Pool Daze ...

Here's a snapshot from our morning at the pool with friends that just neatly encapsulates my three children.

Ian: Lining up at diving board to plunge into 15-ft waters with his buddies. Rinse. Repeat. (But you have to know that until a week ago, he was dead set against trying the diving board. Then one evening he and I were out for a stroll and he mentioned casually that he was thinking of trying out the diving board next time we went to Northwest Pool. Ta-DA. That's how we roll.)

Eliza: Quietly, piece by piece, making an ant house in the shade out of all the four-inch-long sticks she can find.

Caroline: Staggering the 40 yards or so from the toddler pool to the diving area, carrying Ian's friend Christopher's two large inner tubes, because she overheard him complaining about some kid using his inner tube and us moms reassuring him that the tubes were safe at the toddler pool.

And I was fresh off of one of those little mom-victories, so celebrate with me. My friend Teresa and I had been sitting at the edge of the [very large] toddler pool, gabbing away since I hadn't seen her in two months. Three of our kids approached us and started splashing us, and I must tell you that I am most certainly NOT a fan of being splashed at the pool. If I get wet, I want it to be voluntary, thank you very much. I think we both had the words "Boys, DON'T splash us! Go play somewhere else!" lodged in our throats, ready to spew forth in VERY FIRM tones, when we suddenly started kicking our legs very very hard and splashing THEM instead. Need I even say that they loved it? Our ensuing conversation with punctuated, at five-minute increments, with looking up and seeing our combined seven children, ages two to ten, visibly plotting at the other side of the pool, then converging on us for a splash fest. We'd kick kick kick, feeling the burn in our quads and the water on our sunglasses, until one of them yelled "RETREAT!"


We're still cool, people. Haven't become superfluous yet. We may not be quite the universe to them that we were when they were two and we were flawless, but by all appearances, our public still finds us to be quite a catch.