Never Cry Wolf (unless you are on the 3G network)

So we are at Uncle Mo and Auntie Farrah's house, enjoying their new pool. Just after dinner and before the planned night swim, Claire gets a little bit whiny and starts talking about her tummy ache. And then she doesn't have one. And then she does. And I can't tell whether she doesn't have one and wants the attention because she is tired. Or she does have one and wants to go swimming.

(She has talked up the tummy ache angle before, when she wants to watch TV or when I am paying an inordinate amount of attention to the other kid, so this isn't new, and although I don't like my feelings of distrust, I simply don't always believe her. Especially when she is miraculously cured at the slightest suggestion of something fun to see/eat/do. )

Anyway, when she swims, she jumps and flips around so much she gets air in her tummy. Several times she has thrown up a little instead of burped, so I figure this time it really does hurt. Even so, as I am putting Gavin to bed, I tell her the story of the boy who cried wolf, and how the last time he calls, the villagers don't come because they don't believe the boy. (I leave out any mention of him getting eaten by the wolf. Is that how the story ends?) She asked me to tell her the story again because it was so funny. At which point I wonder if my message is getting through. At the end of the second go around, she says "Maybe he could just call on the cell phone and tell the villagers that there really is a wolf this time!"

She decided not to go night swimming, which everyone knows is the best swimming of all, so she really does have a tummy ache this time. Probably a huge air bubble working its way through after 47 cannon balls, 32 dives and 28 belly-floppish things.