One day this week Wayne showed up at work with the terrible news that our car would not go in reverse or change gears very easily. After consulting with my dad, Wayne headed off to the local mechanic expecting to need a new clutch (or whatever the automatic transmission equivalent is). But he quickly returned home. The mechanic could not duplicate our problem.
Remember when you were in school and you had a question so you called the TA over? By the time the TA got there and you started explaining your problem, you answered your own question before they could say a word.
Isn't that just the way of things?
Unfortunately, we didn't solve our own problem. Sometimes we start the car and things are fine. Other times we can't reverse (flintstone driving, anyone?). But Dad helped us find an additive to put in our transmission fluid that might help. Perhaps it is already, it's hard to say. Sometimes if we can't reverse, turning the car off and back on resolves it. Mostly we just try and park where no reverse isn't a problem. Then, on Friday, we realized our oil was running low and added in a new brand of oil, to top it off. Since then, we haven't seen the problem at all. We should try and call Car-Talk and see what they have to say, because this is a puzzler.
In the meantime, Aderyn is all better now. Not only that, but she has learned to give us hugs (cuddling up and resting her head) and kisses (licking our cheeks). Such fun. She also lets go of us or the couch and lifts her hands in the air (so big!) and balances standing there for a few seconds before sitting down. Balls are the big thing right now, along with anything her older sister has (of course). In fact, Aderyn has a unique screech that she uses whenever Paela is pushing her down or taking something from her or generally blocking her way. She has another type of screech that means "I want that!" which usually means she wants the water in our cup (she is getting pretty good at drinking from a cup) or the bath (a 180 from her first six months of bath/shower hating). When she wants me or Wayne, she babbles "mamamamamama" while crawling over. Aderyn also likes to rush over when anyone sits at the table, hoping for some table scraps. All this cuteness helps compensate for the annoying nursing semi-strike she's putting me through this week.
Paela helped us make soap, so now she doesn't mind being reminded to wash her hands after she powders her nose. Lets hope that novelty lasts for a bit. Paela has had fun language development advances, which Wayne wrote about here. And she enjoyed Water Country on Friday, our local version of Schlitterbahn. She practiced floating in the pool, holding on to the sides, and went down a few of the kid slides. She tried to enjoy the "beach" (aka wave pool) but the waves were off for the half hour we waited. Who knows why.
But now we can truly appreciate Schlitterbahn. There was just less to do in general at Water Country, and the kids' areas had height restrictions on the slides so we couldn't go down with Paela. This meant she could only do the slides she was willing to do on her own. Very restricting. I know that this rule is intended to keep the bigger kids from overrunning the little kid area, but honestly it just tells me the slides were designed wrong if that would be a problem without their rule and the lifeguards enforcing it. More slides for the little kids, please. And less things that spray kids in the face without their permission. Please. Yes, please.
And I walked away with a sunburn. When will I ever learn? If I should not apply my own sunblock to my back the first time, I should not trust myself to reapply my own sunblock. Because just like last year, the wretched burn is just exactly where my fingertips could not reach. Even though I thought I'd reached the whole area all three times I "reapplied". In my defense, I kind of think it was also a problem with the spray-on sunblock I was using, since it was running out and sometimes didn't spray anything out even though it sounded like it did. Either way, please remind me never to (re)apply my own sunblock. Sigh.
Today we made jam. And our pot died in the middle of it. A little teflon in the jam won't hurt us, right?
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