Making Pancakes

Swimming Part 2

I wanted to share a series of pictures of Celia's swimming.

This is a picture of her diving in but before she dives in she

starts negotiating.  She is telling her coach to come closer and to not 

move.  

  He did move, thank goodness!

She swam freestyle to him.

So he still has not touched her at all.

She has swam that far across the pool

She did finish, not exactly pleased that

her coach did not help her more.

But she did it!!

Swimming part 1

We finished Celia's swim team summer season last week.  It was a new experience for me as we have not really done any true team sport in which you have to attend so frequently.  Lessons were 5 days a week at 12:00.  I think that they only had off on July 4th.  I swam in this league, but not at this specific pool.  I have been HIGHLY impressed with how the team has been run.  Celia is a beginner and we did not participate in any meets so I am not sure how intense/competitive the team tends to be at meets! I do know that they have been league champions for many, many, many years.  They won again this year.  That is especially odd to me as my swim club growing up was always undefeated (hmm... I left and they are no longer champs...).  In any case Celia is an amazing little girl, she has a lot going for her but one of her faults has come to light during swim team.  She is afraid to try things that she may not be great at doing immediately.  She also does not want to go to the extra effort and she likes a bit of attention.  Let's face it though, what 5 year old does not like a bit of attention!!

So Celia started out in the beginner group and I thought that was a little odd but I did not speak up.  I knew that she could stroke a bit and swim on her back a little.  The kids in her group seemed to never have taken lessons.  So I let it go and Celia was very excited that she was the best in her group and talked about it.  I tried to tell her that she should be learning new things and she did not seem to get that concept, or at least accept it.  Eventually I asked her coach if perhaps when they practice swimming that the girls helping could spread out a little more to give Celia more practice.  Little did I know that as the girls were backing up to let Celia swim further Celia was telling them it was too far and to move closer. I had the girls in the pool swimming one day and another coach saw Celia swimming all around the pool.  She questioned why she was in the beginners and said they needed to move her up.

Well, we moved Celia up and she freaked out.  She could not get over swimming in the deep end nor the fact that she was expected to swim a little farther then in the beginner group.  Celia basically was not on her best behavior during her 2 days in that group.  Her beginner coach saw the situation and pulled her back.  Pete and I would have liked her to stick it out as we feel as if facing something difficult and conquering it is something she needs to learn.  She needs to at least try.  So Celia went back to the beginners.  We had her lesson swim team champs last week and she also put up a fuss and then she became very upset because when she got in the water she did not swim her best.  She finished, they handed her a ribbon and she threw it.  SHE THREW IT!!! Oh goodness, not my proudest parent moments.  Two days after lesson champs, Celia was swimming freestyle, breathing to the side at times, and swimming back stroke.  One of the coaches has seen her doing this and just shakes her head.  She would not do this in lessons.  My theory is that Celia, as smart as she is, knew that they would move her up again.

The positive side to this is that Celia does love swimming.  She was always eager to go to lessons and when we are playing in the water she is constantly wanting to practice swimming.  We will follow her lead with it and try to find some swim lessons in the Fall.

 Below is her team at a pep rally, it is a big team!!

That day again

My Dad was a big part of our swim league and his heart attack took place during a Greenwoods swim meet.  The swim league has a lot of good reminders of my Dad and as you can imagine one big not so great reminder of my Dad.  Joining the pool this year was a big decision for me.  We joined a different pool then where I belonged as a child and it seems as if I have been taken back to that time period.  Many of the swim coaches on our team were swimmers or young coaches when I was child.  It floors me that they are still so active in the league.  They love it I guess.  My Dad loved it but honestly winning or losing was not important to him.  Poor sportsmanship was really not okay with him.  If you lost a race, okay, but you turn yourself around and cheer for your fellow team mates.  I hope that eventually Celia will understand that.  It has been very hard explaining that concept to her, she is 5, in her eyes if she is not the best then nothing matters.  I guess you have to give 5 year olds a break.

