the fish

I swear my kids are part fish! Swimming lessons on Saturday - they both did a great job. 4 insists on practicing while the other child is swimming with her teacher. Jumped off the deep end of the pool and swam a full length of front crawl on her own. Teacher was calm - I was a wreck - ready to leave the observation area and jump into the pool to 'save' her.

Later at Great-Grandma's, they swam for 3 hours, then took a break for dinner. Climbed a tree after dinner, and 6 got stuck. While my aged grandparents ran around looking for a ladder to assist, I hiked up my dress (of course I was wearing a long dress and sandals with heels!), ditched my shoes and hauled myself up the tree to help. It's been quite a while since I climbed a tree. We got down safely...6 says "next time I climb a tree, I will come down the tree intelligently - just as I climb up!"

The kids were lurking around the edge of the pool - looking longingly at the water, so I threw them in - fully clothed. Swimming with clothes on is hard. They managed really well! So I let them ditch their clothes and swim naked in the pool. I was in the water with them, but we swam in the deep end together for about 45 minutes. No pool noodle- no flutterboards. 4 wanted to go to the bottom of the pool, so we all held hands, (4 was told to squeeze my hand if she needed to surface, and 6 has an aqua lung!). We dove for rings on the bottom - 8 feet down.
They had a blast! I was so impressed with them - they played safely and well for all that time.

On another note - still no sign of gerbil. No bad odours. No evidence of his existence. The cage sits open on the playroom floor, hoping to lure him back with food...