"Tweasure!" Said The Bad Pirate

"Tweasure!"  That's what both of them claimed!  Both Miss Lilly and Jay claimed they were pirates.   She said, "I'm a good pirate."  He said, "I'm a bad pirate, arrrrgh!"  and this 4 year old did the pirate stance, leg out, hand on hip, and wooden flower stick held high!

Ha, ha, ha, these two dirty urchins, toddlers, were playing in the dirt with me.  Earlier in the afternoon I'd been to Jay's house to help weed the west side.  Of course, he and his 1 y.o. sister came running out squealing "Pee-am!"  Sometimes they call me GwammyPee-am, and sometimes they shorten it.

With my bucket of shovels, gloves, and hand rake, he had to partake.  She, too - she wanted my "glubs".  He dug a hole which was fine, I worked along beside him while he became a boy.  Next thing I knew, he was complaining, "Ew."  There were bugs in his hole -- ants, aphids, and a worm, "Ew.  Worm's dead."

Then Jay wanted to go home with me.

Didn't we?  Remember playing so hard, and having so much fun you didn't want it to end, you wanted to go home with them.  So, we made a plan.  Mom would go to town and drop him off at where I'd be.

I'd be at Miss Lilly's house with Darling Hubby who was there laying block in her parents' cellar.

In my backseat was that bucket of stuff.  And I added a basket of Matchbox cars, and about 6 wooden flowers on sticks.  They were yellow and red and pink and had red lady bugs on the leaves.  They were old and faded having been outside for 2 or 3 summers in a row, which means they'd be disposable at this point -- fun for kids.  The cars were for teaching them to make roads in the dirt.  No need.  The toddlers created their own play in the dirt starting with digging for "Tweasure!"

Miss Lilly, "I'm digging for tweasure.  I'm a pirate."
Jay, "Arrrgh, that's what they say."
Miss Lilly, "I'm a pirate.  I'm a digging pirate."
Jay, "I'm a bad pirate."
Miss Lilly, "I'm a good pirate."

So be it.  They were pirates.  Miss Lilly, the girly child, said, "I found X!" and she stabbed the dirt with her shovel.  "Tweasure!"  She exclaimed.  I asked, "What's treasure?" and she handed me a rock. Next she told me the bucket was for treasure and filled it with more rocks and a stick and then amongst it all, planted a flower!  LOL!

Jay got brave and climbed the nearby dirt pile.  It was about 5 feet tall with a gentle grade, no danger whatsoever.  He climbed up willy-nilly.  More cautious was Miss Lilly.  She climbed gingerly, keeping her balance and footing, but boy, once at the top she said "X is for tweasure!"  and she stabbed the dirt with her yellow handled shovel and then bravely, on shaky legs, raised her hands to the sky.

Jay, right behind her, had no such problems.  He looked at the side closest to me, and because it had erosion, declared it to be a waterfall and promptly slid down on his butt.  At the bottom he relabeled it, "It's a swide".

We took a break from dirt play to watch the big boys play in dirt.  Miss Lilly's dad and Darling Hubby were using a mortar hoe shoving quikrete back and forth in a wheel barrel mixing it with sand and water.  "Ew" said the toddlers peering over the sides which for them was eye level.  "Ew", they said as gray wet specks splatted on their shirts, and arms.  But, it wasn't too ew, because they each insisted on taking a turn at manning the water hose.

More shovel slinging dirt, more digging holes to plant and replant flowers, more rock finding, and further attempts at sliding, filled the evening.  Jay slid down on his backside then Miss Lilly decided she could, too.  Back up he went, this time, he came down head first belly-side down!  That's a boy!

Jay was getting chilly, waiting on his ride home, so I grabbed a small green ragged towel to drape around his neck.  Immediately, he morphed into Superman!  He ran to the blue truck, then zipped to the trash tote, hid, then squealingly revealed himself and ran back up to the top of the mountain!  "I fast!"

But then Miss Lilly got called in for a bath.  Jay said, "I take showers. I'm a big boy."  We all needed showers!

Childs play.
That was my plan for the evening; to play right along with the children -- digging for "tweasure."
Shovels, and rakes, and "glubs", and pirates, the bad and the good.
"Arrrrgh!"  It's all good!