Our summer has gotten less hectic with Dima's Camp Success being finished. Now we only have swimming lessons in the mornings and don't have to be out of here until 9:30ish I like being able to get a decent breakfast in the kids before we head out especially since I've been bringing my pre-made, frozen (they thaw mostly in the little lunch bag) cheese sammiches along for lunches. Josh asked for five eggs this morning - since he's five - but I told him I'd start him with two and he could see if he was still hungry after that, though with the way he eats I can see it'll be a matter of time before he really will eat five at a sitting! Josh is thrilled that his teacher is the same guy who was his buddy last time and he's been up on the lifeguard platform with him at times while he's working and he goes back and forth to the girls who are off duty with messages from his friend - little chick-magnet that he is! Today he got to go out to the parking lot to hear one of the lifeguards' cool, loud car start up. Yesterday his friend was lying looking up at the sky on the cement next to one of the guys on duty and Josh went right next to him and laid down the same way and spent some time there talking with the boys. Knowing the lifeguards can't hurt as far as the kids go since they all kind of watch and chat up Josh now and I got inside info today that they're expecting 6 camps to roll into the park on Thursday with 50 or 60 kids each I'm thinking that we'll get out of there as soon as they start coming in since it's going to be so crowded.

Hurry up and wait and wait and

wait and that was just the "start" of the Reading Phillies baseball game we went to on Sunday. There was a rain delay so we sat in the bleachers with umbrellas watching the real Phillies on the jumbo-tron. Josh and Dima got to be on it when we first got to our seats and the camera guy came up behind them - once I got them to turn around they were like deer in the headlights - too bad cause Josh is cute doing his everyday stuff like dancing around to whatever music is on and they were both dressed in team colors. Of course during the game and the non-game in the beginning Josh made friends with one of the players. Our seats were behind the opposing team's bull pen so we were right behind them. One was wasting time during the rain delay by chewing a huge wad of gum and doing things like pulling it out of his mouth and making big strings out of it - so Josh ended up renaming him Gum. Once the game did start Josh's buddy picked up the first foul ball that came our way and gave it to Josh. The kids also got sunflower seeds and bubble gum from the bucket the team had for their own use. Baseball players get the freshest gum - I don't know if it's cause they have some kind of sponsorship or if it's cause they go through it so fast, but that was the best wad of bubble gum I ever had. During the course of the game we learned that Gum and Josh were born on the same day - - what a job to be soooo talented in a sport that you get to spend a lot of time waiting around, get rained on and still have time to chat with your team mates and fans. He did get to pitch near the end and we really didn't get to say goodbye to him cause his pitching wrapped up the game and he ended up going straight in - to do what I don't know cause I doubt he even worked up a sweat. I guess we should email the guy or something to say thanks cause he did go out of his way to be nice to Josh. I think it's kinda cool that two of the Phillies are headed to Beijing for the Olympics so we can say we saw them right before they left.

Swimmin lessons

Since Josh was having some trouble standing in the too-deep part of the pool he's been reassigned to a new swimming coach and different class that goes into the shallow end. Josh's already charmed this kid into tossing him into the pool even after they bring the other kids back from their lesson. And I do mean tossing him he flies maybe ten feet in the air and once smacked his back which made Josh none too happy but wasn't so upset that he didn't want to do it again. We stayed a while after lessons today and he was thrown around first, then I took him to the deeper section to jump, jump, jump and he had a moment of panic where he couldn't find the bottom and was thinking twice about jumping again but he got his courage up and kept at it. He almost got defiant then once he got over the fear and insisted that we stay in that part - it's three and a half feet deep.

It is nice that I'm getting to talk with some of the parents that we knew from the pool last year and from both of the kids' schools and neighbors of ours go to that pool too. We're getting to know more and more people as we do these various things.

What was he thinking??

Dima's grounded from the pool for a week cause on Friday night we caught him up at 10:30pm in our guest room playing with 2 fans - something he's been told again and again not to touch - and he had apparently been goofing around with the computer in that room so I'm not planning on taking him to the pool for the whole week. He can be told the same thing again and again and it's incredibly frustrating because he's old enough that this stuff should be sinking in. We were all settled in for the evening (or so we thought) last Friday when Chris heard a noise upstairs and went to check on it when he watched for several minutes while Dima was out of bed switching off and on two fans!! This is the same kid who has been told time after time to stay in the bed. We got so frustrated at catching him out of bed looking out his window anytime there was rain or snow that first I put construction paper over the lower part of the window and he tore that while up out of bed trying to look at something outside then we ended up putting a board over the window and I think he's learned his lesson there because we haven't caught him there since the board was taken down. Josh on the other hand is good at staying in the bed but he makes lots of noise while singing to himself. Right now he's very into the songs he learned when my Mom took him to Bible School he sings those and wants to listen to the tape all the time. Dima's good at being quiet at bedtime - and now at sneaking around.

