If you are my facebook friend, then will have noticed one thing--I've been spending a lot of time at our pool. Specifically, I've been spending a lot of time poolside sans Henry. That's right, people, I drop my son off in our gym's childcare so I can lay out by the pool and read. I particularly like to call Sloan at while working on my tan. Mainly just to say, "Hey, I'm lolling about and you're not" which is usually met with the following reply, "So when you complain about how you slave away all day at the house cleaning and taking care of Henry, this is what you are referring to? Have you any bon bons to eat while you sit around and do nothing?"
In my defense, before I lay out by the pool, I do work out on the elliptical. This morning, however, during my work-out, I realized that I'm old. And to be truthful, I've never really thought of myself as old; I'm only 31. But as the college student working behind the programs desk handed me my towel, "Here you are m'am," it struck me--she obviously does not see me as the same age as her, like I do. And then, when I plunked my book down on the elliptical and cranked up my Ipod, I knew I was old. I did not turn on the TV, despite the fact that the middle aged (er, my aged) women next to me were watching VH1 and Bravo while flipping through magazines, Star and Rolling Stone. Me? Reading Girl With Pearl Earring. Listening to classical music. Who, except for old people and me, listens to classical music to work out? Perhaps I should look for an afghan to put around my shoulders while I'm out buying bon bons.
I do feel my lolling about poolside is well deserved. You see, once I'm aware that I'm closing in on my 2 hours and 15 minutes of free childcare per day that comes with my membership, I do go get the pickle and wrangle (and I do mean wrangle!) him into his swim diaper and trunks, sunscreen, hat and sunglasses. This task is made more difficult as the light switch for the bathroom is accessible from the changing table in the family bathroom, so half of this work is done in the dark as Henry likes to play with the switch.
But once Henry gets to the pool, there is no more lolling about. Many Mommies get to sit by the pool and casually talk to one another while their toddlers sit near them and splash about in the water or the fountains. Maybe once or twice their children venture into deeper waters, but they usually are frightened and so stay near Mommy.
Not the case with Henry. Henry likes to go the the edge of the pool and jump in. He counts "1,2,3" and then dunks his head under. He goes down on his belly and pretends he is a snake, hissing with his face in the water while I say, "Gross, Henry. Get your mouth out of the water." He does not get his mouth out of the water. He tosses his plastic truck ahead of him, laughing as he goes and gets it, essentially playing fetch with himself. He splashes me. I, in turn, show him what a real splash looks like. He laughs so hard I fear he'll throw up. We go stand under the water buckets and love it when the bucket dumps a lot of water on Mommy's head. He likes to show me how he can walk all the way across the pool (which has a beach entry and then goes to 3 feet). He goes up on his tippy toes and tilts back his head, laughing all the way across the pool. At which point he then pulls himself up out of the pool, Michael Phelps style. (No matter how many times I see him do this--it still amazes me. He is able to pull himself up out of the pool despite not really being tall enough to push off with his feet.) Then he proceeds to turn around, hop in, and begin again. Once he's done this four or five, or ten times, he then decides it is time to check out the perimeter of the pool grounds. He goes to play on the playground. Crawls under and climbs over lounge chairs, paying no mind as to whether there are people on them or not. He pulls out every toy from the lost and found and takes it to the water. Occasionally, he'll find one of the squat chairs right by the pool entry and sit in it. This excites me, so I sit next to him. He waits until I'm comfortable and then he is off again. He visits the lifeguard and gives him a fist bump. There are three lifeguards, so the fist bumping takes awhile.
This morning he even made a friend. His first friendship he has ever initiated himself. Sure, he's got loads of buddies--Isabel, Nathan, Anna, Loren, Colten--but all of these friends he has because I've basically just dropped him off at their house or they see each other at church. This friend, a 20 month old named Sam, Henry chose himself. This is how it happened. Henry has some toys for the pool--a couple of those squishy balls, some squirter animals, and a plastic truck. Well, Sam was playing in the fountain while his mom and grandma chatted to one another. Henry and I had just returned from our second round of "lifeguard fist bump" of the day and I pulled out our toys. Henry took one of his balls, looked at the boy, and said, "Hey, ball!" and then threw the ball at the boy. The boy did not really respond. So Henry took another ball, said, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" until the boy looked at Henry, and then Henry said, "Ball!" and threw another ball at the boy. The boy, in turn, looked at Henry and said, "Baseball" and threw the ball back. I told the boy's mom I wasn't quite sure what to be more shocked by--my son's friendliness or his sharing. I talked a bit with Sam's mom while our boys played with one another's toys. We're planning on meeting again at the pool later this week. The boys were very sweet waving bye bye to one another in the parking lot. I just hope I can remember Sam's Mom's name by the time we see them again.
Perhaps if I eat some bon bons it will jog my memory. Actually, I don't have bon bons. Do you think Skittles will help? I do so love to taste the rainbow, and I did work out today...
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