"Seben-Eleben"
Berkeley loves slurpees, so much so that he can easily pick out a 7-11
sign out of a crowd of other roadside advertisements and signage.
"Look, Daddy, a Seben-Eleben!", Berkeley will exclaim.
"Where?", I'll respond, craning my neck to and fro.
"Can Berkeley get a slurpee at Seben-Eleben Daddy?", Berkeley will
inevitably wonder out loud.
Honestly, sometimes I'll not see the 7-11 for several seconds after he
makes his sighting.
Today, Berkeley had his last swimming lesson for the month of August.
He has been struggling to keep it together during swimming lessons
recently; he'll burst into tears for seemingly no apparent reason (poor
little guy). It may be because during his July classes, he had an adult
in the water with him the whole time. But, since he did so well in his
July sessions, the instructor bumped him up to an advanced class where
the adults don't get in the water with their children.
So, I made him a deal that if he didn't cry today and would "swim happy"
during his lesson, that we could go to 7-11 afterward and get him a
slurpee. I even primed the pump last night during story time, telling
him a story about how Berkeley went to swimming lessons and didn't cry
and was happy, etc. ("Great story Daddy" was the response.)
He did a pretty good job today. He did lose it once while clinging on
to the side of the pool (seemingly for dear life). But when he started
crying, he buried his mouth into the inside of his elbow in an attempt
to cover up his sobbing. I could tell he wanted that slurpee pretty
bad. His tiny episode ended after about a minute, and he was quite
happy for the remainder of the lesson. He jumped off the diving board
three times (cutting in line each time) with obvious glee.
On the way back home after the lesson was over, I stopped by 7-11 and
got him the "red" slurpee (cherry flavour)... his favorite.
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