Swimming Lessons

I signed the girls up for lots of swim lessons this summer in hopes that it would be my last worried fill summer on the edge of a pool.  The first session went great.  The Magster tolerated her male swim teacher and even grew to like him.  She swam across the width of the pool taking breaths and I heaved a sigh of relief.  Water safety was within reach.

Then, we went on vacation.  On the way home from Colorado, the Magster announced she was no longer going to swim.  Of all the activities in our house, swim lessons is the only one that is not optional.  So I gave her my standard line:  swim lessons or swim team are the choices, but no swimming is not an option.  She didn't respond until the next session of swim lessons started.  

At the start of the last session of swim lessons (this was mid-July), she was placed in a 2nd level beginners class on the first day.  Her instructor evaluated her and she failed miserably.  In fact, she refused to put her head under water.  So, Maggie was moved to a first level beginner class, the exact same class she passed in June, and she failed the evaluation again by refusing to jump into the water to her teacher.  She was then demoted to Tots, the class she passed last summer.  So as I watched my nearly five-year-old who could swim across the pool splash happily with the three-year-olds, steam poured from my ears.  

I tracked down the lessons coordinator and told her my daughter was working the lifeguards and she needed to be pushed a little.  As I stood on the edge of the pool "discussing" my daughter's attitude problem, I saw my daughter refuse again to put her ahead under water.  I was humiliated.  Defeated, I went back to my seat and watched helplessly as the Magster waved at me from the shallow end.  The little bugger.  The Magster ended the session passing Tots but failing the Beginner 1 test, a test she'd already passed in June.  

Given her academy award worthy performance, I signed the Magster up for a third session of swim lessons.  And lo and behold she started the session by swimming across the pool using a crawl stroke on the first day.  Why?  Well, a friend of the family (EP for those in the know) was teaching the Beginner 2 class and the Magster REALLY wanted to be in her class.  If she didn't swim across the pool, it would have been her old teacher back in Beginner 1.  Suddenly, the Magster is swimming like Natalie Coughlin when EP is next to her.  She's diving into the deep end, she's hanging out in the six foot corner of the pool, she's even ditching her goggles because EP doesn't wear goggles.  

And you know, this time around, none of it shocked me.  After the "no-talking-to-teachers-battle" last fall and the earlier "no-sleeping-in-a-crib" power struggle (both battles I lost), I should have known she'd come around on the swimming when she decided the time was right.  

A Startling Realization

This morning while I was walking the dog, I got to thinking (always dangerous) about how busy we are every weekend.  And I sort of got to wondering why.  I know that we have kids, and I know that busy weekends are just part of raising children, but we've been booked every weekend since Memorial Day and I think our first completely open weekend is sometime in 2009.  (I'm not kidding.)

When I got home I sat down and made a list of various activities that take up time on our weekends.  In some cases, these activities are only an hour or two, just something we need to juggle. In other cases, these activities are full weekend soirees, involving some efforts.  In some cases, two of these things can occur on the same weekend, and in others, not so much.  

So, here's the run down of one families weekend commitments.  I bet if you think about your list, its similar to mine.

Soccer:  2 games every Saturday for 10 weeks

Dance:  7 competitions, conventions or days dedicated to recitals (assumes only one child dancing)

FCC:     4 adoption related activities including reunions, camp outs and gatherings

Family Vacation:  2-3 weekends depending on lengths

Weekend Getaways:  2-3 depending on year

Y Princess Camp Outs:  1, but it's an entire weekend

Piano Recitals:  2 if Maggie sticks with it

Kids Birthday parties:  1 for each child.  Doesn't include all the other ones they're invited to

SF Giant Games:  3-4 depending on the year

Now, I'm a writer, not a mathematician, but this equals 33 to 36 weekends with something planned.   On the high end that means we have something (even if it's small) planned almost 70% of weekends.  And we don't have kids playing a highly competitive sport.  

Boy, I'm exhausted just thinking about this list.  I think I need to get to bed.

A Rare Mid-Day Post

Well, it's 3pm.  Maggie is sitting at the counter making herself a snack (rice cakes, cream cheese and gold fish crackers-- we call them fish bowls) and La Nina is sitting next to me trying to figure out a beginners loom.  And I'm actually going to try to post something.  This feels like an advanced parenting move...I'm not optimistic it's going to work.  

