"This is an exciting day! We get to have new experiences!"
     ~Bug, while waiting for the tow truck to arrive

Sometimes it's nice to have a four year old around to remind you that joy can be found in experiencing something new and exciting, even if the event isn't necessarily happy or pleasant in itself. That certainly proved true for last week. The fun began when Grandma arrived to help with the girls while I had minor surgery (Everything went well, and I'm recovering nicely.) The girls were fascinated by the idea that the doctor was going to open me up to fix something inside, and they were very eager to examine my incisions once I was up for company (they even left me in peace to sleep off the anesthesia!). Of course, with Grandma around they also got to do fun things like read lots of books, build impressive block towers, play at the mall playspace, eat lunch in the food court, and go swimming in the neighborhood pool. That last event also involved the excitement of leaping from the pool in terror at an earsplitting crack of thunder immediately followed by a torrential downpour.

Earlier in the week, we learned that Great Aunt A passed away, and the girls had their first experience of losing a loved one. When I gently reminded the girls that this meant we wouldn't see Great Aunt A again, I was immediately corrected: "No, Mommy! We'll get to see her again in heaven! Remember?" They knew she had been sick, and they were excited about the prospect of getting to see her again once God made her all better. Having that conversation with the girls made me very thankful that Daddy and I intentionally chose not to shelter our preschoolers from the concept of death. (I never told them the squished frog on the road was just sleepring, and rather than surreptitiously replace the deceased goldfish, we had a funeral in the back yard.)

The memorial service for Great Aunt A was scheduled for the weekend, so we all packed up and went to "help cheer up Uncle K" and "celebrate Great Aunt A." The celebration of Great Aunt A began by meeting all the "friendly strangers" who also loved her (her sisters and neighbors). I was very proud of the girls for how well they handled a house full of new people and for their ability to introduce themselves when asked to.  On Friday night, we got to witness/participate in a candlelight vigil on the lake where Uncle K lives. Monkey and Bug got to take turns going out in the canoe with Daddy (a highly popular new experience) before the vigil itself started, but we let just the grown ups take to the water while we stayed on the dock with a set of candles for the vigil itself. Being a trio of little kids, of course, the entourage pieced together that any celebration involves extra desserts, and it didn't take them long to locate an assortment of cookies to choose from once everyone came back inside. On Saturday, Daddy attended the memorial service, while the girls and I stayed in the family room but rejoined everyone for the reception. Uncle K had put together a wonderful slide of show of pictures from Great Aunt A's life, which the girls got particularly excited about once photos with Daddy and I and then the girls started appearing.

We headed home on Sunday, but at Bug's request we made a stop downtown first. She remembered that this city was a fairly large one, and she asked if we could go walk around and see the skyscrapers up close. We found street parking near a big plaza with fountains and statues of kids playing. The girls had a blast running around for a bit, and Goose was mesmerized by the fountain. The girls loved craning their necks back to try to see the tops of the buildings. We walked a couple of blocks, teaching the girls how to properly follow the crosswalk rules  (something they've never encountered before), and found a great little literary-themed park with some landscaping, sculptures, and fountains, and walkways with quotes and word games engraved in them. Their first experience of "a real city" was a huge sucess that had Bug creating her own skyscrapers out of playdough later in the week.

We left the city intending to drive the couple of hours home to arrive mid-afternoon. Then, shortly afer lunch, the car's warning ligts started flickering. Fortunately, we were able to get to a gas station before the car quit working altogether. I handled keeping the girls occupied while Daddy got in touch with our insurance's road-side assistance. For the girls this was absolutely thrilling--they got to see the tow truck arrive, watch him load up our car (a fascinating process), and then (the real highlight) we all got to ride in the tow truck to the car place! The adventure continued when they couldn't/wouldn't fix the car that evening, and we spent our third night in a hotel. The next day we made it all the way home by lunchtime.

They loved being tucked in all together in the hotel beds!