Swimming update

The kids are rocking in the swimming pool. Rocking! Suddenly they are practically independent! Lex can get around the current pool all on his own. Eve can too, but she makes me a bit more nervous so I still stay close to her. It seems like just yesterday they were clinging to me in the water, now they are fairly indifferent if I’m even there. Sob. Kidding, kind of. They like having me there to play with them. It’s just so amazing to watch them grow!

While they had lessons today (and most days) I swam laps in the competition pool. When I came back to the lesson pool I found Eve getting a private lesson from Molly, who runs whole the lesson program. On the way to lessons Eve told me she hoped Molly would be her teacher again today and I was confused because Molly isn’t her teacher. I guess two weeks ago (when Alan had them at lessons) and today Molly took Eve aside to help her practice her kicking. As I was watching I couldn’t really tell what was going on. Lex’s lesson got done at the usual time, but Molly and Eve kept working. I asked the regular teacher if Eve was doing ok in lessons and she said yes. I wasn’t sure if Eve was getting special attention because she wasn’t keeping up (the rest of the class is 6yr olds), but her teacher said she was doing just fine. So then I began to wonder if she was getting extra attention because she’s an advanced swimmer! I was super curious! About five minutes past when the lesson was supposed to have ended Molly and Eve swam over to me and Molly explained what they were doing. Apparently Eve does her straight leg kick with a very straight leg. Toes pointed and knees locked. Molly has been trying to get her to loosen her legs just a bit. To me it seemed like an odd thing to be focusing on, but they were working hard at it. Eve is either floppy legged or straight legged, that subtle in-between seems to escape her. After a few more minutes of Molly explaining to me and working with Eve I asked if this behavior was unusual at this age. Molly seemed perplexed and intrigued while working with Eve. She said yes, it is fairly unusual for young kids to have such straight legs while swimming. I have no idea what to make of that. Good, bad, indifferent? Maybe it’s all just a ploy on Eve’s part. She does love swimming lessons with Molly, and getting the teacher’s attention all to herself! Eve is a crafty one ;)

Biscuit

Eve read me two little Biscuit books tonight! She likes to show off her reading skills to Alan but I rarely get to see them. She told me she would have to use her brain for some of the words and “really think on them.” She is such a smarty! :)

Pony house

I told you, these blocks are popular! Here’s Eve’s latest creation. A house for the ponies. With a nice flat roof. :)

outside

The outside

inside

The inside. Her final addition was the dresser for the ponies. I think they have a TV in there too.

At the restaurant

restaurant

This photo was actually taken during dinner at the restaurant. Eve is counting out the $6 she owed for her meal.

Eve and I have been playing “restaurant” a lot lately. She loves it. I call her “Ma’am” and give her menu options (I’m thinking about making up an official menu for her) and she orders. The restaurant closes at 11:35am each day because the owner has to get her daughter to school. Eve pays me in pink construction paper money I made for them years ago, and usually tips me with fancy jewels :) It’s good math practice for her and it’s a easy way to get through lunch and out the door for school.

A tick!

Today I am thankful for attentive teachers and kind school nurses.

Eve went on a nature hike with her class today. Her teacher told me when they returned to the classroom Eve pulled her shirt up (she’s a classy girl!) and the teacher noticed a tick on her stomach! I guess she had her jacket unzipped during the hike and at one point she tripped and fell. The teacher thinks the tick probably hopped on right then. Eek! I spoke with the nurse after pickup and she said Eve was a top notch patient. Of course! The nurse had removed the tick and kept it in a bag to show me. She asked if I wanted to keep it (ick!) and I said no thanks. I did want to take a picture, but my camera was in the car :) The nurse had removed it and cleaned the area and applied anti-bacterial stuff and a band-aid. Eve was well taken care of. I’m thankful the teacher noticed and I’m thankful the nurse took care of it. I’m sure I would have noticed in the tub tonight, but I’m happy someone more qualified (and medically trained!) than I took care of it instead.

Pigtails

image

image

image

Today I am thankful for curly pigtails.

It’s 6am and my family is wide awake and raring to go.  We have been up for hours! Alan has already left for work. It’s going to be a long day and the pigtails are making me smile.  :-)

Super quick update

I’m employing Starfall as my babysitter for a few minutes so I can do some Good Beginnings work. That done, I’m going to take two more minutes for a blog update as I noticed I left you all hanging on the sick thing.

Lex is feeling much better now. He went to school Tuesday morning, despite red rosy checks and a warm forehead. He insisted he felt fine and wanted to go to school. He came home yesterday afternoon wanting to take a nap (no surprise!). Unfortunately his bed was stripped and instead of waiting for me to remake his bed he decided to watch Toy Story instead. They both settled into the dark living room (darn winter!) and watched Toy Story. He almost dozed off a few times, but didn’t. I took the opportunity to bake a pumpkin pie. More on that later!

He went to bed feeling fine and woke up this morning happy and ready to go back to school. Yay!

The other good news from today is that Eve’s eye sight progress is going well. We had a checkup this morning and her eye doctor was very happy with her progress. I guess when she first got her glasses she measured at 20/30-20/40 corrected, but now she was 20/20 corrected. Which means her left eye is working harder and her vision is improving. Yay! The doctor was very pleased and Eve, of course, was a Wonderful Patient (or so said her sticker reward at the end.)

Ok, time to shut down and go… make dinner I suppose. Or maybe I’ll cuddle and play Starfall with them for awhile. :)

Silly Sleepers

I added a tag called “silly sleepers” to mark all these crazy sleep positions :) Some day I’ll go back through the years of blog posts and tag them all. For now, here’s a starter photo.

sleeping eve

Her legs were criss-crossed in front of her (criss-cross applesauce, hands in your lap) and she was flopped right over them. Sound asleep. So flexible!