Summer Days

Summer vacation is in full swing!  We Rowe girls always enjoy taking advantage of the summer events at the town library, including their free Friday movie showings.  We had even more incentive to visit the library today, as Julia has a summer reading list she needs to complete before the start of first grade. We headed on over to the children's section, where the kids played for awhile, and then Julia sat with me to read aloud from one of the books off her reading list.  We had chosen a second book from the list to read as well, but the loudspeaker announcement that the Friday movie was about to start in the Community Room distracted her.  We already knew today's movie was going to be "The Dark Crystal," a movie that we have at home and Julia is one part fascinated by and one part terrified of.  She had already vehemently rejected the idea of watching it at the library, because she was afraid she'd be too scared.  However, the loudspeaker announcement was like a magic, hypnotic beacon, beckoning all children to gather in the Community Room, because Julia was suddenly begging me to see the movie, asserting that she had changed her mind.

So into the Community Room we went, and Madeleine decided she didn't want to sit in the regular chairs with Julia and I; instead, she wanted to go sit upon one of the pod cushions up close to the screen.  I knew it was only a matter of time before she scampered back in fear to join us in the seats, but I let her go.

And the movie began.  Within the first few minutes, Julia declared she was too scared and wanted to leave.  Madeleine, as predicted, scampered back to climb in my lap.  We decided to stay for a few scenes just to see if things felt less scary once the Skekses were not onscreen.  We found a pretty good rhythm, with Julia closing her eyes and turning her face away from the screen anytime Skekses were featured, and Madeleine bravely and stoically watching, while wrapping my arms around her as protection.

After about a half hour, with both girls still scared, I checked in on how they were feeling.  Both girls were pretty adamant about wanting to leave because it was too scary.  So we caused a minor disturbance, opening the door and letting the outside light in for a moment as we pushed our stroller and ourselves out into the library lobby.

ME: Okay, well, give me a minute to get our stuff together, then we'll go over to the pool.
JULIA: (sighing in disappointment) Mama, I wish we didn't have to leave, because I was reeeeeally ENJOYING watching that movie.
ME: Wait a minute.  You just told me you were too scared and wanted to leave.
JULIA: Well, I just wish we could keep watching it.
ME: Madeleine, do you want to go to the pool?
MADELEINE: Uh, I want to watch the rest of the movie.

Wait.  WHAT?!?  Was it truly out of sight, out of mind?  The minute we leave the dark movie room, the fear is completely gone, and both kids are wistfully wishing to return??

Too bad.  I didn't give them the opportunity.  Julia is STILL scared of the mummy from Pound Puppies every night.  I was ready to quit while we were ahead.  So we went to the pool.

The kids love Rosemary Pool, and every summer, we spend a whole lot of time there.  One of the advantages to the kids being older this summer is that Julia is a much more competent swimmer now, and I can feel free to follow Madeleine around while keeping an eye on Julia as she swims in the lap lane.  Juggling two kids incapable of swimming on their own was nerve-wracking in past summers.

One of the DISADVANTAGES of the kids being older, and both potty trained, is that between the two of them, someone needs to go up to the bathroom about every fifteen minutes.  If it's Julia needing to pee, I can send her up on her own to use the toilet while I stay in the water with Madeleine.  If it's Julia needing to POOP, however, she feels the need to have me closer by, or at the very least, to announce her intentions in private to me.  Usually this happens as I'm in the middle of a conversation with another parent, during which Julia will beckon me with her finger and say, "Mommy?  A word?"  Once I'm safely away from other people, she will then whisper to me that she needs to poop.  Usually she wants me to come up to the locker room with her, which means dragging Madeleine out of the pool to come up with us.

If it's Madeleine who needs the bathroom, I feel much more panicked.  For one, I can't send her up on her own, so anytime Madeleine has to go, I have to pull Julia out of the pool so we can all go up to the locker room together.  For two, Madeleine doesn't always make it to the bathroom before announcing her need to go.  She very helpfully pooped in her bathing suit on our first pool trip of the summer, leaving me to discover the situation by reaching out to touch the dark stain on the back of her suit, only to recoil in disgust, because I was simply TOO STUPID to trust my nose alone about what the dark stuff might be.  Therefore, any time I see her clutch a hand between her legs, or hear her announce, voice strained, "I need to go to the BATHROOM!", I begin a mad dash to get her up to the locker room, shouting for Julia to get out of the water and follow us.

Thankfully, today, despite myriad trips to the locker room, everyone got everything into the potty and nothing into the bathing suits.  Therefore, we were able to kick back and relax during rest period, rather than have me force the girls to try the potty.  The girls sat casually on the pool bench, eating Rainbow Goldfish and drying off in the sun.  We got to play Madeleine's super-fun Goldfish game, in which we have to guess if her goldfish, which she eats two by two, match colors.  After about the first three rounds, the game gets really old, really fast, and we still have the whole rest of the package to get through.  At least Madeleine took a break from the game to ask an important question: "Why does it feel like the Goldfish are DYING when they're inside my mouth?"

With that comment, Madeleine solidifies the fact that she is still the reigning champion of creepy imagery.