Never A Dull Moment!

(Paprika with her private swim teacher last week, a different era!)

Lots of big news around here! Yesterday, Paprika started "Pre-Swim Team" - which is basically a six week tryout for the swim team.

We have been so spoiled. Paprika has been taking swim lessons for 14 months now, and we often have the whole pool to ourselves. At least it feels that way! Well, yesterday was a shock to the system.

First of all, I was not prepared for the mania of Type-A Tiger swim parents. Oh My Word. When we showed up at the pool, there were about sixty parents there for thirty kids enrolled. The dads came. The grandparents came. People came with their big cameras and long lenses! I didn't even bring my cellphone camera!

There was a little parent meeting before, so I had all three kids by myself. Violet was crying because it was her naptime. I had Ginger strapped in the stroller and she was trying to hurl herself out of it (I had her in there to keep her contained!) Everyone was looking at me, and one mom even scoffed directly at me: I thought this was just a parent meeting, but I guess they are allowing kids here.

Well, alrighty then.



These parents were over the top competitive. I knew a few of the parents from seeing them around swim lessons. One mom is the one who yelled at her kid during the Spring session: Why can't you swim more like Paprika?! Look at her backstroke! Get it right!

Her child had been taking lessons for two weeks while Paprika had been taking lessons for 10 months!

So, yesterday was just crazy. I think the Olympics had something to do with it. A lot of parents are hoping their kid is the next Missy Franklin or Michael Phelps, and well...it's PRE-SWIM TEAM, people!

Thankfully, Paprika was oblivious to it and swam her little heart out. At the end, they had everyone get out of the pool and everyone did, except for Paprika. She swam to the middle of the pool and sat on the bottom and would not get out. She would come up for air for a split second while everyone was yelling at her to get out, then shoot right back down the bottom and sit there (where she could not hear us)!

Of course, that made me feel like parent of the year! Paprika never wants to get out of the pool, so it was no surprise. Eventually, the coaches made a highschooler jump in and drag her out.

I said, "Why wouldn't you get out of the pool?"

She said, "Oh, I was just talking to the mermaid sprite fairies. They had so many interesting things to say. Did you know that mermaids are the only people who can breathe underwater?"



In other news, I had to fire Paprika's piano teacher. It was a bunch of things, but it came to a head last Thursday when I looked through the window and saw the teacher checking her email throughout the lesson. She had her laptop open and her Gmail account up, and I was like...c'mon! It's a 30 minute lesson! Give me a break!

So, I called the studio and complained, and eventually got them to agree to switch her teachers without charging me an extra fee. The studio was actually giving me attitude and said that they didn't believe that the teacher was really checking her email. Then, I said I had pictures of her with her Gmail account open (because I do) and I would be posting the pictures on Yelp if they really didn't believe me. And after that, they were much nicer to me! Haha.

Sometimes it's good to be an obsessive picture taker. ;-)

While Paprika had her lesson, I was occupying Ginger and Violet. Ginger was in her straightjacket...I mean, dress that buttons up the back! The week before, Ginger was in a regular outfit and took it off at the studio and I got majorly judged by some uppity women. They were like, "How old is your child and why won't she wear clothes?!" So this week, I made sure she looked appropriate. Of course, she still ran around like a wild hyena and was doing flips in the lobby.

This was one of the few moments that she wasn't running 90 miles/hour. She had to refuel with water:



Last night, the girls gave eachother haircuts while Mr. M was supposedly supervising them! Ginger doesn't have much hair left, and Paprika's is five different lengths. I haven't taken pictures yet, and I haven't fixed it either. I am mulling over what to do about it. They were so happy with their work, it kinda broke my heart to "fix" it, but at the same time...we've got crazy hair going on in this house.

Speaking of hair, my hair is looking RED after my salon visit last month! I asked for blonde highlights, and got Lucille Ball red. It was a Groupon, so lesson learned! ;-) My friend referred me to her stylist to fix it, so I should probably do that...but finding the time is the issue. Let's just say I am low on free time. ;-) So, maybe I should ask Ginger and Paprika to do my hair for me. Haha.



And one more thing...guess who is starting gymnastics next week?! Ginger and Paprika! I had to do it. Ginger is flipping off the couch, hanging upside down from the trees, and otherwise engaging in daredevelish stunts. She can't be stopped.



So, I am enrolling both Ginger and Paprika. It's just one day/week...for now. Because we have nothing else going on. Haha.



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