Sprinkle, sprinkle, little hose...

Since our first little trip to the pool on May 1, it's warmed up significantly. Whatever little springtime cold snap we were experiencing was replaced with weather that is quickly turning hot and humid. We, however, have been unable to make it back to the pool due to super fun things like (1) it's the end of the semester and I had a poetry reading to give and a poetry reading to attend and a major paper due and so forth, and (2) we took our van in to get a tune-up before we try driving across the country with it.

The good news is that our mechanic felt nothing major needed to be done. Even better is that we have our van back again, which means we can go to the pool!

To make up for not being able to go to the pool, I did let the kids talk me into setting up the sprinkler for them yesterday. They had a blast!

I thought Phoebe might not enjoy the cold water spraying at her but, of course, I thought wrong. She loved it.

Her little tongue was constantly sticking out to lap up whatever she could. 

Here's Benjamin leaping over the sprinkler:

And here's Zoë leaping over the sprinkler:

We had a few neighbour kids over, but I don't think they're identifiable in this picture, so...I'm going to post it. Here's Zoë leaping over the sprinkler again:

Here's Alexander heading into the spray:

They had a grand ol' time. And I just cannot say enough about these rash guards. I mean, swimsuits that cover less are great and all, but...not having to stress about sunscreen is so nice, in my opinion. The only thing worse than getting sunburned yourself is burning one of your precious babies! And with my little crew of blonde-haired kids, I just can't seem to keep enough sunscreen on them to keep them from getting burned. So I am all about rash-guards and cover-ups.

They get enough vitamin D just playing outside, I'm sure. 

Actually, I'm not sure. Vitamin D deficiency is, like, really common. But we do our best to soak up the sun's rays...safely...and not completely roast ourselves. Because skin cancer is also no fun, I hear.

Anyway, the kids had a blast.

Alexander and Phoebe had so much fun that today while their big sisters were either at music lessons or making French toast and Benjamin was off playing up the street, they convinced me to set up the sprinkler again.

I definitely should have put Phoebe's swimming suit on inside the house, but the problem was that Alexander was right ready to go and had started to set things up himself and I didn't want the hose going crazy, so I rushed outside with Phoebe after putting her "swim diaper" on (which is just an old cloth diaper cover, without any insert (it's lined with fleece so it's not uncomfortable for her, but it is waterproof and has elastic legs and waist)).

Anyway, I should have put her swimming suit on inside the house because once we were outside all bets were off. She was away and running and...as much as I just sang praises to our full-coverage swim suits, I figured a few minutes running around in the sun wouldn't do her any harm (vitamin D, and all that).

I'm consistently inconsistent.

Here's Alexander executing a wonderful leap:

I'm sure Grandpa is cringing at the state of our lawn, but it's No Mow May, so we're living it up. Not mowing is considered responsible for our generation. 

Here's Phoebe just living her best life, being her best little self:

And here comes Alexander:

She loves running away from people right now (and hiding! I've never had a baby who loves to hide anymore, but Phoebe does—she likes to hide in the depths of my closet (or wherever else she's determined is a tricky hiding spot), just giggling to herself until she's found, which isn't hard to do since she's laughing to herself about how great she is at hiding). Anyway, here she is running away from Alexander...with her tongue hanging out, of course:

And here's a lovely action shot of Alexander not-so-gently "catching" her:

She squirmed her way out of his grasp and kept on running, shrieking with laughter the whole time. And, no, I don't think she ever pulled her tongue back in. 

She's improved from the days when she would just stick everything she could in her mouth—rocks, acorns, caterpillars, whatever—but she still wants to taste everything, so now she just...licks stuff. She licks windows and rocks and people and books and table legs and the cat...

Oh, she still puts random stuff in her mouth, too (and is 100% convinced that all tubes of chapstick and/or glue sticks are simply snacks in disguise), but since she understands she's not supposed to put random stuff in her mouth she mostly just licks stuff now. Mostly. 

Chapstick, as I mentioned, is an exception. As is glue. And the occasional small toy.

But, like, mostly she understands that we're going to stop her and just doesn't try. She even does okay with sidewalk chalk now (not great, but...okay).

Anyway, as hard as it can be to have children spread across so many ages doing so many different things, I really am glad to have these little people around. And I love that something as simple as a sprinkler can make them feel like they're having the best day ever!