Splash!

This is our pool week. Shea has 2 - back to back 1/2 hour lessons from 10 - 11 all week. I finally realized that only 1 lesson is never enough.

The swim teachers are great and work to coax him to blow bubbles in the water with little success. Shea doesn't want his mouth or face in the water. We tried goggles today, we'll see if he gets used to them.

But, gosh, he is getting around pretty well out there. He wears a floaty jacket and uses a kick board and motors cruises around real good.

The challenge now is to just keep him in the shallow end.

Last week of school: Hurray? or Help!

Well, I can hardly believe it but here we are. Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago we were all snowed in? Wow, time does really fly as you get older.

Shea is almost done already. Just has 2 more days in the morning pre-school, one which is a party. I am actually glad about that because school is interfering with the bold and herculean strides he is making in the potty training department.

Even though, the thought of his princeliness with nothing to do but hassle me about playing on the computer all day is a scary prospect. Quickly and with plenty of forethought, I signed him up for the first session of swim lessons at the pool. I usually don't in June because our normal weather is rainy and bleak but not this year. We are in the full swing of summer and swim lessons are just what he needs.

I sign him up for 2 times, back to back; 10 & 10:30, so he has a solid hour in the pool with the instructor. Who are all terrific Vashon High School kids. The nicest teenagers in the world. He thrashes around for an hour without his floaty vest during the lesson. Then, afterwards I strap him into his vest and armed with a kickboard he is happy and pretty self-suffient.

He doesn't like to get his face wet so he is still in the basic class. Maybe this year he will feel comfortable enough to blow bubbles.

Miss Molly? What is she doing this summer? Staying up late and sleeping until noon? Probably, unless I do something about it.

Tennis camps mostly and a rocking Art Camp where they will do basketweaving, glass blowing, copper work and other stuff. Cool!

Right after school is out Jake and Molly head to upstate New York to see his parents for a week. They always have a great time despite the quite rigorous airplane ride and are treated like the prodigal son and his darling offspring. Molly comes back with stories of catching fireflys in a jar, skating in a real hockey rink, daisy chains and knitting with her Nanny. Jake comes back, fully caught up on the family dramas, and about as happy to be back home as anyone in the world could be.

I convince myself that I will take the kids to the beach, right down the hill, as many times as I can this summer.

Yet, come fall, I will wonder why I didn't do it more. Time sure does fly, doesn't it?

Bitchy Mama: a Sunday at the homestead

Was is the sun? Barely recognizable to our drizzle addled brains.

Was it heat? True NW'ers start whining anywhere above 75 degrees.

Maybe it was just the pure freedom of a day with no "have to dos".

I was actually in a great mood. The garden thrives. The sun is shining. The birds are signing.

Yet, the kids managed to fight, argue, squabble about every little thing. Nothing was ok today.

I found myself mitigating and playing the serial facilitator all day with not many happy lasting outcomes.

Shea has gotten good at crying bloody murder whenever he doesn't get his way. I mean, really, like he has severed a limb. Jake and I come running and it's because Molly wants to climb the rope ladder even though Shea was doing something totally different, a good distance away. Or something equally eye-ball rolling.

About a dozen of those sitations and bitchy mommy comes for a stay.

I tried something different with Shea and his reluctant big boy pants issue. I took off a poopy dipe and thought ok, he is going au natural for the rest of the day.

He did not like that. Every other kid in the world would revel in the nakeness but not Shea. He misses the support or whatever. So, I told him he could wear big boy pants but he didn't like that idea either.

That is about when bitchy mommy walked away and left the whiney, pouty progidy by himself on the backporch to grump by himself. I sort of toss over my bitchy shoulder, "Ok. If you don't want to wear them, that is fine with me. See ya!"

I timed it. It took 3 more minutes of solo-grumping then he put the big boy pants on HIMSELF and trotted down to the backyard to receive my exuberant praise.

We are so pathetically behind the 8 ball as far as potty training goes so that little incident is actually a victory. I have had several open, planning discussions with Shea about how we are going to say bye-bye to dipes after school is out. We are saying hello to big boy pants for the summer. He seems skeptical.

A real summer day here in the NW

Summers in the Northwest is easily one of the most beautiful places on earth. Something about lots of water nearby, not too hot temps and no bugs is a real crowd please.

Hey! Come visit and spend your vacation dollars here!

Our summers almost make up for the 6-8 solid months of drizzle and gray bleh. Hard to even remember what it usually is like on a day like this.

Perfect. 75 degrees, cloudless blue sky, slight breeze and did I mention the no bugs part?

And, drum roll please...

The corn has actually emerged in my garden! I thought for sure I had screwed that up. Much to my surprise, they even look different from all the weeds. Now that I can tell the difference I guess I better do some weeding.

Pumpkins starting popping up yesterday with more happening today.

And, row after row of bush beans making their first appearance. Wow, they move fast once they are up.

I read somewhere that crows particularly like bean starts so to get some flashy tape or something to scare them away. GGF has some on order for us both. You know that metallic tape that you string around and it flashes light and is supposed to discombobulate the birds? Hope it works and we get it in time!

I might need an extra special strategy because my crows are pesky smart ones. They wait until we aren't around and snack on the cat kibble off the back porch and they have no qualms about snatching pretzels from Shea's lunch when he wanders off even for a brief moment.

In fact, one of two may be Ravens because they seem awful big for crows. I actually sort of like them but not well enough to feed them my bean babies.

Is it scarecrow time?

Suggestions?

I'm really happy!

Shea said today while playing on his favorite thing in the whole wide yard; the rope ladder. He has gotten quite adept at it and now tries to climb with only one hand.

I'm really (yilly) happy too, baby!

Take a look at those dirty summer time feet!

This is about all that is going on for for our Memorial Day weekend.

Bliss!

Popsicle season

Even though it is still quite chilly here and we are a good 3+ week to Memorial day, it is officially popsicle season.

Although Molly has been downing Popsicles with dazzling skill from age 2, it has taken Shea a bit longer to get into the groove.

I think his low tone mouth and tongue issue makes it hard to deal with something so frozen and cold. "What the heck? How do I deal with this?" has been his reaction up until lately.

Molly doesn't mind, in fact she likes it that he doesn't finish his, because that means she gets to finish his too. Of course.

But, this year Shea gets it. I have no idea if it is because he is gaining more control over his mouth. Or maybe he has just figured out how to tackle it. Whatever the reason, he is clearly on the band wagon.

I get Scribblers, a fruit juice sweetened crayon/pencil shaped pop. They aren't too big so it doesn't end up being such a mess. They combine 3 different colors/flavors per pop and there are multiple color combinations. One of the fun things for the kids to do is compare and match up who has a pop with similar color combinations. I have heard long discussions and trading sessions due to this.

Suddenly, Shea is there. It is the first thing he says, "Red on top, green middle, orange bottom" he recites to me. It is all about the color combination and naming them apparently. More so than the treat itself.

Maybe it is the fact that I am so thankful that warm weather is near; but I see my kids and popsicles is one of the cutest things about summer.

Memories on a stick.