A Present For Sarah

Dad wanted to know what to get Sarah for her 1st birthday. I told him that I had discussed this at length with Sarah, and she would quite like some bricks laid down between my side door and my shed. Dad, for some reason still unknown to me, decided that Sarah would appreciate something else instead. I suggested a swing set, and emailed him a photo of the one I had in mind. Again, concern was expressed by both Dad and Dan about whether or not this would be an appropriate gift for a one year old. Here is my reasoning: Because Sarah is our third baby, we have every toy under the sun already for her to play with. What she really wants is "quality time" with me and Dan. That's kind of hard to wrap up and stick a bow on it. A play structure would entertain the twins leaving Dan and I free to play with our littlest baby.

So, Dad bought a play structure. None of us have the skill to assemble this thing which boasts on the box "It takes two people 10-12 hours to build". Had Dan and I tackled it, we'd still be working on sorting the wood!

Tullio "volunteered" his two assistants, Peter and Cody. They are only 18 years old but highly skilled. Peter complained the entire time, mostly about how stupid the instructions were and that he could have done a better job designing and then building his own creation. At one point, I was inside the house looking at Peter assembling the "tree house". I said to Dan, "He's not doing it right". Dan said that I couldn't possibly know whether Peter was doing it right or not. Within seconds, Peter leaped up, threw the instructions and some tools on to the ground, and started yelling at Cody. Turns out that I was right. I was glad the twins weren't around to hear the language!

In the end, Peter and Cody did an excellent job, despite the "adjustments" I wanted them to make. They moved the play structure a couple of times until I found the perfect spot to put it. Then Cody moved my lilac bush too!

I was quite pleased and wanted a picture of Peter and Cody on the play structure. I ask Big Sarah (who is quite attractive) to bat her eyelashes and get the boys to pose. She refused. So I asked Peter and Cody to have their picture taken. They tried to (politely) decline. That's when Big Sarah stood in the doorway of my house and bellowed "Just let her take the damned picture! And smile, too!". They did as they were instructed. Here is the result:


PS. The twins absolutely adore this play structure. Sarah is happy because she is getting more time outside, and more time to enjoy the baby play structure without two 3 year olds knocking her over!