Little boys, playing at the pool

Yesterday, the girls and I spent about three hours at the swim club, and I was happy to be seated near a little posse of three boys, aged about nine or ten years old, listening to them talk.

Little boys make me laugh. They're so funny when they don't know anyone is listening.

These three boys were inventing new styles of jumping into the pool. Each new jump had its own name, which I will relate to you now:

1. The Snake Coil (much hissing and striking, like a hyper-active cobra forcibly ejected from a basket)

2. The Ju-Jitsu (great spinning legs kicks, chops in the air and Jackie Chan noises)

3. The Crash and Burn (kind of hard to do in the water, but oh well...)

4. The Transformer (in honor of the new movie, accomplished by jerking the limbs into robot-like maneuvers while making whizzing, whirring techno-noises with the mouth.)

There were other spectacular jumps that I can't remember, but they were all equally funny and cute.

I have taken to wearing a hat at the pool this year. Last year, I went bare-headed and my hair got some very nice free sun streaks in it, but it also got fried and looked like a bird's nest until March. So this year, I am protecting my hair with a large amounts of shea butter and olive oil conditioner, which I work into it in the locker room, coiling it on top of my head under the hat. The hat has a big, floppy brim which also shields my forty-something face from the damaging effects of the sun; this brim also makes it possible to watch people from behind my sunglasses (I'm just like a great big Jackie O, I am) without them knowing that I'm watching. Which is how I was able to observe those three boys doing their thang yesterday without them being embarrassed at such frank observation from an adult.

So I am here to report that while I look like a complete dork at the pool, the little boys are just adorable.