Inducing a Whole Lot of Nuttin'

Yesterday was Free Day at the South Bay Botanical Gardens. We met up with our good friends. We stayed a while in the Children's Garden. Alynna found a little puddle of dirty rain water and decided to use a flattened stem like a make-up brush and paint her face. She wasn't too dirty, but it was kind of a gross picture of her painting her eyelids with this water and stem. As you can see she was very proud of herself.

We met up with a homeschooling group and walked down to the duck pond. We stayed there for a good hour or so? I got a kick out of seeing our ample amount of children seeming to invade the park. They stayed very busy climbing trees, searching for small lizards, and I don't even know what else. They stayed busy, that's all I can say. Alynna was wearing socks and crocks. She decided to wade a bit into the pond. That didn't work too well, because the crocks are full of holes. She ended up with socks so disgusting that I just threw them away when we got home.

We later walked back up to the entrance for a different garden. I didn't want to walk way beyond my limit, but I was inspired to walk a good amount. I hear it's a good way to induce labor. When we finally got to this particular garden I was ready for a nap. I could have curled up into the fetal position (if I can still fold into myself... I'm not sure about that) and taken a nap in the dirt path in front of everyone. I gave Kaeley a five-minute warning before we began walking out of the park. Well, about half an hour later we actually did start walking out of the park. :)

Before we left Alynna, a girl who loves being part of nature I suppose, had a blast playing in a bird bath with her friend Oliver. They were squealing with laughter over something. We could see that they were safe, but couldn't see clearly what they were doing. Whatever they were doing it was dirty! Alynna walked around the corner saying, "Mommy, I need a wipe." That girl had mud in her hair, on her face, on her clothes, and smeared on her hands!

We ended up being at the gardens for four hours. It was a good four hours. It was beautiful weather and fun being around friends. I came home to do three loads of laundry and lots of cleaning. I thought, "If this doesn't induce labor tonight nothing will!"

So... nothing will. That incredibly physically taxing day induced nothing but a super sore body and about four hours of sleep. It was a rough morning.

Today? I did no walking. Tomorrow? Maybe I'll walk down the street and back again.