Play time

As temperatures here in the lovely Washington area rocketed into the high 80s and low 90s in May and basically have stayed there, I've learned that whatever I do with Veeka, it's important she keep her princess-like cool. Thus, I am fast discovering every park and swim hole within 100 miles. Three weekends ago, we headed to a local water park. Now THAT was a good idea. Lots of wet stuff to splash in, lots of cool slides to go down and tubes to float in. We will try another local one this weekend.
Our love of water came after a bad experience at Glen Echo, a place in Maryland along the Potomac River where I used to go as a little girl. Back in those days, they had a pool. Well, no more. We went one Sunday morning and about wilted in the zillion-degree heat. The only thing that kept Veeka going was the carousel (pictured here) which she rode on twice. With Veeka, anything that combines music and motion is sure to be a winner.
Life continues apace as Veeka learns important lessons, such as How To Lick A Popsicle. I forget when and how I learned this lesson, but be forewarned, one must teach a little one exactly how to get all that ice cream down her gullet without leaving much of it on the floor or on the kitty. After one unhappy experiment with a chocolate popsicle that melted too fast, I decided to get ice cream that stayed within a cone. This turned out much better. She adored placing her tongue on the ice cream and actually having some of it stick to her mouth. Wheee! If she licked too slowly, Mommy would grab her cone and slurp up the rapidly dripping sweet stuff. Thus, Veeka learned that if she wanted to retain her dessert at all, she'd better lick fast.
Then I had to teach her that one needs to EAT the cone. Hmmmm. This was a new experience. I finally got her to try this by breaking off pieces of the cone and placing them in *my* mouth and saying, "Yum! Yum!" Soon Veeka was gingerly licking the cone as well. She learned that if she imbibed too slowly, Mommy would eat everything.
By this time, we have learned that it's best to experiment in controlled conditions. Mommy learned the hard way last week when she took Veeka to Starbucks. While her mother gets an iced cafe latte, Veeka gets her own carton of chocolate milk. As Veeka watched, two other little girls sipped from *their* cartons with much aplomb. Veeka followed suit, leaving her mother to assume that once in the car seat, she would professionally down the whole carton.
Well, she dispatched the milk all right - right into the base of the car seat. About 20 minutes later, her mother lifted up a wet child to find enormous puddles of chocolate milk just sitting in two hard-to-reach areas of the seat. Fortunately Mommy had a pile of napkins sitting there from a venture to Cosi's the night before soooo, fwump, fwump, fwump - all those napkins got shoved into the car seat crevices to soak up the wet stuff.
Veeka thought all that was pretty funny. She's already planning what do to when handed her first milk shake.