Summer is wrapping up...family update

The pool is done....poor kids (yeah right).  It has a hole in the bottom lining and water won't stay in it, and my attempt at patching was a failure.  So this sort of marks the "end" of summer, when the pool isn't on the deck.  I think that has been the best summer activity over the last three months (which have absolutely FLOWN by).  Violet and Calvin have a mom that spoils them by dragging the hose connected to the hot water spigot in the garage to the pool and warming it up for them so they can swim, and the effort of dragging the hose across the house to warm it up usually pays off well.  Two or three hours would go by, and they would still be happily splashing and swimming in the water.  Calvin gains confidence by seeing Violet do things.  He goes under water and flips around like a fish.  However, at swimming lessons the last few weeks, all he did was scream and freak out, so I didn't go to the last 4 classes with him, he happily stayed dry and watched Violet in her lessons.  I guess it was just too early and too cold at The Falls for him to get comfortable enough to let me hold him in a back float.  Oh well, next year we'll try something else.
Violet however, has had an amazing summer.  She enjoyed learning to swim, and is very excited about it!  Dave gave her confidence at a hotel pool a few weeks ago by telling her she can float by holding her breath.  She since then has done 15 bobs in a row at swimming lessons, swam across the length of the pool where they have lessons (probaby 20 feet), can do back and front float alone, dive for rings and toys at the bottom of the pool (3 feet 6 inches deep), use the kick board to go backwards and forwards, jump off the diving board with no life jacket and swim to the edge, and who knows what else.  The feeling of being uncomfortable underwater is NO longer.  The girl who used to freak out in the bath if water got near her eyes.  She's certainly grown up!! 

The next year is going to be a big change for this family, as we adjust to a "school schedule".  This means going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, and taking Violet to and from Waterloo Christian School Monday through Friday, and taking Calvin to preschool Tues and Thurs mornings. 

I know Calvin will miss Violet when she's at school.  They have played SO well this summer together, and I know they thoroughly enjoy each other's company.  Yes, they absolutely fight like siblings, but they also have wild imaginations and their stories/ideas carry them for hours, making all sorts of "set ups" with their blocks, legos, and train tracks in the basement. 

I hope Calvin and Vanessa connect more.  So far, Calvin likes to run and chase her, and she laughs and giggles when he does.  He's rough, and I'm constantly reminding him to be gentle with her, and not to sit on her and jump.  Even though she laughs when he sits on her, I still don't trust him to THINK with his head and make a conscious decision to not hurt her somehow.  Not that he would intentionally hurt her, he just lacks logic...what do I expect...he's a 3 yr old rambunctious boy!

I'm working on getting together Violet's "school uniform" wardrobe ~ which will be solid color pants (khakis) and polo type shirts and dress shirts.  The polos can be solid, stripes, polka dots, or prints, just not graphics or writing.  I got her some pretty and sparkly hair ribbons to put in her hair for some pizazz, the girl LOVES things sparkly and pretty. 

I hope Calvin does well in preschool.  I'm slightly nervous about him starting, simply because the only experience he's only had in a classroom setting is Sunday School, and that is only for an hour a week, and its with people and friends he knows well.  This environment will be completely new, but the idea of going to preschool is not new.  The teachers already know Calvin from what seems like the hundred times I dropped Violet off and picked her up the last two years.  Especially this last spring "semester" Violet went to Orchard Hill Church Preschool, every time the van door opened and the teacher would be there waiting to pick her up, Calvin would try chime in the conversation and try tell the teachers something.  They enjoyed the interaction too, so at least there is that familiarity.  I'm sure he'll do fine, I just have parent jitters.  He tends to have male performance anxiety...yep...that's what I'm going to call it, cuz he's a boy and freaks out and throws a screaming fit if he tries to do something and it doesn't go as he planned.  When I told him he will get a chance to be the leader at preschool and bring the snack some times, he got pretty excited about that.

I have to say one thing about Calvin.  He asks me the same question every.single.day.  He says, "Mom, can you eat fish?"  I always say, "yes".  And he says "But you have to kill it first." 

Vanessa is changing a ton too, I made a post about her recently so I won't say much.  She is learning a lot, and her latest is backing up towards me and sitting down and laying down between my legs when she catches sight of her toothbrush.  She lays down, spreads her arms out, and opens her mouth with out any prompting on my behalf.  Good job Vanessa!  She is still taking an iron supplement twice a day..if I remember to give it to her that often.  Its hard to keep up with it.  It makes her stools black...ick.  I hope at her 15 month appointment they find her iron levels to be normal so I can stop the supplement.  She has adjusted well to not nursing anymore, drinks her whole milk happily, and eats most food.  Tonight at dinner I used two forks separately and gave her a fork full of food (so she could take the fork with food on it and release the empty one), she put it in her mouth on her own, and I kept doing that til she was full.  She ate beef filet and mixed veggies.  She doesn't like thin cheese slices, she likes the cheese in big chunks.  Grapes cut in half are still a favorite snack.

Dave and I are getting into a more regular exercise routine.  We try go running every other day, we take turns after the kids go to bed.  It was really hard to start, hard to GO when you don't feel like exercising at the end of a busy day, but at the end of the run, we both feel better.  Wouldn't hurt either of us to lose a few pounds either.  My first run was 2.4 miles, my last one was 3.5.   It helps to have great music to keep my mind distracted. 

My prayer for the family is (and a prayer request if you are reading) that we smoothly adjust to this new "early to bed, early to rise" routine.  Dave and I are not morning people....and we're going to HAVE to be morning people to pull off this school routine.  Her first day of school is Thursday, Aug 18.