A little bit of summer…

Okay, it is true. I’ve set myself an impossible deadline, I’ve got a HUGE release (and not the dirty, euphemistic kind either) on July 4th, and I’m stressing big time.

Which means that the time I spend at the pool is more important than ever, because it is time when the kids have my immediate attention and I am not with Whiskey and Patrick, trying to get into the head of adult ADHD and semi-infinite patience. (Patrick tends to go KERSPLANG! a lot– it’s just something he does. Whiskey has to duck a lot. And you can thank Julie for the omigod sexy name btw. Wesley Keenan was a guy who couldn’t get laid as an undergrad. Whiskey? Oh yeah… on the breakfast table face down in the cheerios…)

So, anyway…

Squish, Zoomboy and I have still had some good times. Yesterday we went to the park and we met friends after my aqua class. We were meeting with Kewyn’s friend Sam, and his family, and that gave me some adult face time w/another adult– ahhhh… (And I’ve mentioned this before, but Sonja is perhaps THE nicest person. It was a good day!)

Today, the short people came to the gym and we went swimming afterward.

And Squish learned to swim.

Now I’ve gotten swim lessons for the older kids, and I kept putting it off this year for the short ones. It’s just that for my family, swimming has always come from playing. You play, and then while you’re playing, you figure out how to float. Chicken was the perfect example of this. Chicken and I had been playing in the pool for four summers. When she was four years old, my stepmom took her camping at the lake. Chicken started walking into the lake, and instead of stopping at her chin, she just kept walking, pushing up off the sloped bottom until her face broke the water. (My mom, in the meantime had started running to get her, because she hadn’t expected this!) Finally, when the bottom was too sloped to reach, Chicken managed to keep her face above water, and voila! Child could swim!

Today, Squish did the same thing. She’d played with the floaties to the point where she could hug a kickboard to her chest and just hang out, floating on her back. Today, she was standing on tippy toe with her face out of the water and I said, “Just stick your stomach out, and you can float on your back.”

And she did. Her stomach floated up and then she was doing it–the starfish. And then she could paddle to keep her face out of the water, and there you go. Child could swim.

Of course, directionality is a problem, but for me, the real purpose of Child Can Swim is that, if the kid ends up thrown in the deep end of a pool, they can hang in there until an adult gets there to bail them out. Of course, the goal is for the ability level to rise until no adult is needed, but for the moment? Child can swim. And her brother, in an effort not to be beaten by his little sister, stopped screwing around and did the same trick. Children can swim.

It’s not fool proof, but we’re excited. Yay!

So, on top of that, I have the following, oh-so-very-Squishy conversation for you:

“Mama, what am I made of?”

“Sugar and spice and everything nice.”

“Anything else?”

“Freckles and speckles and gorgeous red hair.”

“And flowers and lollipops too, right?”

“Oh, absolutely– can’t forget the flowers and lollipops.”

“And kitties and hearts and sunshine and love and lots of love and stuffed animals and pink and…”

And all of that too, of course:-)

And that’s about all! The next time I post (or maybe the time after that!) it’s going to be the big “Living Promises is out” post, and then I’m probably going to hide under my bed and make moaning noises, because I’m stalwart about reviews like that. (Not.) Which reminds me–

I may do a review round up at the end of the summer-I may not. I still love the good ones and REALLY appreciate them, but anyone who’s known me for long (and some of you, we’re starting on six years now) knows that after a certain point, I feel like talking about good news is just bragging, and I don’t want to tempt the gods. So I’ll see the review, revel in it for a little, and be quietly happy that someone posted something public and nice about my writing. I’m thrilled–but going on too much about it feels wrong.

That being said…This here felt really special to me. The letter is beautiful, and I was really honored to be named in this event. I got a Dear Author letter, and I’m really proud:-)

And now I’m going to go nap, because I spent 2 1/2 hours in the sun, and I’m not going to be able to write more Whiskey and Patrick if I don’t get a little rest:-)

Amy