the outing without

So Erin and John, the industrious members of the family, have someplace to be monday through friday, every week. The rest of us are clearly slackers. John and Erin can go off to their respective important such and suches and we'll continue our typical weekly schedule of parks and friends and general frivolity, even though it feels strange to do these things with one girl missing.

The twins and I met up with my friend Diana and her boys who are 2.5 and 4.5 years. Corwin is just a few months younger than Erin, but enough of a difference that he waits until next year to start kindergarten. He was confused about why we were without his favorite companion at our play date. He missed her and I missed her too.

His younger brother Julian is a real ladies man, lemme tell ya. He was constantly holding someones hand, hugging, putting his arm around one or both girls. "Every guy wants to date twins," John explained, "He's just getting started younger than most." Note to self: loose Diana's address and phone number in about 10 years.



We strolled to their neighborhood park, had some fun there, then walked to a little plaza of businesses to have some lunch. A firetruck was parked there and all of the kids were fascinated. The fireman inside stepped out of the truck, opened various doors so the kids could see everything, showed them some equipment, passed out little badge stickers, and was generally nice beyond the call of duty. But he didn't like it when I reminded the girls to "thank the fireman for the stickers."

"We're not called firemen anymore. There are women, so we're 'firefighters'," he stressed.
"Yeah, but, YOU, specifically, are a fireMAN."
"But maybe you shouldn't teach your daughters to say that."
Oh, good grief. Don't call men "men" girls, who knows what will happen. In fact, what are you girls doing out of the kitchen in the first place? With shoes on, no less!