Essential skills of childhood (Anna)

I spent the evening teaching Emma to go down a waterslide.

The lifeguard warned us that toddlers often find the slides difficult - they expect the slide to be the same as the ones in a park. Because a waterslide is so slippery, kids, and especially toddlers, typically lean back too far and fall backwards, hitting their heads. So even when kids are used to 10 feet high slides at the park, even the smallest ones at the pool are apparently a nightmare for the lifeguards.

So I taught Emma to lean right forward and reach her arms out to me. She was tentative at first (or maybe that was me - who wants their kid to hit their head on the side of the pool?) but she figured it out really quickly and we had a great time, with much "swooping" "wheeing" and giggling. Not a bad way to spend a summer evening. I always respect the way she's up for a challenge and willing to take risks to do things even when she finds them scary.

Then we went for a 25 block walk at sunset (with her in the stroller). I don't see the sunset as much as I'd like these days since it's usually past E's bedtime (in summer, at least, when there's actually a sunset to see), so it was nice to be out at that time on such a lovely summer evening while the mountains glowed orange.

On the way, we discovered a housing developer with a interesting marketing concept. The new development is called "Karma". Its neighbours?...a cemetary and a funeral home! Someone has a an unusual sense of humour. (I can't decide if it will be very popular, and people will be dying to buy into it, or if the opposite will be true, and people won't be caught dead there...:)