Trying to Beat the Heat

This won't be a post about sick or hurt kids, however, I will take this opportunity to complain once again about the DC heat. I hate the month of August. I never really enjoyed it, but the heat here is insane.

What makes it the most difficult is going anywhere in the afternoons after the girls wake up from their naps. The car gets so hot that the seatbelt straps burn their legs. Plus, they are just drenched in sweat by the time we get anywhere.

But it's not fun to stay inside either, so yesterday after Hadley and Harper woke up, we ventured out to the mall. I figured we could walk around a bit, play in the indoor park, and let off some energy before dinner.

One of Hadley's latest questions now when we get in the car is, "Do we need to drive on 270?" (Yes, she knows the number to the highway.) She doesn't like 270 because we drive too fast and her seatbelt gets tight (that's her explanation). Hadley does not like going fast at all. She doesn't like it when the car goes over bumps or anything that prevents the car from going smoothly. However, we are frequently on 270 so the answer is usually, "Yes." To this Hadley says, "How about we just walk?" This is an important little piece of anecdotal information for later on in this entry.

Anyway, when we got to the mall, I want to make sure we got a spot in the shade. So I parked here:

And the mall is over here:


That's alright, it was worth every step to not have to enter into an oven on our return.

So we looked around in a few stores to see if there was anything we had to have until we came upon the first little playground thing. I stopped the stroller so Hadley could check it out.

This is the point in the story where the information regarding Hadley's issue with 270 comes in handy. After climbing in all the locomotives, plus Clifford the Big Red Dog (I'm not sure why he was there among the helicopter, spaceship, car, and police car), Hadley asks, "Hey do these things move?" I told her that yes, they move, but I wasn't sure she was going to like it.
"I want to try it." she says.
"Hadley, I really don't think you're going to like it."
"Do they go really fast?" she asks.
"No."
"Will I go up in the air?"
"No."
"I really want to try it, Mama."
"OK." I say. Here's what happened:





Later, we went to a little merry-go-round that was very cute. Hadley liked climbing all over it, but she made it very clear she did not want it moving.


Meanwhile, Harper had a great time riding around in the stroller, watching Hadley play, and playing with her new favorite toy, the diaper wipes:




It was a nice little outing. I wondered as I strolled the girls around yesterday afternoon, if these trips would be the easiest trips we'd make to the mall. I think that in a few years I might be wishing for the days when I had to lug the stroller out of the car, and sit and watch the girls as they run around. Instead of Hadley begging me to let her ride on the helicopter, she's going to be begging me to buy her a pair of skinny jeans (Oh, please let those things go out of style by the time the girls are in middle school. They are so ugly!)