Happy adoption day, AwesomeCloud!

Today is our one-year adoption day anniversary. I was going to write a comprehensive retrospective, but I have two reasons not to. One, I haven't felt like writing all week. Or being at all social. Two, we had such a lovely, perfect morning that I'll write about that instead.

It started with me waking up to appetite-killing nausea and a sink full of dirty dishes. No, that's not the perfect part. The forecast said windy with a chance of rain, so AwesomeCloud and I did the only thing that made sense. We went to the cool new playground up the street. It's specially designed for disabled children, with ramps leading up into the structures, shallow slides, and accessories that spin and toot within wheelchair's reach. The side benefit is, it's a wonderland for toddlers who have trouble with steep stairs or ladders and are intimidated by older-kid slides.

The place is usually crawling with toddlers, but today was windy with a chance of rain. So we were the only ones there. It was paradise. A whole huge playground all to ourselves, without the huge crowd jostling him and getting in his way.

After a while, a grandmother and grandson showed up. The other little boy, who was smaller but slightly more verbal than Cloud, avoided AwesomeCloud and played by himself at first. But AwesomeCloud decided to change that. He went up to the kid and started playing with him. The kid pushed him and upset him a little, and the grandmother scolded him ineffectively - the kid was just being unfriendly, and that was that.

But Cloud kept working at him, little by little. And eventually, the kid warmed up. What might have finally changed his mind was that Cloud gestured to the slide that they both wanted to use.

The kid looked at me questioningly. (I'd been giving lots of verbal directions. The grandmother was a mostly quiet type, so somehow I became Teh Authoritay.)

"He wants you to go first," I explained.

The kid suddenly perked up. He slid first, and after that he was much more welcoming of AwesomeCloud's presence.

My kid knows how to make friends!!! Yay!

Then we went home, cleaned ourselves up a little bit, and went to O'ville center. We said hi to our friends the bank tellers, who let us play with some matchbox cars while we waited for our money. Then we ran up and down the post office ramp, yay. Then we went to the library, where there was - surprise - a storytime, and - surprise! - snacks! Cloud ate some snacks and sat thru one story. But I was hungry, having not eaten a thing all morning due to nausea, so we left. We went to the Cheese Shop and got a sandwich and chowder to go, saying hi to Brenda and Bill (and the employee, whose name I do not know) while we were there.

Then we drove to Hyannis Center and parked next to McDonald's. There are hardly any McDonald's on the Cape, and I had a coupon. So we got a fruit smoothie for Cloud and a free frappe for me, and then we strolled with our sandwich, chowder, and drinks to the park near the John F. Kennedy museum. We sat on the bench and ate our delicious lunch. Cloud hogged the clam chowder, like he always does, but I got a few bites at the end.

Then we went end-of-season souvenir shopping. We didn't buy anything. But we went into the vintage clothing consignment store, and it is incredible! Steampunk costumery, here we come! (We still didn't buy anything. I'll go back with my husband later and we can spend some time assembling costumes together.)

We also saw a Duck Tour vehicle up close and personal. Cloud was enraptured by it. It was full of tourists, waiting to start their tour. We let them practice waving at us. It passed us later on, after the tour had commenced, and we got waved at again.

It's important to wave at tourists on a Duck Tours tour. When they're in that thing, they feel like they ought to be waving. And if we wave back, they'll feel like the locals are friendly and they'll want to come back.

I hereby vow to wave at every Duck Tour that passes me while I'm walking. I don't actually work in the tourism industry, but I should do my part somehow.

Then we went back to the car. I won't tell you what we did next. But I will tell you that it's Rick's birthday today, and that has something to do with it.

It's naptime now. When Cloud wakes up and Rick gets home, we'll go out to eat. Chinese, of course. :)