Splish Splash

I had a great idea last week when I realized that William's school was ending on Friday and it would be me and all 3 kids all day every day for the next month before the summer session starts. I thought it would be a great idea if the kids had a little kiddy pool to go on the patio outside of our bedroom, where I could sit peacefully, hold the baby, and watch the older kids romp and play and splash around.

So I asked Andy to go by the store on his way home from work and get one of those little hard plastic $10 pools. Didn't want anything high maintenance. Nothing that would get holes in it and need to be fixed. Something that could be filled up and emptied quickly and with one hand if need be.

He called me from the store and said they didn't have the little plastic pools, but they had a couple of blow up pools and he started spouting out dimensions, etc. At the time I was juggling a newborn and two hungry toddlers and so I said "Whatever you think." Hmmmmm. Maybe I should have paid closer attention to those dimensions.

My first clue that this wasn't what I had in mind was when he had to bring out the industrial electric pump to blow it up. The same pump that inflates tires on cars. My second clue was when he started running the water to fill it up and didn't turn it off for 5 1/2 hours. Turns out this little pool holds 600 gallons of water. That was not a typo and I didn't add an extra zero. It honestly holds SIX HUNDRED GALLONS of water.

Turns out the kids are scared of it. They are unable to get in on their own, they must be lifted over the side and they must have life preservers on to keep from drowning. Turns out I'm scared of it too. I am advertising now for a lifeguard to hire for the summer so I can relax and sit quietly and peacefully and rock the baby while they have fun in the sun. Which was what I originally had in mind.