Hmmmm, what WAS it? I know there was something I wanted to do today. Oh, right—I wanted to unpack some more boxes. But here’s the thing: Annalie thinks unpacking is boring. She’s excited about helping for a minute or two and then she wants to move on to the next thing.

And I freely admit that Annalie is not the only one who was spoiled by Gramaw over the past couple of months. Sure, Annalie got used to always having an adult paying attention to her and it might take her a little while before she is happy to play on her own more often. But I got used to always having another adult around too!

I did open a box and try to arrange some stuff in the kitchen but I kept having to interrupt what I was doing to make breakfast, find a coloring book, pour a glass of milk, go upstairs and turn on Zoboomafoo, make a snack, etc. Sometime before lunch I gave up and asked Annalie if she wanted to play outside.

We found the blue wading pool in the garage. It was a little squashed, a little dirty, with a couple of cracks in it. We scrubbed it down and plastered packing tape over the cracks on the bottom and it worked just fine.

I sat in the shade with my Diet Coke and read my book while Annalie splashed and messed with the hose. I felt a bit guilty at first for not being inside industriously unwrapping and organizing all our stuff. But as I watched Annalie play and giggle, I let my guilt evaporate in the summer sun. She won’t be four and carefree forever, easily pleased by an hour in a cheap wading pool with an old plastic cup. We might as well make the most of it while we can.

And anyway I have a friend coming to visit this weekend and she’s going to help us unpack! Do I win hostess of the year for that, or what? At least I can offer her fresh-squeezed lemonade while she works.

Or maybe we’ll just sit around and let the kids play in the wading pool. That would be fine by me too.