More Swimming Lessons...

Okay, so I may just do a daily documentary on swimming lessons. Just because something cute happens every day!

Yesterday, my mom came to watch the lesson, which Mr. Mister and I talked about all week. The three previous days he was so excited to show Grandma how he could kick and blow bubbles. But yesterday was the fourth day in a row, which is a lot when you're not even 2. So he was tired and didn't want to do anything! It took some coercing to get him to kick using the turtle kickboard and to blow bubbles. But he finally did them both and showed off all his skills. (although he still cried when I tried to put him on his back to float).

The cutest part was at the end when the kids had life jackets on. We went to the 4 foot deep area and had them jump off the wall to us and then let them practice floating. But they don't just jump in. First, we sing, "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!" Then they jump.

So Mr. Mister jumped in and immediately said, "More Dumpy Dumpy?" (because jumping into the pool is in his top 5 favorite things in the world). So while the other kids were floating around, I put him up on the wall and started singing again. He stopped me and said, "No! Sing Dumpy Dumpy." I thought I was singing it! I finally realized that he wanted everyone to sing again. So another mom and the two teachers came over and sang with me, which pleased Mr. Mister and he jumped in. Who runs the show around here anyway??

Here are some pics my mom took....

If you look carefully, you can see the bubble he's blowing!


Here's a video of him kicking with the kickboard.
(The camera is a little old so there's no sound)

Swimming Lesson Day 2

Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing a daily documentary of swimming lessons. But I just had to write about something cute that happened today.

Before we actually start the lesson every day, we stand in the very shallow part and sing songs to get acclimated to the water. The first one is Ring Around the Rosy. (Last night, Mr. Mister said, "ashes, ashes" while we were making dinner together!) Today as we formed our circle to hold hands and sing, he ended up next to a girl named Anna who's just a few months older than him. They held hands (which was adorable!) but couldn't keep holding on as the circle moved. So I went in between them thinking I could help keep everyone together. But when I tried to stand between them, Mr. Mister yelled, "no!" He wanted to hold Anna's hand!!

I thought it was cute. When I told Daddy, he asked me if I was being replaced. I hadn't thought of that!

Swimming Lessons

Today was Mr. Mister's first day of swimming lessons. His class is called the "Guppies." It was really cute to see 10 little toddlers all in their bathing suits lined up in the pool!

I was unsure as to how he would do. He loves the pool and doesn't like to be told he can't do something, so I envisioned him wanting to jump off the side over and over and then screaming when I tried to get him to do the structured activities.

But he ended up doing very well...much better than I expected. He did have his eye on the big blue twisty water slide the whole time, but he actually did okay when I redirected him to what the teacher was saying. He liked laying on his belly and kicking and he loved blowing bubbles. He didn't like doing anything on his back. The highlight for him (which wasn't even part of the class) was when he realized he could walk in the water because he could touch the bottom. The two pools we swim in most often don't have a shallow end, so this was a new feeling for him. After he figured it out, he pretty much checked out of class and wanted to just walk around. He was very proud of himself!

So one day down, 7 to go. I hope that's not too many days. I like it because I like swimming and it's something fun for us to do together. And it's the perfect activity to make him tired enough for a long afternoon nap!

Straight from the mouth of Mr. Mister

I just love this process of him learning how to talk. He says the cutest things and always surprises us with words we didn't know he knew. Some of the fun things he's said recently are:

• Reaching his arms up to me, he says, "Mommy, hold you?" Of course, he means, "Hold me." But because I've always said, "Do you want me to hold you?" he says hold you too. Adorable.

• He was looking in the full length mirror in our room, talking to his reflection. He then said, "Bye bye!" and left the room. He walked away and started saying bye bye to everything he saw. "Bye bye door. Bye bye wall. Bye bye bed. Bye bye potty."

• He learned the word ladybug from a magazine we read. So the other day, we had a friend in the car (who was a lady) and after she got out, he told me "Ladybug sit" as he pointed to where she sat. How cute is that? Calling a lady a ladybug!

• When anything falls he says in a very worried sounding voice, "Oh my!"

• On Saturday, Daddy went to meet a friend for coffee in the morning. Two days later, Mr. Mister said, "Daddy meeting Joe coffee." I thought that was pretty good both for his memory and his words. The best part is that he says it with a big smile, knowing he's impressing us.

• One night as he was getting in the bath, he randomly said, "Bald eagle." It of course took me by surprise but I realized he learned it from the Little Einsteins video he likes to watch. (See, TV isn't all bad!)
  

Summer Love

Mr. Mister has discovered the sweet joy of a popsicle on a hot summer day. He enjoys them so much that he begins asking for a "pockle" after breakfast. We've been trying to teach him that popsicles are an afternoon treat, but that is hard for a little guy to understand. He even asks for specific colors, although I think he'd be content with any form of ice cold sugar.

Hanging out and Haircuts

Last Friday evening, we had dinner and a "pool party" at Pey Pey's house. The boys got to play in the kiddie pool while the adults hung out on the deck. We were talking about how both of the boys needed hair cuts so we ended up getting out the clippers and doing it right then! Daddy got his hair cut too. As you can tell from the pictures below, Mr. Mister didn't think it was too much fun!

Today's Highlights

On a lighter note than the post below, here are some funny moments from today:

• Mr. Mister wanted to choose his clothes for the first time! He chose a red t-shirt and blue and red pajama pants. I told him it was a little too hot for pants, but he wanted to wear them anyway. So we added green Crocs to the outfit and went to the grocery store. It felt good to let him be independent, even if it wasn't what I would have chosen for him to wear.

• This morning Mr. Mister was really interested in my coffee. So I gave him a sip, thinking it would make him realize that he didn't like it. But it backfired. He said, "Yum!" I think it's because it was mostly milk and sugar :) We'll stick with Daddy's rule about Mr. Mister drinking coffee - he can only drink it if he's content to be this height for the rest of his life.

