Kids make strange bedfellows

It was time for our second annual Shakespeare Festival weekend with our friends Rachel and Conner. Last year was special because we saw Taming of the Shrew (Bianca's namesake play) and this year was special because it was As You Like It, the play off which I'm basing the YA novel I'm currently working on. I know this play inside and out, like the back of my hand. I'm close to these characters and I know their stories.

We headed down Saturday morning, checked into the hotel, went swimming, to dinner (which Winger's seems to have become a tradition), and then headed over to the Green Show and the play. Last year Bianca chose a tiny porcelain doll at the gift shop and this year she chose a dagger. It's a real knife. This one was especially cute because it had a smaller little knife in a smaller little pocket in the carrying case (she said for her bear Leah).

Last year, Rachel and I decided on separate hotel rooms. The idea of sleeping in a bed with Bianca is terrifying. We start out with heads on pillows in the right direction, but halfway through the night, I feel Bianca's feet pressing into my stomach and she's perpendicular to me and pushing me off the bed. Not intentionally, of course, but boy is she a kicker. This year, in an attempt to save a couple bucks, we decided to share a hotel room. But that would require sharing a bed with Bianca. Turns out, Bianca didn't push me off the bed this year, but I did wake in the night with her paddling her arms into me. As if she were swimming. Maybe she was dreaming about swimming. Who knows! But my goodness, next year I think I'm going to have to insist on separate beds.