He is managing to get good reports at camp so I rewarded them with a trip to Longwood Gardens last week and we also went to the pool on Thursday - it does get really crowded as the day goes on I remembered this as buses of kids were unloading and piling in. It's a huge pool so usually it's not bad if there are lots of people because they can spread out but once the camp and daycare kids get there it gets hectic. Lots of times I feel like the bigger kids aren't paying attention to - or don't care about - the little kids like Josh. Dima spends most of his time in the splash park and then it's even difficult for me to keep track of him among a bunch of kids. I'm actually looking forward to Dima being done with camp in two weeks so we can go early enough to get some pool time in before everyone else gets there.

Josh started his swim lessons today and was the one who yelled out the name of the woman who runs the pool when she asked if anyone remembered her name. Once they got in he was in a pretty deep section of the pool cause he's in with kids of similar swimming ability who are all taller than he is. The permanent teachers will be assigned tomorrow so things could change, but he was in there with the rest of them and not scared, more proud of himself that he was in "the deep part" okay, it's maybe 3'6" but for him that's chin level and when he's in there with me he's kind of tentative about it so I have him hold onto the wall while we're in that deep or we just stay in the shallow section cause it's easier to see Dima from there. He's got little pool toys that he dives after and we've been keeping them in the shallow part so he can see them and dive after them. Of course Josh made a friend today of a 3 1/2 year old who had a few toy cars along so I know Josh'll be looking for him tomorrow (when we see someone familiar or who looks familiar he usually goes: "hey, I remember you!!") and I've already stashed a car in my bag so Josh has something to offer him in exchange for letting him play with his stuff.

Thursday July 10, 2008

Dima's done so well in "camp" this week that I'm thinking about taking the two of them to Longwood Gardens this afternoon. When I pick Dima up I'm going to just start driving there and we'll see how long it takes them to figure out where we're going. A lot of times I give them an apple in the car anyway as we drive home so I can pack their lunch and they can eat on the way and we'll have the afternoon to spend at the Gardens. Camp is only held Mon. -Thurs. so we'll have a chance to recover tomorrow if they are tired from running around today.

The staff at the Marsh Creek pool called yesterday to confirm Josh's swim lessons starting next week so our days will be getting more hectic when we all have to run to camp then get Josh to the pool then go pick Dima up again at camp. Each time we've gone to the pool so far this year Josh has already been schmoozing with the teenage lifeguards so he'll be right at home when we go for his lessons. He's also been chatting up Dima's teacher, the teacher's aid and a student teacher when we take Dima to camp. When we get into a situation where he's the center of attention he goes off on all kinds of tangents about what we've seen and done lately and he usually talks so fast and jumps around subjects that I have to translate - good thing I'm always with him so I get what he's talking about. Usually adults that he starts talking to are very accommodating and they let him talk there are also times that he latches on to a pretty girl - usually one who's a bit older than him and he can follow them around to the point where I have to call him off cause he gets annoying. At a playground recently he was literally right behind a girl who quickly turned around and her jaw clunked his head and the two of them ended up crying.

Our fourth of July weekend consisted of a few picnics one on Friday the fourth where we lit off a few fireworks and had a short visit from the police and Dima was just re-living that this morning at the breakfast table talking about the "cops' coming to our friend's house. The officer just checked to be sure that Chris, who was lighting the display, was sober and he took a few of the big fireworks and was on his way. At one point the whole neighborhood had stuff going off and you could tell by the time we were walking home that he'd made the rounds cause there was silence by then. We went to a different neighbor's picnic on Saturday and the family had rented a "boon mounce" - moon bounce in Josh-speak and once we got there Josh was bouncing and bouncing and bouncing all afternoon and into the evening. He was laughing and having a great time even when bigger kids got in and were whipping him around and flinging him into the corner of the thing! I put a stop to the whipping and flinging but he still kept at it except for getting out three times to say hello to neighbors as they arrived. The neighbors who hosted that one had gotten a fireworks permit from the township and had a stash of serious stuff. It may have been because they had the permit but the police didn't stop in that night at all.