One of the funniest things of the day is that we have been talking up this trip for days in advance and today it occurred to us that Miss A might not know what "the pool" actually was. Well, not wanting to undermine her, we asked her, "Miss A, do you know what the pool is?" Her answer, "No." Yet that didn't change the fact that she still wanted to go. D even tried to play a guessing game with her where he explained what it was and she just plain didn't get it. Go figure! Three year olds... what do they know anyway.
So when we finally did get to the pool (quite a drive for us since our preferred pool is not a public one and is sort of for a very private community that which we happen to belong), Miss A was completely beside herself with excitement. It all was so wonderful! And at the same time it didn't make sense at all. What was with all of this water? How was it blue? Is it like a giant bathtub of some sort? Why were there so many other people there if it was a bathtub? Whatever. Are we going on? Really? GOOD. Because I WANT TO GO INTO THE GIANT BATHTUB THING. (This is all the conversation I imagine she was having with herself.)
We got in almost immediately and Miss A was a little skittish about it. She wanted us right by her because she couldn't quite get the hang of the swimmer-tube tank top thing we insisted she wear. (She wore it before when we went to the beach over a month ago but she never really swam in it.) D tried to get her to put her face in the water and blow bubbles and she wasn't keen to the idea though she did try to be adventurous.
Her idea of adventurous? Uhmmm... trying to lap up the pool water with her tongue!!! SO GROSS!!!! And we kept reminding her to PLEASE STOP. No, really... PLEASE CLOSE YOUR MOUTH and STOP.
But why should she listen to us - her loving and wise parents who know nothing about public swimming pool water because it is perfectly suitable. I mean, isn't this wear they get that saying about "tall glass of water"? No? Obviously she didn't get the memo about that one that goes, "Don't drink the water!"
Eventually she was able to figure out how to balance herself in the swimmer-tube and she started trying to kick her legs to swim like everyone around her was doing.
After a while she took a break from the big pool and we went to the wading pool that was a little smaller with a big mushroom looking fountain thing in the middle and though she was enthralled with it...
... she wasn't going near it and just admired it from afar. *shrug* I don't really blame her. Against all common belief, the baby/wading pool was FREEZING compared to the big pool. We suspect it was because of the mushroom fountain (you will see what it looks like in the background in later pictures) but we don't know. Anyway, we alternated our time between the big pool and walking in circles around the mushroom fountain pool until it was time to get a snack/late lunch. Earlier in the day Miss A and I made "hotdoggies"/pigs-in-a-blanket together to bring along and then we also had lots of fresh fruit and veggies, chips, and gatorade. Miss A insisted that she really wasn't hungry and wanted to swim ASAP (so she left on her swimmer-tube tank) but she was double-fisting those hotdoggies AND ate a whole plate full of chips despite the fact that they were "spicy" (read: Kettle-cooked Memphis BBQ style).
And because D and I are such "cool" parents, we didn't make her wait no stinking 30 or even 15 or even FIVE minutes because she "had just eaten" to get back in the pool. Whatev. We were back in the pool as fast as we could walk safely (because that's what you do at the pool, remember? I mean, we aren't such negligent parents that we were all egging her on to run as fast as she could to belly flop back into the shallow end. Come on now!)
Miss A's second go-round in the pool was an amazing success. She was so comfortable at that point that she was pretty much dog paddling and navigating it on her own. She kept fussing at me, "No, Mama! You stay over there! DON'T TOUCH ME. No, MAMA!" OkOK!!! The child seriously swam the ENTIRE length of the pool by herself at least twice up and back and all while slowing down to say to people, "Hi! My name is Miss A! What's your name?"
Oh, yeah. In case you were wondering? I definitely was the "weird Asian lady that wore the straw hat THE WHOLE TIME" at the pool. *whatev* I don't care. There are worse things I could be. And Miss A's not embarrassed by me yet though I know that time will come. At least I'm not wearing my Yoko Ono sunglasses in any of the pictures! But that doesn't mean I didn't bring them along and didn't wear them because OH YES(!) I DID in fact wear them. *fist pump*
Check it out... the weird mushroom fountain thing in the background in the weirdly cold baby pool...
One of the best moments of the day by far, though, was at the very end when Miss A was so dead tired and unwilling to argue when we told her it was time to go home. D went to the locker rooms to change and (unbeknownst to us) take a shower and it just seemed to take him FOR-EV-ER. Well? Miss A took it in stride and did not pitch a fit at all. But what DID she do? Well, she laid herself out on one of the excess chairs by the entrance where we were standing and covered herself with her "cuddly" to block out the annoying sun. She was tired but wasn't sleeping. Rather, she was just kind of annoyed by the wait and dealing with it quietly...
All kidding aside, we all had such a great day today that I really don't feel like we missed out on anything even though we didn't make watching fireworks any kind of priority. Celebrating the day in the way of having the freedom and blessing to be able to just be together and do stuff like this that is total and pure fun was way better than anything else. Hope your independence day was full of things that you alone thought were awesome and wonderful - whether it included the fireworks or not.
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