Recently, I took a trip to visit friends and their little ones. Turtle has this cutie and he is quite the smiley fellow. He was a great sport about me babysitting for short intervals and showing him off at the mall. I’m smitten.


After some time with Turtle, I headed over to Kimmie’s house. She has twin boys and I kept E while she took I to the doctor. Now, E is super cute and sweet, but in the way only toddlers can, he has A LOT of energy. I’ve only met him a few times, so I was really impressed with his ability to roll with the punches and let me entertain him despite my clear amateur status.
The afternoon went something like this:
I arrive and hang out for a few minutes chatting with Kimmie until it is time for her to leave; I start playing with E and we’re having a good time with his toys. She quietly tells me where the snacks, sippy cups and shoes are as she sneaks out. Ok, no problem. I’ve done a lot of babysitting and I have a little brother. This should be a breeze.
E wants to go outside. great. I can handle that. I put his shoes on and we go out to the porch to play for a bit. He seems to realize Kimmie’s car is gone and indicates its normal location. I suggest we go for a walk and see what we can find. So, I take a little hand in mine and we wander around the driveway where I keep him out of ants by finding the pile with my flip-flopped feet first. I try to interest him in the cool moss that is growing in the shade and the soft clover. He looks at me like he’s surprised I’m in charge of him, but is still game. I pick him up so we can walk down the street and I can keep him safe since I don’t know what kind of dangers lurk here (you know, like dingos).
At this point I realize that E’s not a whole lot more tan than I am and Auntie Kate is starting to feel the sun. So, I take us inside where we do a surface glance around for a hat and do not find one. No worries, we can just stay on the porch. He wants a drink of water. sure. I know where the sippy cups are. I pour some water into one and screw the lid on and hand it to him.

He tries to get a drink and pours water down the front of his shirt. I take the cup back and examine it. Maybe I have the straw bit in the wrong position? no. that looks right. I hand it back to him. He pours water down the front of his shirt. ok. hmmm. I take the cup back and unscrew the lid. I help him get a few sips out of the now normal cup so he won’t die of dehydration, but he clearly wants to handle this himself. I peel his wet shirt off and decide the sippy cup is defective, so I get a different lid and screw it onto the cup and hand it back. more water pouring. This is the point where I almost panic. But, kids can smell fear, so, I take a deep breath and take a minute to assess. Meanwhile, he walks over to the kitchen table and bumps his head against it with a sigh of frustration. Laughter drives any other thoughts away. This kid is priceless!
I decide that since he’s not going to die of thirst before Kimmie gets back, I’ll distract him before a second tear joins the sad first one. I explain that he no longer has a shirt on; we should find him a dry shirt. He agrees and we leave the kitchen to hunt one up. I can’t find a shirt, but enough time has passed that I think he’s forgotten the water, so we go play in the living room and then swing on the porch. Thus, when Kimmie came home, it was to a shoeless, shirtless, thirsty child. I told her that I might be a little slow on the sippy cup game and she laughs and figures out that I didn’t put the straw/valve into the lid. When did sippy cups become so complicated? She gives E water and I kid you not, he throws his hands up in the air as if to say, “Finally, some water!” He is my favorite little tornado.

Here we are and as you can see, he’s none the worse for wear and I’m only a little frayed around the edges.

Ran and walked the Zombie 5k last Saturday. To summarize, you are wearing 3 flags on a belt and you run through “kill fields” where zombies try to steal your flags and do obstacles (crawling under things, going through a building with live electric wires hanging down, wading through water/mud). If you get to the end with at least one flag, you “survived”. If not, you’re a Zombie! It seemed like a good thing to do just before I turned 35 to say, I’m hip, I’m young, I’m in good shape and if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’m at least partially ready.

I was able to check a few things off my life list:
1. Shower in muddy water with 30 other mostly clothed people. The guy shampooing his hair in the muddy stream of water will forever mystify me.
2. Change clothes in a tent with 30-40 women I don’t know.
3. Use a port o’ potty in the dark.
4. Get electrocuted (I did not realize the very last obstacle was electrified, so, as I crawled on the ground under a fence, I felt something and thought, “was that barbed wire against my back?”. It happened again and I realized “nope, that’s what electricity feels like”)
5. Complete the majority of Zombie 5k with my plastic-bag covered wallet in hand (I just could not be comfortable leaving my credit cards, drivers license and cash at the gear check).

6. Make peace with the fact that I’m like that.


I also learned a few things:
1. If you’re running in mud and you want to pull your foot out without losing your shoe in the mud, turn your foot from side to side to loosen it/release the suction before pulling it out.
2. As a child, I climbed trees. I did not practice running up steep muddy hills where there is nothing to use for traction. If you plan to survive the Apocalypse, this is a skill you should work on. Also, cleets and gloves are not a bad idea.
3. I thought that I was going to be really competitive, but it turns out that when faced with the choice of giving up a flag and thus maybe not “surviving” the race, or certain bodily harm, I opted for “death”. Thus, I lost all my flags by the end of the second mile and finished the race having left no blood on the course.
4. I wore all red to try to hide my red flags. This strategy did not work. I think it attracted the zombies….just a little tip for the apocalypse from me to you.

5. Trying to meet up with friends in a place with no cell phone reception is no picnic. Thus, when I saw them (they were screaming my name), there are a lot of pictures of me running towards them looking like I’ve just won a gold medal. Also, they were nice enough to take my wallet prior to this.

After a mud-shower and fresh clothes, we got a bite to eat. Turning into a zombie made me hungry…for BRAINS!!!

Tags: Run for your Lives, zombie, zombies

The hostesses did a lovely job. Thanks, A, for coordinating us in addition to your hostessing duties! …and M, for allowing us to have the shower at your lovely wine bar. Best wishes to Turtle & the Mr. with the new baby!

Tags: aqua, baby boy, baby shower, gray, mustaches