ISR 2013: SS's First ISR Lessons Completed

This was SS's first time in ISR, so he just completed the full 6-week series. His last lesson was this past Thursday, and I videoed a short snippet before I jumped in the water with him.

SS is a little fussy in this video, but he had actually been really peaceful and playful in lessons the last couple of weeks. He had his winter clothes day two days before this, which is why he was a little more fussy during this lesson. SS ended his ISR series as a very confident swimmer. Our beloved ISR instructor, Traci, said that SS has the confidence of a three- or four-year-old as a swimmer, not a not-quite-two-year-old, which means that he is more apt to experiment in the water. That's why in the video you see him not rolling all the way onto his back in his float, and taking quicker breaths so that he could continue swimming - experimenting. Once he gets further into the lesson and is a little more tired (or when he had his winter clothes on making it more difficult), he slows down and rests on his back in his float more, which is important for water emergency safety.

After SS's ISR graduation, we celebrated with another special treat, a cookie!

75 Miles Later

75 Miles. In 24 days. No dessert.

I was soooooooo ready for this donut.

BB Snippets

I have been sitting on this draft for months. I wish I could encapsulate the wonder and goofiness and independence and enthusiasm-for-everything-ness of BB at three years old into words and photos, but, once again, I am realizing I have to concede defeat and just post the dang post so that at least these snippets are preserved.

So here are some tiny little slivers of BB, from facebooks posts and daily life.

 

BB just prayed, all by himself after a conversation about brothers and sisters at dinner, "God, I want 10 babies."

"Auntie Seen is nice.....some people are mean. Daddy, you are nice and mean." 

BB is perched, knees bent, at the edge of our backyard play structure, and SS is standing below him.

Me: "BB, don't jump on SS!"

BB, carefree, singsong tone: "Okay Mama, I won't!"

Pause. Thinking.

Me: "BB, don't jump OVER SS either!"

BB: Pause. "Whhhyyyyy?"

That's what I thought. #Brothers

The Mommy Life: You are actively playing a soccer game and, from the sideline, your 3-year-old calls out, "Mama!" as you are going into a play. Cheering? No - he continued with "Mama! I want a fruit pouch!"

J: "After hearing that he was going to get a spanking, our child paused, took a defensive stance, threw his blanket over my head, and ran. I wasn't sure whether I should still give him the spanking or reward him for his impressive defensive maneuvers."

J: "I feel like every parent, by the time his kid turns 6, should be certified as a mental health professional."

When I asked BB WHY?!?!?! did he bite the drywall on his window ledge, he answered simply, "Because I was hungry." Mmmm, drywall.

 

We found a vintage 60s skateboard at a yard sale, and they sold it to us for 50 cents! BB asked every day in a row when we could go buy him a helmet so that he could ride it. Here he is ready for his first ride (back in January I think?)

We went through a stage with BB where he was waking up before us, sneaking downstairs, and helping himself to whatever he wanted from the fridge or pantry. One morning he managed to get the entire gallon of milk off the top shelf of the refrigerator, onto the counter, got out a crazy straw, popped it right into the gallon, and drank to his heart's delight. Later that day he vomited numerous times. Another morning BB came in my room holding a bag of skittles with chocolate smeared all over his face - once I assessed and absorbed the scenario (from my pillow, mind you), I went downstairs to find Ak-mak crackers spread out in formations like blocks across the table, a block of cheese on the table, granola ground into the rug, empty Halloween candy wrappers cast about, and other things that I have since blocked out. Oh, and as I was viewing this, BB came and told me something I couldn't understand about SS - I rushed upstairs to find a poopy diaper cast aside in the crib and well, I'll let you imagine the rest of the scene. That was an epic morning.

Here are pics of another one of BB's Help-Yourself mornings:

Bowl of mini-marshmallows, anyone?

We have since mostly curbed the Help-Yourself mornings, but BB still keeps on us on our toes.

BB has a few chores. Normal ones, like picking up his toys and books, clearing his plate from the table, and making his bed (with help). I also have him take things out to recycling (in the garage) a lot, and another chore I came up with for him is to refill the toilet paper rolls when they are empty. This had been his chore for some time when I walked into the bathroom and saw this:

I'll call this "increasing efficiency". He's too smart.

Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day I felt like I had my ish together - grandson/nephew-illustrated cards in the mail on time, fun gifts for both my mom and my mother-in-law pre-planned and executed on time, and an enjoyable and relaxing family day brainstormed for our little foursome for Sunday.

I had been having energy-level issues for a few weeks, so when I finally felt like myself again for a few days that week, I cleaned, grocery shopped, and caught up on laundry. I knew I would enjoy an indulgent no-chores day more if these weights were lifted, so the surge of energy was perfectly timed. And then that Saturday, already feeling accomplished with my main chores caught up, I ran 6 miles with a friend (logging some miles for my 75-mile No Dessert (Subtitle: Hawaii Belly Prep) Challenge. I haven't eaten dessert since May 1st. Sidenote: I am going to punch someone in the face if I don't get to eat dessert soon. 18.9 miles to go - the chocolate chip cookie Frost gelato Hub salted caramel ice cream froyo random daily handfuls of chocolate chips end is in sight!), and then did a couple of hours of (necessary) yardwork, and then washed my car, all while J was on meal-and child-duty. Then I went to a baby shower, came home and rested, made "linner" for J and I and then we all went to see a community youth performance of Wizard of Oz (which was our Mother's Day gift to J's mom). I felt so accomplished and ready to enjoy the next day.

I woke up the next morning with an aching back, legs, head and feeling nauseous.

J surprised me with a sweet card with coloring and a hilarious interview about me with BB. We snapped this photo of me with my mother-makers:

and then headed out to breakfast, the first event on our Mother's Day agenda. I ate the cinnamon roll I had been dreaming of (it's a pastry, people! A PASTRY. C'mon, it was my only sweet treat in two weeks, let me stand on my semantics) and then I ate a big meal. And then I promptly ran to the bathroom thinking I was going to vomit. 

Thus effectively ending Mother's Day. 

I totally overdid it the day before and was rendered useless the rest of the day on Sunday, and Monday morning too! Oh, irony.

So this past Saturday morning we planned a do-over. BB and SS actually slept over at J's parent's house and J and I went on a morning date, run/hiking (which is so not an "us" thing to do, so it felt exotic) and then out to breakfast. Then we picked up the boys and all went swimming at a community pool, which was our original Mother's Day plan, so we got to experience the day we brainstormed after all.  Oh, and on actual Mother's Day we did adopt a Compassion child as our gift, so now BB is learning about his new "fwend" named Bahati, who is just a couple of weeks younger than BB.

Despite Mother's Day not going exactly as planned, I felt so loved by J, with his homemade card and his caretaking and humor when I was under the weather, and so blessed by my two beautiful, healthy children and our ordinary, regular life together - having a do-over day with a date and a family swimming adventure was just (raspberry buttercream) icing on the (moist, rich, ganache-filled chocolate) cake.

The Pied Piper

SS just started "dancing" when J plays the recorder. I die from the cuteness.

And because I am a sappy mom obsessed with her children, here's a second video of more spinning that is slightly different than in the first video. :)

(Sorry, I had to post this video sideways. Our laptop battery has issues (AGAIN) which is responsible for the severe decline in blogging, as well as the recent loss and corruption of some photo and video files when the laptop randomly shut off without warning while I was moving files from the camera card to the computer. Sad (and frustrating) day. J to the rescue! (Story of my life.))

ISR 2013: BB's Refresher Completed!

This was BB's fourth summer in ISR lessons, and last Friday he completed his two-week refresher! Here he is, showing off his swim-float-swim and his singing voice.

And some photos

 

We celebrated BB's accomplishment with Deep Dish Cookie Pie (made with garbanzo beans!) and cinnamon ice cream with lunch. Yum!

This is SS's very first summer in ISR, and he is at the halfway point, three weeks in. So in another few weeks I will hopefully have more pictures and another video to share (and more cookie pie, don't mind if I do).

For more about our ISR experience, read this from way back in 2010, our first year in ISR: 

http://www.barkingbaby.blogspot.com/2010/07/isr.html

http://barkingbaby.blogspot.com/2010/11/summer-splashback_03.html