A VISIT TO THE COMPOUND

Zoe and I headed north for The Compound this past weekend to visit my family. Why do we call it the The Compound, you ask? Within approximately a two mile radius live my parents, both of my sisters and a cousin. There's also my cousin's kids scattered about and, soon, my sister's kids. I recall that when my family first moved there when I was in second grade, I felt so left out of the small, tight-knit community because the majority of kids were related in some way and had lived there most of their lives. My nieces and nephews will be spared those feelings. They can't throw a stone without hitting a relative these days (not that they are into pegging their relatives with blunt objects)!

Zoe and I made the trek by ourselves since Daddy had to work. We left Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. I was a little leery of making the trip by myself since Zoe is at the age when being restrained in a car seat is about as popular as taking a nap. Fortunately, she was asleep three minutes after we got in the car and woke up 15 minutes before we reached our destination. Unfortunately, after a short waking-up period, she remembered that Honey and Papa's place is a blast and sleep was the furthest thing from her mind at 10 p.m.! I did manage to get her back to sleep, but not until she had played with every last toy in the living room and then fought with me like a WWE wrestler until the exhaustion finally overtook her at midnight.

With morning came Zoe's insistence to go "OUT!" At Honey and Papa's, that means she either wants to swing or go in the pool. Usually the latter of the two options. Since none of us felt like a dip in the pool at 7 a.m., Zoe had to settle for getting stripped down and dipped in the pool (literally) by her Aunt Shawn. She thought it was a hoot and it satisfied her for a bit. I'm going to skip posting that picture for in lieu of a more G-rated version. Here's Zoe enjoying her kiddy pool later that day.

We also got to check out my sister Shane's new child care center, which she's planning to open in September. She's been providing child care for over 21 years out of her home. This new venture has been a dream of hers for quite a while and, though she's had her share of set-backs (including a huge tree uprooted by a storm and deposited across her newly seeded playground, an oops-I forgot-to-tell-you fire marshall, and a drunk-with-power building inspector), she's taken it all in stride. I have every confidence that it will be a great success. Besides, Zoe gave the place her stamp of approval. She squealed as she jetted from one toy to the next and let out a big wail when it was time to leave. It's a sure winner!

I forgot to mention the main reason we made the journey. My brother-in-law, Bill, won a essay contest sponsored by Edy's ice cream. The prize was an ice cream party for 60 people. Zoe NEVER passes up a chance to eat ice cream. It was big news in our small town, so the local newspaper was even there. Maybe I'll post the write-up. Anyway, here's the goods...

and here's some of the partiers. Notice Zoe and her shades. Once again, being the center of attention went to her head.

Zoe loved her chance to play with all the big kids. Here she is helping to mix up a batch of plastic food.

And here she is sampling it.

Hanging with the big kids works up quite an appetite, so my sister Shane threw together an impromptu meal for the hungry bunch.

Not long before the above picture was taken, Zoe experienced her first and, hopefully, last hornet sting. The girls were taking turns pushing her on the swing when a few hornets got peeved that their lazy Saturday was being disturbed. Since Zoe was the one moving the most, I guess that made her the target. She got stung on her leg and hand. She handled it amazingly well and once we covered the bites in a baking soda mixture, she was ready to head out to the swings again. NO, I didn't let her...but she was more than willing to take on a few more hornets to get the chance to sail through the air. She's a trooper!

Zoe and I will be heading back to my parents, sans Daddy once again, over Labor Day... so stay tuned for more adventures.

Take care,
Zoe's mama