Conversation with My Wife (163)
Fun with water. And a rubber ducky.
As some of you know, my wonderful wife excels at being Aunt Debbie.
Her very favorite Aunt Debbie mode is enjoyed with young ones under ten years old. Currently that’s our grand-niece, Mikaela, age five, although we have a grand-nephew on the bench who just turned three months (and is safely quarantined for the time being, of course). Mikaela’s mother (Deb’s sister’s daughter) is working from home during the Trump Pandemic, but trying to get work done AND look after an active¹ child is a bit much, so Deb has been going over there to help until (someday, hopefully) daycare restarts or kindergarten opens.
DEB: Would it be okay if I bring her over here some days, Jackster? Their place isn’t big, to begin with, and [Mikaela’s mom] has to work from the kitchen table so there’s no way to play inside and not disturb her.
ME: Sure, honey! (like I’m going to thwart Aunt Debbie?)
So you know kids and water, right? And we have an artificial stream in our backyard. Where would any right-minded kid go? And then you give them a rubber ducky…
So we float a rubber ducky down the stream. Several times. And sometimes the ducky gets stuck, so we rescue the ducky, right? And OOOOPS! Sometimes (okay, almost every time) the rescuer falls down and gets wet!
And then wetter, the next time.
And then basically soaked. Fortunately, it was a warm day.
MIKAELA: Unca Jack! Guess what! I’m wet!
Uncle Jack is old and needs to be told these things.
ME: Ummm, do I need to get towels, or something?
DEB: Old ones, honey!
And did you know that, if you say just the right magic words and gesture just the right way and put enough heart into it, YOU CAN STOP THE WATER FLOWING BY MAGIC? True story. Had to be magic, nobody was next to any switches or anything.²
Also the same sequence will restart the water.
And stop it.
And start it.
And…
DEB: I’m so glad we did this honey! And so glad I brought a change of clothing³. But I’m thinking next time a swimsuit makes more sense. And I’m so glad we let [our across-the-street neighbor’s kids] play in this a couple weeks ago! If I hadn’t seen how much fun they had, I’d have been too worried about Mikaela slipping⁴ to let her have fun.
And that would have meant Aunt Debbie didn’t get to have her special fun.
¹I was going to say “hyper-active,” but… age five. Adding the “hyper-” part just feels redundant.
²No, the pumps were NOT on WiFi! The pump controllers are on WiFi. Vast difference. And not voice-linked to Siri, because no way was I going to open up that can of worms. So sometimes my phone took pictures, and sometimes my phone issued on/off commands through pre-set programming.
³NOT Aunt Debbie’s first rodeo.
⁴Mikaela did slip a couple times at places where it was really slippery. But never in the same place twice, and she was always careful in any spot where she had slipped or almost slipped. The kid is not stupid.
Copyright ©2020 by Jack Herlocker. All rights reserved, and no, you may NOT come over and play in our stream without asking first. Also, we can loan you a rubber ducky but prefer you bring your own.
