Proof That Summer Is Almost Over

I'm giving away our new favorite book - Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten here.

I have a new giveaway up for a Monopoly board game here.

***

It's almost here. I can feel the cold breath of fall even when the humidity is still keeping my hair in a near constant ponytail and the temperature is threatening hte power of my air conditioner.

How do I know summer is almost over? It isn't because I'm madly searching for school supplies and the wee ones go back to school. It isn't because I know I'm going to spend the next few days trying on uniforms and figuring out what we need to replace for the coming year.

Nope, I have far more effective proof.

Mister Man was swimming the other day, doing his usual jumping into the pool and swimming around, playing with a noodle, seeing how long he can hold his breath (his record is an unverified thirty-five seconds), and the like.

As we was swimming across the pool, a look of sheer panic crossed his face. He grabbed at his stomach and doubled over, treading water. He made it to the other side, climbed out, and looked down. I heard him wimpering and peered over at him.

He was clutching the shirt of his swimsuit in both hands, trying to piece it back together. It had somehow ripped from the bottom all the way up to his neck where the double stitching around his neck held strong. Upon closer examination, it had simply shredded.

My 51 inch tall son who usually wears a size seven could still fit into his 4T swimsuit (thankfully he's somewhat slim) because it just kept stretching and stretching. The more he swam, the more it grew with him. It finally gave up the ghost, however.

Unlike Little Miss's swimsuit that shredded in the middle of a swim lesson at the end of last summer, his didn't render him indecent. I instructed him to simply take off the swim shirt, throw it in the garbage, and resume swimming shirtless - with sunscreen liberally applied to his farmer's tan belly.

I decided it was time to take a look at my own beloved swimsuit. The one with the oh so cute little skirt that looked fashionable instead of old lady. The fun pattern that detracted from the parts of my physique that I didn't wish to emphasize. The swimsuit I could simply put on and not have to look in a mirror and decide whether it was flattering or not because it was flat out what I own and what I was going to wear.

I noticed my own suit had stretched out over time. It was longer in the shirt than I remembered it being. And looser, too. In fact, the front and back drooped, while the side seam again held its original length. As I examined the skirt, I noticed a few places where the fabric was disintegrating to the point where I could start to see through it.

I looked more closely at the shirt part of my swimsuit. And I realized that too was becoming more transparent than I wished. And I certainly wasn't about to have it rip in half while swimming across the pool.

This morning, I bade farewell to my swimsuit by tossing it in the garbage - as hard as that was to do - primarily because this means that I need to once again go swimsuit shopping.

I'm Not The Only One With Stick-to-it-iveness

Brand new giveaway for e.l.f. cosmetics here.

And I have a chance to win tickets to The Emperor's New Clothes from the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre here for my Chicago friends.

***

I wrote the other day about how I'm trying to ensure the wee ones learn the value of persistence through my example, especially for Mister Man. He tends to be a perfectionist, and frequently doesn't want to try things unless he's pretty confident he'll succeed.

It's something we've been working on for quite awhile, and every once in awhile, we can see that it's really making a difference.

For example, Mister Man recently had a birthday party at our gym for one of his friends. The party started out in the pool area and later moved inside. The pool wasn't open only to the party but was filled with all sorts of parents and children - mostly children.

I was the one of only a few parents who had brought a suit and was prepared to get in the water with my child. Noting that the other parents were letting the children play together, I set a few ground rules for Mister Man (he had to stay where I could see him and he had to keep listening for me in case I had directions for him) then stood on the pool deck, watching.

After awhile, the pool had its safety break, and one of the lifeguards gathered up our group, announcing it was time for a swim test. The parents all looked at each other blankly - me included. We shrugged and went to the indoor pool where we learned that our children had to swim 25m solo without touching the bottom or they would have to have an adult within arm's reach in the pool.

Huh. This was new, but I'm all for it after having seen some of the antics pulled by kids and the near misses I've seen over the past few years belonging to that gym.

A few of the parents ducked out immediately saying their kids can't swim independently (ummm really? Your kids can't swim independently and you let them in a pool without you and with you only half supervising, if that?) and others confident their children could swim 25 feet.

