Sunday, April 15, 2007

Keeping Me on My Toes

What a strange April! It is still, STILL cold and dreary here and not in the April-Showers-Bring-May-Flowers way. More in the I-thought-we-lived-in-the-balmy-south, not-northern-London kind of way. We uncovered the pool though..."opening" it for the season, in a hopeful gesture. We had to really, since it was turning green and we couldn't see the bottom, which shouldn't have been hard to see since the thing is leaking water like a sieve. However, it just took a little vacuuming and some handy-dandy chemicals from the haughty pool place down the street and voila - it is blue again. An unnatural shade of blue perhaps, but blue nonetheless. It's a good thing too, since the green pool was throwing Small Fry's world all out of kilter. She kept chanting, as if to drive the stake further into our hearts, "Da pool is green, Da pool is yucky, Da pool is smelly." Of course, they now think they will be able to start swimming any day. Highly unlikely, as the temperature of the water is hovering around 54 degrees! It has been a strange spring, there's no denying it. Best event of the week? Small Fry taking her first dance lesson, "just like my sister." The huge grin never left her face as she stood on her toes, "twinkling" to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...jumping high and obnoxiously loudly in her tap shoes to Itsy Bitsy Spider...and maneuvering her chubby little legs into first position with her hands so Teacher could slide a piece of "Sparkle" Pizza between her out-turned toes. Big Stuff did not handle it as magnanimously as I would have hoped. She tried every trick in her book to derail the whole thing, from crying to complaining to telling her sister where to stand...to finally jumping out on the floor with them and dancing as "Queen of the Three-Year-Olds" when I stepped out of the room for two minutes. It was appalling, yes, but also interesting to see such raw competition and jealousy hanging out there in the wide open. All that stuff usually goes underground and operates well below the surface when you're dealing with grown-ups. I like the idea that I can pretty much read everything going on inside her, although I am occasionally too dumb to get it. She hasn't started hiding things yet. A very good thing. And probably well-designed. It seems like you always get a little time to figure them out before they jump into the next phase, which sends you reeling back into the Land of Inadequacy and Self-Doubt. Keeps you on your toes. Just like April.

1 comment:

Gayle said...

Glad to see you're back to bloggin'!