Bean's Babbletorium: Houseguests

While I love my friends and will travel the world to see them, it's true that for the most part, I am usually the one who travels because mostly, my friends have kids and it's harder for them to get around.

This weekend, Meg came to visit with two of her four kids, Miles, 4, and Stella, 7 for a weekend with me and Miss Harlow. Initially, they were going to come on Valentine's Day weekend, but Miles got sick and evidently from her recent FB update, their February vacation was taken over by the bug;

"Some people went south for February Break, but we--get this--directed, produce and starred in our very own production of "The Barfcapades" and had a water feature INSIDE the house! Vacation Fun-----NAILED IT!!!!!"

The three of them arrived healthy and happy on Saturday morning. We took Stella to a friend's house for a birthday party and Miles, Meg and I continued on to grab some lunch, get in some clothes shopping and food shopping before heading back to pick Stella up from her party.

Back at my place, the kids, especially Miles, smothered Harlow with love (how exciting to have ball thrower and treat dispenser on the ready!).

With Meg's kids around there is no shortage of entertainment. Vivian and Sylvia, age 2, weren't with us, but Meg conveyed a story of how at gymnastics recently, Sylvia climbed up onto some mats (where there were cracks in between the mats), threw her arms out to either side and announced at the top of her lungs with sing-song delivery "I'm not afraid of the crackssssssss!"

At the same gym class, Miles ran off the mats to Meg, kissed her on her hand and told her "You can put THAT on your forehead!" before skipping back to gym class.

Miles is most definitely his own person. Meg has informed me that when he has trouble focusing, they've found the solution is singing requests to him. "He lives in a musical" Meg told me. And I witnessed it many times, like this one below, when Meg was encouraging Miles to get his coat on so we could get out of the car and do the food shopping...

The Miles Musical from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

Back at my place, the kids decorated some cupcakes before watching Despicable Me while I cooked dinner and Meg and I got to talk.

Stella's Cupcake Design MO from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

The evening was nice with a good meal and interesting conversation. Like when Miles exclaimed "I'm four and a half but I feel like I'm only four!" And everyone agreed that Stella was seven going on seventeen.

After dinner we were playing with some art supplies that Mom got the kids when Miles went to play with Harlow. Things got too rough when Miles laid on the floor and Harlow slowly sort of tried to grab the scuff of his neck. Poor Miles! He was scared of course but very brave. Fortunately, Harlow's reaction was a good one; she let go the minute Miles skreeched and then began licking his face as soon as she could get to him (we separated them immediately, of course). Miles had only a small scratch (thank you!) and it was only a few moments before Miles told Harlow through his tears "I forgive you Harwo. I wuv you Harwo!" And asking if Harlow could sleep with him that night, which was very sweet.

When I was a kid, Dad gave me a nature listening device, which I used as cool "spy gear". It was a gun-looking thing with a disk on the end which collected sound and brought it to your ears via headphones. Stella and I played with that for a little while. I made a code for her where I would read numbers to her (from a distance and only in whisper, of course) and she would use the chart I gave her to match the numbers I gave her with the letters they went with. Fun!

Stella the spy!

The next morning we enjoyed Meg's homemade soda bread for breakfast, watched Despicable Me 2, and went to the dog park with Harlow. It was a snowy mess basically, and the chaos made Stella a bit uncomfortable. I can't say I blame her. They three of them walked to the top of the hill to distance themselves from the dogs, and Miles took a seat. In dog poop.

Lunch back and my place and Stella completed a comic we were making together about the days' adventures.
And Miles vied for Harlow's affections. Sometimes successful, sometimes not...

Calling Harlow from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

It was a really great time and I loved being with Meg in a way that was a bit more long term than grabbing a meal. Now that they live in the Berkshires it's harder to see each other, but more of an adventure when we do too!

As they were leaving, Miles wrapped his arms around Harlow's neck and kissed her on the top of her head and told her "When you miss me, you can take that and put it on your nose and you'll remember!"

Now get out of my house, kid, before you make me cry.