Crystal Ball

So, I volunteered to take my almost-four-year-old niece to swimming lessons. I see my niece regularly, but this is something just the two of us are doing. Her mama, my sister, is very pregnant, so she stays home and watches Rain while we go a swimmin'.

Syrene, my niece, was a butterball of a baby. Now she's a petite shorty of a kid, so people often talk to her like she's two. The fact that she talks like an anime character doesn't help. And she's clever. Creepily clever. She always thinks before she answers, and that's a skill most people don't master until they're thirty, if ever.

As I was driving her to her lesson yesterday, I watched her in my rearview mirror. She smiles like her father, but her expressions and mannerisms are my sister's. She can carry a tune, so when I started improvising, "We're going to the Y-M-C-A ...," she picked it up right away. We passed a restaurant we'd eaten at over two weeks before, and I said, "Do you remember when we ate there?" Before I could say the name of the restaurant, she said, "Yeah. I got a balloon there, but it popped." She was right, and I reminded myself that her memory is not that of a one-year-old anymore.

I took her to her lesson, and waited in the parents' seating area. I could see her through the windows. I felt like her mom. Would she behave? Would she play with the other kids? Would she make friends? What if the kids didn't like her?

After a few minutes, she was taking turns with the other kids. She smiled and giggled but didn't talk much. Her eyes were feeding in and figuring out like they always are. She paddled as the instructor guided her through the water, and I remembered the chubby baby she was that Christmas Day.

Today I watched Syrene playing in the water while she waited for her class to begin. I got lost in my thoughts. "That's going to be Rain someday," I thought. "She'll learn new things, make friends, grow up." I was proud and sad at the same time. Syrene's a great kid, but she won't be a kid forever. Rain is a great baby, but she won't be a baby forever.

Then from the pool I heard singing. The squeaky voice made me laugh: "Were at the Y-M-C-A! We're at the Y-M-C-Aaaa ..."