The day is not over yet, but here are a few pictures of our morning “Pet Show” birthday party. We had a blast!
More to come… later.
Happy 5th Birthday Eve!!!
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Monthly Archives: March 2012
Last day of lessons
Birthday cupcakes
Eve brought cupcakes to school today in our fancy new cupcake carrier. They were devils food with cherry frosting and heart sprinkles. All from a can or box. Not very appetizing to me, but she was thrilled. :)
On campus
Walking around campus makes me think of the kids in college. Then I see this and just laugh..
One fish, two fish
In this little video from lessons yesterday you can see Eve (pink goggles) jumping into the pool and showing off her butterfly stroke while Lex (blue goggles) does the backstroke.
The C-word
I’m going to start and end this post by saying, count your blessings, folks, seriously… every day!
A few weeks ago I was talking to my mom about sickness all around – my grandma in the hospital (not cancer!) and several women on a Board I’m on who are dealing with cancer. She made a light hearted joke that I need to find some younger friends! Sadly that’s not the problem. I had the good fortune yesterday to run into an old acquaintance whom I hadn’t seen in almost a year. She is my age, the mother of three young children (her oldest is Eve’s age) and my heart dropped when I saw her rockin’ a pink head scarf! She was smiling, but I know the look of shock on my face was apparent. She has breast cancer and is undergoing chemo, radiation, and an upcoming surgery. My stomach is ill just thinking about her situation. I’ve seen her husband a few times in the past year and he always seems so upbeat and positive, the kids seem happy, and the fact that cancer can happen in this family is heartbreaking.
You think you’re safe. You say I don’t drink and drive, I don’t smoke cigarettes (I needed spell check to even spell them!), I wouldn’t stop to help a stranded stranger (gone are the days of the good Samaritan), but breast cancer… there but for the grace of God, go I.
If your four year old is tantruming for no particular reason, your six year old protesting the pool and making you wonder if you just wasted a ton of money on lessons, your kale wilting in the fridge while your belly aches from cookies… count your blessings my friends. I will begin by counting you…
Anxiety and inspiration
Lex is a funny boy. We are doing swim lessons again, at Dartmouth. The lessons are taught by the swim team, one-on-one. The scene is chaotic, but each child has their own teacher and when we did this last year the kids learned so much! I was amazed! The lessons run every day for one week. This is the week.
Last year Lex was apprehensive but made it into the water and had fun. Yesterday was a different story. He agreed to get in his bathing suit, but would not get in the water, despite my best efforts, those of his instructor and those of the coordinator. He just wouldn’t. The instructor finally gave up and brought Lex back to me before the end of class. We agreed to try again the next day.
On the way home we discussed what was worrying him. He came up with “my scrape hurts” and “the pool is four foot deep and I’m used to swimming in three feet six inches.” Sometimes he’s too smart for his own good. Especially with that second one. If he didn’t know so much he would never notice the markings on the edge of the pools and worry about those extra inches. But I digress. We talked off and on last night and came up with a plan. He agreed to try a water-proof bandaid over the rather large scrape on his knee (from the playground last week, which is healing and didn’t bother him at all in the aquatic center pool over the weekend!). He also agreed to ask his instructor if there was a shallower part of the pool they could start in. With those two ideas in his mind he went to sleep peacefully last night.
After school today he was anxious again. Together we reviewed the plan. I also added that I think he can probably touch the bottom in the 4′ pool. Maybe just on a tip-toe, but I think he can do it. He tentatively agreed to try and then got silent for awhile. After a few minutes of driving in silence (to get Eve from pre-k) he said, “Maybe I could just show Matt (his instructor) some of the skills I already have?” Hmmm…. this makes me wonder if there were other concerns in his head that he wasn’t sharing or hadn’t yet articulated to himself. I told him that that would be a great way to get started and that Matt probably would love to see his skills. Matt needs to know what kind of swimmer Lex is anyway so he can properly teach him. Lex asked me if maybe Matt would want to see his backwards somersaults. Heck yeah! Who doesn’t?!