As of yesterday our summer was officially half over.  It's now less than five weeks until school starts.  (Just had to stop writing and fix the loom.)  In some ways, the first part of summer flew by.  Two weeks out of town, vacation bible school, swim lessons...we've been on the go.  In other ways, summer is LONG.  Particularly when I think of the nearly ten days of combined sick time we lived through.  (Just had to stop writing to clean up a spill.)  (Oops, Carly's needle came unthreaded.)   

I've intentionally tried to limit the kids' activities.  So far all they've had is swim lessons and bible school.  And the kids have enjoyed the down time..to a certain extent.  La Nina finds it hard to keep herself busy, but when you have a wildly imaginative little sister, the time passes on her flights of fantasy.

As for me, I've kept busy preparing for my writing workshop.  It's not easy getting up at four every morning and I sort of fall apart every afternoon around five, then I just have to gut it out until nine when I collapse into bed.  As the kids have gotten older, they require less physical effort and more intellectual effort.  Trust me, matching wits with La Nina when I've been up early to write can quite the challenge.  I don't know how many times a day that child changes her clothes, hair or shoes.  (Had to get Maggie a puzzle.)

Anyway, summer sort of starts winding down week after next.  La Nina starts dance the first full week of August, soccer starts for both girls shortly after that, and school (major break to change colors on La Nina's loom) registration is the next week.  I'd hope to write more this summer, but alas, they're still a little young to be completely independent.   (Gotta run, the dog is trying to steal the Magster's cracker.)

Home, At Last

We arrived home today after a fantastic vacation.  After the first week in Tahoe, we didn't know if it was a great idea to continue onto Colorado.  Maggie was still sick and in Colorado, medical care was going to be more difficult than Tahoe.  But her fever broke and we decided God doesn't like a coward, so we headed across the Nevada desert.  

We arrived in Colorado a day later with our semi-healthy kid for a few days visit with The Dad's family.  We spent four days fishing, four-wheeling and riding horses.  Despite their tendency to be girly-girls, Colorado always inspires my kids to get dirty.  It was great fun Colorado style. 

We left yesterday and started driving home.  After a night in lovely Ely, Nevada, we finished the trip home this afternoon.  And guess who arrived home sick?  La Nina!  As of this evening she's running a fever of 102.  At least she waited until we arrived home.  Hopefully, this won't be a five day ordeal involving antibiotics and a trip to the doctor, like her sister.  But at least we're home and only missing trips to the pool, not days at the beach, hiking and fireworks.   

Vacation Blues

Well, we just wrapped up a much anticipated vacation week in Tahoe.  It was Maggie's first visit to the Lake and only Carly's second.  The first occurred when she was just two, so this was the first visit she remembered.  Here are a couple of highlights and lowlights from our week.  

Truckee River Rafting:  If you haven't floated down the Truckee River on an inflatable raft, then frankly, you're not a Californian.  We took the girls down the river on Wednesday and had a blast.  I strategically placed myself in the front of the raft, so I couldn't see them teetering on the edge, dipping hands and feet in the ice cold water.   We made it down the river with only had two close calls.  We almost lost Maggie overboard when we hit a support pillar as passed under a bridge and La Nina nearly bounced out as we shot the "rapids".  Despite their brushes with danger, both girls really wanted to go back the next day.    

Tahoe Gal:  We also took the girls for a ride on the Lake itself courtesy of one of the many party boats.  It was fun, if not a bit slow for the kids.  They did enjoy watching the water skiers, para sailers and jet skiers playing in our wake.  

Illness:  It was a good thing we planned so much time in Tahoe and left ourselves a lot of down time as Maggie woke up with a screaming fever on Thursday.  We rushed her off to the ER, where they determined she either had strep throat or a nasty virus. (It's very difficult to get a quick throat culture on the day before a long holiday weekend.  Trust me!)  For the rest of our week, one of us stayed in the room with a unusually quiet Magster while the other took La Nina to the pool, to see fireworks, to the beach, etc.  Our mantra:  Surely, the fever will break tomorrow.   And it finally did, this morning...our last day in Tahoe.  At least she's on the mend now and hopefully, will be back in action this week.  

That's it for me.  Hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth.