Swimming or swooning?

This afternoon, Mom and I took the kids to a local community pool.

Man! This pool? Is really nice. If you go after 4 pm, you can get in for half price. Kids 3 and under are free, so for the four of us to go, it was $9, which on one hand seems pretty pricey, but on the other was worth the cost since the pool is very clean, there is plenty of shade, the changing/rest rooms are in good shape, and the kiddie area is HUGE. Big enough and well designed enough, in fact, that both kids were totally happy in the kiddie area, which is rare. T is all about the big people pool these days and S refuses to entertain the idea of such foolishness.

Even better than such an excellent pool? The fact that both kids, that's right, BOTH kids found other kids to play with and I was able to just chillax in the water and keep an eye out for such serious dangers as potential sunburn, water in goggles, and dangerous sliding practices.

Also amazing? The amount of sharing the kids participated in. They shared their toys and didn't play with anyone else's unless they asked - without being prompted. This, to me, is a huge parental validation/victory/success. Of course by opening my big mouth, I've doomed our Six Flags trip for tomorrow to be full of fighting and misery. Maybe not, but I'm planning to be prepared just in case. Duct tape and snack bribes are at the ready, my friends.

Not long after we got to the pool, the lifeguards called a pool break. While we were waiting to be able to go back into the pool, T looks over his shoulder and sees a little girl playing with some pre-chewed gum melted onto the cement. Always hyper-vigilant about what other people should not be doing, T launches into a lecture about how "that's nasty". Which - true - but it's not his place to be the melty gum police. Fortunately, right about the time T was giving her his verbal input on how to live her life her Mom noticed what she was doing and ran to stop her. Unfortunately, it was about half a second too late to stop her from putting some in her mouth. I felt awful for the Mom. T? Used to try and eat popcorn off the movie theater floor. He didn't want the popcorn from the bag, he wanted the floor corn. Ewwwww!

The little girl had melted gum all over her hand and face. And T, Mr. I will practically lick any surface on the planet and laugh about it, was all kinds of grossed out. As he turned to me to announce how yucky that was and girls in general are, I had a flash thought that I hope the yucky girl attitude sticks around for a while.

15 minutes later? T is carrying some little girl around in the water to where ever she wants to go and could not touch.

Sigh....

At least she wasn't eating melty cement gum.