Bathing Beauties

Madeleine and Josephine enjoyed another swim at the neighborhood pool this Saturday. It was a great, hot day for the pool and both girls were anxious to dive, or at any rate jump, in. Madeleine acquired a pair of orange flippers at a yard sale that morning and worked on using them in both the children's section and in the deeper area. She's still getting used to the water again after the winter - she loves it, but isn't quite back to where she was last summer in terms of putting her head under and trying to swim independently. She did however see a very young girl, probably about 3, jump off the diving board and dog paddle to the ladder. Michael explained very clearly what Madeleine would need to do to get diving board privileges and she started right away working on these skills.

Josephine had a great time at the pool, too. Previously, she's enjoyed the pool, but has been just as interested in rattling that chain-link fence around the baby pool and picking up stray flip-flops as in actually getting wet. Her attitude toward the pool changed dramatically on Saturday though and she had to be physically restrained from jumping into the 'big pool.' Perhaps from some combination of watching Madeleine play in the water and the heat, but Josephine is hooked. She loved 'swimming' on her tummy as I walked her around the baby pool, floating on her back when I held her hands, and lounging in a floatie as her sister pushed her around. We'll have to keep a tight grip on her this summer.

Last night, Madeleine asked me to read her a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods. We tried reading this together several months ago, but were challenged as the first chapter seemed to describe how to skin, cook, or cure just about any animal that happened to live in the big woods. Madeleine had been looking through it for pictures, so I skipped right to the chapter describing a dance at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Madeleine seemed to enjoy it - there are great descriptions of the clothes, dancing, and maple sugar treats. One part describes how Laura talks to another little girl also named Laura who says that HER baby is prettier than baby Carrie. I asked Madeleine what she'd do if another girl said her baby was prettier than Josephine. I expected Madeleine to defend Josephine, which she did but not at all in the way that I expected. Madeleine said that she'd tell the other girl that "They're both prettier!" which while it doesn't entirely make sense, demonstrates Madeleine's sense of fair play and equality.