Swim Lessons Summer '10

This week was swim lessons. The first day we cried huge alligator tears for 2/3's of the time. (It also happened to be raining so we were all soaked and discouraged.) We changed to a different class that one of his friends was in. It went better. Here he is being an alligator. The boy in front is the son of a girl I went to high school with.

Yesterday he actually agreed to get in line and go under the hoop. When they took him to the 4ft pool and tried to put him in a life jacket he told them, "No thank you, I already have one." and then hid behind his friend's Mom.

He even alligatored through the hoop. He steady fastly refused to let the teachers help him float. He tried to show them he could do it himself though.

He got 3 checks out of 13. That might be 1 better then last year. He did not get a check for fully submerging his face, but considering he doggy paddled for awhile with his face underwater, I think he should have! There is always next year.

Swim lesson recap (a week late)

I would have posted pics of Matthew swimming earlier, but every time I brought the camera he'd have a nervous breakdown and start crying and we would get nowhere. Finally the last day of lessons we were happy and doing cute stuff and I didn't have the camera. I'd left it at home. I attach it to my hip and the one time it isn't, something film worthy happens. Like Tuesday was Mom's birthday and she accepted a chocolate chip cookie and balloons from a sandwich at Subway. Why do I not just store the camera in my purse? So on this day all I had was Phil's phone to record the memories. And as such it took a good week to have him send the pics to my email. Argh. Enjoy!

Did you miss us???

I have had to save so many small creatures lately. This is the latest one. A baby blue jay, who could only flutter 6" above the ground was waddling around in our yard. I had to save him from 2 dogs who thought he looked like a tasty treat.


Matthew worked so hard to spread out his blankies all over the dining room floor one day.


The obsession with sticks continues...

Can you find something different with this picture?

How about now? And an unmade bed isn't the answer for all you smartie-pants.

Yes, new curtains finally. No more sheets hastily safety pinned up for me.


This week is swim lessons. We've had limited success with them, as apparently they don't expect them to learn anything at this age. (They expected more from him last year in the swim lessons we attended in KC.) Anyway, yesterday on the way home I asked him if he had fun and he said, "YES!" I asked if he learned anything and he said, "Um, no." At least he tells the truth!

Homecoming

It's very funny wearing Grandpa's hat!

And very funny going piggyback or maybe it's because I'm ripping out Mom's ponytail...

I wonder what mischief I can cause out here....

We're back!!!! It's so nice to be back in the land of real yards and homes with more then 4 tiny rooms. Matthew especially is enjoying the new found freedom. We will go to our house today to start setting it back up since I have all day meeting tomorrow. He will be going to daycare for most of the day. I hope he's up for the challenge since he's been very clingy to me all weekend. This weekend I went to a huge antique auction and bought a antique kitchen hutch. It has the neatest art deco iron handles.

Since I last wrote, Matthew finished swim lessons, we tried to do alot of family things since we are going to be living apart now, and mostly tried to avoid the heat. Matthew is learning to run and saying more and more stuff. Well, it's becoming clearer now I should say. My first day back at work is Thursday. I'm not ready for school to start so soon. But it will be good to have the extra income coming in. Phil and I have almost the whole lower half of the house primed and then we can start painting. Phil is taking a 4 day so we are hoping to get it all finished so it's done before winter. We've decided that I'm going to work on redoing the dining room. I'm so excited. Even if it means hours of pulling down paneling, steaming off who knows how many wallpaper layers, filling cracks, and then finally priming and painting. It will be worth it in the end. We are even going to pull up the carpet! Yes! That would be even more exciting if it was the kitchen carpet, but that'd be a huge job! At least the bathroom now has a new non-carpet floor. Whoever thought carpet in the kitchen and bathroom was a snazzy idea, and made it ultra popular, should be shot. It is not a cool thing.

I better go. I have to pack so when the boy wakes up we can head to our house!

Antique Airshow

It's been a big week up here in KC. We started swimming lessons on Tues. Matthew wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but he practiced in the tub and really got into it at Thurs. lesson. He is having a good time hanging out in his little frog pool practicing blowing bubbles. Thursday his Grandma came up and we met Dad at Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. He was really excited when they turned on the disco balls. After lunch we went shopping and up to the plaza to meet Auntie. We had a nice visit with her and then it was time to get Grandma back to her car so that she could go home.

Today Phil had to go to an airshow for work. Matthew and I tagged along and when we got there we discovered that it was an antique airshow. It was really neat seeing working planes and equipment from WWI to Vietnam. Matthew had a blast running around. The KC Star took several pictures of him and one of his dad that should be on their website. It will probably be in the community faces section under entertainment. They had a B17 called Sentimental Journey that was giving rides to the public. They also had an old schnook that you could walk up into. I was going to go have a dogtag made with the old machine, but before I could a big gust of wind came up with heavy rain. It blew over the Army tent and stuff, so we had to pack it up and go home for the day. We are thinking about going back tomorrow if the weather is better. Phil didn't get to look around so I believe that he want to go back and see the exhibits. Maybe I'll remember my camera so that I can take pictures tomorrow.