I figured it was worth a try for Mister Man, since he'd been taking swim lessons for a couple years at that facility and was doing pretty well. Since he could swim any way he wanted, it didn't matter that he doesn't yet have the full coordination and strength to do a true crawl. I was going to let him, just to see what happened.

When the parents actually saw the pool and realized it was a full lap of 25 meters and not feet, several more backed out. Those remaining (along with other kid members of the gym) got in line to do the swim test.

I told Mister Man that he was able to swim however he wanted - crawl, backstroke, breast stroke or whatever, just that his feet couldn't touch the bottom.

As his turn came, he bravely jumped into the pool and came up sputtering and clearing his eyes (his usual routine), then he began doing his version of the breast stroke. I walked along the edge with him coaxing him along and reassuring him that he was doing great.

He took a couple breaks to tread water and catch his breath, but that's allowed (and apparently, I've been told most kids have a hard time getting the concept of treading water, but ... for whatever reason, he's great at it). He zig-zagged back and forth, crashing into the lane marker and the edge of the pool, but he didn't let it stop him.

As he got within ten feet of the end, I could see that he was getting pretty tired, but both the swim coach and I were cheering him on at that point - the other kids had all pretty much given up prior to that point.

He took another deep breath and continued pushing into the water until he gasped and made it to the wall at the end of the lane. Wow. Mister Man swam way more than 25 meters with all his back and forth, but officially - he succeeded.

In fact, he was the only kid in his class at the party who did it. He was awarded a bright yellow armband in recognition of his accomplishment, and you can't imagine the grin he had on his face!

He refused to take it off after the party, and he immediately called Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa to tell them all about what he did. They were pretty proud, too. Honestly, I wasn't sure if he could do it or not when he started, but I'm awfully glad I had him try and didn't put any negative thoughts into his head.

Next up? He's my future black belt!

Recipe For Sleep

Want your kids to do this?



It's easy. Spend the morning at the pool. Be sure that there are lots of throws into the air and dunkings under water. Keep everyone in constant motion.

Then head to a birthday party. Call ahead to arrange for a bouncy house and a trampoline to be available as the entertainment. Whenever a child runs near you, encourage said child to move onto the jumping item that was just abandoned.

Feeding the children a lunch will help, but is not required. Once you arrive home, simply place children into their beds and quietly close their doors. You'll have three to four hours -- depending upon your child -- to spend reading blogs or taking a bubble bath or whatever you choose. A glass of wine is optional.

How Long Before It Turns Green?

With the amount of time that the wee ones spend napping, we sometimes miss out on the common childhood activities, especially with me working three days a week and Mister Man attending preschool five mornings a week.

We managed to do gymnastics for awhile, but we gave that up this winter. We've done Language Stars since last summer, but after this fall, I think that may also fall to the wayside. We've yet to do dance or an organized sport (although we may do a soccer camp next week). Mister Man also started swim lessons in January once a week.

The swim lessons were ok, and he certainly enjoyed them, but he hasn't made much progress. His biggest issue is that he doesn't want to put his face in the water when swimming so he can see where he's going (much like when he was trying to be born -- it caused issues then, too!). And don't get me started on Little Miss. When we've gone to Florida with her, she would go in the baby pool only and wouldn't even consent to being carried in water deeper than what she can touch.

At the end of May, we joined a new healthclub (ostensibly so I could run inside in the summer since I don't sweat, again causing issues), and we've been getting a ton of use out of it. They have a great indoor and outdoor pool. They're both pretty big, and they start at zero depth, so even Little Miss enjoys the pool.

Once the swim lessons at the old place were up, we signed Mister Man up for swim lessons at the health club (ironically, cheaper AND better than the private ones), which started last week. Little Miss will start in three weeks, after she's turned three (and I don't have to take the lessons with her) since she's now potty trained.

We've been spending a ton of time at the pool over the past few weeks, and I can see that they're finally starting to get more comfortable in the water. Little Miss finally let me carry her around the lazy river. Then she let me grab her hands and pull her through the "deep" water (really about three feet).

Mister Man has also started getting more adventurous. He'll go under the mushroom that has water cascading off the top and get wet from there with minimal fuss. And then we invented a game where he would twirl around in the water and make us "dizzy" so that we -- being the adults -- would fall over. He thought that was great fun and did it over and over and over again. Eventually, he started putting his face in a bit. And now he has to be all the way under water and spinning to have me fall over.

And today -- his first handstand. Granted, his hands may or may not have actually touched the whole bottom, but it was close. And he was proud of himself. He's even swimming full on under the water, although I'll admit that he doesn't go anywhere fast. Speed will come later.

As for Little Miss, now that she knows she's going to take swimming lessons, she's taking notes from Mister Man. Little Miss Independent can do it all herself, and anything he can do, (she's convinced) she can do better. She'll stand on my knees in the deeper water and jump into the water to Grandpa or Daddy and "swim" her way there, fully submerged.

Quite a leap for the girl who wouldn't go past her waist a few weeks ago. My biggest concern is what's going to happen to Little Miss's very thing and scraggly very blonde hair with all the time she's spending in the pool. Even though I try not to get my hair fully wet each time I go (it's long and takes forever to dry and when we leave the club with exhausted wee ones, the last thing I need to worry about it my hair), I can still feel that it's really getting dry. And I remember having green hair as a kid myself.... Somehow, I have a feeling that I'll be investing in some chlorine extracting shampoo soon.

The real benefit of spending so much time at the pool is that it wears them out. Of course, it wears me out, too, and I'm almost ready to go to bed now, but I have a softball game at 8:30 so that isn't happening! In fact, Mister Man fell asleep on the car ride home. Granted this was after his second swim session of the day. We went to a park district pool with some friends for a playdate for two hours this morning (and it made me realize how nice we have it at the club), and then Mister Man had a swim lesson at 3:30 and we swam after that until 6.

My favorite part about him falling asleep though? I was listening the kids' radio station in the car, and they happened to be playing the Star Wars Theme Song. Most kids? Bouncing up and down excited about the song and the music. My son? Falls asleep. Typical!

No Means No - Next Time!

All I have to say is I KNOW BETTER.

Somehow, my husband neglected to tell me that he’s stepping in to manage his baseball team this weekend while the normal manager is out of town. Oh, and that if the fields are at all questionable in terms of playing condition (uhhh, say from the constant rain we’ve had), the managers of the teams playing in the first game of the day have to be at the fields an hour and a half before the game.

Mister Man had a 10am birthday party this morning, and before we left we had a few tasks to complete. We had to wrap the presents for his friends and make the cards for them. Plus, we had to do the usual getting dressed, eating breakfast, showering, cleaning up and getting out the door by 9:40.

I didn’t factor in my husband not being around to help out with any of this. I finally called him around 9:10 to find out where our only roll of wrapping paper was, since he had wrapped the present for the birthday party on Wednesday. Oddly, it wasn’t back where it belonged, nor was it in the place my husband sometimes thinks it belongs. It turns out that while he had wrapped the present in the kitchen, he decided to put the roll into the playroom leaning between two bookshelves. OH! Of course! Fortunately, he called back before I panicked and wrapped the presents in newspaper. It was close though.

The good news is that the birthday party was great. We had no rain by the time the party started, and the sun even came out. The family had rented one of the huge bouncy houses that has a slide also integrated into the side of it, in addition to the huge trampoline they normally have in the backyard. Needless to say, the wee ones spent the entire two hours of the party going from one jumping activity to the other. They did take a brief break to sing happy birthday to the birthday boy, but neither of them were interested in the cupcakes, so back to jumping we went.

The neighborhood next to mine (we’re connected by a path, and our two neighborhoods make up my babysitting co-op) has a park that we’re trying to raise funds to rebuild and make it much nicer. Today, they had a fundraiser in the park where various neighbors made and were selling items – everything from stuff your own animals (ah-ha! An idea for Little Miss’s birthday party) to pancake puffs to pet rocks. I had promised we’d stop by there, so on our way home, we did the fundraising thing.

Shockingly, by the time we got home around 1, they were both exhausted. Mister Man decided he wanted to go straight to bed with no encouragement from me, which is unusual. I heard nothing from either of them – and even managed to get my own nap in, which tells you how tired I was – until I went to wake them up at 5. Even Little Miss was hard to wake up, and she usually pops right up when someone comes into her room.

