Tuesday 8/13/24
Lot to account for, little of it is going to happen right now, because there's so much to fit in and I have to move.
Kids and my sister arrived yesterday. I met them at their hotel at Copley. My buddy wouldn't even say hello to me! Most of the day she wouldn't even talk to me. We walked to Newbury Street for lunch after they got settled in and changed, then down to the Public Garden. The girls wanted to ride the Swan Boats so for the second time in just over a year, we did that. Then we went to the Common and the kids rode the carousel and played at the playground.
They sort of pick at each other, a lot, the older kids. Lilah is really sweet. She's shy, but she's not shy with me anymore. She wants to tell me things and of course I take a real interest. The boy, Charlie, will be eleven in November, and he's at that point where he's becoming a bit less of a boy I guess you might say.
It was funny because when they were getting ready to head out up in the hotel room--it takes them forever to be ready--Charlie was trying to show Lilah the Bunker Hill Monument which was way out in the distance. If you didn't know what it looked like ahead of time it'd be hard to see it with someone trying to point it out to you. He knew all about a bunch of things with me and that I do, which was mildly surprising to me.
My buddy is an odd duck. Brassy, feisty, often rude, quick to throw hands (she will clock her siblings), but also very contemplative. She'll be staring into the distance for minutes at a time, lost in her thoughts.
One time I asked her, "What are you thinking?" That's a question I've always asked people I like, because I want to know. She looked at me, shrugged, smiled, and said, "I don't know."
I took them all the way back to the hotel. Amelia had asked me if I would watch her swim. What was I going to say? No?
Their mom had to go off somewhere in the hotel to exchange a key or check on their status with the dining room there for dinner and the two older kids didn't want to wait to go swimming. Amelia is locked in on her mother. She gets this very worried look when her mom is just out of sight, even if her siblings are right there with her.
So I asked her, "Do you want to go with mom, or do you want to come swimming and I'll help you get your Swimmies on?"
She starts thinking. She thinks some more. She puts her finger to her lips, thinking harder. Sort of starts to smile. Looks me over.
I say, "Hey, if you want to swim right now, that's your only option. It'll be fine. I promise."
Thus the pool it was. The two older kids go straight in and then it was this whole thing with Amelia. She has to take off her wrap, then the shoes, everything in a certain, slow-moving order. I hold up the Swimmies thing--it's like this vest--and she puts her arms through, then I turn her around so I can buckle it in the back.
"Okay? You good? Ready to swim?" I ask.
And you know what this kid does? She yells at me for having sat on her swimming goggles!
I kept an eye on her until my sister got there, then they all swam for like an hour. There was nothing for me to do, so I read Hegel, having brought a book with me.
Finally Amelia and her mom got out, I said I think I'll take off, and my sister goes, "Say bye to Colin, we'll see him tomorrow," and my buddy--oh, the betrayal--says, "No, I don't want to see him." What the hell, lady? I thought we were buddies?
This was pretty late for me to be out, frankly, but I went to Trader Joe's on the way home, which I had put off doing over the weekend because I knew I'd be right in the area soon anyway.
I have to hustle and run stairs now because I think I'm taking them to the Children's Museum.
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