Navigation / Christmas Day 10

I trooped down the stairs at what Teo calls "the brown house," our Birch Hill log home, into the darkness. I’d promised him I’d be back in a minute, after getting out of pajamas and getting into clothes for our MWF swimming gig. I promised him skiing as well, and was putting on the three layers which zero-to-plus-ten-degrees requires when I decided to check the temps.

It was minus 10. Even here on the hill. That meant more like minus 25 down in the hollow. And it also meant, I didn’t want to go skiing. Skate skiing can work down to zero. But it’s really marginal after that. Herringboning uphill isn’t all that much fun, especially with a 50 pound kid carrier dragging behind.

So, a lot less "cross" dressing, that is, dressing for two very different activities on one body in one morning. We were out the door without even any food, since we’d be back in an hour and a half.

But when we got to the pool, the normal ended. Matteo didn’t wait for me to get in the water to clutch my neck, to make us a two-headed buoy bobbing around, cheek to cheek, singing, watching others play, clinging.

Instead, he chose the green noodle marched down the steps into the drink, threw his arms over the noodle (with butt-buoyancy already attached), and launched.

Of course his next move was to grab hold of the side of the pool. But that only lasted about five minutes. I challenged him to "swim" across the pool, "you can tell Mama you swam across ALL BY YOURSELF," and, with no further urging, he did just that.

I was beside myself with joy, relief and pride. Finally! (If you’ve been reading along in the past month, you understand...) My previous frustration instantly vanished. But that was minor in the face of Teo’s disarming grin. I think he didn’t know that he could do it.

He moves by hanging vertically in the water, arms on his noodle, with a ball in one hand and a bucket in the other, not kicking but "walking" with his feet. And between breathing a little harder, he keeps up a patter, "I tell Mama Teo is a BIG BOY. Mama be VERY PROUD. Teo BIG BOY, very BRAVE." It was fetching. Suddenly, we were having a lot of fun, too. Splashing, laughing, going in circles, chasing balls.

When we got back home, there was a message from Marin on the machine. She had an appointment with the gynecologist. She found out that "Pepita" has turned, she/he’s in birth position. Yaay!

The tenth day of Christmas. Ten lords a leaping, five for Matteo’s grin, and five for Pepita’s navigational kicking.