Done!!!! And I mean completely done!

my suspicion was correct a month ago. we are totally done with pull-ups. the week before we went to denver for my mom's wedding, owen was dry every night. it was perfect timing, actually, because he ended up with a horribly itchy rash on his bum just in time to get out of pull-ups. he's had one accident in the last month.

we're having a blast this summer. zoo outings, swimming in the back yard, playing with friends, bowling (holy cow does owen love that!), trips to the library, geocaching (we call it treasure hunting so the boys get into it - just like pirates!) my favorite part has been watching his growth in learning. we are reading books together now, not just mommy reading to owen. i'm so amazingly proud of him.

i can't believe that school starts for owen in just over a month. real school. he has a backpack (cars...what else!?) and we still need to finish up his list, though we're waiting until target has the rest of his supplies on sale.

call him georgie

as in georgie porgie...yesterday we were at amanda's house for a gathering to remember bretta, a friend of jeff's from high school who was murdered by her step-father a few weeks ago. owen was running around and playing with the other kids while the adults were talking. he was coming inside and pulling out random women to to push him on the swing. just took thier hand and dragged them out. later in the evening, he fell the foot and a half off of the steps and landed on his rear. i picked him up and held him for a little bit. then, he reached for audrianna (amanda's daughter) and wanted to get a hug from her. when he hugged her, she started bawling. amanda and i just started howling with laughter. where's the video camera when you need one? if only we could rewind time and bring it with us to the door to catch that...

swimming lessons yesterday went so well. he's a total fish. he let the teacher hold him while he floated on his back. he did chicken-airplane-soldier with her, too. it took him most of last session to get to do this. yay! when i picked up his report card from last session, it said he should move up to super pike. we'll do that next time (i registered him for another session of pike).

check-up

owen had his 3-year check yesterday.  he's doing great!  he's 40.5" and 35.5 lbs.  as the doctor (dr. kreg, according to owen) put it, he's the size of your average four-year-old.  (95+% for height, 75% for weight.  i remember when he was under 50% for weight.)  he got two shots, which he hated.  he watched our nurse (who we both adore) poke him for the first one and screamed bloody murder.  she got the second (and last one) done quickly and were were ok.  i'm glad we only have to do this once a year - and that with an october birthday, he can get the flu shot (which was one of his two shots) at his check-up.    he has a very snotty nose right now and his ears look great!  yay!  i think we've outgrown the need for tubes.  that makes me a happy mommy.

swimming lessons continue to go very well.  last night he not only jumped off of the side of the pool, he launched himself off at me, swam the 4 feet to get me, then preceded to swim across the pool with help from mommy only to come up for air.  he's got the propulsion thing down.  he's floating on his back with me supporting his head with only one hand.  he wasn't doing that a week ago.  he's also was doing the arm part of the elementary backstroke (chicken-airplane-soldier) yesterday for the first time.  he spent nearly all of the free time jumping off of the edge, swimming to me, then swimming back to the edge to do it all over again.  he is amazing.  he was also the most vigerous splasher in his class.  he's gone from being one of the least-accomplished kids in his class to one of the leaders.  he loves swimming.  maybe he's the next michael phelps!  

guh-aa-puh

that's what owen did this morning at his fridge phonics word whammer.  sounded out his first word, totally unprompted.  i was amazed.  that's two major things within about 12 hours.  

tonight was the first swimming lesson for the session.  jeffy took owen in today, and owen cried and clung the entire time.  hmmm...sounds like the the first lesson last session.  hopefully thursday will be better.  

i found out today that as of next week, i will no longer be traveling between my two current schools on tuesdays and thursdays.  i found out via an e-mail sent to the entire staff explaining the new classrooms and the trickle-down effect that would be creating at my second school.  i have no official word from the district on anything.  in fact, i was the one who informed my principal at my main school.  i e-mailed her to ask what she knew and her response was, and i quote, "HUH???????"  we'll see when i find out anything at all.  the principal at my second school advised me to stick around at my main school on tuesday if i don't hear anything from the district.  maybe i'm missing something, but i fail to see how switching things up like this after school has started is the best thing for the kids.  i get that smaller classrooms is good, by how can switching whole teachers' schedules (and in this case, there are two of us who are being affected.)  we'll be essentially a month behind with our new assignments, which is detrimental not only to us but to the kids as well.  i'll be starting all over again next week with a new group of kids.  getting expectations established, routines, etc.  at least my main assignment won't be changing, unless it goes from .8 to 1.0 (that would be 4 days a week to 5 days a week).  it's frustrating to say the least.  this is the worst possible week for the switch to be happening, too.  i'm out of town w-f of next week for my sister's wedding.  guess a sub will have to do the new stuff for day 2.