By the time we got to Eve’s school Lex was excited for his upcoming lesson. Excited! I don’t know if he solved a problem he didn’t know he had, or was just excited to come up with an idea on his own, or really wanted to swim and just need a good reason, or what. The boy confounds me sometimes, but that’s ok! We got to the pool, he happily put on his bathing suit, seemed indifferent to the bandaid covering his scraped knee, and eagerly hopped in the pool! And guess what? He had fun! And Matt taught him how to flip in the water. I forget what he called it, but when you get to the end of a lap and flip under the water to start back the other way. Yep, I have no idea how to do that and Lex learned today! All because he found the courage and inspiration to get in the water! I’m proud and confused and totally in love with that little boy!
Lex and his instructor (in the background). The blur in the foreground is a girl jumping off the diving board. All the kids will get a chance to try it on Friday, if they want to. Eve says she is going to do it. Lex says not no, but hell no! Well, his cleaner version of that statment anyway ;)
Eve, walking over to her instructor (the woman in the water watching her) about to jump into the pool. Eve loves jumping into the pool. :)
Here they are together, swimming under water towards the wall.
I have lots more to say about life and whatnot… and I was surprised to find 48 photos on my camera this evening. I guess a lot has been going on… just not a lot of time to blog about it! Sorry! For now I’m exhausted and eager to watch the second half of Harry Potter #7. A big thanks to Rosy for our newest addiction (and yes I realize I’m about five years behind the times… )
The best job of all
This afternoon we were discussing the merits of being a rock star and debating whether or not that would be a glamorous job. Eve decided it would not and being a princess would be much more satisfying. Lex said, “I think being a mother is probably the best job of all.” Bonus points for that boy!
Wasting money…
Every time we go to the grocery store Eve wants money to put into this machine. I always say no and I never have quarters anyway. Yesterday I mentioned that we had to go grocery shopping today and she eagerly got out her little purse and filled it with 22 quarters (21 really, and a nickel). After dropping Lex off at school we went to the hospital to visit Grandma and time got tight. I wanted to skip shopping, but Eve insisted we go because she really wanted to get 22 toys from the “toy machine.” I explained over and again how the machine works and that it’s a waste of money, but she insisted. So we went and she put in a few quarters (the thing requires $.50 now!) and got angry that it didn’t work. We did our shopping and while I was checking out she decided to try it again. Still no good. Then a guy came and opened it up and took the money out (all hers, I think). She watched from my side and excitedly told me that he must have been fixing the machine. “It was broken,” she insisted. When the man left she ran over and put a few more quarters in. Still no good. She got frustrated again and started talking about what a bad machine it was. Several of my words came out of her mouth, which is always funny to hear. All in all only about half of her money was spent and she decided to save the rest for something “not so broken.”
She's so darn adorable!
I guess we all learn our lesson with this machine at some point in life.
PS. We actually stopped at KAF on the way to the hospital and I bought Eve a giant blueberry scone. On the way out the door I remembered that her little purse was full of money and I said, “You have money, you should have bought your own scone.” She said, “My money is for all those toys, you have to buy me everything else I want.” Ha!
She’s off and riding!
Eve decided today was the day to ride without training wheels. We’ve talked about it off and on and I told her this was her summer for a big bike, but for some reason today was the day. Lex has a bigger bike (“the red bike”) that he can ride but he prefers the smaller one (“the blue bike”). Today he was generous and agreed to let Eve try riding the blue bike. He hopped on the red one and took off. She hopped on the blue one and barely sat still while I explained the key points to riding a bike (such as keep pedaling!) and then she was off. The first go I held her seat and she pedaled fast! I was running along, awkwardly, and then moved my hand up to her shirt so I could run more upright. She yelled, “just let go mom!” but I was too nervous!! We got part way down the street and I let go. Away she went, fast! She put her feet down at the end of the road and tumbled a bit since we hadn’t yet discussed stopping. But she laughed and got right back up! I helped her get started again and she rode on. Back and forth we went.
First time out. She's a champ!
Away she goes!
I would have put on my running shoes if I'd known she was going to be such a speed demon!
I’m so proud of her!