Getting So Grown Up
This picture doesn't really suggest it but it was the best I had with me today (I forgot to bring the camera into work where I can offload the pictures but I had a few new ones in my phone).
On Sunday Dada and I went to the pool. We go to the East Side YMCA where they have a pretty elaborate water park, with two big water slides, lots of showers and fountains and this "pirate ship" in the middle with a little water slide that small kids can use, no bigger than a typical playground slide.
Dada loves the big slide and she and I must have ridden it five or six times in an hour, but I can only carry her up the stairs so many times, so we went over to the shallow end.
Dada decided she wanted to go down the little slide, which she had not done before. I started to go up the stairs of the pirate ship with her when she said very sternly and clearly "stay here, Daddy. Stay here", including a little palm-out gesture. OK, I said, tears welling up in my eyes.
So my little girl climbed up the stairs, got in line and came down the slide all by herself. It was, I think, a defining moment, marking a new stage in her development as a person.
Then she did it again about six times. On one slide she got off balance and banged her head, making a loud bonk. She cried (who wouldn't?) and the life guard came over and got her a cold pack and checked her head (no blood). But before the cold pack could have any real effect, she was back on the ground saying "stay here, Daddy. Stay here." And off she went.
This child is tough and determined. I can only imagine what I'm in for in about 10 years....
Oh, yeah, the picture. This is us on the way home from the pool about 7:00 p.m. The pitiless summer Texas sun was shining in. We had forgotten to grab the towels in our rush to leave the house and all she had to shield herself was her lambie bag. This is her reproachful "has it come to this Daddy? Has it come to this?" look. Or maybe it's the "more Pool, I want more pool please. More pool. More pool" look.
posted by Eliot Kimber @ 2:33 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
This grandma is happy because as I recall, I gave her that lambie bag!! (I knew you would forget those towels some day.) But I question your timeline on the "what am I in for?" query. Ten years? Ha, ha. Get real. Try twenty, thirty, or, yes, forty and counting. Glad you are getting plenty of exercise to keep you healthy for decades to come.
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