Dear Diary . . . day by day

Wednesday, August 9th - The Lost Girls
I took today off to spend with Kaylei and Kiera. David has them on Wednesdays, and this week they were heading up to the botanical gardens in Tilden. Ahhh, slightly ordered nature, away from traffic noise and computers. I also haven't seen the girls much lately, and it's getting near the end of summer. Lydia is waiting for the court decision, but if it's like last summer, the girls go back to Arizona. I don't want that to happen, but I'll take time now to see the girls, just in case.
I was ready by 10am, the time David and I agreed upon. I got a phone call about 20 minutes after 10. It's David, "I just thought I'd let you know - it's going to be awhile."
He's starting to sound pissy by the third time he calls. "Kaylei wanted to take a quick shower, so I said ok, but then Kiera got in there with them and they're playing and it's been a half an hour and they know we're running late."
"David, honey, you've just got to get firm with them. Knock on the door and sound stern and let them know . . ."
"Yeah, I'm almost there, I'm almost angry enough to stop being Mr. Nice Guy to them."
"David, don't let it get to that point - get a hold of yourself and do it while you're still under control. But let them hear some of your pissyness - you're always so nice to them, they'll take notice. You've given them too much carrot - time to show the stick."
They all arrived two and a half hours late. Kiera was barefoot, carrying her shoes. "Kiera needs to borrow socks." David informed me. He went out to check the garden.
"Kiera - here's some socks, put them on." I then went on talking to Kaylei a bit about Burning Man, stopping when I needed to interject, "Kiera, next sock." or "Ok, now the other shoe Kiera." I just treated her as if she was truly forgetting what she was doing in the middle of it - it's like Kiera's behind a fog bank sometimes, and she loses herself in it. I tried to give direct orders, frequently, to maintain outside contact. Later she was walking arm-and-arm with me. Kaylei's the affectionate one.
I allowed them to take my stuffed animals - a beanie duck, a beanie goose, and my stuffed rabbit, Mr. Carrot Feet. Kaylei is rather fond of Mr. Carrot Feet (who has pads shaped like carrots), so he was "hers". When I handed her the duck (Kiera already had the goose) Kiera relieved her sister of it, saying, "You have mammals, I have fowl."
At the Botanical Gardens We strolled along under trees. We hung over wooden bridge after wooden bridge, spotting crawdads (total count: 13). The girls took advantage of a path that came near the water to skip across the stream to pick ripe raspberries on the other side (and fight over who got which ones and how many - Holly, it reminds me of us). I noted what manzantia looks like (not at all what I thought), and tried to find the plants that went with each sign. There are different sections of the park, such as redwood forest, pacific coast, southern desert, sierran highlands - all from California. The creek winds back until you feel out of the gardens, and just then you're stopped by a fence streching over the creek and up both sides. It's a lovely park, and it was a nice day to be outside. I really needed that dose of nature. We followed a path up the creek banks and then up stone paths which climbed steeply in the sun.
Later, in the car, I overheard them playing, giving the stuffed animals funny voices:
"Let's play a game! Shall we play hide and seek?"
"No - too boring."
"Let's play laying eggs!"
"What's laying eggs?"
"It's when you sit until you lay an egg, and the person with the most eggs wins."
"That sounds fine. Ok, let's play."
There was silence and humming as the animals worked on their eggs. Then I heard, sotto voce:
"You're going to lose, you know, because you're a rabbit."
"Oh . . . oh, darn!"
David and I dropped the girls off at 2pm. We hung out for a bit, then he went home.
Around 6:30 David calls me - and we head over to offer comfort because Lydia just found out she lost the girls.
They're leaving Monday.
Exercise log:
Double duty: lifted weights at lunch - chest and triceps. Yoga with my friend, Michelle, from work.
Writing log:

I'm currently reading:
Welcome, Chaos by Kate Wilhelm, which I'm enjoying quite a lot.
oh so slowly:
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

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