Summer, Alfie and Me

This is our third week together and it's kind of historic.

Certainly in my kids' lifetimes I can't think when we've had our sunny days interrupted by only a few rainy days.
I know I'm annoying everyone born into other decades when I keep saying- 'It's like the olden days.'

But I love it!-

In actual fact it's not like the olden days...it's not warm enough- you can still perceive a weird nip in the air, my brain is confused-(again) It's saying, 'Detroit is bankrupt, global warming, space race, cold war'...
but I don't look quite as confused as the green tomatoes...

It  is also historic because I realised, whilst trapped in the disabled toilet at the library today, that aside from a near nasty episode during Smurfs 2 yesterday, me and Alfie - are getting on.
Famously.

I decided Alfie needs to swim because he's fearless and thinks he can ( he also believes he can run much faster than cars...) So in the interest of my blood pressure, I took him for his first swimming lesson on Sunday.
We were late and I heard his name shouted out a few times and they used those new- fangled tubular floats and after half an hour he got dry and then punched me in the eye,and  then we had a row...and drove home...

So obviously yesterday I took him swimming-
'Show me what you learnt in your swimming lesson..'
Now what I'm learning about Alfie is, you have got to wait for him to come round...(and sometimes he doesn't...)
After half an hour of trying to climb things he shouldn't and torturing a four year old boy, and his Grandmother, Alfie asked to go in the big pool. 'Okay, but you'll have to swim because you won't be able to touch the bottom...' ( and he has refused to bring arm bands...arm bands are for people who can't swim.)

Anyway so we go into the big pool, and something kicks-in behind his eyes, I see it, and he's beaming.
'I'm floating, I'm swimming...look I can do this.'
'That's treading water.' I say, feeling lame, feeling historic.
He does it on his back, he does it on his front, he does doggy paddle, he does surface dives, swimming under water, breast stroke and then he treads water.

I've never seen anything like it.
I think I kind of remember being like that...but with something else behind my eyes.

What I like about Alfie is, I know now what happens behind his eyes.
Man, he's historic!