Finally, A Vacation Destination We Can Actually Afford

We were discussing (fantasy) vacation plans over dinner and asked The Roc which country he'd most like to visit. He thought it over for a minute and replied: "The United States." When we explained that we already lived in the United States, he protested: "No, we live in Pasadena." We informed him that Pasadena was, indeed, part of the United States. In all his four years, I don't think I've ever seen him laugh so hard.

Apologies to Anyone I Flashed in the Pool Parking Lot

A few months ago, I parallel parked, got out of the car, and walked around the other side to get The Roc out of his car seat, only to find him standing by the curb, waiting for me. He'd somehow gotten out of his car seat and opened and shut the car door all by himself. Since then, we've been using the back seat child safety lock, which, like most devices designed to promote child safety, is extremely hazardous to adults.

The other day, after swimming lessons, I got in the back seat with The Roc to help him change out of his wet bathing suit. (The pool where he takes swimming lessons doesn't allow boys over three in the women's locker room. Because it's perfectly safe and appropriate to send a four-year-old into the men's locker room by himself, right?) I shut the car door behind me, forgetting that I would be unable to open it again from the inside, even though it was unlocked. Once I got The Roc dressed and strapped into his car seat, I realized I would have to crawl over him to get to the front seat.

It wasn't the first time that had happened since we activated the child safety lock. Unfortunately, this time, I was wearing a skirt. Even more unfortunately, my skirt was caught in the back door. Which, as you'll recall, I couldn't open.

In Which My Psychic Powers Fail Me Once Again

Last night, The Roc and I went out for our usual post-dinner, pre-bath walk. He took the trike, I walked. About halfway through our usual loop around the park, The Roc stopped short and jumped off the trike.

"Mommy, I want to walk home."

It was a long way, and Mommy's back is not what it used to be, so I told him I couldn't carry the trike all the way home. He jumped back on and raced off in the direction of home.

By the time I caught up with him, we were about halfway there. I stopped him and gave him a stern lecture about the dangers of riding his trike too fast and told him if he didn't slow down and ride alongside me the rest of the way home he would not be seeing his trike again for a long, long time.

Finally, we turned into our driveway. The Roc abandoned his trike in the driveway and ran inside. I shouted for him to come back and put the trike in the garage, but he was long gone.

Exasperated, I put away the trike, locked the garage, and went inside, where Daddy was sitting on the couch.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"In the bathroom. He must have needed to go pretty bad, because he ran right past me."

Got Chlorine?

The Roc is taking swimming lessons. Today, he put his face in the water and held it there for a good 10 seconds.

"Wow, you can hold your breath a long time," I told him when he got out of the pool.

The Roc laughed.

"I wasn't holding my breath!" he said.