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 Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:55 pm
Serra had gotten bigger very quickly. The growth spurt itself was of a minor surprise to Addie considering the amount of reading she had decided to do on parenting (not that the books were helping much as she had come to realize early on) and child development. It was normal for there to be small growth spurts.
However, Addie had not been expecting Serra's shroud to have a growth spurt as well. The clear, hazy mist had darkened into a stormy little cloud that followed Serra around and Serra had started to use it as a bed and a 'vehicle' to get around on. It was always mildly disconcerting to see your daughter zooming by on a cloud which didn't necessarily seem safe.
Now that she was gaining the ability to walk, slowly and steadily, Addie had decided that learning to swim was the next best thing for her to do. Considering how much she loved the water, maybe she would be a natural.
That was why Serra was currently dressed in a frilly little baby swimsuit with floaties, sun screen slathered all over her (much to her displeasure) and little tiny baby water shoes.
No. Serra was not a happy camper. Not only was she not in her pretty little dresses that Addie had been putting her in since her arrival, she was confined to having strange plastic objects stuck on her arms (which made it hard to move) and a sticky white substance that smelled like mushed bananas. Which she hated.
"No!" Serra said crossly as Addie tried to coerce her out of the car, "No no no no no no no!" The no's took on a slightly musical sound that reminded Addie vaguely of the Meow-Mix commercials and she sighed. If she tried to forcefully bring her out of the car she was likely to get shocked by the static electricity that had formed in the cloud.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:54 pm
"Now, do you remember the rules?"
Taji was very used to having to be asked to repeat things a lot. Unfortunately, she was horrible at actually remembering any of that which she was supposed to repeat (which was arguably why she was asked to repeat everything multiple times.) She toed the rough cement of the walking surface around the pool, hands clasped behind her back, and looked pleadingly up into the determinedly unamused gaze of her older brother.
She sighed and quickly looked around at the busy pool area for something that could help. There was no one here but a bunch of grownups, and while her brothers always provided an endless source of amusement (well, at least Cee did, Rhine never wanted to go swimming in public and was sulking, somehow, in a shaded corner under in umbrella in street clothes and peering crossly at a book) she knew that he'd spend at least three-quarters of the time in the Deep End of Yore. Especially in the parts she couldn't reach by grasping the wall and sidling around the large area of the pool.
"Don't swim without an adult watching, or you or Rhine," she guessed at rule number one. Cianan seemed satisfied with this and nodded. Taji glanced around once more before trying again, "No... pulling off other people's swimsuits, even the ugly ones they'd look better without."
Cianan successfully resisted the urge to facepalm at the resurfacing of a rather embarassing memory. "That's correct."
"Stay in the shall-low end of the pool, 'n... scream a lot if I need help, 'n I can kick and punch if I need to. No talking to strangers 'n no jumping onto strangers' backs for dolphin rides." This last part seemed easy enough -- Rhine was the only stranger she could see. Everyone else looked normal in comparison.
"Yes. And running around the pool...?" Cianan prompted, anxious himself to peel the soles of his feet off the burning cement.
"No!" Beamed Taji, who then helpfully added, "'n no jumping in on my head, 'n no weeing in the pool."
Cianan considered all of this, and finally decided that if she had missed something he could always yell at her later for it. "Okay. You can go in now if you want, use the steps on the other end. I'm going to do a few laps and then I'll see how you're doing. Work on your floating, okay?"
Taji nodded and waved eagerly at his retreating back. Beginning to turn, she waited until she heard the splash that signified his grand entrance into the pool before obediently trotting all the way over to the shallow end. Rhine's corner was right behind her and off to one side, and she tried to catch his attention but quickly gave up and turned her focus to the set of stairs leading into the pool.
She fiddled momentary with the straps of her bathing suit -- a one piece that she picked herself, extremely bright and colorful with a pattern of technicolor flamingos -- before grabbing for the railing and tentatively lowering a single toe into the water. It was cold and wet and had absolutely no bubbles, and with everyone ignoring her, how was she supposed to have any fun?
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:51 pm
"I'll give you a cookie!" Addie said as she tried to get Serra out of the car again. The child shook her head - oh no, she wouldn't fall for THAT one again. Addie didn't have cookies. In fact, Addie never had ANY sweets, ever, no matter how much she begged and pleaded and whined for her to purchase some.
"...I'll...uh...Serra, it's water, come ON!" Addie was getting tired of standing in the parking lot in her own bathing suit - it was hot and her feet were going to start burning in the sandals if she wasn't able to get into the water.
It took another fifteen minutes of trying to bribe her before she managed to get Serra to venture from the car. Still, the toddler was unhappy and had her arms crossed (As best as the floaties would allow) over her chest.
Finally dragging the displeased child's cloud to the swimming area, Addie slid herself into the water and watched the floating girl just...sit there. "Come on, Serra, please?"
"No!" It didn't smell right. Water wasn't supposed to smell that way!
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:05 pm
"No!" said someone behind Taji, which she felt she could wholeheartedly agree with. "NO," Taji yelled back gleefully, yanking her foot back from the offending water and turning to see who it was.
It was a girl with sparkly things on her cheeks and big puffy things on her arms (oh hey, were those some kind of wings? They looked kind of cool!) and something she was sitting on that Taji also wanted, and long curly hair. Long curly hair. Her fingers itched.
Though the girl was many feet away, Taji nevertheless reached out and, closing one eye and squinting with the other, closed two fingers over one of the curls in the distant and yanked down. In Taji's mind, the curl 'boing'ed, sound effect and all.
In fact, it was not until she looked at the woman talking to the curlyhaired girl that she realized who it was supposed to be at all. "SERRAAAA!" Promptly forgetting all the rules she had just had to repeat, she ran over to her friend and threw her arms around her in a fierce hug. "You got biggg! I like your hair, it is very curly and pretty and boingy, and did you get my present, I sent you a present, can I boing your hair maybe, I won't do it very hard, what're you wearing on your arms an'--" she had to stop here to breathe for air and promptly forgot what she was going to say next. To Serra's guardian she said in her nice girl voice, "Hiii!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:21 pm
The little flash of color from the star spirit was too fast for Serra to realize who it was and she let out a squawk of surprise when she found the girl's arms suddenly wrapped around her. However, when the girl started to actually SPEAK and talk about a present, a little CLICK sounded in her head and she immediately realized who the colorful thing was and smiled brightly.
"Taa." No, she couldn't quite make the 'ji' sound yet, but she was getting better at speaking. A little bit. "Yah, present. Thankiee." She patted at the girl's colorful hair gently, thankful she wasn't being hugged so hard she couldn't breathe.
Big? Well, yes, she supposed she did. And what was this 'boing' thing that she was talking about? So many questions at once caused the toddler to go cross-eyed with confusion and sent Addie into fits of giggles.
"Hello, Taji. Nice to see you again. Maybe you should slow down and not confuse the poor Serra, huh?"
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:00 pm
"Ohhh!" Taji nodded emphatically at the request -- 'slow' was something she never liked to do, but Serra seemed like a.. turtle sort of person, anyway, so this made sense. "Ok."
She paused momentarily to pull away from her friend, occupying her attention instead with Serra's water wings. She tugged on one curiously and asked, a little more coherently this time (though in a way that suggested she thought the question was one entire word), "Whatisit?"
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