There is a sportsmanship award given in my Dad's name at the league championships every year.  There are few people that actually knew my Dad that are part of the league.  But I was sort of surprised when a parent whose child had won the award said to me at the pool "oh that is sort of the big award in the league you know".  No, did not know that.  The team we joined is good, undefeated for many years, but from what I saw they also encourage sportsmanship and team spirit.  I hope to share her Pop Pop Tate's team spirit with Celia throughout the years and I hope she takes it to heart.  We are not there yet.

I am also reminded this summer how much Dad would have loved to see his grandkids in the water.  I am not talking about the swim team, I am talking about throwing them up the water, playing monster with them in the water, and just watching them have fun.  It's not fair.  It will never be fair that you missed so much.

Your Grandkids are growing Dad.  Give us some help in leading them the right way please.

Oops

So it has been awhile since I have posted.  I just have not been in the writing and uploading mood.  In any case I returned back to work last week and it was been ok.  It feels different then working during the school year.  It still feels like summer even when I am at work, maybe it is because our caseload is down in the summer.  But so far I am okay with it and the girls seem to be okay with it, despite having caught a yucky summer cold.

We are done with swim team.  That is a whole post in itself.  Celia, well, Celia was difficult.  She loves to swim and she even loves to practice her swim strokes.  The problem lies in this- she is not willing to try new things if she thinks that she is not going to be the best and if she thinks that it is not going to be easy.  A problem for certain.  There was also the, if I exaggerate my fear I get some attention thing going on.  As her Mom I know it was exaggerated.  I talked to her daycare director, who knows Celia very well and she knew EXACTLY what I was talking about!!  I will explain more in another post.  In any case Pete and I are determined to create a child that is willing to try new things, whether they are easy or hard.  We also want to create a good sport in her to let her know that being the best is not what is the most important.

Audrey, well she is just setting us off with her ability to take off her diaper and squeeze out even a drop of pee onto her sheet so that we have to come in and change her sheets.  Tonight baby girl that snap diaper is being put on backwards.  Oh and we did try not changing the sheets last night after the quarter size drop of pee, around 1 or 2 or 3 am, I did not look she stripped and peed again.  Argh!!!

 We have that puddle jumper on her at all times

She thinks she is big until she is not and then she is

very, very little and needs to be "ups"

 Just looking cute, she is about 5 shades darker then average

 Her jammies say Miss. Independent

Getting ready to swim her lap down the pool.

Pinterest Accomplished

I have a new board on pinterest called Pinterest accomplished.  I love going on pinterest but I rarely do anything from it.  They have cool ideas and I decided that I was going to start actually doing some of those things.

So here is another one that I can add.  Salt Painting

 We drew some pictures with glue

 Then we spread salt on top of the pictures

 Then we dropped food coloring with water onto the salt.  

One drop makes it spread across the salt and it is very cool

Audrey did her painting and then asked to do what she loves.

To scoop and play with it.

Celia did a second painting and then asked to join Audrey

Entertainment on yet another yucky day is great!  Cleaning up the salt that is never EVERYWHERE is another thing......

Sunnyside

Granny loved the song "Keep on the Sunnyside of Life".  You can youtube, the song is on there.  At her funeral the song was sung and played.  Audrey took a liking to the song and frequently requests that it be played.  She pulls up a chair to the stereo and sits and sings the song.  I caught her singing along and I would have gotten more singing had she not suddenly become shy.  She is shy, it is not an act, she is certainly my shy little one.  Celia acts shy sometimes but Celia is not shy.  She is so stinking cute (disclaimer, she is so stinking cute at the moment in time during this video)




The song has certainly become a part of our family, it is only right, as we so deeply miss our sweet Granny.

After Nap Moody Blues

Don't touch me, don't ask me to share my nana, don't 

steal any of my fishies, don't even wook at meow meow