Role play.

Hibiscus has put on the best show this year. I've had as many as five blooms in a single day. This morning Turner came charging into the bathroom to tell me the hibiscus, which he totally pronounces correctly, has four blooms. "It is beautiful Mom. So beautiful. Can't wait for you to see it." My mother has some beautiful flowers, but as a child I did not love the duty of standing in front of them. Thankfully, Turner is a much better sport.

The theme of summer vacation could be, at this point anyway, "Role Play." Most every sentence out of Turner's mouth begins with, "Pretend that..."

Today, we had a busy day. Not just of role playing, but a busy errand-running kind of day. I do not like them. Turner does not like them. Errands are necessary, but in this kind of heat they seem not just burdensome but almost ironic and comical. We seek solace in cheap, sweet treats: Eegee's frozen lemon ice (made with real lemons that Turner gets to spit out the window) and humungo chocolate chip cookies (that melt in the first five seconds, but never stop tasting good). Our errands today were: 1) Pick up keys at Andy's work (which actually meant we went to Andy's work, picked up some water, used the bathroom, visited a bit, got a new tooth toy, and left without the keys. Drive back, secure keys.) 2) Drop keys with Realtor and sign tons of paperwork. Get more depressed about housing market then remember money doesn't matter. We can make more. Turner eats his lunch and plays with the water cooler. 3) Pick up soccer uniforms in the middle of absolute nowhere. 4) Go to grocery. Be so so so thankful for summer fruit and how absolutely amazing it smells and tastes. I can't really even get home without some sticky goodness running down my chin. 5) Go to pharmacy. 6) Take groceries home and move all the junk we don't need into the car. Takes just an hour. 7) Take junk we don't need to Savers to be recycled for other folks who consistently buy junk they don't need. 8) Meet at soccer field and distribute uniforms. Mom says seven times, You're welcome. No problem. To all the other mothers who are glad they weren't saddled with soccer family team responsibilities.

Then go to gym. Then cook dinner. Then watch weird documentary about soap salesman.

The things we pretended today. 1) "Pretend that I am Puss the cat" (from Shrek. He wears cowboy boots, which Turner wore yesterday in 100 degree heat as though they were not scorching his legs and feet.) Puss the cat fights bad guys and woos them with his big, sympathetic eyes. Turner and I have practiced "the eyes" too many times. 2) "Pretend that I am a Bionicle, but I don't speak your language." This becomes several hours of Turner making funny noises and loud screaming sounds from the back seat as we run errands. Then he'll whisper to me the English translation and I try hard to sound interested in foreign worlds where people refuse to seek peace with one another, no matter how convincing my argument for peace is. "Yes Mom, I know that we should get along. But we are different people from different places and we all want to have this land." Yes, I'm familiar with the perils and promises of colonizaiton. 3) "Pretend that you are in a pet store picking out a new puppy." I walk around the kitchen opening each cabinet and detailing what I "see" and why this puppy is insufficient. Then I come across THE puppy. He has beautiful brown eyes. A nappy tuff of hair. A really happy face that makes me think we'll be life-long comrads. For the next thirty or so, the puppy wants to do "tricks" for goldfish. Then we take a nap. The puppy naps by playing a mysterious DS game. Thirty minutes on the dot, the puppy kisses my face and says, "I'm ready for you to play with me again."

Loving summer vacation. Three chapters drafted and one article nearly complete, by the way. Writing every single day and wishing it were over. Hello July vacation, can't wait.

Nanny and PaPa coming on Tuesday!