Holiday

We spent most of yesterday swimming and eating with good friends whose parents graciously included us in their family’s celebration of the Fourth. They live in a gorgeous house with a perfect pool, and let’s just say the Haub children, not to mention their prego mom who has just about had it with the L.A. heat wave, were in heaven. We have two of the most fearless water babies I have ever met which is pure joy for us (as well as terror sometimes)!

Doug was a lifeguard and swim instructor in his younger days, and he does a great job teaching and training the kids how to enjoy the water. He has a little ritual with them where they get out of the pool, have to walk to a specific spot along the edge (the perfect distance from stairs, etc.) and then say to him: “Coming!” They then have to stand there and wait until he looks at them and answers: “Okay!” And then they jump. Repeat this about eight thousand times, and you have a pretty good picture of our day yestesrday.

This was Aaron’s first time in a pool now that he is walking and able to do the whole jump into the water thing. We actually had no idea how he would feel about it, but after watching Mercy go in a few times, he decided to try it. The first time in was a bit of a shock, but as soon as he spit enough water out of his mouth to speak again, his message was clear: “AAAAAAAAA-DEN!” I tried to do Doug’s little training thing with him, and was occasionally successful, but as his excitement for the experience grew, he started to just run in without stopping or saying a word. At that point, Lifeguard Doug intervened and brought some order to the world.

We made it back home before dark, and got our sleepy children into their beds before the really big explosions started in our neighborhood. Once darkness fell, our street and the streets around us became the war zone of fire and noise that we have come to expect here on the Fourth. I had to go in and comfort Aaron three times due to all the noise, but thankfully Mercy was so exhausted from her nap-less day of sun and water that she slept peacefully through it all. It amuses me to think that it is illegal to set off fireworks here in the city. Who do they think they are kidding with that law?

4 comments

  1. love it! what a great day. i can still hear little aaron yelling “coming”…well, that and “zoey”
    thanks again for the ride home.

  2. Yes, we had plenty of fire works outside our house that night (the 4th) and the windows down so I put on the last two movements of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony from 10:00 on, and it seemed to fit very well. Kind of fun.

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