Friday after work, I took the boys to the indoor pool because Nico had begged me to go when we passed the pool on Thursday. However, just one day later he had absolutely no recollection of this.
"Guess where we're going?" I asked excitedly.
"To Legoland!?!" shouted Mateo
"Umm...no. The pool." I said.
"Remember Nico? You wanted to go to the pool." I tried.
"Can I still play video games?" Nico asked seeming indifferent to the whole trip to the pool.
"Sure. After the pool." I sighed. So much for this being a big treat.
"OK. Pool then video games." Nico mutters to himself.
A few seconds later.
"N. I C. O. That's spelled Nico!" shouted Nico proudly putting up a finger for each letter, "And there are 1,2,3...4! letters in my name."
"My names beats your name." Mateo replied, "because it has FIVE letters."
"Well, Nico's full name is Nicolas. And that has seven letters. So looks like he wins after all." I added just to egg Mateo on.
"Oh, yeah...well my full name is Mateolas, and that has eight letters." Mateo said smuggly.
"No it's not." I laughed.
"Yes. It is Mommy. It really is. Ok?" Mateo said seeming rather pissed off.
"Whatever. Mateo." No use agruing.
"Did you know there are two kids named Alex?" Mateo said.
"Yep."
"Well, why do they have the same name?"
"Because it's a popular name. Some people have the same name. Like me and Miss Jackie (Nico's former babysitter). We are both named Jackie. And somewhere in the world there are other kids
named Mateo." I explained.
"There are other Mateos?" Nico asked in awe.
"Yes."
"Oh, well... I want to meet these other Mateos." Nico said suspiciously.
"Well, maybe someday we will." I replied.
We pulled into the pool parking lot and Nico and Mateo dashed to the doors to fight over who will push the button to open the doors. I recognized the girl who punches our pool pass as Nico's old swim teacher from Parent and Me. During this class, Nico loathed the circle time where everyone would sing songs. I would always have to ungracefuly duck out as Nico screamed at the other mommies and toddlers to "Stop singing! I hate this song!". Thankfully, his experiences in the preschool swim classes have been less eventful.
Onward to the locker room. In general, young children have no filter when it comes to commenting on the appreance of random strangers. So of course, being in a locker room with naked people is somewhat of a worrisome situation because at any moment something really inappropriate (but true) could be said. Fortunately (although not so fortunate for me) their comments today seem to all be directed at me.
"Haha...You have a fat belly." Nico shrieked as he grabbed my belly and shook it. "Why is it so fat!?!"
"Because I had 3 kids. Now put on your suit." I sighed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see two teenagers giggling. But my humiliation was not over just yet.
"Why do you have dots on your butt?" asked Mateo. Hmm...nothing like a 6 year old calling you out on your cellulite.
"Let's just get our bathing suits on, ok?" I said pulling my suit on quickly. And there you have it. My self esteem boost for the day.
I know I should start making them change themselves in the mens' locker room, but I don't even trust them to cross the street by themselves. There's no telling what they might decide to do in there. At home, they like to run around naked before their bath. They called it their "naked party." Not exactly the kind of thing that mens' locker room at the rec center needs. But I think the time is coming soon that they need to get changed in there. I don't know how much more brutally honest body critiquing I can take at this point.