1 Mother 2 Another

The pool is officially open here in our
house, which means summer’s truly begun. And I have to
confess – the pool’s been open since early May, but
I’ve kept that fact hidden from Maddie because the
water’s too darn cold right now. But since the girls started
swim classes on Monday, I felt like the pool needed to open so we
could reinforce their lessons. So yesterday we hit the water.


Yes, the water was cold. Not too bad, but cold enough, trust me.
But what I’d forgotten was how much freakin’ gear a
trip to the pool requires in our household.

The plan was to hit the pool right after
naps yesterday, and stay through dinner and up until bed time. So
while the girls took their quiet time, I began going through all
our pool stuff, packing the bags and gathering the toys. This took
me over an hour, which seems harsh even by my standards of
over-packing. But here’s what we’ve got:


Our big pool bag has a Ziploc with extra diapers, hand sanitizer,
and the like. We’ve also got a Ziploc of sunscreen in there,
four sets of swim goggles, the Ariel watering can, arm floaties,
sunglasses, and the smaller toy bag. The toy bag has the dive
sticks, squirting fish, squishy balls, and so on.


Then there are four beach towels, the Styrofoam bar bell (for swim
practice), and the inflatable ring. Plus a cooler with waters for
everyone, plates, napkins, a snack for on the way home, and fresh
fruit. I ordered pizza for dinner to save myself the hassle of
trying to carry a meal there. All of this is loaded into our wagon,
which may or may not have kids in it as well, in which case
I’ll be carrying one or more items while pulling the wagon up
the hill for three blocks.


Sigh. Summer’s here.