Summer highlights

Been awhile, eh? Well we have been having a pretty swell summer so far...can't believe it is almost halfway over already! The first couple weeks of summer are always the best; that is when I am still functioning in turbo-mode from work, which means I am just SUPER efficient...lots of time for doing fun stuff with Gabby, lots of To-Do's getting done, a sparkling house, and still lots of free time left over for me. But by this point in the summer I have downgraded into summer-mode, and this is the time I start wondering how in the world it is possible to work and still get everything done...I start finding that one social activity and one chore or errand can somehow fill my whole day, and the To-Do's keep carrying over day after day. But oh well...the house is a little messier, things are a little slower-paced, and I am again facing dashed hopes of having the entire house reorganized and cleaned out before the end of the summer...but we are having a great time. Some highlights:

• Swim lessons! This is Gabby's 3rd summer to take lessons, but up until now they have all been Parent/Child. Well this child is a big chicken when it comes to putting her face in the water. She loves to swim, so long as she doesn't have to dip her face or go under. We started our two week session a few weeks ago, and Gabby was BY FAR the one who struggled most in the class. It was almost painful at some points, and I don't know if there was even one lesson that didn't involve tears. But we did learn that Gabby's skills in debating, stalling, and manipulation were much more advanced that we previously thought, as we saw her continuously try to schmooze/lie/charm her way out of doing things she didn't want to do. Knowing in advance that this was going to be an uphill battle, I had signed her up for two sessions in a row. We started the second session this week, and things are going 100% better. This instructor is much more of a softie, and she doesn't push the kids quite as hard as the first one. On one hand, I don't think Gabby is progressing quite as much as she could have been with the first instructor...on the other hand, she is now BEGGING to go to her lesson each day.


• Gabby had her first dance recital earlier in June...a very comical and adorable experience. A bunch of 3 year olds on a stage- TOO FUNNY. At one point in the routine, Gabby departed from all choreography and just spun around and around and around for about a third of the song. One of these days I will get the video posted.


• We FINALLY quit using Pull Ups about a month or so ago, and Gabby is quite proud of herself. Since then we have only had one accident...not bad! Every night she gets up to go to the restroom within 30 minutes of going to bed (even though she always goes RIGHT before getting in bed). And then about half of the time she wakes up around 3 or 4 in the morning, but luckily they are quick trips and she always goes back to bed nicely. The other half of the time she just sleeps all night.


• We have had some awesome playdates with Colin and Chalna...we have been going to various city aquatic centers, the ones that have great waterpark-ish features that are perfectly suited for young kids. We have had so much fun spending our mornings swimming, eating picnic lunches at the pool, and then coming home for some MEGA-long naps. This week we had to cancel our pool plans because of the rain, so we just met at the bookstore and then went out to lunch. Lunch was a trip...our kids are total comedians. Chalna wrote about the details of lunch here.


• We have gotten together with Shashawn and Jackson a couple of times...Bounce U one week and Paradise Pond the next. Gabby and Jackson are really sweet together...unless they are pelting Shashawn and me with dodge balls. Us moms worked up a sweat at Bounce U playing with the kids...luckily at Paradise Pond the two of them were content to just play and play, and Shashawn and I got some time to chat.


• We got to visit Melody, Luke, and Haydn last week...while Haydn took her morning nap, the big kids played, and Melody and I just hung out in the kitchen all morning and talked. Very low-key and very enjoyable. One time a while back when I was visiting, Melody mentioned that her house needed to be cleaned but that I was the kind of friend she didn't feel like she had to clean the house for...I love having friends like that...and I was excited to be that kind of friend for her. Anyway, once Haydn woke up we walked down the street to a spray park in her neighborhood, had a picnic lunch, and then let the kids run around in the water. Gabby now wants to know where the spray park in OUR neighborhood is.


• I have FINALLY gotten Gabby to willingly go to the Kids Club at the gym with me. This was a major victory...she not only was excited to go, she is excited to go back. Yea! Since I started going to this new gym, she has gone with me one time...and that time they had to fetch me out of the class I was in, not once but TWICE because Gabby was crying for me. Normally I would not have let that deter me and I would have continued to bring her until she was comfortable, but actually prefer working out at the crack of dawn...when David and Gabby are still at home sleeping and the Kids Club isn't open anyway...so I never pushed the issue. I still probably won't take her more than once a week, but it is nice to know it won't be something she dreads.


• We got in a car accident this week in the rain...Gabby and I are totally fine, but the car is definitely not (although it is driveable, luckily). We were stopped at a light, and another car tried to pull out onto our street from the parking lot next to us and just skidded right into the side of my car. A 17 year old kid driving his mom's car...no license, and no insurance. FIGURES. Our insurance appraiser came out yesterday and the repair will cost $4300 and will take 9 to 10 days. Luckily I only have to pay a $250 deductible (which I might be able to recover if they get any money out of the guy) and my rental car will be covered as well. Still a big pain, but it could have been much much worse.


• We had a lunch date with my friend Mary and her grandson Joshua, who is 10 months old. He and Gabby are daycare buddies, and they kept each other quite entertained. Mary and I managed to have an HOUR AND FORTY MINUTE LUNCH...this Joshua kid is an ANGEL. There is no way on earth I could have had such a long lunch out when Gabby was that age. We were past the cramming-food-as-quickly-as-possible stage, but certainly no where near the eat-with-leisure stage.


• I am continuing to be in denial that at some point in the next month I have to set up an entire classroom from scratch, as well as plan and teach a workshop on reasoning with fractions. Summer brain has taken over and I can't seem to get myself to think about work just yet.

Truth be told, I was actually thinking this summer was going to be a bit of a drag. We had to cancel our Gulf Shores vacation, after I spent a lifetime finding the PERFECT house for our us and our families. Turns out it was for the best...our A/C is on its last legs and we are going to need a whole new unit before the end of the year. So, there goes our vacation fund (along with another few thousand dollars...ack!). The whole month of May was stressful for both of us, with job uncertainty for me, major job stress for David, as well as lots of other personal and family issues. I was preoccupied and didn't have a chance to plan lots of fun activities like I usually do. Not to mention, David's work schedule these days is just disastrous. He is rarely home before 8 pm and even then he sometimes has to do additional work at home. Normally we have lots of fun family time together in the summer...it just wasn't going to be the same this year with him being gone so much.

But despite all that, this is turning into a really great summer. David has managed to carve out plenty of time to spend with us, Gabby and I are enjoying all the mother-daughter time together, and we finally hired a housekeeper and a lawn service so we can just relax and have fun on the weekends. Now I just need to start taking some pictures so we can have some documentation of all this summer fun!