swimming lessons - session 2

owen is in advanced kippers.  lessons are t/th 5-5:30.  guess i'll be taking a snack for him after daycare those days.  we'll come home hungry, that's for sure.  speaking of daycare, owen has been dry all day, save for one mini-accident.  i took him potty right before we left daycare today and it worked!  what a great kid!

Bursting with Pride

i'm amazed at owen.  tonight he actually floated for several minutes holding on to nothing but a pool noodle.  i was absolutely amazed.  he was totally relaxed for the entire swimming lesson.  no clinging at all.  i am amazed at how much more comfortable he is in the water after just two lessons.  i watched him, almost in tears of pride and joy as he was floating around.  jeff was there with the camera and got it on video.  i need to check with a couple of parents at swimming lessons to make sure it's ok that their child is in the shot (only for a very brief time) before posting it.  i'll try to post the one still picture jeff got of the two of us tomorrow.

completely unrelated:  my computer is driving me absolutely crazy.  i subscribed to a new magazine for school, which comes with songs for the kids to play on recorder.  part of the subscription that i got includes rights to download the entire magazine and songs.  i downloaded the songs without a problem.  they showed up on my computer in two zip files.  yesterday i tried to transfer them to itunes.  they wouldn't just click and drag from the zip files to itunes so i copied them to my desktop and then from there to itunes.  that worked beautifully.  they're in itunes and play.  i'm happy.  until my computer decided that it doesn't want to stop copying the songs to my desktop.  i seriously have 90 new icons on my computer each time i boot it up.  i'm about ready to add ventilation to our living room by throwing the computer through the window.  i've talked with my b-i-l in vt and he suggested deleting the files from my computer so that there was (in theory) nothing for the computer to copy from.  yeah, right.  that hasn't worked.  i've asked members of an e-mail list i'm on for suggestions and will read those in the morning.  any suggestions?

disappointed

i was so bummed tonight when we got to the Y for o's swimming lessons and saw the sign that said that the instructional pool was closed until further notice (likely tomorrow sometime.)  that meant that we didn't have swimming lessons tonight.  we'll go again on thursday.  hopefully nothing closes the pool then.  

tomorrow is our last day for play group this summer.  owen starts back at daycare on monday, i start back to work on monday and jeff starts his new job on monday (though he starts his training tomorrow.)  

faye and i went out tonight, just the mommies.  no one under 20 and/or a male was allowed.  we went to get ice cream.  it was super yummy and so nice to get out without the kids.  faye wore a shirt that said, "escaped mom...don't tell anyone you saw me!"  i so want a shirt like that!  it was so true tonight.  we considered going to see a movie after ice cream (she had gift cards for that) but i turn into a pumpkin at about 10 so going to a movie that started at 9:45 just wouldn't work.  even the hour out was nice.  

owen and i finished his 10 books for the summer reading program at the library.  we'll go on thursday to see the petting zoo and turn in books/get his books tallied and get the goodie bag.  friday we're going to nw trek with the kids.  that will be fun.  faye has a big enough car that we can all go in hers (all 5 or 6 of us, depending on where paige is when we go.  

fishy!

the difference between tuesday night and tonight is black and white.  owen was a different child in the pool tonight.  he was wanting to be dunked...went under something like 20 times (i honestly lost count!)  he wasn't clingy, and loved swimming lessons.  he clung to me for maybe 1 minute at the very beginning.  he was launching himself off of the wall at me from a sitting position (didn't want to jump today.)  he seemed so comfortable in the water.  loved having water poured over his head from a colander.  amazing.  i'm excited for tuesday to see how he does then.

swimming lessons

owen did great.  there were lots of games and singing.  the teachers (yes, plural) are great.  by then end, owen was kicking up a storm as we moved around the pool, he was even getting into the splashing games.  the one thing he did really well was climb out of the pool.  i set him holding on to the edge and let go.  he climbed right out.   he won't jump in to me yet.  he also didn't like doing the alligator slide (sliding into the pool on his tummy).  in time.  bubbles are blown above the water level...but he has the right idea.  we go back on thursday.  it will be good to have lessons twice a week.  

race cars!

