Chlorine and Sunscreen

Today my boy's head smelled of summer, chlorine and sunscreen. I couldn't get my nose out of his hair...

He and daddy took their first trip to Cumberland Pool today. (yes, we've lived here, across the gully from the pool, for three years and we'd never been. no, I can't explain why that is...) We went ahead and bought pool passes in the hopes that it would force us to go. Nat has decided this is the summer Jack needs to learn to swim. And, from the reports of how today went, I do believe it will happen. By all accounts, a good time was had by all. When I got home from taking Ivy to BSG (breastfeeding support group, from here on out), Jack came running up to me, all damp and pool-smelling and adorable, and told me, "I went dwimming! I jumped to daddy, and and and I went in the pall pool too!" His face was alight.

We added to the summer-ness of the day with a pizza picnic at Melinda and Will's, where the boy enjoyed their tree-swing in the wonderful evening light that filters through their giant oak, and a trip to Baskin-Robins where he coated himself in chocolate ice cream and ran giggling around the outdoor tables, mustachioed face beaming. Delicious.

In other Jack news, the boy has been motivated to try and sit on the potty, averaging 1-2 attempts per day the past 3 days. This is new, from the boy who was actively refusing to have anything to do with the potty prior to this. The fact that he gets an M&M for trying, doesn't hurt, I am sure. He also gets to earn 2 more M&Ms for a success. And tonight before bed, he earned a grand total of 5. That's right-- pee and poo in the potty. Happy mommy. I am not holding my breath, we've had some "false alarms" of interest in this process before. But this is at least a little bit promising, I think. I hope. I am so ready to be done with giant almost-3-year-old-boy poopy diapers. Really.

On the Ivy front, the girl is embracing the fact that she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow by being increasingly fussy in the evenings. Two nights in a row now we've had 2+ hours of nearly inconsolable baby on our hands. We are just not used to this behavior from calm girl. Not that she's really that bad in the grand scheme of things. She continues to sleep much of the day, and we got a 6 hour stretch of sleep last night, on top of the regularly-occurring 4 hour stretches most nights. And, the smiling! At least once a day we have a lovely alert period with smiling and cooing and kicking... Why is it that the fussy hours must come at night, when our reserves are depleted and we just want to be asleep, when we are least prepared to soothe and shush and be patient? How is it that this baby, so easy by day, can be so frustrating in these moments, in the dark? The hours of fussing are the longest imaginable... Of course right now, after 2 and half hours of crying and squirming and flailing, like a switch the girl has changed her mood-- to alert and kicking and cooing in her bouncy seat. Yep, just what we want at midnight, honey....