At the beach Sunday, Quinton was sneaking up on our friend Parker, creeping closer as he moved from object to object. First he hid behind a pillar. Then, a tree. Then, his bike. Then, a Haitian man with no shirt, holding 2 styrofoam cups. Yes. My child was hiding behind a person. I watched the man looking perplexed, trying vaguely to get away from my child, but every time the man moved, so did Q.
Me to Q: "Did the man say anything to you?"
Q: "Yeah he said, 'They saw you.'"
We had another funny incident at the doctor's office a couple months ago. Quinton walked in, stopped directly in front of a teenage boy who had a tissue stuck up his bloody nose, stood there right in his face looking at him, then kept walking. Me, the boy and his mother all burst out laughing. Then when it was time to go and Quinton had to walk past the boy again, he closed his eyes. I said, "Did you just close your eyes so you couldn't see him?"
"Yes," he said.
Taekwondo:
Lane is taking Little Dragons Taekwondo once a week. It's actually just a private class. She's doing great.
I have, however, banned her from Saturday family class. She fell down constantly on purpose, got in the way of the other families, and just in general prevented me from enjoying class and doing anything for Q. Maybe when she's 4 I'll try her again.
Swimming:
Quinton is swimming and riding his bike so well. I'm excited because this means he can now do triathlons!
Quinton's swim instructor is Russian. I can't believe my child is actually enrolled in what I jokingly called the "Bela Karolyi School of Swimming" because of how strict Mikhail is and how serious the other 2 Russian instructors are. Now that my kid is taking lessons, I can see that the instruction is even more militant and... structured than I realized. Bela Karolyi indeed.
But I am happy with how he's doing and how he works with his teacher.
At the beginning of the summer, at the end of a lesson, Mikhail walked over to me and without any prelude, said, "Get him snorkel."
Me: "OK."
"Side snorkel. Not the front kind."
Me: "OK."
He walks off.
At the end of every lesson, Mikhail holds each kid over his head (like an ice skating pairs act, but in the water), then throws the kid. Then he lets each kid step off the side of the pool and stand on his shoulders until they fall off, like a circus act. A couple weeks ago he added a routine where stands beside the pool with the kid and says, "Wow wow wow," then shoves the kid into the pool. The kids EAT IT UP, clamoring like puppies to be next.
