Date:

July 13th, 2003

We’ve has quite a busy weekend so far. On Friday evening we went to Deirdra’s apartment complex, to let Sophia have her first experience in a swimming pool. Tentative and considered as she is in all things, we fully expected her to refuse to get in the water, or to just watch us intently, trying to figure out what it was we were doing and whether she wished to participate. She started out this way, saying “No fank you,” quite emphatically when we asked her if she wanted to get into the water. We left her alone and chatted with Deirdra and swum around for a bit and in a few moments she had come to the water’s edge and started to peer in curiously. I asked her again if she wanted to get in and she still said she didn’t. But she did, I could tell. Slowly, gradually, we lowered her onto the first step. She stayed there for a while, unsure, but in less than five minutes Kurt and I were pulling her all around the pool. She was floating along, kicking her legs as though she knew how to swim and grinning. Soon she was commanding us imperiously. “This way! To the steps. No, this way!” as we ferried her back and forth across the pool. Sometimes she’d be hugging us tight as we walked around in the water, sometimes she’d float behind or before us, skimming the surface as we held her lightly by the arms and pulled her around. So much did she enjoy herself that she threw a small tantrum as we started to leave, though we assured her this would not be the last time she’d get to go swimming. This morning, when she woke up and started talking to me she asked me “We swimming today?” I told her that no, we would not be swimming today, but we would be going to church instead. She frowned and shook her head. Apparently, going to church is not an acceptable substitute for going swimming.


After swimming, we took her to our daycare’s fun Friday. We’d been dropping her off on several other occasions to this event, so that we could go out and catch a movie or a nice, quiet meal together. They have them about every two weeks or so, and Sophia’s been 3 times so far, although each time we’ve picked her up around 11 at night and brought her home. The thing is technically a sleepover, though you don’t have to leave your child all night unless you want to. Well, we left her all night, and she had a complete blast. So, in one day she had her first swimming pool experience and her first night’s sleep away from her parents. Quite a day, don’t you think? Her favorite teacher, Ms. Vicky, was the one staying over (it varies) and she said Sophia slept next to her, though she did not go to sleep until about 1:30. So add staying up past midnight as another first for her.


On Saturday, after her nap, we went over to Matthew’s house so that she could play in his paddle pool. Well, Matthew was a little too rambunctious and splashy for her, so she wouldn’t get in, but she did have a great time swinging on his swing and playing with his toys. When Matthew’s mother had returned, we all picked up some food and then went to a nearby park. At first all Sophia wanted to do was swing. Kurt pushed her for a zillion years, then I pushed her for another couple of million. Then we went back to the table where our food was. Sophia accompanied us, but soon wandered off. Kurt got up to follow her but I told him to stay back and let her go alone. She went out there and ran around for a bit, then started climbing the play equipment and sliding down the slide. The slide she was sliding on was taller and steeper than the one she had refused to go down previously with my coaxing and encouragement. Sidelong we watched her, hidden so she could not see that we were discovering how much more adventurous she was without us.

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13 Jul 2003, by

Mundane dream. Only one moment remembered, probably not even worth a click through. From Thursday night.

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