We've labeled the next couple of months "soccer mom summer". Moreso than ever before, our kids are involved in different programs requiring parental escort. Of course, technically, I don't know if Noodles qualifies as a "soccer mom". For one thing, there's no minivan involved. Half the time she's taking the kids on the bus. Secondly, because of the mode of transport, her time is not taken up so much by travel as by cooling her heels while the kids practice or attend their class. Still, the schedule is full and I would think that is the essence of soccer parenthood.

As you might have guessed, the reason I'm writing this is that I'm taking my turn at being soccer dad. Noodles is being "soccer daughter" and escorting her mom to some doctor or other. So I, too, had to crawl out of bed today and catch the bus down to the pool for swimming lessons. Poodlepums is now working on some sort of side stroke and Bunnah is... humming? Okay, I guess swimming lessons have changed since I was a kid. I don't remember underwater humming. Maybe it's an enviromental, talk-to-the-whales type thing. We didn't have any whales to talk to in the midwest. At any rate, this session of swimming lessons is pretty good. There's currently a 1 to 3 teacher/student ratio in Poodles' class and a 2 to 4 in Bunnah's. That will undoubtedly translate to a better learning experience for the kids.

I never appreciated, way back when, all the driving my folks did for me. I... oops, Bunnah's class now has a 2 to 6 ratio... I guess it was no worse for them than it is for me, and I can't say I really mind it. The hardest part is wishing I had the time to take some sort of classes myself. Or at least go swimming. That's the problem with not taking a break to look at the big picture, I guess. One gets caught up in the day to day rush and your priorities slowly get skewed. Ah, well. I'm definitely going to be taking the coming 3 day weekend off.