(I'm done now, I just decided. From now on, I shall just refer to L as my mentally-taxing delight.)
An offshoot is that while she used to devote most of her car attention to her sister, she now dotes on her little brother. Their sibling bond is strengthening in E's absence, and that's good for each of them.
They create little games and entertain each other wildly. L has been asking for the windows to be down, and in this mild weather, we've been driving in our private wind tunnel. Even today and yesterday when it drizzled, we drove with the windows down. It's so rare here in the DC area that the weather is neither hot nor cold, and goodness knows my car could use airing out.
Tonight L spied a water bottle on the seat next to me and asked for a sip. It was nearly full so I handed it to her with a word of caution. Not long after, I heard them taking turns blowing the bottle like a trumpet. They were both giggling exuberantly so I thought little of it and drove listening to the melodies of their happiness--
--until we got home. I parked the car in the garage and we got sweet little G out of his seat and he was soaked, as in drenched, as in all the fabric of his clothing was matted against his skin like it had been glued. Either L had poured the water bottle on him to empty it so they could play trumpet, or he had poured it on himself and then they had decided to play trumpet. I asked L, even though I know that she does not make a reliable witness.
It's the rain, Mama! It rained on him that much. It had barely drizzled on the way home. It would be more accurate to say we drove through a light mist.
It's okay, though, because I totally counted that as his bath tonight.
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