Last week was April vacation week. The big event was Astrid getting her braces on Thursday. Whoopee! I need to plan vacations better. There are so many places I want to visit, but I always think we’ll do it “sometime.” The problem is that most of our vacation time and money goes to visiting my family in Chicago. I really want Astrid to know her grandma (and aunt and uncles, etc), and since they don’t visit us, we have to go there. But especially now that she’s getting older, I also want her to experience more of the world. It’s a conundrum.
Anyway, other than getting her braces, I think she had a good time last week. She saw the movie “Bears” with Eliot, ate a lot of Easter candy, watched the marathon, went to the playground, visited Harvard’s Natural History Museum, saw “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” at the Wheelock Theater, had pancakes at the diner twice, went to Mt. Auburn cemetery with her friend Grace, learned to play chess, toured the Louisa May Alcott house, picnicked at Walden Pond, ate a big ice cream cone with sprinkles, went to the Institute of Contemporary Art, and had time to just play and write stories and read. Of course that wasn’t enough and on Sunday, she wanted to do one last fun thing before school started again. We had plans to go kayaking with her friend, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so Astrid asked if we could go bowling. Eliot didn’t want to take a chance of hurting his back and wasn’t feeling well, so he decided to stay home. I had a headache and was feeling out of sorts, too, but finally after grocery shopping and other errands, Astrid and I set off to Jillian’s down the street on Landsdowne. For some reason, it was packed; there was an hour to an hour-and-a-half wait. Astrid asked if we could play pool while we waited, but I saw the opportunity to squeeze in another errand, so I said no, we’d go to Coolidge Corner and come back. We walked back home, got the car, and drove to Coolidge Corner. We still had time, so we went in to Brookline Booksmith to browse. I was feeling grumpier and grumpier and just wanted to go home. When Astrid saw a book she wanted, I told her I’d buy it for her instead of spending the money on bowling. She thought about it and said no, she’d rather go bowling. On our way out, we passed a display of markers. Astrid picked up this pink one and said, “It’s melon! I’ve never seen a melon pen.” I tried again, “I’ll buy you the book and the pen instead of bowling.” She said no. I said, “You’ll have the book forever. Bowling will be over in an hour.” She said, “But I’ll always have the memory of bowling.” Good Lord! Here I was being grumpy instead of making happy memories with my sweetie pie. We drove back to Jillian’s where we were told it would still be another 40 minutes. I apparently had not learned my lesson because “I’m not sitting here for 40 minutes” was out of my mouth before I knew it. Astrid’s face fell and I kicked myself and said, “I know! We have the car. Let’s drive up by Copley and see if there’s a wait at King’s.” So we did and miraculously found a parking spot on the street and there was no wait and we bowled and made our memories. We took pictures of each other and laughed and Astrid won both games, which made her very happy, which made me very happy. My wise little sweetie pie.
