Gigi's "water boots" are perfect for puddles

We went to sleep SO late last night. Before Rich left, he told Aidan he could use his recliner and his spot in the bed while he's gone. Aidan made a comfy little nest in the recliner last night, fluffed up with several pillows and a warm throw, some juice and grapes arranged on the side table. I let him watch a movie and we finally made it to bed close to midnight. Then he wanted to chat. How cute is that? We talked about the stray cat, Chuckie, who comes to our window and cries at night. Aidan was very concerned that Chuckie is homeless and he had lots of questions about the whys and hows. We talked about our upcoming trip and all of the relatives he will meet (very confusing). He then got interested in calling out the numbers on the digital alarm clock (about every one minute.) "Look, Gigi, now it says 1-2-4-9." Yes, that's 12:49 and we really should get to sleep! It was so sweet, though, and I wanted to enjoy those moments rather than shushing him and telling him it was too late. Hopefully, when he's a hormonal teenager and is angry at everyone, he will have happy memories of his visit to Unalaska when he was 6. :)

He also found my rainboots (the yellow bees AND the navy blue whales) and wanted to know if he could wear them today. He lined both sets up in the bedroom last night so they were ready. This morning, he mulled over which pair to choose and settled on the bees. I thought he just wanted to play in them, but no, he wanted to wear them to go with me to work. We got up early, despite going to bed late, and went to work in the morning instead of the afternoon since I was determined to get the newsletter finished and into today's mail. I convinced him to bring his tennis shoes along because he might not want to wear the boots all day. They were really cute on him, if huge! I can't believe he could actually walk in them without tripping. We got to work and he hung out with me for a little while, then asked if he could go to the babysitter's. Yes, he wanted to wear the boots over there, too, though I did talk him into carrying the tennis shoes. Luckily the sitter makes the kids take their shoes off in the house!

It took me all day to get the newsletter FINALLY FINALIZED--I am used to feeling pretty competent at a job but this was very frustrating and I was feeling a little stupid, though it's just a learning process, I suppose. I picked Aidan up at the sitter's (where he reported having lots of fun with his friends again) and he had to wear the boots to go to the library to return his dvds and check out some more. I got the distinct feeling that people were looking at us and thinking, "oh, that poor little boy has to wear boots 6 sizes too big for him."

He was excited to see how many puddles were left in the yard and on the sidewalk when we reached home. After doing some of his learning programs, I let him go outside for awhile, where he got as wet and dirty as possible in the yellow boots and then traded them for the whales. He was quite pleased that both pair were "filthy" by the end. I did not manage to get any photos of him outside but here he is, posing in the living room last night.

He wanted to know if he could take the boots home but I said maybe we should look for some that fit him better. I explained that I didn't think that there were any with designs on them here, but maybe we could find some in New Jersey. He could not imagine that there wouldn't be a store in Unalaska carrying such cool boots and wanted to know where I got mine. This led into a big discussion about the pleasures of online shopping. Yesterday Lauren was wearing her Xtra Tuffs when we went up in the hills so I told him he could get some like that here and he was having none of it. :)

As often as it rains in West Texas, there's not much point in buying "water boots" but how can I resist?!