Still Weird

We have family friends who are moving to Mississippi in the new few weeks so the girls, my mom and I headed to their house to visit and say goodbye. This family has girls the same age as my girls so it was a perfect fit when we met back when Alyssa and their older daughter, J were starting kindergarten. It was such a perfect fit that I picked up J and took her to school most days during that year.

One thing we love about this family is that they’re as weird as we are. Seriously, they really are. I won’t tell you the ways in which they are weird, because, duh, that’s their story to tell but suffice it to say that this mom and I bonded all those years ago over the weirdness of ourselves and our beautiful, wonderful, WEIRD kids.

The four girls started out playing with water balloons and squirt guns. They had a blast drenching each other.

Once they were all chilled to the bone we headed to the backyard where they played in the warm breeze and warmed up/dried off.

While the little girls were happy to play on the swings and kick a ball back and forth, the bigger girls soon got bored and asked if they could go inside.

After watching the littler girls play, we adults also got bored (and hot) and headed inside too, where we found Alyssa and J playing Scattergories. We (my mom, B, and I) joined them in the game. We were seated in a such a way that we could see Olivia and A playing outside. They’d moved from kicking the ball to playing in the sandbox.

At one point, Olivia came in to find us and use the bathroom. She washed her hands and called from the bathroom that her feet were really dirty.

J went to the bathroom and turned on the water in the bathtub so Olivia could wash her feet.

Uh oh.

Once that water was running into the bathtub, Olivia wouldn’t be stopped (okay, she could have been stopped but…) She told us all that her face was dirty. I told her to go use the sink and wash it. She asked how she was supposed to do that.

I cupped my hands together and mimed splashing water on my face.

She sighed and said, “But how can I wash my face in the bathtub? I need to get in it and if I do that my clothes will get dirty.”

I saw exactly what she was getting at and told her, “Livie! You are not taking a bath! We are not at home, we’re visiting friends and you’re not taking a bath.”

At this point, B (the mom) piped up with a grin, “Why not? I know I always take a bath when I visit friends.”

I shook my head and stifled my laughter.

Olivia looked quite cheerful at B’s comment, she took it as permission to bathe. She trotted off to the bathroom and commenced getting nude.

I followed her in the bathroom and continued to tell her that she wasn’t taking a bath. She informed me that B had said she could. B again called out that is really was fine and not a big deal at all if Olivia wanted to take a bath.

How many friends do you have that would barely blink an eye at your child stripping and bathing during a mid-afternoon visit? At this point, I’d say I have two. B and Julie, who both know Olivia well enough to not think a thing of her doing just this.

So sad for Olivia that Julie is in Indianapolis and B is moving her family to Mississippi. In a few weeks, the only place Liv is going to be able to bathe freely is at home. Poor dear.

B laughed about the whole thing and said, “I’m just glad that my kids have competition for being the weirdest kids in the area.”

I appreciated her humor and her ability to embrace the weird.