Life Lessons and Pirates

(Keira on her fake plastic remote that looks like an iPhone)

This weekend was Harbor Days here in my neck of the wood. Dan had a booth there for his business so we decided to head over for a visit and to check out the festivities.

We started with the intention of going on Saturday, but ended up going clothes shopping for Keira instead with Auntie Lorraine at the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. As we were getting ready, Keira decided to put some powder on Amelia. I guess Life Lesson #1 is that most dogs don't like to have make up on. She ran around the house rubbing her face on the carpet frantically then ran off and hid in the backyard and decided to dig a huge hole in the grass. Perhaps trying to hide so that no one would see her with makeup on? Who knows! Keira is getting to be such a tall beanpole now and we had to get her size 3/3T clothes! Shes still very slim, so the perfect size waist wise is 2T, but they usually end up being floods now, so I have to get her 3/3T clothes hopefully with adjustable waists.
We were finally able to make it to Harbor Days on Sunday. After church, Keira and I got changed and headed to the transit station where you could park and take a shuttle to the Harbor. This was definitely going to be the best way to go since there are thousands of people that show up! Life Lesson #2...as soon as you are able to carry less things do it!!! I stopped carrying a diaper bag months ago and now Keira carries around her little Hello Kitty backpack with some wipes, a couple of pulls ups just in case, a change of clothing and a book. Hey! They are her things, so why SHOULDN'T she carry them? LOL Actually, she does con me into carrying it sometimes as well too. Anyway, after somehow carrying her with her backpack and the stroller, we made it on the shuttle.

It was very fun! It was a pirate theme and there were lots of pirates walking around handing things out to the kids like gold coins, beads, stickers and tattoos! Jack Sparrow gave Keira a skull lollypop which of course was her favorite thing. They had tons of vendor booths there and we found Dan to show him all of Keira's loot. We watched a Pirate Ship take off and at the Pirate's cove where they were making balloon swords for the kids and giving them their own pirate names. Keira was named "Killer Kay" the pirate. LOL She got to wear her little pirate certificate, played with sword for a while and got and gave lots of "AAAARRRRRRRRHHHH"s until she just pooped out. Life Lesson #3- Even Killers have to take naps sometimes!

The booth right next to Dan sold those mini guitars and wrestler masks! I bought Keira her own little pink guitar to play. Unfortunately it doesn't really tune and doesn't play well...oh well, she enjoys strumming it and pretending to sing. I guess that is what is important. We also got Max a Nacho Libre mask. He LOOOOOOOVES that movie! We sent Max a picture on my cell with a little sound byte of Keira saying "NAAAAAAACCCCHHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Gigi sent me a text back saying that they kept playing it over and over laughing.

Well, on the way back to the Shuttle, I had a bit of a dilemma. Keira was now napping, I had a stroller and a few bags. There was a line of people waiting for the shuttle and just as we were all getting ready to get on. It was a mixed bag of people...Old people, young people, couples, families, people that were dressed as pirates, people that looked like they would be the equivalent of modern day pirates (in other words...like street people). As the shuttle approached, I started trying to get everything together. I was carrying Keira, still asleep with one hand, carrying bags in that same hand and trying to fold up her stroller with the other. It was a mess and although I never like to portray myself as a damsel in distress, I was pretty horrified about the fact that there was a line of all of these people standing there watching me struggle and not offering to help. If anything many of them seemed more annoyed that I might cause a delay in them getting on the shuttle even though I had gotten out of the way specifically not to slow things down. Next thing you know as I was struggling still and trying not to wake Keira up, when I hear "Did you need some help?" It was a couple that looked street people. I said "Yes! Thank you!" The lady took my bags and the guy helped me fold up the stroller. They put it on the shuttle and made their way to their seats. When we got to our destination, they grabbed my things and carried them off the shuttle for me and even helped me open the stroller. I was reaching in my pocket to see if I had any cash to give them for helping me out and the guy stopped me. "When you do nice things for people, it always comes back to you!" They smiled and off they went. This by far was probably the best lesson of all that has always kind of been a cliche, but now I see as so very true. Life Lesson #4- NEVER judge a book by it's cover.