I grabbed a few photos right at the end of his lesson today. I also chatted with his teacher (and forgot her name moments after I asked, I need to work on that bad habit!) and she said that he is growing so strong and confident, compared to when she had him for lessons last summer. She was impressed with the changes from then to now.
Ready, set…
cannon ball!
I love this kid!
I’m getting excited about this teaching idea. Excited and nervous. Last time I tried to find a career it ended before it even began. I hope I make it a whole lot further with this one!
I’ve started telling people. Lots of people. Everyone, in fact. Maybe the more people I tell the more likely it will be to happen. I even asked my principal and one of Lex’s former teachers for references. They both happily agreed. I have essays in the proof-reading stages and references on the way. I need to order transcripts and send the whole thing in. Then hope I’m happy with the decision I’ve made! Eeek!
(This was much longer and more eloquent as I was composing it in my head while snuggling with the kids tonight. However, now, hours later, I’m tired and all eloquence has left the building. Check out the photo in the post below and you’ll understand!)
Did I mention that Lex is taking lessons now as part of a free deal for 2nd graders? They bus the kids over after school. They play for an hour, then have a lesson, then have a snack. Not the order I would have done things, but I’m not in charge. Anyway… Eve and I have been going over after school as well and swimming. The first day of lessons I noticed that two of his classmates, boys that he really wants to play hockey with, were having their lesson in the competition pool. I watched for a few minutes and saw that Lex can swim just as well as they can! During the following week I put on some mommy persuasion and encouraged him to try the big pool with his classmates. I reminded him that he can’t play hockey with them because he can’t skate well enough yet, but he certainly can swim as well as either of them! I guess he was feeling brave at his second lesson because he did it! He got right in and swam in the big pool. The staff there is pretty amazing and I had talked to them about it ahead of time. They had tried to take him in that pool a year ago when he was doing lessons last time, but he wasn’t up for it. They are kind and encouraging with him.
He has since done two lessons in the competition pool and seems pretty confident! Another mother told me last week that he was jumping off the start boards! I wasn’t there as Eve and I took the week off to stay home with a recovering Alan. When I asked Lex about it he was all nonchalant, like of course he was jumping off the board, why wouldn’t he?! :) He told me they were comparing splash heights of their cannon ball jumps!
Today we went swimming and I was eager to get pictures of him in the deep pool and jumping off the board. Sadly the lifeguard said you’re not allowed to use the start boards during free swim, so he couldn’t show off that skill, but we did have a great time in the big pool! Lots of jumping in, not a lot of lap swimming. Eventually the lifeguard kicked us out, claiming the lanes were filling up. I think he thought we were bothering the actual lap swimmers. Oh well! We moved back to the kid section and met up with some friends and had fun there too!
I’ll try and get some pictures of him jumping off the board during his lesson this week, but for now… into the big pool!
Easy peasy, right into the pool. It wasn’t even super cold today!
I talked them into doing laps. We made it to the other end and they were done with laps.
Eve
Lex, doing the crawl stroke.
We spent the rest of the time jumping into the pool. It would have been a fun day to have an underwater camera! :)
Ready… set…
Go!
We got home and they were drawn to the tv, like moths to the light. I let them watch Colbert with Alan while I made lunch for everyone. I took this picture just because it’s so cute how they’re sitting together.
Hey Mema – someone’s enjoying the new physics book you sent!
Alan likes it as well, but he hasn’t been doing much reading this week.
Eve has a secret friend. Her friend left her a secret note under her pillow the other day.
A note from a secret friend.
She was pretty excited!
Eve, showing off her note.
She thought and thought about to do and then remembered an episode of Super Why that the had seen recently. When the Super Why guy got a secret note, he wrote a note back inviting the friend over to play. Eve did the same.
A note to her secret friend.
Can you guess who it might be?
Are you tired of my skating videos yet? We went again today and the kids are rocking! Another time or two on the ice and they’re going to be better skaters than I am… which isn’t really saying much. :) Today Eve figured out how to stop by dragging a skate. I don’t know if that’s the proper way to stop (remember my skating skills?) but it works for her. Often it results in a fancy figure skating spin at the end. :)
It looks like she fell at the end there, but really it was a fancy figure skating move and she recovered nicely. I should have left the camera running for a few more seconds! :)
I’ve been neglecting this poor blog lately. For some reason I’m just not in the mood to write. I’m not even sure when I last picked up the camera! So much going on. So little time. I thought I’d have a calm, slow week home with Alan, but nope. Life is busy. He is doing very well, by the way. Healing nicely and enjoying hours of TV, video games, and card games with the kids. He got to spend his birthday on the couch eating cookies! And diagnosing heating issues. Today he and I replaced a circulator pump that may or may not have failed. The upstairs pipes have been frozen for a few days an the old “space heater in the knee wall” wasn’t working so he was the brains and I was the brawn and we replaced the pump. The good news is the heat is back on! :) And the temps outside are above zero!
As I was putting the kids to bed tonight I was crafting a long blog post in my head. How’s that for completely not “present” and “in the moment” at bedtime tonight! However, it’s now hours later and I’m just getting here and my tired brain has forgotten it all. It was just my ramblings anyway. About what, I forget. Oh well.
We are looking forward to a quiet weekend. Dinner with friends on Saturday. Hopefully get the kids to the ice skating rink again. That’s about it.
Hope all is well with the rest of the world. I’ll try to get myself mentally back here again soon. At least a few pictures or something. :)
Just before they wheeled him into surgery.
Alan had his hernia surgery today. They found the hernia had grown quite a bit and apparently they found another one as well! They patched up both and promised us he’ll be as good as new.
I dropped the kids at school then met Alan at the hospital. We hung out in the hospital room for a few hours until the OR was available. Then they gave me a pager and sent me on my way. I hung out, had lunch, tried to do some work, made friends with a teacher in the waiting room, and generally kept myself busy until they paged me. Order up!
After the anaesthesia wore off we headed out. Home by 5:00. The kids went to an after-school program for the day and I picked them up once Alan was settled on the couch.
I have no catchy ending for this. Sorry. Tired! Send warm wishes to Alan for a speedy recovery. I suspect he’ll be up and at ’em in no time!
Valentine’s Day is coming up (in four weeks!) and the kids are eager to get started with their cards. Last week I showed Lex several cool ideas on Pinterest (this, this, this, and this). He said, “Cool!!” I asked if he wanted to do one of them this year and he said, “No, let’s just make our own the way we do every year.” Ok then. So out came all the crafty reds and pinks. Our table has once again become a perpetual craft table. The kids also decided to use the rest of our Christmas candy canes on the cards. They are red and white after all!
Step across…
… to my heart. Isn’t he sweet!
He’s made many creative cards. I guess I only took pictures of the one for me. :) I’ll take a few more before they get delivered to friends and family.
E-card for Eve
We’re having fun with a Valentine’s Day Mad Libs I picked up in the grocery store. :)
Today we made Valentine’s Day sandwich cookies, a la Martha Stewart! I haven’t had one yet, but the filling I licked off my fingers was delicious!
Sandwich cookies
A few days ago Eve spent a very long time building “Cupid.” At first I had no idea what she was talking about and it appeared as though she were randomly gluing and cutting. But when it all came together I finally was able to see her creation. It kept falling over so she smartly pulled a yogurt container out of the recycling bin and glued the whole thing onto it, thereby providing a solid plastic base. Smart girl!
Eve’s cupid
The other side of cupid. Here you can see the “bow” and the tip of the red “arrow” coming through.
Eve took several pictures, but she framed them all such that my 6am face was included!