Had a fun afternoon swimming at the Y with Celie and Iris. They have started swimming lessons which they are very excited about. They can kind of/almost swim, at this point.
The pool had just opened when we arrived and no one else was in it but a middle-aged mom and her daughter. Iris whispered to me that I should ask the girl if she’d like to play with C&I. First I said that she seemed pretty busy with her mom, then that Iris could ask her herself; no dice. So, I paddled over and conveyed the message. The little girl, who turned out to be Anna, said brightly, “OK, as soon as we finish this.” Then a maybe one second pause, and: “OK, this [some round plastic ring] is a magic mirror and we’re gonna dive to get the magic seeds…” And they were off. Anna is smaller than C&I but is 6, can swim better than they can, and is quite bossy. C&I fell right into line in a way I remember from preschool when they were among the younger kids. They are very susceptible to bossy older girls with a plan. They all played together for almost an hour and a half (I got to sit and read the Sunday Times magazine on the side for a while), a whole range of weird races and games; one I remember involved the three of them holding the side of the pool, looking up at the clock; when the second hand went to 2, they all dove underwater. Why? I don’t know. Celie mentioned to me today that in the pool Anna gave them each “a magic cookie with our’s name and ‘friendship’ written on it.” Wow, imaginary sentimental personalized baked goods!
Another funny thing — as we were walking to our car we ran into Kassidy, a girl who used to be in their class, with her mom. C&I were pretty shy with Kassidy and didn’t say much. Her mom and I were chatting about schools, etc, and Celie and Iris were bugging me to hurry up and open the car. Finally I said goodbye, C&I not really saying anything. Kassidy and mom crossed the parking lot to their car. Then all of a sudden Celie turned and shouted loudly, “Adios, Amigas!” It was pretty hilarious.
Filed under: kids/family life
