Rocks, sand and sneaky girls

The monsters and I went down to the river this afternoon with another family.  It was quite hot so it was a good place to be.

Rocky but good

The monsters had never been swimming in the river before.  As it is mid-summer, the river level is low and the current mild.  They were somewhat flummoxed by the less-than-ideal swimming conditions.  While it was sandy at the shore, you could not see where there were rocky bits in the murk, including ones lurking just below the surface.  Balls took off downstream in an inconvenient manner and visiting dogs shook themselves near you.  The depth varied randomly and near the shore there were bugs skating on the surface.  Finally, there was no nice edge to monkey along.

Yes, my urban children are accustomed to a pool environment and it was all a bit peculiar.

They did get into the groove.  They started several interesting rock collections, donated the less appealing bits of dinner to tonight's possums, climbed a tree with ants, climbed another stump and jumped off, and considered roaming in the long grass.  This last item was vetoed by the mothers as too snakey, though it would have to be an extremely deaf snake not to have evacuated long before the troop of bellowing heathens got near.

It was also a salutory lesson for Monster2.  She realised that having an older sister who is mean and exclusionary is not just her lot.  So much so that she plotted with the other little monster to hide the older child's shoes.  We were half up the hill on the way home before the other mother asked her youngest if she knew where her sister's shoes were.  Hidden in a tree, apparently.  Ha ha, victory for the sneaky littlies.

It was nice sitting in the river, though I felt a little like a tea bag being dangled in a tepid, tannin-filled pond.

On other matters, I accidently told my children about sex today.  Not that I objected to it, in fact, I was unsure how much Monster1, in particular, had understood from previous discussions.  I think the penny dropped when the matter came up while describing a scene from "A Fish Called Wanda", as it does.  All I have to do now is think of a reason why Monster2 should not kiss strangers, because that also came up today.  Sigh.