At dinner, they were both still slightly out of it, but they insisted they wanted to go to the club and go swimming after dinner. I explained that we could do that, but it would mean they’d have to eat dinner, as I didn’t want them to be overwrought while swimming, as it had already been a pretty jam-packed day. Yep, they both ate a decent dinner, including a banana each for dessert.

My parents met us to go swimming, and we played in the pool until it closed at 8. Actually, the wee ones were ready to get out at 7:53, which is unusual for them. However, it was getting a bit cool, and I think they were feeling it. As I carried Little Miss into the locker room to change her back into street clothes, she laid her head against me and just hung out. When Little Miss is quiet and calm, that means she’s exhausted, and I know this. Really, I do know this.

When we all met back up in front of the club, my dad started asking if we could go to Steak ‘N Shake for some dessert. I declined, pointing out the bags under Little Miss’s eyes, Mister Man lolling around staring into space, etc. My dad kept begging and saying that it would be quick. And my husband threw in that they had $0.99 junior milkshakes right now. I kept demurring. They kept asking. My mom stayed out of it, as she’s usually with me on the “we don’t need to eat out or ingest and more junk food” kick. However, she told Little Miss that my parents would meet her at Steak ‘N Shake. So I gave in. Dumb, dumb me.

Following along with the theme of last night, service was incredibly slow, and both kids were showing how tired they were. However, I will say that Mister Man drew a very nice picture of James with his tender and a troublesome truck with coal in it. Mister Man couldn’t stay sitting in his chair, and when his milkshake came, he had no interest in drinking it but wanted to keep playing with (and breaking) the crayons. Hello, red flags! Little Miss was bouncing up and down on the booth bench.

To be honest, I don’t even remember what set her off, but my mom said something to her that caused her to just burst into tears. I took her outside, which is our routine when she gets overstimulated or overtired. We sit down on the curb and either sing a song or talk about a topic of her choice. Tonight, it was the three little pigs. Within about 20 seconds, she was fine again, and we went back in. Fortunately, my husband had heard me ask for a to go container for the 80% of my shake that I had yet to drink, and my mom and dad and husband drink like fiends and finished their shakes by that point.

When we got home, the wee ones told me they were too tired to put their shoes away, which again is telling. To brush Little Miss’s teeth (which I almost didn’t do at all but then remembered all the sugar in that shake!), I had to lay her one the counter and hold both her hands with one hand while I brushed her teeth with the other. You could say that she wasn’t a fan, but after pitching herself to the floor when I first presented the brush, I know her well enough to know that there aren’t many alternatives.

The poor girl has never and I do mean never, been up past 9pm before. I’m usually a stickler about sleep, both naps and bedtime, and tonight reminds me why. She was so overtired that she just didn’t know what to do with herself by this point. We sang our special song, and she was finally calm enough to try to sleep. I haven’t heard a peep from her, but I have my suspicions that she’ll be up around 5am.

Mister Man, on the other hand, went into his room as he was supposed to. Then he came out after five minutes because he had to go potty. Ten minutes later, he needed a drink. And another ten minutes later, he was out of his room in the bathroom again for something. At 10:37, he was still coming out of his room every so often. He doesn’t cry and fall apart like Little Miss does; his issue when he’s too tired is that he simply can’t sleep. He, too, will likely be up extremely early in the morning and be cranky the majority of the day. The last time he came out, I threatened him with not going to the Strawberry Festival if he came out of his room again and didn’t go straight to sleep. Knock on wood, it worked.

And yes, I would really have not gone to the festival tomorrow if he wasn’t able to sleep. While I want to go to the festival, as it’s fun to go to every year with the added bonus of tuckering out the wee ones. However, if they’re too tired when they first get there, it will just be a disaster. I’ve learned – the hard way, of course – that in situations like that, I’m best off just having a quiet day at home and praying that they take solid naps to get back on schedule.

But in the meantime, I’ve remembered how critical it is that the wee ones get their sleep. When I was buckling Mister Man into his carseat as we left Steak ‘N Shake, I mentioned that this was definitely too much for them. Mister Man even knew it, “Mommy, next time we swim until the pool closes, we need to just go straight home afterwards. We’re too little to stay out this late.”

Yeah, it’s sad when even he can figure this out. The good news is that once again I will stick to my no. The bad news is that I was sort of hoping that I’d be able to take them to see fireworks this year. And then again… maybe not!