Pee in the Park

Yesterday my son peed in a park sandbox with four girls in it and two more nearby.  That was after sand was flung, and he started wailing about an eyeful of sand from Vivian.  I made the kids leave the park.  My friend has one child (who is female and got an unanticipated view of my son's private area), and she asked me if I ever marvel at the things that I didn't think to say NOT to do.  I fervently agreed and said that most recently it never occurred to me to say, "Now kids, should you ever find a dead animal, don't hold it and pet it."  Olivia ran to me one morning to explain that all three of the little ones, one of whom should have certainly known better, they were cuddling and petting a dead chipmunk missing some of its middle.  Yuck!!!  What in the world were they thinking?  Gross.

Evelyn is my lover of the great outdoors.  We planted a little $2.99 grocery store tomato plant near our new patio as an experiment.  In our last house we never got tomato plants to produce.  This plant grew into a tomato jungle.  Henry even stepped on part of it early in the season and snapped a vine to the ground.  It didn't matter.  The plant took over the whole area, and it spread almost all the way across the sidewalk.  Evelyn goes out there, peeks around, and brings in gorgeous big tomatoes.  We have really enjoyed them.  I just wish I had used a cage to maintain some order.

Little Vivian is a mud magnet.  Areas of our yard are without grass, and Robbie is trying to get grass seed to germinate.  He keeps it watered, and the messes Vivian makes are astounding.  She migrates to those areas and cakes clods of dirt on her shoes.  I gave her a butter knife and told her to scrape them clean.  I'm on the verge of teaching her to use a wet mop on the mudroom floor tile too.  That's the natural consequence of making things dirty.  We must then make them clean again.