Swimmin'

The Little Man and I ventured out to our local city pool for the first time this week. We live in a little suburban town adjacent to The City, one of the many towns clustered around and clinging to its coattails. Frankly, I live within 10 minutes of the pools in 3 different cities, but we chose the one of the town where we actually live because

1. It was cheaper - they give you a discount for being a resident, and
2. Sometimes the other city pools check ID and actually won't let you enter if your driver's license doesn't say you're from that town.

I wasn't sure what to expect at the pool - would the Little Man have a huge cow and run screaming from the building after I paid the fee? Is there just one big swimmin' hole there, or would there be a wading pool for the little guys? If there is a wading pool, will the water be visibly green from all the pee, or will it at least appear to circulate enough to dip a toe in?

Turns out we had a lovely time. The pool had a wonderful kiddy pool, completely separate from the main pool. It had all sorts of cool squirty things and fountains, and was complete with a big water slide for the under 4-ft set! (Oh, and proper circulation - the water appeared to be lovely and fresh, even though with that many little guys in it it was most assuredly not). The Little Man loved it! He shivered for the entire 2.5 hours that we were there, but he had a grand old time squirting the squirters, splashing all over the place, and oh the slide, the SLIDE! He couldn't get enough of the slide, even though he kept getting in trouble for going down on his belly (he discovered early on that you go faster that way). He actually begged to go down the really big story-tall covered curly slide in the big-kid pool, but the lifeguards and mommy have rules about that sort of thing.

The only alarming thing about the pool was actually the other swimmers. The copious ink covering the flesh of too many mommies and daddies. The number of 2-and-3-year-old boys wearing actual BLING with their swimsuits. And there were some missing teeth, on people older than 7. Maybe I should have gone to some other city's pool because my neighbors run a little towards the W-T.

Bonus points of the pool - swimming makes little boys really hungry, so he ate a great dinner. And, swimming makes little boys really tired, so the Little Man crashed on the couch right after we put his jammies on. Methinks we're going to be frequent fliers at the pool this summer.

Perspective

A post by my friend Dorothy got me to thinking the other day about how different a story can be if the characters are changed.

I won't bore you with repeating her version - she says it so much better herself. Here's how things would have gone down if it had been the Little Man and I.

For starters, he would definitely be the instigator of the running to throw pennies in the fountain. (I think he's actually forgotten how to walk. He never walks when he can run! and get there fast!) I would be doing the Mommy Shuffle in his wake, but I'd be more apt to want to join up with the Starbucks ladies and covet their beverages than to chastize them into Shuffling themselves.

Before the Penny Throwing, we'd have an added scene of Fountain Splashing (unless Mommy's Shuffle was shuffling faster than normal and I caught up with him before Splashing could ensue). After another added scene of Tantrum Throwing because geez, woman, you only have FIVE PENNIES!!!, he would automatically start running back to the other side of the mall.

I'd finally catch up with him near Target, where he'd be running circles around me as I stood gasping with a stitch in my side. Then he'd carry me back to the car.

And he's never even heard the word "workout".

I'm firmly convinced that God has this mom/kid personality matching figured out. Dorothy will continue to be a wonderful role model for her Little Angel, and the Little Man will undoubtedly end up being one for me.

Back in the Saddle

I'm going to kick my own ass sometime next year, I'm sure of it. One of my favorite things about my blog is going through old posts to see what I and, more importantly, the Little Man was up to in months past. It's going to be much, much harder to go back through the ones that AREN'T THERE for the past couple of months.

I just haven't felt like writing anything lately. No idea why I've been in such a funk, or slump, or whatever, just haven't. I've actually had decent material too, like Mr. Me shattering our back door with a screw, or finding out I have a new nephew who is two years old. But nothing's sparked the writing bug.

So, in an effort to climb back on that horse, here's some of Mr. Me's latest cutenesses:

• If he needs to go somewhere, he says "a han!", grabs your finger and pulls. If you won't get out of the chair fast enough, he says "Pull! Pull! Pull!". That means he's pulling hard.
• Since the day we dug up worms under a rock, he is obsessed with them. " A Vurm! A Vurm! A Vurm in my han!" (and yes, he also has a German accent) Unfortunately, he is not very nice to Vurms, with the throwing and trying to squish them and all.
• As you can surmise, the Little Man is talking a LOT. Much of it we still can't understand, but he adds more and more discernable words every day, my favorites of which are "Dude!" and "Burgundy".
• He now has favorite movies. He will sit all the way through "Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the WereRabbit" and "Robots", and requests them so much more frequently than his mom will allow the viewing.
• Driving! is still a favorite. He now requests to "drive Mommy car" every evening. He has also developed the habit of having his daily constitutional while he's driving, as if he's some little old man that requires his Sunday drive to loosen things up. Like clockwork, if the kid is driving my car for more than 5 minutes there will be a subsequent poopy to change - and more than once it's leaked onto my leather (ewww!).

That's it for a first day back in the saddle. And even with this short little thing my keister will probably be sore in the morning.