1.  front side 

2.  peek-a-boo!

3.  back side 

4.  embroidered name

that's owen's new thing.  day care lost his blanket last year (grumble....) so i'm making him a new one, one that'll be better for the big boy owen is becoming.  we went to the fabric store yesterday so owen could pick out his own blanket fabric.  the first one i showed him was race cars.  he loved it.  we wandered the stacks a little more and i found other patterns i thought owen might like.  every time i suggested something else, he said, "no!" and clung onto the bolt of race car fabric tighter.  race cars it is.  i found a nice red with a very subtle marbling for the back.  i also got thread and blanket binding.  i just need more binding....guess we're heading back to the store.  i got everything set up last night, including embroidering  owen's name on the red so it doesn't get lost.  i'm hoping to get the sewing done today or tomorrow.  i don't imagine it will take too long. i'll need to set up the pins for quilting (simple squares).  i'm actually quite excited about this blanket.  i'm no expert seamstress, but this is easy enough.  and it's going to be a very cool blanket.  

swimming lessons start tonight.  they run for 4 weeks.  i hope owen doesn't freak out when we get into the water tonight...i'll try to post an update tomorrow.

we're watching little einsteins on playhouse disney right now.  owen just sand part of the theme song.  he cracks me up.

silly boy!

first of all, owen has stayed dry most of the day AND has gone potty close to half a dozen times. twice, i've asked him if he had to go potty, he either said or shook his head "no" and then ran right into the bathroom to go potty. of course, he waited until nap time to poop...he knows exactly what he's doing. anyway, he was dry all morning. one pull-up from when he got up until nap time.

we went swimming at the Y today. it was owen's first real experience in the water. he did ok. luckily, they have life jackets there for the kids to use. i was real glad that owen had one. and no, they don't just have a few jackets. they have a TON. now, it's 7:00 p.m. and my darling little boy hasn't had a nap today. he refused to take one so we went swimming instead. got us out of the house. how nice it is to be able to just decide "let's go swimming" and then be able to go.

as for my stomach bug, i'm feeling better. have been eating regular food today, just in smaller quantities. though, the pizza tonight was super yummy. as were the garlic twists.

peer pressure

we gave into familial peer pressure today. after conversations with jeff's family at dinner last night (4th of july), we decided to check out the ymca. jeff's been a member at bally's for 15 years and has been reluctant to give up that membership due to his longevity. however, the y has so many opportunities for our family, including free sports things for owen, free swimming lessons, free yoga and pilates for me. i guess by free, it means included in our membership, but it's still nice. our memberships are active as of this coming monday. i'll be glad to have someplace to go swim, or walk, or whatever when it's not nice outdoor weather or when there will be too may people in my favorite places. i also want to know if i'm doing my yoga and pilates things right. swimming lessons will start the first week of august. i'm excited to have owen finally learn to swim. i remember doing swim lessons when i was little, both at celebrity sports center (what a sad day when they tore that down!) and at creek. actually, i guess the only thing i remember about lessons at celebrity was trying to dangle my toes/feet in the water like the 'big' kids and i fell in. i immediately turned around and grabbed onto the edge - just as i had been taught. the other fun thing will be saturday mornings when the whole family (all 19 of us) will be going to the y. the younger kids will go to the child care area (cousins!) while the rest of us will go and do thigns on the equipment. we'll need to get some earplugs for owen to keep in his swimming bag. oh, and we'll have to get him a swimming bag...i'll need a new workout bag (jeff has ripped my older one with his shotput and discus) and a swim cap. i have my goggles (love those swedish goggles!) there's apparently a program that uses swimteam workouts, but w/o being on the swim team. i may eventually join the team. i loved swimming when i was younger. burned out (in terms of competitive swimming) during my senior year of high school, after peaking the summer between my junior and senior years (58 seconds off of my 400 time over the summer, 9 seconds off of my 100 fly time in one meet - i was the only one in the pool and felt like i was going way too slow so i kept pushing myself to go faster. guess it worked!) i'm ready to get back into it now.

yesterday during dinner, owen told grandma and aunt sheena that he had to go potty. he did, he was dry, and he went. good boy! now if he could only decide to do that all the time... this after being dry most of the day. :-)