Sheep Guarding Llama

After all of the fun that they had yesterday in the pool, everyone slept well and was looking forward to being able to go back to the pool again today. Dominica made her amazing vegetarian sausage crazy and biscuits for breakfast which she first made last weekend while her parents were staying with us. Amazing gravy. I have no memory of any gravy being so good even back in my pre-vegetarian days (which are getting harder and harder to remember now that I have passed the “the last one third of my life I’ve been a vegetarian” point.)

Late morning we made our way back up the hill to the pool. It was warmer today, last night was a little chilly even for those of us not in the water, and in fact I was sweating a bit hard as I pushed the stroller up the hill. Both girls decided that they wanted to ride in the stroller once we were underway, so Liesl sat in the stroller and Luciana rode on her lap which made for a heavy load to push up the hill. I got my workout.

The pool was packed today. There were lots of people sunbathing too, not just swimming. The kiddie pool was closed today because of a chemical imbalance so everyone was stuck using the big pool which was pretty well utilized. There were lots of kids in there today. Unfortunately there were a lot of rude and rowdy kids too who were not very respectful and that made it a lot tougher. Liesl and Luciana are not very used to being around other kids who don’t behave, have supervision or respect others. So they were not very well equipped to deal with a lot of the kids. This made Luciana not want to swim there. Liesl was able to escape by swimming away from the other kids. She got going really well today because of this. She was swimming all over the pool, interacting with all kinds of kids and even adults and was even pulling herself out by the sides of the pool and jumping in from the sides! Really impressive progress.

The kids that Liesl and Luciana hung out with yesterday were there for just a little bit too and stopped by to see them. Luciana had me take her to the playground for a while because she did not want to deal with the kids in the big pool and the small pool was closed.

The girls did quite well, though, and they had a good time.  The weekends are very crowded.  Unfortunately, right now, the pool is only open on the weekends, not during the week.  Otherwise we would use it during the week when there would likely be hardly anyone around.  The playground goes almost completely unused during the week.

It’s Saturday and today is a family day for us. Dominica and the girls are going to be heading down to Florida one week from today and I am going to really be missing them so this weekend is set aside for just spending time together. I did manage to get myself scheduled to be in the office next Saturday so that I can work while the family is gone in exchange for a comp day sometime when they are back home. That is way better. It is almost like shortening their trip by one day, sort of.

This morning we got up and took a walk up the hill and went to the playground. The girls had fun but were upset, especially Liesl, that they could not go swimming this morning. The playground is right against the swimming pool and the pool was busy and full of kids and the girls wanted to join them. So we didn’t spend as much time on the playground as we might have. While we were there, though, we stopped by the recreation center and got our IDs made for us so that we will be able to use the pool as well as the gym in the future. It is truly amazing that we have lived here for nearly six years (we moved in a few months before Liesl was born) and never once have used or even visited these facilities. We have all of the amenities as if we lived in an apartment complex but have never taken advantage of it.

We relaxed at the house for a little while but in the middle of the afternoon we packed the girls up again and went back up the hill. This time we took the small stroller and Luciana rode and I pushed while Dominica and Liesl walked up to the swimming pool. There were not many people there tonight. It is still early in the year for swimming and late in the day as well. We started off in the kiddie pool which is a small square and uniformly eighteen inches deep. So shallow that the girls do not need floatation devices. It was very cold, though. But they had fun. Dominica and I avoided getting in.

I took my Kindle with me up to the pool and spent most of the time, when I wasn’t keeping an eye on the girls, continuing to read “A House Like a Lotus.” I am probably halfway through it now. I get very little time to read in print.

They were not long in the little pool when they both decided that they wanted to go to the big pool. We thought that this would not be any fun for them because there were extra people and they would have to wear flotation devices but they insisted. It turned out that the big pool was heated, but not the little one. So it was actually quite a bit nicer. And, as luck would have it, about the only people that we know in our entire complex were the people who were in the pool! It was our local girlscout’s family, the one from whom we buy cookies and who thought that Liesl and Luciana were so sweet that she had offered to come help Dominica with them over the summer (this is a month ago or so that she had offered.) She and her little brother were in the pool so Liesl already knew her and was very comfortable and she was very excited to get to play with the girls. Liesl and her new friends had a lot of fun. Dominica went over and sat with their mother and they talked for a long time. It turns out that we are neighbours. Not next door to each other but close enough that we can see each other from the front windows.

The girls were very glad that we went swimming today, they had a really good time and Liesl is really getting good and being in the pool. She is able to swim around and make her way, slowly, around the pool. Lots of great exercise for her.

It’s Friday and it really came up fast with this being a short week.  Work was good and  was able to leave at a good time, after happy hour, to get home and take the family out for our third trip to the playground this week!  We are already making this into a routine and a good one.  It is making us much happier to be doing this when I get home from work.

Liesl continues to get braver and better at climbing in the playground, day by day.

Thursday.  I am still reading “Dragons of Spring Dawning” during my commutes.  That is a very long book.

After work today the girls were ready when I got home and we were straight off to the playground again.  They are loving that we are able to do this when I get home from work and Dominica and I are loving how well it works for making our evenings function better.  The extra exercise is great for she and I but is really good in that it wears the girls out making them much better for getting to sleep when we get back from the playground.  And it improves the “daddy walking in the door” situation which is often me being attacked by the girls who want to talk or jump all over me or whatever before I am even through the door and that does not work well as I am always trying to shift from work and commute modes into home mode, to use the restroom, get changed, etc.

When they know that we are going to the playground, they know that they need to get ready and that I need to get ready and they are much happier to let me do so.  Then they can tell me about their days while we walk. So much better.

Both girls are improving each day that we go to the playground.  Liesl is still scared climbing a lot of the stuff but she tries really hard and does more each day. It is really impressive how much she pushes herself to do something that she is afraid of.  She just makes herself do it.  Still no luck on trying the fireman’s pole, though.

It’s Friday and my last day with the family before their long vacation. I was up quite early this morning having gotten a full night of sleep since we went to bed so early. I managed to get into the office on the early side today, which was nice. Work was fine today.

I left just a little early, at about a quarter till six, but traffic was horrible near the office, probably because of Metro North being down southbound into the City. So I was delayed a bit but once I was off of the highway there was no traffic. Dominica’s parents arrived at the house around four thirty and they wanted to get to dinner before it got too late so the whole family packed up and went to our local pizza place without me but I made very good time getting home so I met them there long before they had their pizza. The girls were excited that I met them there. We got two large cheese pizzas and only ate one, so I am going to have a lot of pizza this week being home alone.

After pizza we went out for custard for dessert. Then it was back to the house and immediately off to get everyone to bed. We have to be up at three tomorrow morning, we need to get right to bed tonight. The girls are sleeping on the air mattress in our bedroom which always makes it difficult to get off to sleep as they keep each other, and us, up.