I don't want to sound overly dramatic about the summer being bad. It was not. It had many good points. The heat was not one of them. But as I look back, we did accomplish many things. In fact, almost all of my Summer To Do List was completed (yes, I made a To Do List for summer, a fact which horrifies most of my family).
Owen was potty trained. 95% at least. The McDonald's play area does not appreciate the other 5%.
Natalie learned to tie her shoes. Probably better than Liam ties his. He has worn "Why Ties" for a year and a half now, which are springy little strings that flex enough that you can put on your shoes, then they just spring back in place. No need to tie. Why did I ever think that was a good idea? Well, I suppose it had something to do with the pace of getting ready for school in the morning. But we're done with that fad now. And Natalie is super at shoe tying.
Owen and Natalie learned to swim. Natalie made huge strides as compared to last summer, and hasn't used a floatie all summer. She is happy to jump from the top of the fountain at the pool and swim back to the side on her own. Not bad considering she only started putting her face gingerly into the water at the end of last summer.
Owen would also not use a floatie if it were up to him, but his bounding confidence in the water might not entirely match his ability. Though...when I do let him out of the floaties he always does something to amaze me. Once it was doing underwater backward rolls (his alternative to the underwater handstand that Liam was doing). Several times it has been some form of synchronized swimming move where he rolls from his front to his back over and over again, with arms kind of above his head. I was slightly alarmed until he stopped to say, "Watch this, Mom! Watch this!" And of course, I'm amazed how well he is using his "big arms" as they say in swim class along with his powerful kicking to get wherever he wants to go. Fast.
Liam made great strides at bike riding. Sadly, we just don't have good space for bike riding around here, and so he hardly ever gets practice. Going into 3rd grade now, we just didn't want him to get to the point of being embarrassed about not being able to ride well. So we forced him to ride. And yes, it was was a matter of force. But he did fine. Then we moved him to a new bike that was more in line with his lanky 3rd grade frame and he had to re-learn all over again. Now he loves the in between part, just dislikes the starting and stopping. For some reason he doesn't believe me that it doesn't count as riding if you can't start and stop on your own. I was happy to hear his excitement about the "in between" part though. We had a ride together in which he was almost jubilant. To the point of making fun of me for getting way over next to the curb when I saw a car. "Mom! What are you - afraid of a car?!" And I was all, "Um, YES, and you should be too or you will end up a hood ornament!!" Silly boy.
We had some lessons in Stranger Danger (I think it's now called Stranger Safety). I bought a cute little video that they all LOVED. Seriously. I thought they would hate it, but they asked to watch it again and again. The downside to this being that now periodically one of them (Owen) will shout out while I'm driving "Help, this is not my mother! Help, this is not my father!" and giggle hysterically. So if you ever read about me having to go to the police station to retrieve my children because they tell strangers in a store that they have no idea who I am, you'll know why.
Natalie is reading, and has been writing (without prompting) in a journal that she started in preschool. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE phonetic spelling? At this age, I do. At 16, not so much. But right now it is adorable. She wrote a note to Liam: "i m sory Leim, heart Natalie" after she left him to do all the dusting that they were both supposed to be doing. Apparently her hands were "too tired" to dust, but worked just fine for writing an apology. Liam is doing multiplication ("Mom, REALLY, on Summer break?!") Owen is writing his name...well, no he's not. He can still do that "O"! But handwriting...is not something he enjoys. We're working on it though. May have to legally change his name to "O".
I think I'm rambling, so I'll wrap it up there. Some good things have happened in this long, brutal summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment