funny girl. She got to meet her new teacher, Ms. King, and has most of the same kids in her class that she had this year. She is most grateful because there were a few kids, boys and girls, she was hoping would not be in with her and they won't be. At Oak Street, fifth graders are the top bananas, the last bastion of innocence before the insumountable wall of middle school approaches. It will be interesting because Margaret never had that kind of transition.

This summer, both Margaret and Patricia will participate in a three-week theater workshop taught by Patricia's fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Fortin, and his wife, Mrs. Fortin (like Elmo's World, Mr. Noodle and his brother, Mr. Noodle). They're excited about that. They'll work on Seussical the Musical and put on a production at the end of their session.

Margaret's babysitting has been going well. She's going to be a rich young lady by the end of the summer. The theater program won't interfere with her job because it's in the mornings and we have her sit a few hours in the afternoon. I will give her her first paycheck this week. I'll be interested in seeing what she does with it.