I had a call early this evening from Lil Miss’s mother. She wanted to know if I still had the little baby pool that I had for Lil Miss from 4 years ago so Lil Miss could use it. Sorry but I don’t save disposable baby pools for 4 years. Then she said that Lil Miss wanted to talk to me for a minute. Lil Miss wanted to know what my phone number was. She said she had gotten an address book and was writing down her Grandma’s phone numbers so she could call Grandma Diane and me when she was in Maryland with me in July. I didn’t bother asking why she would be calling me when she would be with me in Maryland. Some things are best left alone if you know what I mean. Then the real reason for calling came out. Seems that her dad is out of town this week for work so she wanted to come over for a bit. I didn’t mind and actually looked forward to it. She still has money to spend from last Saturday’s yard sale so I suggested we go shopping for a pool for her after dinner. It was off to Meijers for a pool with the depth of 2 feet. If you have ever been in a Meijers you know they shove a balloon in the face of every kid that walks through the door to pacify the kid so mom can shop. Tonight was no exception. After we purchased her pool and got in the Pathfinder I opened up the sunroof. Lil Miss looked at me and said “Can I give my balloon to Pop Pop Les, I miss him.” (Pop Pop Les is my stepfather who passed away a couple of years ago and Lil Miss still talks about him frequently). I told her sure she could give her balloon to Pop Pop. So she released her balloon and watched it go up through the sunroof into the evening sky. As the balloon climbed higher and higher into the clouds Lil Miss looked over at me and said “I’m sending my balloon to Heaven so Pop Pop Les will get it and know I am thinking about him and I miss him. “ I have to admit tears welled up in my eyes at that point. Now here is the weird thing. After we watched the balloon disappear into heaven I turned on the car radio as we drove off. You’ll never guess what song was playing on the radio. “Say Hello To Heaven” off the Temple of the Dog CD.

When we got home from the store Lil Miss decided she was going to weed my veggie garden for me. I am ashamed to admit that it has more weeds than veggie plants. She did a damned fine job though. I tell you I should have had her out there from the start. There wouldn’t be a weed in sight now if I had. There is nothing like some good child labor to make a garden thrive.

I let her have all the rocks she could find out of the garden though. I thought it was a good trade. I get a weeded garden and she gets a pile of rocks. I even let her use the garden hose to wash the dirt off of the rocks. I’m all heart! Hell, I even let her have an onion out of the garden! Like I said, all heart.

Since I had gotten some cheap child labor out of her the least I could do was let her pick some of my day lilies when she asked. I was sure to caution her that they would “go to sleep” and close up when the sun went completely down, but not to throw them away because they would wake up in the morning and open. That little girl listens to every word I say because when I took her home at 10pm I heard her tell her Grandma Diane not to throw them away, that they weren’t dead, just sleeping and they would wake up in the morning.

Prior to taking her home though me made a detour by Baskin Robbins for ice creams. I’d like to say we did it for her, but to be honest she was just my excuse for a scoop of rocky road. That’s the great thing about kids. You can say you are going to McDonalds or Baskin Robbins because they are begging you to, when in reality you are the one who begged them to say they wanted it just so you can get your junk food fix. Damn I love kids! Cheap child labor and a convenient excuse to eat junk food.