Cancelled Primary Party

This morning we woke the kids up to get ready for the back-to-school primary party, but just as we'd all changed into our swimming suits...we got the message that it was cancelled—rather, postponed—due to thunder at the location.

But we hadn't heard any thunder at our location, so we decided that since we were all ready to go we'd head to the pool for a little while. We have a cold front—"False Fall," if you will—coming in and things are going to get mighty chilly, comparatively speaking. We have a high of 70°F tomorrow. Our windows are open right now. This is...weird. 

And it also means the pool will cool off significantly, so we thought we'd enjoy one last splash in the warm pool. And it was warm—it felt warmer inside the pool than it did outside this morning. 

We swam in the morning drizzle until a birthday party arrived. Technically you're not supposed to have birthday parties at the pool unless you go through the leadership and check a bunch of boxes. We'll assume this family did that. But they were also, like, eating popsicles in the pool which is technically speaking against the rules...and it got to be a little difficult for Phoebe to be there but not be part of the party (they have popsicles over there?! And music...and balloons...and...it was too much)...so we left. 

But before that we had a fun time swimming together. Zoë helped Phoebe work on her big arms:

And here are the three little kids together:

Alexander was intrigued by this deer on the other side of the fence that didn't seem remotely spooked by him.

I guess it knew the fence was there.

Here's Phoebe and Zoë having a race:

Zoë was winning before she even left the wall, even though she gave Phoebe a head start.

When we left the pool we decided we'd check out the river to see if it was swimmable, but it was a little high today (usually they can go out on the rocks, but the rocks were completely submerged).

So instead we played at the playground, which we haven't done in quite some time because it's simply been too hot to consider it. Plus, this particular playground has been under construction for a long time so we've been avoiding it.

Part of the reason the park has been under construction was to stabilize the stream that was running through the park; the bank kept crumbling and, honestly, it probably was a little dangerous given how many people come here to play. So they redid all of that and have some very inviting pathways leading down to the creek that I assume mean they want children to play in it (because otherwise I have some advice for their designer).

They've also been redoing the sewage pipes all along the river—we endured the construction all summer long at one of our practice pools (it was noisy and stinky—there was even dynamite involved one day...the kids thought it was fantastic...and loud). But that's all been going on at this park as well, so we really haven't been here to play in quite some time.

Here's Phoebe enjoying the new creek feature:

And here are the kids enjoying this little "natural" playground they installed as well:

Some of these logs were quite far apart (Zoë has really long legs so...that tells you something):

Phoebe played on the logs a bit, too, but she needed to hold my hand and Zoë's hand in order to be able to jump between them, so there are no pictures of her.

Phoebe also wanted to swing for a quite a while. I pushed her for a little while and then we worked on pumping our legs in and out and in and out and in and out. As I was coaching her through this she said, "Wow, Mom! You're so good at this! It's like you're a swinging teacher! Like, if your kid wants to learn how to swim you take them to the pool and show them how to swim. And if your kid wants to learn to read then you do reading lessons with them. And if your kid wants to swing then you teach them how to do in and out and in and out. You can just teach everything!"

And...that was a long little monologue...but at this point in her life it's mostly true.

We've been doing reading lessons quite regularly lately. She's getting pretty good at both reading and pronouncing things. For example, when we were at the pool today she declined to play a game with Alexander and Zoë saying, "No, fanks. I'm just taying by myself right now."

She tends to use /t/ for any complicated sound (like /k/ or...a consonant cluster like /pl/) but all on her own she noticed and self-corrected: "I'm just paying."

Now, "paying" isn't playing, I'll give you that—but it closer to "playing" than "taying," so we'll take it.

She's also started to stick her finger in her mouth when she knows she has to say a /k/.

For example, this evening when we were reading a bedtime story—Little Monkeys Wash a Car or something like that—and the page turn ended on a cliff hanger, prompting little listeners to want to fill in the rhyme before turning the page, Phoebe stuck her finger in her mouth so should could say, "CAR!" (with the /k/ sound) to finish the rhyme. 

Without me even prompting her!

So things are sinking in. But, boy, does she complain about her reading lessons. And if she doesn't complain about her reading lessons it's usually because I've forgotten to give her one that day...and then she inevitably boasts about it at the dinner table. 

"What was your favourite part of the day?" Andrew asked her at dinner.

"My favourite part of the day was that...Mom forgot to give me a reading lesson!"

"There's still time," he teased. 

"Aw, dang it!" she said. 

That is the second time she's reminded me about a reading lesson at dinner time this week. The first time we really did give her an evening reading lesson, but today we let it go—because it's Saturday.

Fortunately, although she can be very willful, she doesn't typically cry for too long about things she knows she has to do (like dishes or reading lessons). She'll cry. She just won't cry for long.

Unlike Rachel (at this age), Phoebe considers crying and carrying on to be a poor use of her time. So she'll let out a few tears and then will just do the unwanted task to get it out of the way. And that's pretty cool of her, I think. Much better than an hours-long tantrum over having to put away a few dishes (or whatever)...