You'd really think that I'd take some extra time to keep my blog more current when I actually have the extra time... but that's proving not to be the case this summer! So, this begins a super long post, updating a very busy few weeks in our home.
Lots of changes going on for these two lately! M has started talking like crazy... still single words, but she's learning new words every day. Some of her words are: poop, fart, giraffe, mommy, daddy, Nita, grandma, grandpa, milk, more, outside, sun, tree, bird, eat, ball, train, and so on.
We found out about a week ago that L will need to have surgery to correct her reflux this summer. The procedure will be a fairly non-invasive day surgery, with a quick recovery time, but she will need to be anaesthesized. We were pretty surprised by the news, since it's been a few months since she had an infection (which is the reason for correcting her reflux). I'm glad that the problem will be corrected, but I am a little worried about how she's going to react to the anaesthetic.
We've spent the past two weeks at swimming lessons every morning for the older two kids. M tolerated being stuck in her stroller better than I anticipated (I'm sure all the snacks didn't hurt). I'm so proud of how much G and L both accomplished. They both learned a lot, but they'll need to repeat their levels next year. By the end of their lessons, L was going all the way under the water (with help), floating (with help), and jumping into the pool & G was doing bobs, jumping into the pool on his own, and trying really hard to swim. Swimming isn't easy for him. He has a really hard time managing water in his face, and swimming requires so many body parts to move together at the same time, while you remember to breathe. I'm so proud of how hard he worked, and how much he did learn...but 10 days is just not long enough for his body to really learn what it needs to do. So, we'll keep working on it! L was thrilled to have three friends in her swimming class, and she often spent more time playing and talking than actually learning how to swim, but she had fun... and she learned some new things.
We've also had some fun summer events, like our annual "festival". The kids had hours of fun on the inflatables, loved the petting zoo, and had fun at the parade! It was a beautiful weekend, not too hot, but nice enough to go swimming! Our long weekend was rainy, so we decided to go to the Children's Museum for the afternoon. Everyone really enjoyed it! G loved the skate park (after discovering how cool BMX is through computer games & an exhibition during the festival)! I think L was a little scared of it!
We've also made one, short, attempt at removing G's training wheels. He started out excited, and ended up crying and completely uninterested in trying after his first fall. We really need to find a way to help him learn how to balance on a bike before we try to get him to balance AND steer AND pedal at the same time! Sometimes, we just don't realize how many actions need to be coordinated at once in so many of this activities.... so we took a step back and decided that a better place to start working toward this goal is raising his training wheels.
This weekend, we celebrated our 10th Anniversary, and my birthday! Paul & Nita asked if all three of our kids could stay with them for the weekend, so we spent our anniversary weekend alone! It was a little lonely, but it was also a real treat to have some extra time to spend together! We went to 529 Wellington for supper on Friday, and it was amazing! Saturday, we painted a bedroom, and then went golfing and for supper with some great friends. Today, we went for another round of golf before picking the kids up. I sure missed them, but it was really nice to spend some time together... a good reminder of all the reasons that we're good together (aside from being a good parenting team).
