All of the Fun, None of the Responsilbilty

We had a interesting family outing at Winter Island the other day. We walked around, looked at the boats in the harbor, saw the little fishes swimming around the dock, had a picnic in the camping area, and eventually walked along the little beach there. All was well until the twins decided to get a little adventuress. As usual, the twins worked out their ruse together. Lucy dropped her stuffed bunny, in order to keep her mother occupied. Ellie, in her father's care, was squirming in his grasp, so he put her down for a moment and turned to ask his wife a question. A second was all it took for Ellie to bolt sideways away from the group and ran into the water. Lucy did the same but ran the other direction. Seeing that there were four adults, we broke off into pairs to chase the little ones down. Ellie got in the water the farthest. She was in up to her armpits before Theresa ran into the freezing water to get her. Needless to say, both were soaked. Til fared little better, Lucy didn't get in as far as her sisiter, but still was pretty wet.

Both parents were soaked,shivering, and fuming. The twins were happy, giggling  and no worse for wear. And what were their grandparents doing while this was happening? Nothing but sitting on the beach, dry and laughing. Why? See the above title.

Outsmarted by Two Year Olds

The fact that I would get roped into going to kid-friendly places with the grandbabies was inevitable. Seeing that I was so opposed to going to Chuck E Cheese, Big T suggested that we all go to the Children's Museum in Boston instead. It wasn't that bad. The toddler section wasn't really museum-like at all, more like a big play area with all kinds of toys and things for lil' anklebiters to climb. Theresa and I sat around, not really looking after the kids, just chitchatting about books and TV to kill time. I discovered that I was wanted around  to look after the twins per se, but to be a companion to my step daughter, someone to keep her sane and entertained whilst navigating kiddieland. All in all, our outing was uneventful. Theresa dropped me off at my house and went home to feed the kids. And now the real fun began.

Fifteen minutes after I was dropped off, my cellphone rang. It was Theresa, sounding very odd, a little panicked. She said can you come over? Now? I dropped what I was doing and hightailed it over in four minutes flat. When pulling up I noticed two firetrucks and an equal number of police cars around her residence. Dread flooded my veins as I approached the building but as I got closer I noticed something funny. All of the emergency personal assembled were grinning, a few laughing, as they pointed at Theresa's car. Said parent was sitting on the hood of the car, her head in her hands, what could be seen of her face bright red from embarrassment. "What's wrong, Theresa? " She doesn't look at me, she just gestures resignedly behind her. I now saw the cause of the commotion. Elie and Lucy were in the front seats of the car, pretending to drive, pushing buttons on the dashboard, beeping the horn incessantly while waving to the firefighters. Apparently, while trying to get the kids out of the cars, Lucy distracted Theresa by dropping her pacifier on the ground. While diverted Ellie lifted the car keys out of Theresa's pocket. Unbeknownst to her, Theresa locked one of the doors and before she could get to the other side of the car, Ellie managed to close and lock the other door. Theresa, frantic at finding her kids locked in the car from the inside, did the only thing she could think to do, call the police. It took them thirty minutes to unlock the car. It took another day and a half to wipe the smile off my face and Grandpa is still laughing about it. Too funny.