In Out

"I'm a very restless person. I'm always doing something. The creative process never stops. "- Oscar de la Renta

Wherever we aren't, that's where the child wants to be.  If we are in the basement, she wants to be upstairs (or upsteps as she calls it).  If we are upstairs she wants to be outside (or in-inside, as she says).  If we are outside, she wants to be at the park.  And if we're at the park, she wants all the comforts of home to be there, too, and every single time, she sits at the picnic tables and asks me for a hot dog, even if it's 9 am.

It's a sort of Restless Toddler Syndrome, and I think it comes from being in a house where there's so much to do all the time.  Occasionally I futilely try to get her to stick to one thing for awhile, but it usually ends in tears.  Really, my best hope is to find something new for us to do in the room we're currently in, and that works for awhile. 

But most of the time I just strap on my shoes, and hers, and follow.  Sometimes we will restlessly cycle back to the thing I wanted her to do after another twenty minutes or so.  And besides, my plans for our day, loose though they inevitably are, are usually not all that important anyway.  So I let it go, and we go hunting for smooth rocks in the garden, or draw lines with the sidewalk chalk, or "clean up" the "mess" in the sidewalk gutters again. I follow her lead.

Fine, kid.  Out of the pool.