The kidlets' school district is winding down for the year. As such, there are a number of different activities they are trying to cram into a rapidly narrowing window of time. Today was the first day that Rooster, along with all the other kindergartners, was let out around lunchtime so that next year's crew of kindergartners could come in and have an orientation of sorts. The other grade levels all followed their normal full-day schedules.
After getting some Mommy/Rooster alone time, which doesn't happen very often for my poor middle child, we returned to the school to pick Pig Jr. up from his preschool class. The preschoolers let out close to an hour before the rest of the school, so we wandered over to the park that is adjacent to the school. My hope was that Rooster and Pig Jr. would run amok and wear themselves out so they would sleep well tonight and actually let Pig and I sleep in tomorrow morning. (Hey, a mother can dream, can't she?)
I met up with another mother who had the same hope for her child. We gratefully watched the kidlets run wild, chasing each other all over the place, while we actually got some unexpected exercise of our own.
Another mother wandered over and wondered briefly why we were both standing instead of sitting on the lovely park bench right near us. She gave us questioning looks as she watched us twitch and flail wildly. Then she entered the swarm of bugs that decided that the adults at the park were highly attractive. Soon, all three of us were swatting, randomly stepping in different directions, fanning ourselves, and laughing our fool heads off over how ridiculous we looked trying to escape the ever-present gnats. None of the kidlets so much as even batted an eyelash over the bugs. It was just us moms.
Our assumption was that the torrential downpours of the spring, combined with the unseasonably hot weather, led to the perfect breeding scenario for millions of those little pests. They did not appear to bite, but they were quite inquisitive, and seemed to really want to explore any facial orifice they could penetrate. This led me to the conclusion that there are few things that creep me out as much as realizing there are a few gnats trying to spelunk up my nose or in my ear canals.
At least the other mothers and I were able to laugh about the insect invasion. We had our own bizarre little workouts going on while our kidlets continued to run about blissfully unaware of their suffering mothers. We had each other to verify that we were not merely attempting to dance badly. Our twitches and jumps were for an actual reason that was confirmed by the presence of two other adults who were also acting in the same manner. It wasn't all just in our heads! Well, technically, the insects were trying to get inside our heads, but that's not quite the same thing.
A few minutes earlier than was necessary, we all decided to head out to pick up our older children from school. We would gladly wait on the pavement or sidewalks the bugs were avoiding rather than sustain our massive twitching any longer. I can't speak for the other ladies, but I know I am trying to come up with a solution that will keep those flying beasties away from me for the rest of the school year.
There are still a few more days while I have to entertain Rooster and Pig Jr. for almost an hour while we wait to go pick up Horse, and I'd love to have them play at the park during those times. I just might attach a flyswatter to my belt loop and hope that I'm quick on the draw. Otherwise, it's quite likely that those little gnats will start their own travel agency with "Spelunking In Dragon's Mouth" as it's main attraction, and call it a hunch, but I'm fairly certain they wouldn't pay me a percentage of their sales either.
No comments:
Post a Comment