bulrushes | cultivar

With various social work trundled along its merry way, Astrid is formally adopted as Astrid Irene Adams, declared to be four years old with a birthday on March 30 for paperwork purposes, and successfully passed off as human to all prying eyes.

She grows and falls over a lot and maintains her orange coiffure and reads books and is generally precocious. The veganism and the aversion to salt and lipids persist.

Her fifth basketday approaches.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bulrushes

"Okay. How do I do it?" Astrid asks, kicking at the water.

From:

asmyown

"I'll show by example, then we'll work on you doing it," says Lynn. And then she demonstrates, using different methods with a few explanations of the strengths and weaknesses of each. Stroke, stroke, stroke. One lap around the little pond, then it's back to Astrid.

"What we're going to do first is see if you can float on your back. Sounds good?"

From:

bulrushes

"Okay. What if I'm not a floating thing?"

From:

asmyown

"Then I will be right here, and I will make sure that you don't sink. I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to you."

From:

bulrushes

"Okay. But how do I start floating? It's not like a floor to lie on."

From:

asmyown

"It helps if you take a deep breath, but it's the sort of thing that is - hard to explain."

From:

bulrushes

Astrid takes a deep breath. She sits down on the bottom of the shallow pond end, and attempts to lean back onto the water.

Edited Date: 2014-08-11 08:14 pm (UTC)

From:

asmyown

Lynn moves beside her, to help if there's any sign of panic or if there's something she can correct. Right now, though, she's rather proud of her daughter for being brave.

From:

bulrushes

Astrid isn't panicking, but she's not mastering floating either. It doesn't seem to be a buoyancy problem, just a skill problem. She goes on holding her breath when her head dunks underwater and comes up with her hair plastered over her face.

From:

asmyown

Aha, this is a problem Lynn can help with.

She carefully corrects some of the obvious skill mistakes, and says reassuringly, "You can float already, see?"

From:

bulrushes

"I am a floating thing," giggles Astrid.

From:

asmyown

"You are a floating thing!" agrees Lynn, grinning. "If you like swimming then we can try the public pool or the ocean, or we can stick to this pond. Essentially, if you enjoy it I will work to find ways you can do it."

From:

bulrushes

"Are they the same water?" asks Astrid. "In the oceans and the pools?"

From:

asmyown

"Oceans have salt water in them. Pools typically have chemicals, like chlorine, in them."

From:

bulrushes

"I don't like salt. I don't know about chlorine."

From:

asmyown

"Ocean's out, then. I suspect chlorine will be, too, but if you like we can check."

From:

bulrushes

"At a pool or some other way?"

From:

asmyown

"It can be at a pool, or we can try to find a pool care store and see how you feel about it in raw chemical form."

She probably won't like chlorine, but Lynn is not going to stop her daughter from checking.

From:

bulrushes

"A pool care store? You have to care for pools? Like they're hamsters?"

From:

asmyown

"Sort of," laughs Lynn. "If you don't put chemicals into pools they can get very icky. Especially a public pool."

From:

bulrushes

"Icky how?"

From:

asmyown

"Algae and bacteria mostly, I think. But there are other issues of hygiene involving a public pool that necessitates more of the chemicals. Some people think it's a good idea to pee in them."