Swimming

The kids have swimming classes back-to-back on Wednesday, Kate at 3:30 and Jack at 4:20. What this means is I'm there for two hours, entertaining Jack for the first hour and Kate for the second hour.

We speed over there after school, and Jack parks himself in the parents waiting area with a book while I get Kate into her bathing suit. She chatters away happily and I'm glad she's not the kid who's crying about something or other, presumably swimming I guess. I tuck her head into her swim cap and she asks for a sort of pony tail, "like you did last time." Basically I bun her hair up and stuff it into the cap without the benefit of an actual pony tail tie. We strap on her goggles -- she needs new ones -- and I send her happily off into her class.

Jack finishes his homework, and we spend some time in the game room. It's about what you might expect from a YMCA game room -- air hockey, foosball, pool table, table tennis, in various conditions. The foosball table is falling apart, but that's what Jack wants to play. So we do. I try not to clobber him, which isn't hard because the thing barely works and it's sitting on a slight angle, so if we miss the ball entirely it eventually rolls into my goal. I also nobly take the side that doesn't have a goalie. He wins 5-4 and is very happy, laughing when yet another rolls into my empty goal due to the rotation of the Earth.

I check in on Kate. Her goggles have broken and she's sad. I go in and take them and promise to get her new ones before next week. "Will they be pink?" she asks sadly. Yes, I say. She cheers up and finishes the class.

While Jack is in his class, I take Kate into the family bathroom, which has a shower. She's too old to bring into the boy's room, I obviously can't go in the girls room. The family room is OK, at least it locks. Kate has her shower and we manage to get her dressed without her clothes getting too wet.

I brought coloring books for Kate, and Highlights magazine. She colors happily and sings a little. For about 10 minutes. Then we look for thing in the magazine puzzles (A rake! A shovel! Daddy's vision at 25!), and she laughs at my jokes (Is that the fish? "NO, Daddy! That's a banana!" That? "NO, Daddy! That's a monkey!"). I get 5 minutes to read the book I brought, and then it's time to get Jack, bundle up to brave the cold, and head home.

Grinch was on tonight. "Then he got an idea.....an awful idea....the Grinch got a wonderful, AWFUL idea...."

I think Kate might be a little scared of the Grinch early on. But she loves his dog Max.