The end of Swimming Lessons

  

   Well, swimming lessons are finally over.  I wish I had some exciting news to report, but - no.  He had fun, he did get more comfortable in the water, and he was excited to go everyday.  What more could I ask for?  The sad little secret - he did not pass his class.  Not even close!  I did not expect him to and the instructor was SOOO encouraging and sweet in her documentation, but - no way!  He's recommended to take level 1 again next summer, which is exactly what I had planned to do anyway; but, the perfectionist in Mommy sees this as our first FAIL.  It's really not, though, and he really was very young and had almost no water experience.  I stayed and swimmed with him yesterday after his class.  Honestly, I'm not sure how those sweet little lifeguards didn't drown him!  He's obnoxiously clingy in the water and it takes an awful lot to convince him that you're not going to let anything happen to him.  I couldn't even get him to float on his back (which he looked like he was doing well in class.)  He did ask to go underwater a couple of times - so that was good.  He found a little kiddie slide that he liked, but he kept standing at the bottom, so he got knocked down by the next kid every time and cried every time.  We finally had to just go home!

   Today was the last day of lessons - Fun Day!  Not for Jimmy, though.  He woke up this morning telling me that he was not going down the big blue slide today.  (It is a pretty big, water-park-style slide).  Sure enough, he gets in the water, they put life jackets on all of the kids and this one little boy freaks at the idea of a lifejacket and starts crying.  I look up - yep, my little guy has joined in the crying.  I tried to talk to him, the lifeguards tried to steer him away from me (which is nice, and a good plan, but I wasn't caudling!).  He told me he didn't want to go down the slide and he didn't want to swim anymore.  So, his teacher carried him around for a few minutes with the other cryer boy.  The other 6 kids are lovin' the big blue slide.  She takes the lifejackets off and lets them play in their comfort area.  (See video) 

Jimmy warms up to the little slide, but on his 3rd time down, I look up and he's "dead man" floating.  I tell the other mommies, "Jimmy's under" and I climb out of my lounge chair.  About that time, his teacher notices and picks him up.  The mommy next to me say, "I think he was just swimming, he's not freaked."  (Now, remember, the only way Jimmy's hair has gotten wet is when a lifeguard dunks him at the beginning of class.)  He doesn't appear upset or panicked, but the teacher set him on the side of the pool for a second.  (I'm thinking, "Oh yeah, now we're traumatized for life.")  Later, he told me that he was swimming and he did that on purpose.  Then, she gets the jackets back out, (return of the tears and screaming from the other little friend). 

She puts one on Jimmy and sends him to a lifeguard who is in the water at the base of the slide.  After about 5 minutes, I wandered to that area - yep, he's still crying!  Geeze, boy!  They passed him back to his teacher, she took off his jacket and let the weenie kids (now 3 of them) play with the diving rings.  He did better at picking up the rings than he had all week!  So much for Fun Day!  Our sweet little teacher gave them all candy and brought her camera and had another lifeguard take a group picture with all the kids.  She really was great!

swimming lessons day 1

Jimmy was on a waiting list for swimming lessons and he got in. He actually started class on the 2nd day due to a cancellation the first day. Well . . . he's no super-star, but that's OK. As usual, he's the instructor's favorite. He did a lot of watching and was a bit spacey, but he did it! He got in, did what he was supposed to (sort of) and loved it. After the first class, my kiddo was the only one with dry hair! That's OK, he'll warm up. He's really funny, though - avoids the splashing, picks up the diving rings with his feet, death grips the instructor during floating, and during assisted swimming, lays like a dead fish and lets the lifeguard pull him around! But he loves it! And he's having fun!!

Behind Again??

I don't know how some people do it! (Keep up with their blogs, that is.) This kid does at least one amazing thing everyday!!! He's constantly changing and growing. So now what, since April, let's see what's happened. Well, we're basically finished potty training. (we've had one tiny accident in the last 3 weeks).

Hmmm, we earned our new bike. Oh yeah, we decided since we were past his birthday and nowhere near Christmas, he had to earn his bike. 10 major chores. Cleaned up after I whacked our bushes (1 bike buck), unloaded all 4 loads of laundry each Monday (1 bike buck each week - 4 weeks), scooped up Mollie poo with Daddy (3 times for 3 bike bucks), and swept the garage (twice - 2 bike bucks). He shocked us and chose a generic dinosaur bike above the Diego or Cars bike. Then, in the end, he chose a cool Hot Wheels bike that revs when you twist the right handgrip. A few days later, we had this conversation:

Me: Jimmy, you want to ride your bike?

Jimmy: No, I want to ride Paulie's bike.

