Mermaids and Poems

We had an extremely busy day today, starting with a trip to the Y so that I could squeeze in a run while the girls played in the childcare room, followed by the first day of summer swim lessons for both girls at Rosemary Pool.  They had a BLAST in their lessons, to the point that Madeleine had to cry when hers was over with because, in her words, "I wanted to keep doing it LONGER."

Afterwards, we hosted a play-date for one of Julia's friends from school (the REAL Sumana this time) along with Sumana's big sister, and as if that wasn't enough to pack into one day, at 4pm, after her friends went home, Julia began begging for me to take her to free swim at Rosemary.  So we took our SECOND pool trip of the day, after which everyone was so tired that I decided the kids should cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie while I cooked dinner.

I rented something they had never seen before, the teen fantasy film "Aquamarine" about a mermaid girl who becomes human in order to seek out true love.

Here is a description of the basic plot from the International Movie Database:

"Two twelve year old girls are in love with a dilapidated beach club near their home. After a huge storm, they discover Aquamarine, a mermaid, in the pool of the club. Aquamarine then falls in love with the cute, young lifeguard who works there and begs the girls to help her set up a date with him."

You wouldn't think this would have ANYTHING in it to scare Julia, right?  Never fear, she found things to be fearful of all on her own.

JULIA: MAMA!  I'm afraid the girls are going to fall off their LADDER!

JULIA: MAMA!  I'm afraid the girls are going to DROWN in the ocean!

JULIA: Mama?  I'm afraid the mermaid might be EVIL.

None of the above fears were realized, if you couldn't have already guessed that from the film description, or the fact that the mermaid Julia feared is evil is given the cutesy name "Aquamarine."

At any rate, once I had dinner in the oven I came into the living room to sit with the kids for a few minutes, and I had all kinds of questions about what was going on in the movie.  My main question had to do with how and why Aquamarine suddenly took on human form and why she needed to find true love so desperately.  Neither kid could quite answer that.  I went for a simpler question.

ME: How was she suddenly able to have human legs?
MADELEINE: (confidently) Uh, her DAD sucked her body up the MERMAID body sucker.
ME: Really??
MADELEINE: Uh, yeah.
ME: Julia, is that how she got legs?
JULIA: We don't KNOW how she got legs.
ME: But Madeleine told me her dad sucked her body up the mermaid body sucker.
JULIA: (disdainfully) Noooo, he didn't, Madeleine.  That NEVER happened.

At any rate, both girls wound up loving the movie, despite the near-scares Julia had to endure.

Speaking of OTHER things Julia loves, she wrote the following poem today:

"Love"
I love you my antis I love you my sistres I love you my brothres I love you my gramus and granpus I love you I love you evreyone.

I hope those of you named above are feeling pretty darn special right now.

She also wrote this poem:

"Green and Bleu"
Gren and bleu I ciyak* to you.  
Green and bleu I sing a song to you.
Green and bleu I swim to you.
Green and bleu I giv a loveing hug to you.
Green and bleu.

*that would be "kayak"

Madeleine was much less loving - towards her mommy, at least.  She could barely even stand a loveing hug this evening.  After I finished putting Julia to bed, I went into Madeleine's room to say good-night to her.  She lay in bed snuggling Ethan, eyes fluttering nearly closed, in deep, peaceful drowsy almost-sleep.  I climbed into bed and asked if she wanted a Mommy snuggle.  She instead asked me if I could leave, but Ethan decided that I should get a chance to cuddle her warm little bundle of a body, so he slipped out to say good-night to Julia, and I cozied up to Madeleine, confident that she would easily fall asleep in my arms.

Instead, she decided to start asking me questions about things that were obviously clear inside her mind but completely aimless to someone outside of her brain.

MADELEINE: Mama?  Does this look like THIS?
ME: Shhhh.  No talking.  Only snuggling.
MADELEINE: But Mama.  Why is this a really SHORT name?
ME: Shhh.  No talking.
MADELEINE: But Mama.  Why did you come in here?
ME: I wanted to give you a bedtime snuggle.
MADELEINE: (wrapping her arms around me)
ME: (snuggling her back)
MADELEINE: But Mama.  Why is this TAKING forever?
ME: Why is what taking forever?
MADELEINE: You HUGGING me.  And where's DADDY?
ME: I think he's giving Julia a hug good-night.
MADELEINE: Mama?  Can you go get him and tell him I want him to come back?
ME: You want to snuggle Daddy instead of me?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  So Mama can you GET him?

So.  I gave up on getting a good loveing hug from Madeleine.  At least I got a poetic one from Julia.