It's also more challenging being downtown because we have to keep Carmen's spirit within the *rules* of society...which she is happy to follow, but we can *feel* the difference between being with her under society's constraints vs. being with her FREE spirit in our home, where we have no rules, only *principles* that we live by.
We spent the first part of the morning popping pop beads and talking. Carmen told us all about Peru and their upcoming trip. She said she was going to learn all of the languages of Peru! We talked about speaking Spanish and I told her that I only speak it *un poco*. She asked, "Why?" (For the first time, but it would turn out to be the first of a zillion times that day...!). I told her that I didn't have a Mama who spoke Spanish, I just learned a little bit of it in school. She PROUDLY told me that HER Mama DOES speak Spanish!
Carmen and Jake and I put all of the same color pop beads together and then made ONE long necklace, which Carmen wanted to wear with me!!
And then she requested a photo of just *her* in the VERY long necklace!
Off to the library. OH! First...when we were getting Carmen's coat and umbrella around at Da'Vida to go to the library, I forgot what I said, but Carmen said, "I can't CONCEIVE of that!"
:)
Sam and I walked to the library in normal big-people time, and Jake and Carmen walked in 3 year old time, getting there about 10 minutes after we did! They played games every step of the way, as Jake respectfully follows Carmen's pace and thoughts and ideas.
We couldn't read in the normal room with the pillows because there was a storytime going on there for babies. After listening to that storytime, I was so thankful for my unique storytime that is open to ALL ages and is like a wonderful little community...and thankful that my kids never tolerated the typical library program, which always just felt humiliating to them, and not world-expanding in any way.
Off to the Latte' Lounge, where Carmen and Jake arrived 10 minutes later than Sam and I again! Carmen was very excited to tell me ALL that happened on the way there...how Jake carried BOTH of the umbrellas and how he picked her up to push the button so they could walk across the street, and how she HOPPED over a puddle!
Jake told me that Carmen had informed him that the lamp-post that the stop light is on was fixed. NOTHING gets past this child!!
It's fun at the Latte' Lounge, as Carmen's like a celebrity there...and even when people don't know her, they smile at us because there we are, having a real conversation with a 3 year old...and that's so foreign to so many people (not to my family, though!...and certainly not to Carmen's!).
Since Sam was with us, we decided to go to the Butterfly Conservatory that recently opened in Oneonta. We had never been, and when we asked Carmen if she wanted to go, she was very excited about it, as she had been there before.
She loved the fish.
She had enough after a few minutes and so Jake and I took turns playing with her outside while the other ones got to explore the conservatory more. Sam really loved the place, as did Jake, and I wanted to make sure they got all the time there that they had wanted.
There's a room in between the gift shop and the actual conservatory with mirrors so that you can check and see if you have any butterflies on you before you leave! Carmen spotted her numerous reflections and kept saying, "Look at all the Carmens!!"
After Sam and Jake were ready to leave, and Carmen and I were finished searching for *Miss Mary Mack* outside (and after we dropped Carmen off, we actually SAW her!!...there was a woman and a man walking down the street ALL DRESSED IN BLACK BLACK BLACK!!), we went back to Da'Vida to meet Carmen's Papa and her brother, Lucas. We got there earlier than we had thought, and Jake had ONE book with him...so we read it...you guessed it...FOUR times. Carmen loved the book, and Jake and I took turns reading it (at Carmen's request). I suggested that Jake get the markers and paper and color with Carmen...and he and Carmen went to the back of the store to do that, and Sam and I actually dozed off for a minute or two on that cozy Da'Vida couch.
Adios, Carmen! Hasta Mañana!!
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