SaturdayatthePark

We started the day with breakfast and Arnold and Jane, ogled the arriving football crowds, made a brief detour by home (well, a theoretically brief detour, but apparently making a shopping list and finding a few pieces of clothing takes us an hour and a half), and then went to the park for a series of events, starting with a reunion of her preschool class, and continuing with Oktoberfest for her current school. This was pretty blissful for Opal, who got to spend a whole afternoon going back and forth between various sorts of playing. Also, she learned that if she went and played in the water and then looked pitiful and said she wanted a towel, other people's mothers would come and fetch me! "She said she wasn't sure you had a towel; I have some in the car" one of the other mothers said helpfully. I pointed out that Opal had in fact PACKED the towel, and knew exactly where it was and how to find it. On her third pass through the water, I sat nearby so she couldn't slander me, so she went off to get her towel and came back, towel-free, still covered in goosebumps (it was cool and windy) and said "Mama! There's an ice cream truck! Can I have $2 for a popsicle?" "No." "Why not?" "Because you are cold and insufficiently dressed and I am not paying to make you colder. Or to feed you yet more treats. You can have some ice cream at home in the warm after dinner." "Pinky swear?" "Pinky swear." (Paul couldn't believe I was willing to pinky swear.)

After 5 hours of this, I was worn out. I wasn't even successfully highly social, and I was Peopled Out. So I let Opal know that soon we would need to go home. She looked up at the bicycle we had brought ("I'm NOT riding it! I won't try it without training wheels." "Maybe somebody else will want to ride it.") and said "If you hold me up, I will try the bicycle." I convinced her to let Paul push (he runs better and is less fussed at having the bicycle run into him), and off they went. They didn't come back. I packed up most of our stuff and put it in the car. No Paul and Opal. I helped clean up a table and packed up the rest of our stuff, at which point I found them, bicycling among the skateboarders. Opal announced "I am PERFECTO!" Then when she went to show me, she ran into a wall, but it wasn't a bad accident and she went on to ride the bicycle about, trying to get the skateboarders to acknowledge her excellence, until I insisted on leaving. "OK, but I'm going to ride my bicycle until we get to the car park."

You better bet she's eating ice cream right now.

Read to Opal today: Nothing yet, but the night is young. She's read Sardine 4,Glister 1, and Little Beard and Big Beard.

The Running Book Count: 387 + 130 (last year 1170 + 121)