  Spent the weekend with the heater on. I think that's a first for May first here in our little house. Friday, when John got home from work, we hit the streets for a full evening of urban adventuring. Somehow, Ellie's gotten easier to carry in the sling (she straddles her legs and holds herself to me more naturally now, John says she even matches our walking rhythm) so I packed her on, and the four of us took off.
As we walked down the street to the lightrail, it occurred to me that living this close to the heart of the city was a fair trade for our trials with burglary. Not that the two should be linked, statistically speaking, we live in the lowest crime district in the whole city.
Just not our block. We met the nicest couple in a park along Fannin between Herman and Rice. Gretchen Sweene and her husband with some un-rememberable last name, visiting from Dallas with their 18-month-old daughter. Then, we walked over to Miller Outdoor Theater where it was Caribbean Night. I feel bad for the students from Lamar High, whose teacher somehow thought their annual musical--which was some sick melding of Oh! Pioneers and Cool Running --was appropriate in this venue. Other than these well-meaning kids, the whole thing rocked.
We met another father who brought his two sons, a soccer ball, and a bike on training wheels. I--with Ellie still slinged--engaged happily in a game of soccer with Aidan and the younger son, and the dad's older son took to rocketing down the giant hill behind the grass area at Miller on his bike, training wheels whizzing so loud I was sure the whole thing would burst.
It was a good lesson in parenting for me, b/c I thought it was unbelievable dangerous, faster and wilder than any ride I would myself risk, much less allow a four-year-old to try. But the kid loved it, and he stayed on almost every time, and the one time he fell (a bad looking fall, plunging over the handle bars into the grass), he got up without so much as a yelp. As we wandered our way through the city homeward, we commented on the pregnant air and heavy ocean clouds, sure it would rain. And it did, at least 8 inches or so! We were lucky to enjoy a bit of outdoors when we did, b/c all of Saturday we were locked indoors.
Poor John tried to get out at one point to take the kids to the concrete canoe on the Bayou thing, only to run all the way home, with the whole lot drenched. Finally this front moved in and pushed out the ocean rain, and left us with 50 degree overnight lows! So May's off to a great start, with New Mexico wind jet streaming over us! Happy May, all. 