Flying by

The summer is simply flying by. And very fast. I am not looking forward to having school start again so fast. Matthew will probably be ready to see all his little friends again though.

This weekend we flew home Thursday so Phil could go to a safety briefing at the company. It lasted 15 mins. On the way back home we stopped and got fireworks. So of course we had to shoot some off and they made Matthew cry. I got some cute pictures though. Friday the 4th we left Matthew at home (much to our friends dismay) and went to a friends bbq. We had a good time and set back off for home after a couple hours. That evening while Matthew went in with his grandpa, we set off fireworks in earnest. We got some really good ones and made a list this time so we know what is good and not so good. Especially important now that we live so close to the border and across it they sell fireworks year round. Yesterday we were all so tired we were just lazy all day long. Doesn't happen much in our family anymore. We ALWAYS seem to have stuff to do. Then today we once again left the boy with the grandparents and took off for our house and primed half the bottom half. I'll come back down again in a week or two and finish that and start painting. That is if we can ever get the right color paint. We got five gallons but not all the color went in so they add what they thought would be enough and no, it's not. We now have sections paler then others. Lovely. And I can't seem to get Phil to return to the store with it. It only happened 2 months ago. While at the house I noticed some beautiful daylilies blooming and many more getting ready. It's so exciting. The old coworker who gave me most of my bulbs said she has even more I can have so I'll have to set up a time to run over and see her again!

Next week is swim lessons. Both me and Matthew will be in the pool. It will be alot of fun I believe. I'm not excited about being seen in my swimsuit, but oh well. I'll surely look better then someone.

I should also mention that Matthew had his 1 year checkup last Monday. He got stuck 4 times with shots and once in the finger so they could milk his blood into 2 vials to run tests. All routine stuff. After all the trauma I treated the little guy to McDonalds. He thought that was only fair and enjoyed his McNuggets. They say he is perfectly healthy. His head and weight (20lbs 8 oz) are at 25% while his height (30.5") dropped to 50%. I was rather surprised considering he'd always been in the 90's. Oh well, he'll just be a little skinny guy!

Our weekly thoughts

I guess this is turning into a weekly publication. Starting in August it will soar back into being more of a daily publication. Anyway, last time I was telling about all the fun summer stuff we were doing. That evening we took Matthew to the carnival. Phil took him down one of these really tall slides they have. To me riding down on a gunny sack and going over humps looked scary so I didn't want to go. Especially while also trying to hold my little precious 1 year old. Phil decided he just had to see Matthew go down with me so he could see his face. He bugged me enough I said yes, IF my mom would go too. She reluctantly agreed. We payed our tickets and trudged up to the top of the ride. The guy at the top took Matthew so we could get settled in the gunny sacks before we took him back. I got settled in with minimal fuss and looked over to see my mom was completely petrified. She would put one foot on the gunny sack, it would slightly move and she'd panic. NONONONO, I can't do it. So then the guy stepped on it with one foot and said that it wouldn't go down. NONO. Then 2 little boys came up and she waved them through while slightly hyperventilating. When they went down 10 seconds later she had no choice but attempt it again. We got her gunny sack down again, tried the one foot thing and then she came up with the brilliant idea that she'd sit down downwards and swing her legs around. OH boy. All I could see while she attempted this was my older mom streaking down the slide backwards screaming bloody murder. I might mention that my dad was at the bottom and is slightly protective. If his bride of 32 years hurtled down that way and got hurt I'm sure I would have got it for convincing her to go up in the first place. By now I'd been sitting in place for what seemed like 5 minutes and we were no closer to seeing her go down. She had already attempted the backwards plan and gave it up as a bad idea. So in desperation I held the gunny sacks other side and said hold on to us and sit down, you'll be fine. She finally gave in and did. Mostly I think in sheer desperation to get off the top of this slide. The very polite ride guy started to give Matthew to her to hold on the way down. I snatched him quickly and said "Alright are you ready?" My mom squeaked back, "I'm scared, can I hold on to you?" Yes, yes anything to just go down. So we linked arms and shoved off. We both screamed the whole way down. On the last hump Mom fell backwards and slid on down completely flat. In the process she gave herself a nasty bruise, but we lived. And wouldn't you know it, Matthew smiled the whole way down. He thought Grandma was funny too. Phil was laughing so hard when we got down I didn't think he could breathe. Dad on the other hand was slightly dismayed I think. If we'd only had the video camera. We also took Matthew with us on the ferris wheel and in the moonwalk. That was enough carnival for one night. Then we hit the powwow and enjoyed the beat.

This week has passed quickly and without excitement. Wednesday we got enrolled for swimming lessons. Thursday we came home in the evening so that Phil could go to Stampede as a VIP for free. Must be nice to get into concerts for free as a recruiter. We brought a guy he works with, with us and wouldn't you know it. Storms to drive through and no power at my parents house when we got there. It was so hot. It was miserable. Finally power was restored around 4am. Yesterday passed quickly and here we are ready to journey back up north and belatedly celebrate our anniversary. I'm thinking Cheesecake Factory....hmmm....

Happy Saturday everyone!