any stroke'll do

Today we took Sassy swimming. It was the hottest day of the year so far, but we couldn't tell. At first she was very shy about it, acting like she could care less if she ever put more than a finger in the water. I believe she acts more reserved when I'm around, and it drives me nuts. It should be the opposite - mommy's here, I can be brave! - but when Micah tells me stories about the swimming party they went to, it sounds like she was the star of the little swimming show. Today it took fifteen minutes to get her in the water, and that was the baby pool. Like a big bathtub! Get hep, chica!

What has definitely changed as of late is Sassy's interest in other children. She attends daycare part-time and evidently it's helped her. Now she focuses on what the other children are doing, no matter where we go. If they are screaming, she screams. If they are playing with toys, she wants them, which is a potential crisis every time. Try explaining to a less-than-two-year-old that those toys aren't hers. Does not compute. Not when any and every toy she's ever seen (besides at a store) is hers if she wants it. Quick, let's have another kid so we don't raise a brat! AHA! That was the most kiddingest that I ever kidded. Because seriously.

So Sassy climbs out of the baby pool eventually and tears off toward the big pool, lured by the happy shrieks of bigger kids. Immediately she decides she'd rather be in her daddy's arms than mine, which...harumph. I wanna swim with her! I had visions of throwing and swishing her! When I most want her, she wants her daddy. Harumph.

I got her attention with the ol' George Washington "wig." You know, where you flip all your hair to the front and then fold it back? Well. She stared at me like I'd grown a second head, one with bloody fangs and pussy boils, like she was disgusted and genuinely concerned.

"Ha ha! Isn't that funny, Sass?"

Nothing.

"Ha ha! Mama's hair is so funny!"

Nothing. Eyes bugging.

"You don't like the hair?"

"Uh-oh," she finally says, very slowly, pointing at me.

And I proceeded to laugh so loud and long I think I made a spectacle.