Sammy and I go on “dates” on Wednesday evenings when Dave is in class. Usually we take his mountain bike over to the beach park and go for a ride, then stop at Kalapawai for a dessert treat. Last time we had NutterButters. This time when we walked in he went straight for them – he never eats candy nor picks it off a shelf at the market, and has not been exposed to the wrappers, so I was a bit surprised he recognized them! He must really file away the good stuff in a special place in his brain with instant retrieval access – the sweets go in there! But I suggested we try Reeses PB cups. He has had those in Coldstone treats so his eyes totally lit up when he saw them! The picture above is biking back to the truck from Kalapawai. I brought my sleek, stylish, chic headlamp with me so we could use it. I put it on then he wanted it on. It has a red light setting for night vision…. think Alias (a TV series we enjoyed) and all the mischief one can get into with a sleek night-vision headlamp… So here he is with his headlamp on – you can see the outline of the cheeks!

In other news, Sam has another earache in the other ear now, so we have a doctor appt this morning. Maybe leftover from the one we just got over. I don’t know. He’s never had them before so this is lots of fun. Ear drops were not so enjoyable but we persisted and he complied so nicely, being brave and not screaming. Afterwards he lies still so the drops have a chance to work and he just quivers his lower lip saying “but I want my BAAA-AAAAFFF!” in a shaky little voice. Such a little buddy. Dan – we watch the rotating pictures in the digital frame while he lies still with his drops in his ear. It’s fun to guess which one will come up next. Thanks again for that present (side note – mom even took it to a family relation who was in his last weeks and put it in his room with pictures of his family and special gatherings – it meant a lot to him and all who visited).

So when I ask Sammy what people do when they go on a “date” – because mommy and daddy go on “dates” when his babysitters come over – he said they go to the playground, or go on the mountain bike. Too cute! I told him when you go on a date, you do something special with someone you love. It could be the playground with mommy, or mountain biking, or a trail run, or dinner…

Wednesday evenings are fun in other ways, too…after Sam goes to bed around 8pm a girlfriend or two shows up on my deck, drink in hand, for giggles, chatting, mischief, games, you never know. So I came out from putting Sam down and peeked out to the deck to see who was there 🙂 I found Dana scarfing down some food after yoga so we started chatting…then we heard the latch on the gate open. I sneaked over and peered around the corner – two ladies, we’ll call them Anela and Leilani, were walking down the side walkway in their pj’s with pillows in hand. I immediately knew what was up! Earlier in the day I had mentioned 8pm-9pm was “off the grid” – meaning Dave isn’t around to observe, shake his head, or otherwise monitor our mischief. So my unnamed friend exclaimed – “OH! So we could have a pillow fight in our underwear?!” I’ve not had so much fun in a long time – it was hilarious! We really went at it – I’m actually a little sore today. There were even some blows to the head. Lots of raucous giggling – we were laughing so hard and couldn’t believe we were actually doing this. So – I wonder who will come next week and what they’ll be wearing? Or what weapons they’ll have in hand? I must be prepared for anything!!!! I love my girlfriends 🙂 (No there aren’t any pictures and I wasn’t even going to write it up but I don’t want to miss having a record of this when I’m 80 and wondering what I did for fun back in the day.) And a shout-out to all my girlfriends who would have gladly swung a pillow at me if they were here 🙂 – Anita, Jenni, Becca, Ang, Amy, April, Molly, Heather… Love you and miss you!