Adventures at the pool

Jacob has been taking "Pre-Beginner 1" swim lessons since September. His time slot must be undesirable to swim teachers because they always seem to have a hard time having a consitent teacher. This session, it's been Mr. S--a man, which is a little unusual in the world of swim teachers at least at this pool. Jacob and his friend Samson have been a little afraid of this guy--not to say he's not a good teacher, but I guess it's just different for them since they were practically imprinted with Ms. Annie as the ideal swim teacher when they started "Get Wet" classes at 4 months old.

So, Jacob was dragging his heels to go in the pool and grasping my hand as we walked toward the water's edge when suddenly, he sees that Mr. S. has been replaced by BETHANY. The hesistancy he had at walking toward the pool totally evaporated upon seeing Bethany's smiling young face. It was as if I did not exist.

To top it off, he had a private lesson with Bethany. Samson was sick and the other little girl, who is apparently nameless since Jacob will not speak of her, did not come last week.

Class ended and Jacob is usually among the first to trot out from the pool area all dripping and shivering. Nope--not this time. I literally had to go onto the pool deck and drag him out of the pool. He said "I'm not leaving!" and Bethany would kind of prop him out of the pool whereupon he would jump right back in to her.

Mr. S. will be back this week. But, Bethany said she would be on lifeguard duty.

An artist discovers a new medium

Tuesday night I worked late at the office. Coming home on the train, Eric calls me and says "Where can you get Baby Orajel toothpaste at this hour?"

Oh, Lord. The fact that we have 3 tubes of it already is not a good sign.

"Why, what happened?"

"Well, I went upstairs because I heard little footsteps running around and was greeted by 'It's ok, daddy. I'm going to sleep now.' " Anything prefaced by "It's okay" is never ok.

Eric goes on: "Nevermind that he had already been tucked in 1/2 hour ago. I walk in his room, the lights are all on, and I am overwhelmed by this smell...'What is that smell Jakie?'

'It's toothpaste, daddy.'

'Where is the toothpaste, Jakie?'

'It's on my trucks.'"

Turns out, he had smeared toothpaste--tons of clear, sticky fruit-flavored orajel all over these little wooden truck-shaped cutouts that were previously painted and magic markered.

He stuck some beads to the toothpaste to make a whole new and different art project! Nevermind the mess. His room smells great.

There's no place like home

Last weekend, we tried to break out of our cozy neighborhood routine and try a different restaurant experience with Jakie.

B was booked on Saturday--we really wanted to go there! So, I suggested Zodiac. It's been a while since we were at Z (summer maybe?)

So, we get an early start, head out there and guess who is completely passed out in the backseat. Didn't realize it until we got a perfect parking spot just off Charles. We could not wake him up--completed zonked. We debated what to do--head home, wait it out, try another place....so finally with not much to lose, we woke his little self up and (thankfully he was not a crank-o-saurus). Head over to Z at 5:55 (so much for trying to be super early birds) and the place is packed. There's a wait and no space at the little bar. 20+ min wait, in fact. Ok, he's not crankosaurus, but he will be soon. No can do.

The host says, "Yeah, at about 5:45, all these people rushed in and totally caught us by surprise!"

UGH! We were in the car debating what to do since 5:30. Figures. So, head out to same old same old, Zen West. Jacob loves that place. Loves the quesadillas. I love the margaritas...No salt NO salt on the margarita.

when nutritional advice backfires

"Don't worry mommy, maybe if you eat all your vegetables you can grow to be big and tall like daddy."