Swimming.

We took the kids to the indoor pool last night. That's one of the advantages of living here in suburbia, where we have a golf club, fitness center and a "sprayground". I admit that sometimes I feel so pretentious sitting in my minivan (with the all of the family's sets of golf clubs in the back) while we drive to one of the many pools in our neighborhood. It feels like I'm not so much 'keeping it real' as maybe more like 'living in la-la land'. But I digress.

We took the kids to the pool after a quick stop at Target. We had to buy my daughter a new bathing suit because she's grown a good 3 inches since the last time we went swimming. It's awful handy that the stores are all fully stocked with bathing suits, but it somehow felt wrong buying one when it was 34 degrees outside and sleeting.

We are currently trying to teach the kids to swim. That, however, has not been working out very well for us. Oh, we've made some advancements. The boy is now going under water and attempting to swim. The girl, though, is scared to death of having the water go anywhere near her head. So we think we'll end up having to get the kids swimming lessons. Which makes me feel even more pretentious. Because when I was a kid I learned to swim in the ocean - surrounded by all sorts of not-so-nice creatures, not with a qualified instructor in a carefully pH balanced pool. (I think we may be turning the kids into pansies.)

The boy is doing better than we first thought he would. Once upon a time he was deathly afraid of water. He avoided running water of all sorts, including the bath spout and various decorative fountains. He would not go near lakes or pools. He hated water. Now we refer to him as "aqua boy" because of his love to go under water. It's not really because of his swimming ability, though, because he seems to lack any sort of ability at all. In fact, we have determined that he is unable to even float. He walks along the bottom of the pool like he is weighted down with cement blocks. He sinks. And if there is such a thing as being too uptight to swim, that is what he is. He cannot relax enough to even straighten his body out. He spends his time in the pool all gnarled up like an old arthritic hand (if you can compare a swimming boy to an arthritic hand.) It really is a sight to behold.

The girl likes to spend her time in the pool holding onto the edge and kicking her feet behind her. She likes to be taken out into the middle while she holds onto you with a grip that turns her knuckles white and cuts off your circulation. She is surprisingly fluid in the water though. She glides and moves like she is dancing. It's ironic that she's the one with the proper form for swimming, but she's too nervous to try it. But once she gets the hang of it, watch out. She's got powerful arms and shoulders. She's a girl built to swim.

Unlike to boy, who's a boy built to sink, evidently.