Breakthrough

The struggle to keep Mason in swimming lessons is over. From the first day of mommy-and-me classes I knew it was going to be a long road. In fact, there were days I was ready to throw in the towel. But in this week I am grateful we have carried on and endured.

This week was the first week in more than 2 years that I didn't fight Mason to go to swimming lessons. When I mentioned he had swimming he said, "I have swimming?!?!? I love swimming!" I didn't quite know what to say. This from the boy that got me kicked out of mom-and-me because the instructors thought I was the reason he would scream and wail for the entire lesson.


The progress has been slow and never steady. Plenty of setbacks would push him right back at square one. Like the one time a substitute teacher thought the kids would like if he threw them up in the air and let them fall into the water cannonball style. The other kids loved it; it scared Mason terribly. Took him a month before he'd get in the water, again.

But it appears if those exhausting and burdensome times are behind us. Mason has decided he can swim and that he likes it. I knew he'd had a breakthrough when through the windows of the parent observation lobby I noticed ALL the lifeguards cheering and clapping and then waving me in.

Photobooth Friday, Sledding in Snow Edition

I've Grown

Mason is bigger...


and he's not happy about it.
And when the same thing happened to Cooper he almost got stuck in the museum's space suit...

Reverence

I have a tremendous respect for the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Really, I do. That's why I have waited until know to share this picture with you.

While I'd like to think that all dreams are on the order of nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, I am now humble enough to realize most 6-year-olds are dying to loose their teeth. We can dream, can't we?

Photo note: This rainbow revelation was posted in the school FOR. ALL. TO. SEE. in January.

A Few Things I've Learned

This week has presented itself with some wisdom. Thought I'd share.


1. If snacks ending in ...tos are involved, everything will have to be washed.

2. You better hope the first kid has narrow feet, otherwise the hand-me-down scheme doesn't work. The reverse is true of "slim" pants. In my case, non-compliant in every way.

3. "Cheese!" is the universal code word for stick out your tongue, hit your brother, and/or pick your nose.

Family: Survival Mode

"Family: A unit composed not only of children, but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold." -- Ogden Nash

Our family, this past week anyhow, has been composed of my own children -- well and otherwise, some extra children -- attended to and otherwise, a few school-cancellations due to sub-zero temperatures, and a blog absence. That's right, I took an unintentional sabbatical from my blog. But little really changed in seven days and here we are, a family still trying to get dinner on the table, a daily workout in, and to school on time.

Home Economics

It's a lazy Saturday, the snow is pounding down, and thanks to back-to-back gym classes on Thursday and Friday every muscle group in my body hates me. Every.

So, for lack of anything better to do I've read a lot of Facebook statuses today. One in particular jumps out at me, "I'm going to take strategies of Texas Hold'em for women...anybody want to take it with me???" Tempting. Really. But wouldn't it be great if you -- you being any person, not the person wanting to take Texas Hold'em for Women -- could take a Home Economics class that was actually called Shit You Want to be Able to Do After You Don't Live With Your Parents Anymore?

Before I dive into this let me just say that when I last checked with my mother, she felt pretty strongly that my generation and every one after that is ill-prepared for life. Specifically she thinks we can't sew, cook, or clean for ourselves. She's probably right. But who's at fault? I have parents who are hard-working folk, mechanically inclined, tremendously talented in domestic matters and yet, I can categorically claim to have taught myself most of the domestic arts I now have any (if little) skill in. I even took Home Economics of various flavors in high school and college. But still I moved into my first place not knowing the first thing about maintaining a home, my own wardrobe, or the shitbox that was my car. (Someday I'm going to share with the world how I drove this car wearing oven mitts, but not today.)

According to my calculations, here's a rough list of the Shit You Want to be Able to Do After You Don't Live With Your Parents Anymore:

1. Bake an exceptional cookie. Whatever your favorite flavor... learn it... and practice often. Knowing a good cookie recipe is essential to your mental health.

2. Know how to plan a meal off the back of a can. Have you ever been on the freeway barreling home from work, or carpool, or the gym and gotten that random call from your significant other that starts with, "What's for dinner?" and ends with, "I don't know, I'll stop at the store on the way home." This is when you pick up a can, look at the back, and proceed to shop for the ingredients needed. In my opinion the most effective recipes are on the back of enchilada sauce cans. I'm just saying.

3. Iron a pair of pants, and a set of synthetic curtains. Don't ask questions, just learn it.

4. How to read a permission slip. I had recent occasion to hunt down a notary at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night because I had neglected to properly read a permission slip. (Also, the permission slips of my day are now referred to as release forms and exculpatory clause contracts.)

5. How to unclog a drain, a toilet, and a gutter. If I have to explain no. 5 you need to move back in with your parents.

This, my friends, is one of the best ideas I've ever had. I may propose this to my local community college. What do you wish you had learned before you moved away from your parents?