Someone is Not Getting the Team Spirit Award.

Okay, I'm totally enjoying the kids' being in camps this week. Davis goes 9-1, and Ava 9-3. The hours at home with just Davis are fine because he's so much more chilled out without his sidekick to goad him into doing illicit activities. I've really not even done anything exciting in the days they've been busy - just lots of staying at home, happy to have my house to myself. Really happy. The kids have also been pretty tired, so bedtime has been really easy.


I should tell you, though, that yesterday afternoon produced a storm of a fight with my teenage 6-year-old daughter. I should have known it was coming. Two days of camp at St. Mary's, combined with some insomnia the night before made for a really tired girl. And, after nearly seven years, I should know that tired Ava = grumpy, argue-about-everything Ava. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.


So, it was a rainy day for a lot of the day. Monsoon-like, if you will. A swim meet was scheduled, but I really thought it would be rained out, so I casually mentioned that maybe we'd go to Moe's for dinner. To my kids' unsophisticated palettes, that is five-star dining, worthy of much excitement. I threw it out there as an "in case we don't have the swim meet" sort of thing. And, let's be honest. I wasn't all that jazzed about sitting out at the swim meet myself.


With Ava, if you mention something, you better damn well be prepared to follow through on it, or be ready to hear that you broke a promise, or even lied. LIED. That's pretty much what happened. She got it in her mind that we weren't having the swim meet and were going to Moe's. All of a sudden, though, the skies cleared, and the sun was shining. Ava did not want to go to her swim meet. At all. My Universal Mom Words took over: "You're part of a team! You made a commitment! You need to be there! What if no one showed up and your team lost?"


Ava's glib response?


"I don't care."


Hmmm. Okay. Not really the response I was going for. And, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So I told her the choice was to go to the swim meet and be a good sport, or get in her pj's, get in the bed, and go to sleep. For the night. It was 5pm. After a rather lengthy battle, the details of which I will not go into, but which included lots of accusations of meanness, she kind of relented and we headed to the meet. 


About halfway there, Ava announced that she wasn't going to swim in the meet. At first, I said fine, we'll go home and go to bed. But then I realized Davis was in his bathing suit, wanting to play at the pool. He wasn't misbehaving, and shouldn't be punished. So I told Ava that not swimming in the meet was fine. However, she would have to go to the pool with us, and sit in a chair while her brother played. The only way she was getting in the pool at all was in that meet. Period. 


Since she's a smart girl, she decided the meet seemed like a good idea. And that was great, because she won her heat in freestyle, for the first time ever. Unfortunately, that was kind of spoiled after her event when she mis-stepped and fell into the pool at the steps. Ouch. Poor thing was so embarrassed and in pain that she declared that she HATES winning and requested that I not give her any more attention regarding her victory. Of course, I think it was the sort of request that actually means, "pay LOTS of attention to me because I am making a huge deal about this." But that's just a guess. 


Anyway, it was our last home meet, and the last one we're attending at all. So, the season is over for us. I'm glad it ended with a winning ribbon, and hope the win will overshadow the battle to get there and the fall afterwards. Did I mention that I think she also got stung by a small bee? What a night.


On a related note, I wonder what camps will take both kids next week?