P-Double-O-L

Splash!

We've been spending a lot of time at the P-Double-O-L lately.  And yes -- we DO usually spell it out like that.  Mostly to keep the two little ones out of the loop when the big kids want to go swimming after dinner with dad, but also because it's kind of fun to say.   :)  {Jane has figured out what we're spelling at this point, though, so it's not really that effective anymore.}

With Ethan at scout camp and Grace at a friend's house this afternoon, we had an AWESOMELY splendid time at the pool.  Hahaha.  Let's just say that with Ethan out of the house, Grace decided to step up her game and fill his void with her own patented brand of pot-stirring today.  It didn't help that Grace is probably not quite caught up on sleep from her early morning Sunday antics, and she started the morning off with "crazy eyes" {which is what we call them when they're bloodshot and she's tired and past-the-point-of-no-return} and a shrieking match at me and Sophie which continued off and on throughout the course of the day.  We were all VERY happy when her friend invited her over to spend the afternoon. 

With just the 3 little ones to look after and no contention being stirred up by the absent older 2, I was able to help Sophie and Jane work on their swimming a little bit more than I'm usually able to.  Sophie was so excited to be able to finally swim back and forth from the shallow end to the deep end without her life jacket and without needing to touch the bottom.  I was pretty impressed myself!  Jane is a bit scarier these days because she's gotten so brave and good about "swimming" underwater with her life jacket on that she thinks she's got it down for real.  I tried to work with her on "bobbing to safety" today, but it wasn't really sticking.  As a result, I made her keep her life jacket on for the majority of the time.  Alex, for his part, is also a fearless little fish!  I got him a puddle jumper floaty a couple of weeks ago, and even though his first attempt at using it was a little iffy, he has completely and totally embraced his new found water freedom and mastered the art of "swimming."  He's pretty good about putting his face in the water, too, and today -- for the first time -- he got brave enough to try jumping in the pool all by himself.  The result?  He LOVED it.  Haha.  It was kind of really cute to see Alex and Jane jumping in together and then "swimming" back to the steps to go for another round. 

All in all, it was the most fun I've had at the pool all season long!  Hahaha.  It's always so interesting to see how the dynamics change when one {or more} is missing from the family.  If only scout camp lasted all summer long...   Hahaha.  J/K.  Kind of.  :)   We really do love and miss ALL the kids whenever they are gone.