![\"\"](\"http:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/IMG_4219.jpg\" "\\"IMG_4219\\"")
<\/p>\nI think I’m just about ready to get into fall rituals these days. I’ve started really anticipating the baking, the sweaters, the tights, the apple picking — and still more baking. But there is one thing I’m definitely going to miss from this glorious summer: our afternoon trips to the pool. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
p{color:gray}. Photo: These are Lucy and Rosie’s default uniforms for post-swim afternoons: a couple of cool and quick-drying sun dresses.<\/p>\n
Back in June, I charted out the (always random) hours of our local Chicago Park District pools. We live just a mile away from two “different”:http:\/\/www.chicagoparkdistrict.com\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/parks.detail\/object_id\/a2d7e215-d421-4dcd-aabc-b177b4d8d888.cfm\/ “ones”:http:\/\/www.chicagoparkdistrict.com\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/parks.detail\/object_id\/f1c70683-18ad-4f6d-857a-736d769bebe5.cfm\/ we like to bike to, plus there are “one”:http:\/\/www.chicagoparkdistrict.com\/index.cfm\/fuseaction\/parks.detail\/object_id\/e75518e2-e6c5-4db5-a955-39a6aef400ad.cfm\/ or “two”:http:\/\/www.fpdcc.com\/tier3.php?content_id=55\/ others we drive to when motivated. I love how CPD(Chicago Park District) pools are free, but they always have complicated schedules that include adult swim, youth swim, and family swim — which means that there are usually only one or two meager 45-minute blocks each day open for parents with small children. I was disappointed to learn that our morning swimming options were pretty limited, but it turned out that the afternoon slots worked perfectly for us.<\/p>\n
Four or five times each week, Rosie, Lucy, and I (sometimes Jon, too, on a weekend) would suit up, pile onto our bike and trailer, and head on over to the pool. The short window of time gave us an energizing sense of urgency, with *Lucy asking the whole way there, “Do you think we’ll be able to have 21 minutes?”* Where in the world did she ever get this figure for her benchmark minimum time in the pool? I have no idea. But it turns out that 21 minutes really is just about the perfect amount of time for one mother with two children neither of whom can actually swim. :)<\/p>\n
The girls would take turns jumping off the side of the pool into my arms, and then hold onto the edge or climb out again for another round. About a third of the way through the summer, Lucy discovered that she is tall enough to stand in the three-foot deep end, which made our swim adventures even a little easier. <\/p>\n
I’m a water person by nature, so even though I wasn’t actually swimming I just loved being in the pool with my girls. There’s nothing like slipping into the water at the end of a 90° day. It turned out to be just the perfect quick afternoon activity, transforming that hour or so before dinner from a festival of complaining into a joyful hydro-romp.<\/p>\n
Of course, many of these pool trips ended with some kind of non-dinner; we ate a lot of yogurt and peanut butter sandwiches for supper on these days. The amazing thing was that I enjoyed our pool trips enough that our sub-standard evening meals didn’t bother me much. The fun in the water was definitely feeding our souls. <\/p>\n
A couple weeks ago, the girls were sick with colds, which put the kibosh on our final week of pool trips. I confess, it was kind of a shocking change of routine, going from “picnics-and-swimming” to “tissues-and-cabin-fever.” I’ve been wondering if there are things I can do this fall and winter that would mimic the fun of our afternoon swimming adventures: a trip to the park? art projects? baking together? We’ll probably check out some indoor pools, too, but it will be a totally different thing to actually need to dry our hair before heading outside into the snow.<\/p>\n
Part of the fun of these afternoons was my abdication of dinner preparation. I love to cook, but the girls get a little restless waiting for me to return to them my undivided attention. Maybe I’ll have to rev up the crock pot a few more times to give us more afternoon space.<\/p>\n
I know there will be more fun things that arise even with the cooler weather. But I can’t deny that part of me is going to be waiting for June 2011 to roll around so we can get our swimming pool fix once again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think I’m just about ready to get into fall rituals these days. I’ve started really anticipating the baking, the sweaters, the tights, the apple picking — and still more baking. But there is one thing I’m definitely going to miss from this glorious summer: our afternoon trips to the pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5450"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5475,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions\/5475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boydsnest.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}