Apr 29
Everyone,
Today at Butterfly’s swim lessons, I sat in the lobby right next to the glass door and watched her swim. There is only one other boy in her swim class. I LOVE that ratio for swimming. We are taking them through the county. We lucked out on this class size though.
Because she has such a great class ratio, I’ve been watching her improve in every single lesson in huge leaps and bounds. This time I watched her propel herself across the pool (with the aid of a float held in front of her) and float on her back all by herself. She also was diving underneath the water to pick up rings on the pool floor.
She is LOVING swimming every week. I never have to force her to get ready like I used to with dance class. She walks to the pool happily (we live about half a mile from the pool) and walks home skipping and jumping. She did tell me today that dance class was fun at the end. And she always LOOKED like she was having a good time in class.
No matter. I’m liking the half hour or so to sit and read. I’m also liking the walk to and from the pool. We get to talk and she gets some serious one on one time with me. Of course, we have all of nap time without the boys too but that’s my time to “work” and so she watches a movie.
She’s changed her favorite color from orange back to purple. Random. That’s what she woke me up at 6:15am to tell me this morning. I was NOT a happy camper. Because when she wakes up, so do the boys.
This color change is the reason I was dragging today and was not very productive at all. We at least survived the day and now, off to bed.
Safire
SafireButterfly, Butterfly activities, swim lessons
Apr 15
Everyone,
I typed in 4 different titles before that one and each one I had used before. Feeling Crabby, Crabby Here, etc. Did not improve my mood.
The kids are fine. Oh Professor is a little more clingy than normal due to his face thing. And Butterfly refuses to bend her knee (also due to the face thing). But she happily went to swimming lessons today and jumped right in the pool no problems. Crazy girl.
We stopped dance lessons because were going to be in Utah during the big spring showcase. This was the session where they were going to pick out costumes and learn a routine for it. I knew she couldn’t handle doing all the prep work and NOT dancing in the showcase. So we switched to swim lessons again.
She is SO much happier in swim lessons. There is no hesitation, no crying, no forcing when we need to get ready. She does it happily and jumps right in the pool without even waving good bye. There is only one other boy in her class this time so she should get some good one on one instruction.
I, on the other hand, am crabby. I don’t know why. Just one of those days. So what are things to help get you out of a crabby funk? These are what I normally do:
- Exercise. It’s amazing what getting your blood pumping can do for your mood after. Plus! You can loose some weight if you’re doing it a lot. Negative- I always wonder what the kids are doing (when they are not exercising with me) and it’s almost always then that they get in trouble.
- Clean. In the movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove”, Pacha’s wife gets mad over something Pacha says and snorts, “I’ve got to go clean something.” I feel like that sometimes. A clean something means a task is done. And done tasks make me feel better. Negative- The kids ALWAYS want to help but it ends up making it worse and then I have to do it over. This does not make me happy.
- Sit in the sun. It’s so peaceful and nice to sit and have the sun shine on your face and head. I like the way my hair smells after I’ve been outside. Negative- The kids scream if I don’t take them out with me and then things like the face incidents happen and then no one is happy.
- Read a book. I’ve read a few books lately, but none that I’m really excited about. One is dry, long and somewhat boring. I don’t like the writer’s style. I’m more confused after reading the last chapter (I’m one of THOSE book readers) so I actually have to read the book. Anyone have anything good out there to read? Negative- the kids DO NOT like me reading my books. They bring me their books. And there is only so much “Water Water Everywhere” that I can take before I become the pacing cat at the zoo again.
- Put on some fun music and dance. This is a good one. Everyone gets moving. Everyone gets happy. Maybe I’ll go do this one now.
Safire
Safirebad days, grumpy, swim lessons
May 20
Everyone,
Tonight was Butterfly’s very last swim lesson. The one that they encourage the parents to come and watch (they kick us out otherwise…important I think). So Juice came home from work early and we packed up the boys and our sweet Butterfly to swim lessons.
Guess what I forgot to pack? MY CAMERA.
I was annoyed. And a little sad. I could have taken video of her jumping up and down on the side of the wall! I could have shown you that she is by far the biggest kid in the class. I could have shown you how utterly fearless she is in the water. Instead, you’ll have to use your imagination.
So one of the things that her teacher has them do is jump while holding onto the wall. She jumps as high as she can and makes an impressive splash coming down. The poor tiny kids next to her have no chance. She is completely oblivious to them though and just was to jump “the highest biggest fastest that I can!” (Someone let her see the Incredibles and now she wants to be Dash. Sigh.)
They play ring around the rosy and have the kids blow bubbles at the end or put their face in the water. Butterfly dunks herself every time instead. She comes up sputtering water and looking a little shocked but happy. She even put her face in the water and walked 2 or 3 steps to her teacher today. It was truly amazing.
Juice leaned over and asked if I was hiding some kind of mermaid genes because she suddenly turned into a fish. She really did. She passed everything on her report card (except for 2 things related to floating on backs…I don’t think they even went over that.) and she is cleared to advance to the next class: strokers! We aren’t putting her in that class this summer because I think we are going to try and get her into swim lessons at my mom’s pool. It would give us something to do and it runs every week we are there. She’ll do strokers maybe in the fall or next spring.
She even jumped into the pool without her teachers help and came right back up to the surface. I’m so proud of her. And I can’t wait to go swimming with her!
Safire
SafireButterfly, swim lessons, swimming
