Reading boy

Saturday afternoon. House is pretty quiet. I go looking for Max and find him on his bed.  He looks up and says "Hi, Mom.  I'm just reading the books".

Big boy bed

For the first time in over 9 years, we don't have a crib in our house.  Max hadn't tried to escape from the crib but he was getting so tall that we worried he might topple out head first over the side rails when we stood up.  He was SO excited to set up his big bed this weekend and he has taken to it like a duck to water.  Of course that means he filled it with stuffed animals and books but at least he is staying put all night long.  When he discovered tonight that I could climb in to lay down and give him a hug, his smile and giggle were just too much.  Such a sweet big boy in his big boy bed. 

Third kid

Continuing to be the quintessential third kid, Max plopped himself down on the wet pool deck and put his little chin in his hands to resignedly watch the big kids in their final swim meet of the season.

Merit badges for moms

Josh is out of town and the big kids have morning swim practice. So today I got all 3 kids up and dressed by 6:30 am including swim bags packed (suits, towels, flippers, caps, goggles oh my), camp bags packed (including the key and often forgotten underwear needed once they change out of swim suits), breakfast to eat at swim team prepared (grilled cheeses even kept warm in foil),  camp lunches prepared, and entertainment for the 2 hours Max has to sit at the pool during practice.  Once we're there, it is 70 degrees and raining but still they practice.  Some days the mom-ing seems merit badge worthy.

Kanatagram

Ella is at overnight camp for the first time and she has been gone all of 3 hours.  The boys already miss her so Dash is taking advantage of modern technology to send her a Kanatagram which is basically an email they print and pass out to the campers each day.  His typing is painfully slow and he is offended that the computer keeps telling him things are misspelled but seeing his sweet note to her starting with "Hi,Ella,It'sMeDash!" warms my heart.

Fridge display

Max made a picture and hung it on the fridge entirely on his own.  He used 11 magnets so clearly he wants it to stay up awhile.

Hard work

Last summer, Dashiell had to be rescued by a coach during every swim meet which was stressful for him and for us. He was never in danger but he was scared that he couldn't make it across the pool so he would grab the rope and never quite managed to really swim any meaningful distance.

So this winter we decided he would take weekly private swim lessons to make this summer more successful.  Week after week we fit in a trip to a pool far from our house to meet with a super great instructor who patiently worked with him to get his body horizontal in the water (swimming vertically is rather difficult...).  By April he was able to swim across the pool and tread water and his confidence was high.

When swim team started this summer, he jumped in at tryouts with a bundle of confidence and wowed his coaches (who well remembered his frequent rescues from last year). He has been swimming lap after lap at practice this year, looking like a real swimmer.

And tonight, he took the "green band" test at our pool which determines swimming skills good enough to go down the water slide and off the diving board (green is the highest level). He was super confident and indeed, he rocked that test.  His giant grin when he finished was the payoff for all those winter months of work.  It has been amazing to watch him work so hard and to achieve this goal.