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Waterlemon

This morning bright and early a neighbor friend of mine called with a big problem. Her two-year old was so sick, she was dehydrated and needed to be taken to the ER for intravenous fluids. She asked if I could watch her other three daughters for her. Sure! Absolutely! We all know what it is like to need care for your kids in an emergency. I'm glad to be in a position to help out!



She brought her kids over and flew out in a hurry. As luck would have it, some group on post was having an "Organizational Day" right behind our house. Those used to be called "Mandatory Fun Day" when we were first in the military. We walked back there to see what was going 0n. Lo and behold, they had two giant inflatable toys back there. One was a giant slide and one was a giant obstacle course. I took all the girls back there and we crashed the party, uninvited. The girls had a great time, and I let them go through the line as many times as they wanted until they were hot and tired and ready to go inside.



When we got back to the house, my friends four-year old said to me, "I want some lemon." I told her, "I don't have any lemons, honey, I'm sorry." She looked at me and said, "But I saw a lemon." I walked into the kitchen with her and she pointed at the large green object on the counter.



"That's a watermelon." I told her. "I want some materwelon" she said. "We'll have watermelon for desert after lunch," I reply.

All through the morning, she asked me for lemon. I kept reminding her that we have to eat lunch first, but we would have watermelon later.

I made hot dogs for lunch, because it was the only thing I had enough of to feed that many kids. I didn't have any kid friendly food like chips for a side dish though. So I decided to make popcorn. Most kids like it and I can make a bunch in a pot on the stove.

The four year old liked popcorn. She liked it so much she didn't eat any hot dog, just popcorn. "Can I have lemon now?" she asked. I told her she needed to have something besides popcorn for lunch before we could have the watermelon. She informed me she doesn't like hot dogs so I made her a peanut butter sandwich.

As soon as she was done, she pulled me into the kitchen. "I want some lemon," she told me. So I got ready to cut up the watermelon. "Is that green?" she asked me. "Yes, it's green on the outside, and it's red on the inside," I said. "I just want to eat the green part," she said. "The green part will give you a tummy ache," I told her. I sliced open the watermelon and cut off a juicy bite and handed it to her. "Try this," I said. She took a little nibble and said, "I don't like it." Then she popped it into the trash can and went back to watch the movie.

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