Water and Suchnot

First, some background on the clever little non-word suchnot: On our honeymoon we took a tour of Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii and were fortunate enough to have a fabulous tour guide. She was plump and in-charge. I’ll call her Wanda to preserve her anonymity. At one point as we were on the little bus, Wanda stood up in her faded Wal-Mart genuine Hawaiian print shirt to make an announcement about something we were seeing out the window and out of her mouth came the word, “suchnot” along with whatever else we were supposed to be looking at. But we didn't need to look at anything else. Brian and I were delighted to hear it and from then on we occasionally use the non-word word in our daily conversation.

Enough about that.

Really, Mom and Dad? More water?

An update on boys’ water-phobia: we took a trip to Brian’s parents’ lake house this past week. The first day they played in the sand on the beach, completely happy and immediately responding, “NO!” when asked about going near the water. Gammy tried luring them into the water by playing catch from knee-deep in the water. Cousins were frolicking in the water. Brian was jet skiing in the water. Aunts were kayaking in the water. Cal and Clark were sand-flinging and sifting, a good 15 yards from shore. Eventually they were tricked lovingly coaxed into putting their little toes in the water as they retrieved balls from Gammy. One tiny step for them; one giant leap for their water-phobia’s demise.

Other noteworthy events from the week:

·         Cal emphatically said he wanted to go on the jet ski with Brian, boldly climbed on, and absolutely loved it. Clark didn’t want anything to do with it the first day, but the second day he climbed bravely on also. During the second trip on the jet ski, Cal ordered Brian to stay out in the lake and squealed in fear and wet his pants like his mom does on jet skis, shrieked with courageous joy as they went over the waves. So for whatever reason the boys are okay with rapidly moving, deep, dangerous water and spraying wakes, but deathly afraid of the shallow beach water. Just another riddle to solve in the puzzles of their little minds. (I have some great pictures of the boys on the jet ski that I will put on this post as soon as I get them.)

·         They both loved the boat rides with Poppy and Cal especially enjoyed “driving” on Poppy’s lap.

Victory at sea lake! Toes in water

·         Clark fell off the dock. We think he was trying to climb up a set of stairs that leads from the main dock to the floating dock where everyone was sitting waiting for a boat ride. I turned around for a split second to jump up the stairs and grab something, looked back, and he was gone. He fell into the water by the stairs, and under the taller dock. The lifejacket flipped him right over onto his back and I flew down the stairs and skidded on my knees like a drunk bear cub a lightning-quick superhero across the dock to pull him out. He was shaken up of course, but he actually recovered faster than I did. What struck me was not only how quickly he disappeared off the dock, but also how he was literally several feet from five other people when he fell in and I think Brian, on the other side of the dock and I were the only ones to notice he was gone. It was so easy for him to go unnoticed.

·         Clark discovered air hockey and I think he’ll be a star as soon as he can do more than stand on his tiptoes to look over the table and watch his cousins.

·         I was reminded of how seductively silent a lake can be when I’m on it alone and how beautiful the sound of gently dipping oars are in the water. Ahh.