Darla's Mom

With Mr Chris.

There is a chunk of my childhood memories involving people I still communicate with today.

Those elementary school days were stressful, I had extra stress surrounding my adoption, but I remember the generic stress like it was yesterday.

The terror of losing a library book:flop sweat, prayers to God, wishing I had magic powers to make the item appear and wondering how I could be so stupid as to have completely forgotten the moments of my life when I had the book in hand.

3rd grade multiplication tests. Those buggers were timed. In my head a giant board lit with the number of seconds count get down and I could barely see my paper.

Trying to find  time to work on Brownie badges, practice the piano, remember to go to piano and not forget which days I had baseball or band practice. (I was/am/ever will be a horrid athlete).

But

In between the family and personal drama, the impossible schoolwork, social posturing, lost books and more…. there were my friends.

I had magic afternoons at Jennifer’s home in her play room or running through her sprinklers. Badminton in the street with the Quigley’s (who were also with me as I attended my first pro basketball game ) and watching their home-made films was better than pixie dust. Doug had a full blown race car set up – permanently set up! My friends and their folks would hike to Sturtevant Falls and go camping at the beach or just in my back yard. Every little adventure was magic.

And sometimes we would go to Disneyland.

I’ve spent the  last 2 days at Disneyland with my friends, adult and child. The best moments were watching Darla with these same friends. She is only 3 years old, but her memories are pretty crisp about events from 2013 – so maybe she will remember these trips or maybe she won’t be able to build long term memories until she is older.

I’m here to tell you that being older, and having these great memories, drives me to occasionally bump out of my rut and embark on a mini adventure for Darla -so she can have these kinds of life defining experiences to carry her through what is coming : more lost books, boyfriends, cliques, picking a major, finding a job, moving out and on her own.

I’m up and writing this because both of the girls are snoring on separate beds and there is no room for me to sleep!

The girls had a great time at Disneyland today … I may or may not be obsessed with matching outfits.
I drew the wings and Darla helped have them made into shirts.
It did make it easier to find them!

Last weekend our friend and puddle stopper Catie gave Darla a green frog toy thing that has faithfully sat in her car sear cup holder since.

Darla didn’t want to lose it before Share Day. Today was the day and Darla proudly talked about all her Big Girl Friends and especially Catie who tells her the very best stories and always watches out for her.

Catie does totally rock. I’d share her too if her parents wouldn’t file kidnapping charges and stuff.

Bath time elf. I’m messing with her by moving him every time she walks out of the room

I was going for an educational and historical "Joan of Ark " theme but then the song (not being sung by a choir) let into my head.

Darla has named her @Dollartree elf " Anti Uncle Kenny", because her Uncle Kenneth is so good and help seems whimsical and like he will need a few interventions.

This will be Day 2.
Enjoy

It rained and was cold and the sky was dark from black pillows covering the sky

So we hopped in our car
and drove down the 118 to the 145 to pick up our friend

We stopped for lunch with a wonderful waitress and terrible food, but we paid the bill and solidly tipped for service

The off to the zoo where we parked for free in the reserved section and watched the seals dive for a while

We held a quick informative intervention with the photographer who asked two young girls to disobey their instructions and wander over for a photo and chatted among ourselves about the importance of listening to our hearts and not the call of strangers

Then it was a alligator and birds and for a moment we observed the reindeer and read about their antlers and fur

Next we climbed up a hill
Splashing in every puddle (a thrill) rounding to take a turn on the a bonded play area slide , covered by tarps we felt like we were inside

Finally we found the hippopotamus family , mama, daddy , and baby just 30 days new

And behind us were squirrel monkeys and flamingos who never flew

A large spotted cat and the cave if a bat , and the holiday lights turned on for 5 seconds flat

Inside the rainforest we saw the red bellied piranha
Before we looked at each other and said
" I wanna
I wanna get out of this rain"

So back to the car and on the freeway again. The 134 east became the 210 and then off we slightly into Arcadia to see Grandpa. There was a tree fillwd.woth lights and ornaments to touch

Then finally the clock said the hours built up to much
So we found ourselves driving again, but this time on the regular old 10.

Said good by to our friend and told her parents "thank you for the loan"

And once more in the car, we drove all alone.