rudderless

Hot hot heat

It’s hot here. So very hot. Too hot to use most of the unshaded playgrounds around (I mean really, you’d think the Keys parents would organize protests about the lack of shaded playspaces in this sub-tropical part of the country. The slides burn their legs. The swings are unusable. Even the sand is burning hot. I don’t get it). We do quite a bit of swimming. And in Sophie’s case, we’re busy ditching the waterwings, moving into real big-kid territory.

Otherwise, we play on the boat. Today they lassoed each other with vent hose. We’ve gone through two batches of play-dough, which is always coupled with tiny plastic animal play. Elephants get blankets and life jackets and swimsuits. It’s amazing how far even Rosy can take an imaginary game when there’s crumbly (bane of my existence) dough involved. The newest game is “puppet show.” We made a half dozen drawings on characters from Sleeping Beauty and Sophie colored them in. Add some empty cereal boxes on the back and a few clothespins- voila! Instant puppet theater. The real thrill came when I got out the video camera and recorded the show.

Our days have a built-in siesta, thanks to Rosy’s midday sleep. Sophie gets to veg out to a show- Reading Rainbow is our current favorite. So educational and engaging, even for adults. Most of the episodes on DVD are ones my mom taped for us as kids. We play or swim in the afternoons and then make dinner. Once the sun goes down the bodies come out again. We ride bikes, walk the docks, take the dinghy for a spin. Our days in the hot hot heat. Not much to complain about besides . . .