I left Reid and Aunt Karin in the breakfast room Tuesday morning as I dashed off to my conference. We decided if they were at waterfront at the end of the day, they’d meet me at the conference hotel. Aunt Karin was hoping to go to the beach or maybe the Ontario Science Centre.

After breakfast, Reid and Aunt Karin went back up to the room so that Reid could have a bath. Afterwards, Aunt Karin tried to get her to go out. Reid refused. They played and read in the room until finally Aunt Karin said Reid had to either go out for lunch or have a nap. Lunch it was. As they walked, many people were looking at Reid and smiling at her in her little sundress and shorts (thanks, Grandma Joyce). They ate lunch at an Italian restaurant. Reid chose penne. At the end, Reid’s face was covered and so was her pretty dress. Aunt Karin, being a resourceful woman, turned the dress inside out and put it back onto Reid. They got lots of smiles as they walked afterward and so it must have worked - or the people were laughing at the lady who didn’t know how to dress her kid. They stopped at a store to buy sand toys but Reid was not interested. Instead they chose Old MacDonald: A spin and sing story book and returned to the room. After their nap (I wish - had a nap) they played again for a while until Aunt Karin had to threaten another nap to get Reid to agree to leave the room again. Aunt Karin asked Reid what she wanted for supper and she answered “pasta”. They weren’t in the same neighbourhood and pasta wasn’t evident. Finally, they passed by a KFC/Taco Bell combination store and Reid noticed and asked for a taco. When Aunt Karin asked her if she wanted a soft or hard shell, Reid got a confused look on her face but when Aunt Karin said she was having a soft shell, Reid asked for a hard shell instead. I’m not sure I’ve ever given Reid a hard shell taco and doubt that she has had them at daycare. They wandered around the Eaton Centre and Reid conned Aunt Karin into buying her a new hat. If you’re keeping track, that’s one hat per trip over the last two trips. We still have the seven or eight hats Grandma Joyce made last summer and they still fit Reid. Reid is the Immelda Marcos of hats.

By the time I got done at my geek dinner (and it was fabulous!), Reid and Aunt Karin were once again back in the room. Aunt Karin told me the story of their day. She told me that she had drank the cup of camomille tea I’d forgotten. The first sips, she said, weren’t to her taste but since she wasn’t going out to get a coffee she persevered.

Reid really needed a day of chill’axing, as the hip kids say or did say. Or maybe she didn’t want to go in case I came back. Either way, she was likely to have an easygoing adult that was able to follow the pace and join Reid in reading, playing with CareB and penguin (new from McDonalds on Monday), and watching some cartoons.