We spent a couple of hours at the swim club again today. I’ve noticed another difference between Chloe and Sophie. When Chloe was Sophie’s age, Chloe loved going into the big pool with us. And she never complained about wearing floaties.

Sophie, however, is quite another story. She likes the big pool a little, but not very much. And she refuses to wear any kind floating aid. After a few minutes of bathing in my arms, she was ready to go back to the kiddie pool. And she’s not all that interested in the water in the kiddie pool, either. What interests her is borrowing other kids’ toys. And playing with them, and occasionally sharing the toys with their owners. The nice is thing is that when we forget to bring her toys, which happens fairly frequently, she can always mooch off other kids.

After she’s done with the toys (and she’s very focused when she plays, and spends a lot of time playing, even by herself), she usually goes to the playground. Today, she ventured there without Chloe. She’s pretty much mastered all of the climbing apparatus, and isn’t scared to play when the bigger kids are there.

Today, however, she came running back to our table to announce that “the boys called me baby.” To which we responded, “You’re not a baby.” Before we knew it, she was scampering back to the playset. After two more minutes, she came running back to assert, “Not a baby.” And off she scampered again.

Sophie may be a lot of things, but she withstood her first official, non-Chloe insult like a champ. Go, Sophie, go.

I know – I need to take some new photos. But here’s yet another example of our kids’ silliness. I continue to be amazed by the energy Chloe and Sophie display minutes before bedtime. Funny how that happens.

The girls had another fun-filled day. Sophie had a “date” with her little friend who is a boy (note the determined resistance to using the word ‘boyfriend’), and after an abbreviated school day because of excessive heat, the girls and our babysitter went to the swim club.

Every time we go to the swim club (and we’ve used it five times so far), I rejoice in how much less it’s costing us per day as we increase the frequency of our visits. And we’re only at the beginning of June. And it’s not even officially summer yet. I hesitate to get too excited at the thought that this might have actually been a wise investment. But so far, so good.

We had a crazy rain storm a little earlier tonight. The lightning was directly overhead for about an hour, and we actually noticed a small leak in our sunroom (yet another unplanned expense – just great). I kept thinking of all the trees that haven’t yet fallen on our house.

Father’s Day is approaching, and of course, I am without many ideas. My husband is talking about an iPod. We’ll see. I’m not convinced he’d actually use it, but then again, I suppose I should accord him the benefit of the doubt. He’s a very difficult person to shop for – because either he doesn’t have any ideas of his own, or the ideas he has are simply cockamamie.

I’m tired, it’s late and it’s way past my bedtime. A demain.

OK – we don’t have pets. But Chloe and Sophie are much more interesting than pets. And they do silly pet tricks, too.

Like the one depicted in the action shot to the left. Chloe put herself into mortal danger by lying on the floor to allow Sophie to jump over her. Sophie took on the challenge with gusto, of course.

With my fists clenched to my sides (actually, that’s not really true – I was holding the camera, praying I’d capture a leap that didn’t lead to a hospital visit), I witnessed the jump. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Sophie is an athlete waiting to happen.

The jump was graceful and successfully executed. Both girls had grins on their faces. And they repeated the stunt several more times before bed.

After several weeks of diaperless Sophie – and only one accident – we decided to forego the diaper at nighttime as well. And so far, so good. She’s now at the point where she asks to go to the bathroom.

Good job, Sophie! And to think that we actually met the self-imposed deadline of the swim club opening…I must hand it to her – our little one is definitely a keeper.

She’s also developed into quite the dancer. She’s quickly progressed from the shake the booty stage to the shake the booty and arms and head and legs stage.

And she’s counting to ten. Usually in a sing-song voice, and with a big smile. She’s also starting to fight back when her sister bothers her. Becoming more assertive, more like a 3-year old. Even though she’s four months shy of three.

She’s still not a team player. She displays very little interest in group activities. Even tonight, among her family and our babysitter, she didn’t want to join in a game of catch. She was content to do somersaults, dance and jump on the bed. And when Chloe gently invited her to play, she was adamant in her refusal to toss the ball. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – since she has a really strong arm and could have bonked us on the heads multiple times.

Sophie and her Papa joined us later in the afternoon – after she had her daily beauty rest. She also enjoyed the pool, but she particularly enjoyed squeezing the cold water on my back and in my hair. Chloe actually dove off of the diving boards – or at least attempted to. She quickly realized that a successful dive from the side of the pool doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful dive off the board. But that didn’t stop her from trying.

After we came home and bathed the girls, the four of us rode our bikes to the local Mexican joint for dinner. Sophie rode on the back of my husband’s bike, and seems to have accepted the fact that in order to join us she would need to wear her helmet. She enjoyed the ride, and I enjoyed riding my new two-wheeler again.

So – it was a Sunday of activity. A beautiful almost-summer day. The girls got their exercise, and Chloe didn’t once ask me what we were going to do next. I’m really loving that swim club. Even with the freezing water.