Today we went to Teardrop Park to play on the slide.

[conuly]

Lately Ana's been asking me to make a hopscotch grid every time we have a few minutes and a patch of sidewalk, so I made one but she didn't play. Instead I taught the game for a few minutes to a girl whose mother is from Canada. (I know because she said "grade two" instead of "second grade", but she also told me explicitly though it was really too late, I already knew.)

As I'm watching the kids, the woman jumps a little and mentions she saw a rat. A few minutes later some boys saw the rat. Then the woman sees the rat again. Then her daughter sees the rat. Then her son sees the rat, but he's only pretending. By now I'm staring all around to see if I can see this rat, but I never do. Various things happen, the boys attempt to chase the rat out of a bush. Rat, rat, rat.

And then Ana comes up to me.


"Connie! Connie! I saw a gerbil!"











(She totally saw the rat.)