Me: No hunny, that one's not yours, we need to give it back. Let's ride your cool, new bike.
Jimmy: No, I schlink it's no good.

Me: What, why do you think your new bike is no good? (I'm panicked at this point.)

Jimmy: It falls over too much.

The reality is, this bike is bigger and he get distracted and his training wheels hit the grass and the big bike falls on top of him. But we always make him get right back on it. He likes to go either around the block or just rides two houses down and comes back and says, "I'm all finished." Long trips or short, no hanging out riding back and forth. Oh well, he's still young. Last chore - (notice, the bike is already in the garage, but has NOT been ridden yet!)

What else? Oh yeah, he finally likes the sprinkler and subsequently, the splashpark. (We even got him to take a shower this weekend with Daddy - huge milestone!!!)

Most recently, Jimmy and Daddy went and did the free project at Home Depot. They LOVED it! and Daddy said Jimmy was able to do a lot of the work. So they'll be doing more in the future.

Well, that's about it for us. I've been sewing like a maniac, Daddy's working like a dog, and Jimmy and I have been trying to squeeze all of the fun out of summer that we can!

Bicycle

Paulie and Mrs. Mary came over today. Last year, Paulie got a bicycle that he still is a bit young for. Mrs. Mary was wishing she could try Paulie on a tricycle. Interesting - Jimmy's gotten so fast on his tricycle, recently, that we were begining to wonder if he might be ready for a bicycle. Today, Mrs. Mary brought over Paulie's bike so we could try the boys on each others' "Wheels." Jimmy took off on the bicycle. I had to push him slightly to get his pedals started the first few times. Then I looked up and he was halfway down the street (we stay on the sidewalk - don't panic!). We traded for a week or so, let's see how it goes!

OOOoooops!

Well, apparently, I've lost track of the blog again! James added some video, (messed some stuff up), and misplaced my snow videos. I kept waiting to fix all of this before moving on, but forget it! We've got big stuff going on around here!

FINALLY . . . SUPER-UNDIES!!!!
Since January, we've been holding onto some licensed undies (Thomas, Diego, and Cars), that I did not sew a liner into. We told Jimmy as soon as he could go 3 consecutive days with no accidents, he could wear his super-undies. (We have a chart and everything.) Well, last Saturday, on our camping trip, we made it through day 3. (It's easy when you get to pee on the trees whenever you want!) So, since Saturday afternoon, we've been in super-undies. We only had 1 tiny accident - he told us 4 times at Sam's Club that he needed to go pee-pee and we made him wait, so we had a little "leakage," but no biggie. Now, every morning, he takes 20 minutes picking out his super-undies for the day. It's a big decision!

Jimmy in the Snow 2

Jimmy in the Snow 1

Blizzard

Here are some preliminary pictures of our blizzard. Jimmy and I played in the snow around 8:30 (video later) and now at 11:45, you can't even tell. It's been snowing really hard all day. James gets to come home at 1:00 - hopefully he can make it home.

Flashback

Can you believe Jimmy's about to be 3??? Just 3 weeks from yesterday! Crazy! Want to have a good laugh? Click here for a flashback.

Here's my funny little boy on Feb. 1st for his monthly photo shoot. At one point, I said, "Don't stick your finger in Scruffy's nose, ewww." The rest of the pictures have a little finger in Scruffy's nose - of course, this was wildly funny!!!

Potty Training is going well. Our trip to Houston seems to have set us back a bit, but no biggie! We still haven't made it to Super-Undies. (3 days without an accident and he gets to wear his Thomas, Cars, or Diego undies which I haven't sewed padding into.) We used to regularly make 2 days with no accidents, but here lately, we're struggling to make it through 1. No worries, though, he'll get there.

The weather is still COLD, COLD, COLD, so Jimmy and I are getting a little stir crazy! On Mon., Wed., Fri. we go to storytime, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are long and boring! I've been doing some sewing while he plays or watches Diego, (AGAIN). He's obsessed with Diego and Handy Manny. At least they're good shows. Right now, James and I are making our First Aid kits for our cars. (He orders stuff and fills them, I sewed them.) I'll probably put those on Etsy later this week and he may sell them through his YouTube reviews. We'll see. Mostly, we're just piddling until the weather warms up so we can all get outside and play!!!

OK, so I stole this from a friend's blog - so fun! Give it a try.

Call the Nestle Crunch Hotline at 1-800-295-0051 (it's fully automated - no worries!). When asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait quietly for about 10 seconds and then you will smile. Keep going and press 4 to listen to other fun. You'll see! So fun!

I finally got some time to scrapbook, (I'm WAY behind), so I thought I'd just upload them here. Hopefully, you can click on them to make them big. (Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't - not sure what determines this "Super ability!")