Infamy

As soon as Christmas is over, it’s time to start thinking about the boys’ birthday party.  Endless opportunities to spend money… yippee!

This year I gave them two choices: an indoor pool party where we have swimming lessons, or a kid kitchen where you can make pizza and cupcakes.  Jacob tells me he wants to be a cook, so I figured there was a solid chance of him picking the Nate-friendly choice.  But of course the vote was right down the middle… Aquaman voted pool party and Land Rover voted cooking.

There was no easy tie-breaker.  Though Land Rover changed sides when I promised he could go in the hot tub.

Although I’m not excited about volunteering to be in the pool so all the other parents can enjoy their lemonade from the dry, bathing-suit free comfort of the party, I think Nate will have fun, too.  He really does like playing in the water.  He just doesn’t like swimming lessons.  Or swimming teachers.  Or swimming suits.

I also realized that I forgot to commemorate the great quitting of 2013, when Nate and I literally threw-in the towel.  Our last lesson was two weeks into November; the 9th to be exact.  After the spookfest of Halloween, Nate was ‘cared of everything.  EVERYTHING.  All progress we had made on the water slide and going under the agua completely evaporated.  The pool began overflowing with his tears.  He shamed me right back onto dry land.

So we quit.  Coincidentally, on the same day that he received a ribbon for “moving up” from the Polliwogs to the Starfish.  I have no idea when we went from Barnacles to Polliwogs, but I lost a lot of respect for AVAC on the day they presented us with the Starfish ribbon.  Now I know they’re not above “passing” a child up to the next grade.  I’ve got my eye on you Teacher Christine.

Meanwhile Jakey is still happy as a clam.  This week he did four arm strokes unassisted… looks to be the precursor to freestyle.  I gave him a big thumbs up from the comfort of my real clothes and the glassed-in viewing gallery.

So last week I call the swim club to book our preferred birthday party date.  Ali answers the phone.  I ask some questions and then she begins asking me for my pertinent details.

“Is this Ali as in Teacher Ali?” I ask.  Teacher Ali was our very first swimming teacher back when we were Barnacles… last February.

“Yes, that’s me,” she replies.

“This is Nate’s mom.  You probably remember Nate… he cried the whole time.”

“Oh yes, I know exactly who you are.”

Awesome.