07/13/11
Last swimming video, I swear! (Okay, I mostly swear.) The boys were practicing scaring me half to death by sticking their faces in the water blowing bubbles. And check out the little girls in the class. They’re both two, and the cutest little things ever ever ever.
If you click on the banner below, I promise I won’t post another swimming class video. At least not this year.
07/12/11
Three little fishies!
I know swimming lessons are only half over, but I want to document them before I forget how it all went.
Day 1, Thursday: I had daycare put their “diving suits” (that’s what they call them) on because I knew it’d be a struggle to get Linus or Miles in them. I was happy to see they were all wearing their suits when I picked them up.
We got to the lesson, and there were three other kids in their group, all girls. Two of them are two years old, and the other is older, maybe five or six. The lessons go like this: Ms Judy (the teacher) is in the pool, and the kids sit on the steps. In theory, anyway. She gets one kid at a time, stands a few feet from the wall, and kind of launches them toward it, halfway underwater. And then, amazingly, they don’t drown. They just kind of flail their way to the wall.
None of the boys were too keen on this, but especially Linus and Miles. George or I had to hand her each kid as he tried to run away, sobbing. Miles clung to me like a barnacle, but we were able to hand him over without my shirt getting ripped off by his desperate grip. Barely. Once in the water, they were even more hysterical, not wanting to let go of Ms Judy. But she is a pro, so soon enough, each one was flailing their way to the wall. She said they were remarkably calm under water, but you’d never know that by the way they were acting once their heads were above it.
So the first lesson went like this. Tears, screaming, flailing underwater.
Later that night, the boys all said they liked their swimming lesson. Ha ha ha, yeah, right!
Day 2, Friday: I was afraid the boys would freak out if they even knew they were going back to swimming lessons, but they were remarkably calm about it. Daycare forgot to get them dressed, but we didn’t have any big problems getting them to put their bathing suits on.
We get to the pool, and there is definite reluctance to get near the pool, but eventually they do. They’re not happy to take their turns, and there are plenty of tears, but they do. Granny and Grandpa came to the lesson, so they had more of an audience to show off to.
Day 3, Monday: They claimed to be excited about lessons (mostly because I had promised them a snack of Froot Loops on the way there) but once we got there, Miles was not happy. Linus (this is my child who has never gotten into a pool for me, even with his Puddle Jumpers on) calmly sat on the steps with Oliver, while Miles asked me in a voice filled with dread, “is it my turn? IS IT MY TURN???” ad nauseum. Miles screamed and cried when Ms Judy took him around the pool, but he swam well (you know, relatively speaking. He wasn’t doing the breaststroke or anything.)
Imagine my stunned surprise when Linus volunteered to go after Miles. He put his hand out for Ms Judy to come get him. He was happy and calm and took his turns like a champ. I was so proud of him! Next, Oliver did just as well! Miles still cried in the water, but he calmed down considerably. And by the end of the lesson, they were all whining for another turn.
Kids!
We are now halfway through with lessons. Three more days. I am guessing by the last lesson, I’ll have little Olympic swimmers on my hands! Heh.
07/11/11
07/10/11
07/09/11
Ten year blog-iversary!
Wow. Ten years.
As of today, I have been blogging for ten years. (It also happens to be my dad’s birthday. He’d be 73 this year. Crazy. But not the point.)
I started out back when blogging software wasn’t readily available. Maybe it was, I’m not sure. I just kept everything in HTML files, but I’ve been working on transferring them to WordPress so you can read them in all their glory.
In April 2001, I was 26 years old, overweight, completely out of shape, and smoked a pack a day. I decided it was time for a change.
If you know me, you know I like to do things big. One baby? No way, let’s do three. So I wasn’t going to start by walking, I was going to go right into running. And that’s what I did. Obviously, I wasn’t very fast, nor could I go very far, but it helped. And to keep myself from quitting (like I’d done so many times before), I signed up for the 2002 London Marathon in April of the following year. Sending in the deposit ensured that I had to do it. I roped my friend Chris to doing the marathon with me, as an even greater incentive.
So that’s what I did. I quit smoking, started running, and finished the marathon a year later. Sure, I was passed by a one-legged guy at the end. I never said I was fast!
Who could have guessed that ten years later, I’d still be blogging?
10 years, 2100+ posts, two marathons, a million page views,
07/08/11
07/07/11
07/06/11
Loooong weekend
Man, that was a long weekend. I can’t even remember what we did Friday. What did we do? Hmmm…
Oh yeah. Daycare had a Fourth of July cookout at lunch, so I went for that. Of course, when I left to go back to work, the boys freaked out. Lovely.
Early Saturday morning, we loaded up the van and went to take pictures of some baby triplets from my triplet group. They were so cute and they were talking to me, and smiling, and cooing. Love it. I got some cute shots of them, but I’ve only edited one so far:
We left her house and drove directly to my mom’s, where the boys played outside and I attempted to relax. My kids are maniacs.
The next morning, we went to my aunt and uncle’s house for a little family party. My cousin, an artist, is in town for a show. I’d never met his son, who’s a year younger than the boys. I had fun photographing him, and the boys had fun fighting over toys.
My other cousin’s daughter, who is beyond adorable. She calls her grandpa “Bob”. I mean, that’s his name and all, but it sounds really cute coming from a toddler.
Also, we discovered Linus is quite adept at baseball. One of my uncles brought the boys a plastic baseball bat and some whiffle balls, and Linus was actually hitting balls my uncle was pitching! Okay, fine, he was about three feet away, but STILL!
That afternoon, a family who is expecting identical (they think) triplet boys came over to see mine “in the wild”. That was really fun, they’re good people.
We tried to get a group picture of the boys with their girls, but of course my kids had to act like goons.
We went back to New Orleans shortly after. I dropped the boys off at Granny and Grandpa’s, and George and I went to a party at the pub. He dressed like a monk. At least I got to shave his head in an amusing manner.
Monday was the fourth (in case you forgot), and after picking up the boys, we went to my friend’s house to swim. As usual, only Oliver enjoyed himself, so didn’t stay as long as I would have liked. Ah well. I was exhausted from swimming and being a shark and doing flips in the pool, so we just spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. And bribing the boys with some iPad time to take their monthly picture.
Enough holidays! They’re exhausting.
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