no children were harmed in the creation of this story

a common joke among my friends is that I've engendered my own preschool.  somehow that becomes an especially ubiquitous perception when we have an extra friend along for the ride. today the fourth member of our band of girls, our close friends' daughter Alma, spend the day with us.

with the rain and some scheduling madness, we whiled away part of the morning doing errands at Target.  at many points all four of them were scrunched up in the shopping cart together (by choice--we are not child abusers here!).  they made up three separate variations on peekaboo and hide-and-seek as we wheeled through the aisles, placing intended purchases on the metal shelf under the basket where they sat.  at times one or more of the friends would disembark on a quest to see something up close (75% of the time that thing involved Tiana).  but as readily as they spun apart, they drew back together, showing, sharing, laughing, explaining, inventing.

we wheeled back toward the parking lot still in our cart, blinking at the rain.  when we hit the raised dots on the cement in front of the store the cart gave a series of staccato bounces.  the girls giggled harder and harder until we hit the final climatic bump.  for a second it looked like they actually cleared their seats.