Siblings and the Slip 'n Slide

Around 11:30 I rented a Rug Doctor from Klein's and came home to delegate the job of carpet cleaning. Ben has the biceps and back for such a task, as well as stamina and a high standard for doing things well.

But before I asked him to unload the thing from the van, I peeked around the back yard and saw what I heard: Ben, Sarah, and Stephen coaxing Joel to try his new Slip 'n Slide the right way. (He wanted to crawl sort of GI-Joe-ish. They were telling him to get a running start and then lay down and slide.) He was being obstinate. Or fearful. Or both.

I broke my silence and chimed in with my Happy Coach voice. "Be like Spiderman with your arms straight ahead. Just run and fly on it!" Forget the superhero model. He wasn't ready.

Sarah told him the water was really pretty warm. That tactic worked last year.

Stephen said, "Come on, Joel, it's fun." No use.

Finally Ben said, "Get on my back, I'll do it with you." Bingo! Ben slung his little brother up and around, held his hands around his own neck, got a running start (more or less) and then slid on his belly with Joel on his back.

You might want to do some math here in order to picture how funny this scene was to me. Ben is six and a half feet tall. The blue Slip 'n Slide mat is 15 feet long. At the end of the "long" blue mat is an inflated orange bumper and a rising puddle of cold water straight out of the sprinkler.
On top of the tall brother is a boy the size of a woman's carry-on suitcase. Every time the tall one would hit the bumper, the "suitcase" would go flying off his back, land in the wet grass, and get up saying, "Let's do that again!"

Ben tired of this after a few slides and bumps, but Joel, of course, could have done it all day. However, the siblings wanted him to do it himself. Sarah tried the superhero encouragement, which nearly worked.Stephen was straigtforward about the water temperature and told him it's perfect for this hot day. Joel was getting braver. Then Ben said, "Don't be such a girl about it."

From that moment on, Joel took his own running start, stretched his arms forward like Superman, and slid belly-down time after time into the orange bumper, over and over. I wish I'd had my camera on me. Rug Doctors don't take good pictures.