In which we go swimming

Last Wednesday, Sapphire and Blanche tried to convince me to let them go to the pool. Now, the rule is that you have to be 10 to be admitted without an adult, and while Blanche is 10 (her birthday is in December), Sapphire won't be 10 for a few months yet. Furthermore, the people working the admissions desk are supposed to demand proof of age for anyone who isn't quite clearly over 10 (and Sapphire definitely doesn't look any older than she is), so even if I decided to let her go, they wouldn't let her in. Then they tried to convince me to take them to the pool. I refused, but agreed that I would be willing to take them on Saturday, if they wanted to go then.

Saturday morning Cherry and I went to the library (because neither Sapphire or Ezio wanted to go) and got books. Fortunately, I was able to find both the 5th and the 7th books in the Harry Potter series for Sapphire. Unfortunately, I inadvertently checked out Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for Ezio. Why was this unfortunate? Well, because he had just finished reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which is the British version of the same book, and I was supposed to check out the second book in the series. Perhaps this will lead him to a career in linguistics, where he can study the differences between British and American English.

Then we ate lunch and I took Cherry and Ezio to the store (Sapphire still didn't want to go anywhere). I put the groceries away, switched some laundry, put a few things in the dishwasher, and suggested to Cherry and Ezio that they put on shoes and coats so that they could play outside instead of running like a herd of stampeding buffalo through our hallway. At this point, Sapphire lifted her head from her book and said, "But I thought we were going to the pool today." Hmm. It was getting kind of late for the pool. Although there was plenty of time to swim before the pool closed (at 6:45), there was the minor issue of dinner, which was kind of involved. But I had promised.

Sapphire ran to ask Blanche if she wanted to join us. Cherry collected swim caps and goggles. Ezio was in charge of towels and swimsuits. I looked for our Cartes Fontenaysian, without which we wouldn't be going to the pool. Five minutes later, we were out the door to the pool. By the time we had paid our entry fee, changed into swim gear, showered, and headed out to the pool deck, it was 5:07, so I told the kids that we were getting out promptly at 6:07, that I expected no complaints, and that anyone who didn't cooperate would not be coming swimming with us in the future. This was mainly for Blanche's benefit. Whatever other faults my children may have, refusing to leave someplace when asked to do so is not one of them. I have, however, had problems with Blanche refusing to leave in the past. (And since she's 10 and nearly as big as I am, it's not like I can just pick her up like a recalcitrant toddler either.)

In any case, Sapphire and Blanche went off to swim in the "deep" end of the little pool (where Blanche can, fortunately, touch, as she's not much of a swimmer) and Cherry practiced swimming and Ezio sort of swam circles around us. I discovered that Cherry can, in fact, swim a little bit, though the distance she can do is only a couple of body lengths. This is because she can't figure out how to breathe. On the plus side, that means that she's naturally swimming with her face in the water, though it significantly decreases how far she can go. Ezio showed me all the tricks he can do, most of which involve figuring out how to maximize splashing. And I hardly saw Sapphire at all, but I think she had fun. (I did look for her blue swim cap with some frequency. I just didn't have time to actually watch her.)