The Clouds, They Pour

Apparently our entire state was recently relocated to another hemisphere, and I never got the memo. Yes folks, the weather is less like New Jersey in summer than New Delhi in monsoon season. It has rained. And thundered. And rained. And poured. And drizzled. For three or four straight days now. And it's not supposed to let up anytime soon. We are stuck between a trough in the Midwest and a ridge over the Atlantic. This is so not a good thing during tropical weather season, but I will try to push thoughts of flooded basements out of my head for now, since, so far, the basement is not under water.

We drove down to Suzanne's house this morning for a playdate. At several points I thought about pulling over and waiting out the downpour, but the thought of semi trucks whizzing by me at close range was more frightening than driving with the trucks in low visibility. As a result Liam learned some words that I would prefer he not know, although Kevin swears those same words are in fact necessary to the vocabulary of any competent New Jersey motorist.

Ahem.

Liam put together this scene tonight:



According to him, this represents "The Turnpike in rain. And rush hour. It's a mess. The frogs swim there so they can watch the loud trucks." Now, I did not see any upside-down sheep or tigers on the roads this morning, but I am pretty sure I saw some frogs and ducks. And one "sideways truck." Give the kid a little leeway for artistic effect, and you've got the basic idea of our drive.

However, we did make it down in one piece, and were only a few minutes late. Despite being quieter than the proverbial clam, Liam obviously had a great time. And so did I. I picked up some summer reading ideas, and found out I'm not the only person feeling guilty about shopping at discount stores after reading this. The kids amused themselves with trains and cars, and Liam learned the names of several planets from Sean, who has a way cool solar system floor puzzle. I may have to buy one of those. Perhaps I'll let my son play with it...

The rain let up a bit on the way home, which was good since Liam insisted we had to look for trucks that had letters spelling "Sean and Allie" on their back doors. Amazingly, we saw two of those trucks I conveniently misspelled "Penske" and "Ryder" a couple of times. This afternoon Liam made up a song about Sean and Allie, along with full percussion line best performed on an empty oatmeal box.



The Sean and Allie Anthem - sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Sean and Allie are my friends,
Sean and Allie are my friends,
They have trucks,
And they have cars,
They have trucks!
And lots of cars!
They have a fun puzzle,
And a fire engine, too!

Suzanne is their Mommy,
Suzanne is their Mommy,
She is nice,
She is nice,
She is very really fun!
Suzanne is their Mommy,
Suzanne is their Mommy!

And there you have it - a fun playdate described in a meter-challenged but heartfelt song. Thanks for the playdate, Mimilou family!