Monday, August 18, 2008

The Fifth Wheel

Today the girls were at home with me because our childcare provider took a vacation day. We made the most of it and had a great day at the pool (the high today is 88, so it worked out well). We went to a local pool that was recently renovated and now has a diving pool, an aquatic climbing wall, a sprinkler area, a regular lap pool, and a wading pool with little slides and hoses. The girls were in heaven and the first half hour or so we simply bounced from area to area to take it all in.

A short while later Cici made friends with two other girls who looked to be about her age, and Cici and her new pals were not interested in what me or Ruby were doing -- they wanted to run around together and swim in the big pool. Personally, I love to see that Cici easily makes friends and isn't shy about asserting herself with new kids, and my independent children make me proud. Ruby on the other hand...

Poor Ruby just didn't know what to make of all this. Why was her sister not paying attention to her? Why did the girls have to swim in the big pool where she can't touch? Rubester just couldn't keep up and it broke my heart a little bit to watch her try. She'd run behind the big girls but they weren't paying any attention to her, and they'd be ready to move on to the next thing by the time she finally found them or caught up to them. And I started thinking about how Cici has been the center of Ruby's world for so long and it will again be very hard when Cici goes back to school. I guess we'll just have to make the most of the next two weeks.

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