A visit in the country

Umm, is it OK for her to do that?

Through the lens of my camera, I watched Grace run through the freshly-mowed grass. At some point her pants had come off and she had shucked her sandals for Cinderella slippers which did not slow her down one bit as she got to the cattle gate.

Quicker than a blink of my shutter, she clambered up the gate, fake glass slippers clacking as she went. I turned my head to Olivia and said, "Umm, is it OK for her to do that?"

"Well, probably not," Olivia said in a tone of voice I have come to recognize as Olivia thinking on her feet. She does a wonderful job of not squashing Grace's natural desire to see and do everything, even if everything could result in a broken arm. Olivia finds ways to bring Grace back to earth without taking away the magic.

Grace is two and a half. She definitely is pushing against all boundaries. Instructions to do something very often meet resistance. I asked Olivia if their family is experiencing what you always hear of as The Terrible 2s."

She laughed and conceded that Grace doesn't always take no for an answer. Olivia prefers to think of this time as the Teachable 2s. Everything is a lesson. Never does Olivia say "because I said so." She explains what she wants Grace to do and finds ways to get her spirited little girl to buy in to what Mommy thinks needs to be done. I think her success rate is pretty high. There are meltdowns, of course, that defy logic and explanation. Most of the time those blustery storms blow up and away and Grace is on her way to whatever is next.

What I enjoyed the most about spending some at-home time with them over the weekend was being part of the family dynamic. It was lovely.

Most of the time.

Kenny and I brought our four dogs with us to visit Olivia, Webb and Grace. They have a new Golden Retriever pup, Jeb. At best, our waking hours were managed chaos. Jeb wanted to play with all of the dogs. Two of our dogs wanted to eat him. One of our dogs barked every time Jeb flinched. And if Jeb was not in the room, then the dog would bark at Webb.

"Never again," Kenny said as he tossed a pillow at the barking dog as two other dogs shot by the sofa. "I mean it. Never again."

He doesn't mean it. We'll do it again and again and again. We just may bring muzzles.