• We went to a furniture store this evening to look at couches. The salesperson who helped us was named Walt and was a BIG man. Mr. Mister wasn't too friendly at first, but quickly warmed up. All of a sudden, he walked over to Walt and kissed his leg three times! It took Walt by surprise but made him laugh. They were buddies after that :)

Discipline

As a result of Mr. Mister's choices tonight, he had to go to bed right after dinner (which was 8:00 anyway) without rocking or reading books. This was devestating. To him and to us. We love that connection time before bed just as much as he does.

He screamed in his crib for what seemed like forever but was probably only 20 minutes. I thought back to when we were trying to get him to sleep through the night and let him cry one night for 2 hours. For some reason, tonight seemed so much worse. I even started crying.

Finally, after a long time of screaming, I went into get him. We felt like he had already experienced enough pain of a bad choice and it sounded like he was too worked up to calm down at all.

As he collapsed into my arms out of exhaustion, I started crying. I just love this little guy so much and hate when he hurts. It was a sweet time of rocking together and singing him to sleep.

The David Book

One of Mr. Mister's favorite new books is Oops by David Shannon. It's pretty simple with two words on each page and we've read it so many times that he has it memorized. Here he is telling us the words of the book (with only a little reminder from Mommy). Not only is he smart, he's super cute as he says it! (You can hear that he has a stuffy nose, too.)



The author of this book writes the "No, David!" series, based on his childhood of being a mischievous toddler and later a troublemaking student. We already relate to the toddler books!

Here are the words of this book (with the scene it's describing in parenthesis), to help you understand what Mr. Mister is saying:

David's first words were...
Ball, uh-oh! (ball breaking a window)
Dog, oops! (dropping food on the dog's back)
Ride, whee! (riding fast on a tricycle)
Eat, yum! (eating while getting food everywhere)
Bath, ahh! (sitting in the bath with his toys)
Mama. (sleeping on his mama's shoulder after his long day of mischief!)

The R Word

I was really excited to read in the paper today that our governor signed a bill into law to remove the "R" word from state and local boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MRDD). They will be now called the "Board of Developmental Disabilities."

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use the word "retarded" to describe people or situations or anything else. It's offensive to people with developmental disabilities and to me, who taught and loves students with cognitive delays/developmental disabilities. It has become so common in the English vocabulary, but there are actually groups who are working hard to stop people from using it in every day conversation (www.r-word.org).

So, while its existence in MRDD was not in itself offensive (it's still used in some special education settings), to me this is a big step in raising awareness that it's an inappropriate word to use in all other contexts, especially to casually call someone retarded.

Thanks for letting me stand on my soapbox for a minute!

Looking Good

Don't you think Mr. Mister could be this swimsuit company's spokesperson?

Redneck Moments

Both of these moments occurred our drive home from vacation.

First, we pulled into a gas station and saw three horses tied up to the pumps! I wish I could say we were deep in the heart of the south, but we were actually only about 30 miles outside of our city! Mr. Mister loved seeing them up close and one even put on a show, neighing a few times while we stood there watching them.

The next hillbilly moment came when we were a mile from our house and saw this Mr. Mister- size-Jeep in someone's garbage pile at the end of their driveway. I couldn't believe someone was throwing it away! We knocked on the door but no one answered, so we just strapped it to the back of our little Civic and brought it home.


I was slightly embarrassed, but it was worth it - Mr. Mister loves it and we don't even have the batteries in yet. He's content just to sit in it and pretend to drive. He must have inherited his Daddy's Jeep love.

Beautiful

The sunset over the marsh behind the house.

The sunrise the morning we left

I'm not sure how anyone could witness such beauty and not ascribe it to a brilliant Creator.

Some Vacation Pics

Mr. Mister getting ready for the beach in his flotation bathing suit. He loves this bathing suit and always picked it over the normal one.

The people on the beach next to us rented this kayak. They let Mr. Mister sit in it, which he did for at least 20 minutes!

So happy in the boat!

Our 5 year anniversary date.

1 Week

That's how long my new paint stayed new. Today, Mr. Mister colored on the family room wall with a bright red crayon.

And that is why it's just not worth it to have nice things with toddlers. The more you care about your stuff, the worse it is when it gets ruined.

We did plan ahead for such a circumstance as this - we painted with Sherwin Williams' Duration paint, which is durable, scrubbable and is supposedly resistent to life's wears and tears. It may not be Mr. Mister proof, but I'm sure he'll test it out!

By the way, I got the crayon off by scrubbing it first with a dryer sheet and then with a wet cloth with baking soda on it. Gotta love the internet how-to sites.

still here...

I feel disconnected from my blog and my blog readers so even though I don't have pictures to post yet (they are downloading onto my computer as I type) I thought I'd write an update as to all that's been going on.

We definitely jumped right back into life after vacation. The day after we got home we started a summer kid's camp at the apartment complex where we started our church/ministry. If you don't know about that, that's a whole blog post in itself. The short story is that a year ago God put it on our hearts to make a difference in our community, so with some friends we started loving the people of a very marginalized part of town. We have a huge desire to see this particular place transformed and lives changed by Jesus. So we hang out there a lot and are getting to know people. We're a very non traditional church - because we believe the church is where the people are, even if it's not in a building on Sunday mornings.

So yeah, the kid's camp is Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays for a few hours, which is super fun but it wears me out! I've ended up taking naps when Mr. Mister does. As a result, I have fallen behind on life's responsibilities.

We're also in the process of painting our whole house (the inside) and last week my mom took Mr. Mister for an entire day so I could paint. I ended up doing Mr. Mister's room and the family room and stairway. It was a LONG day of painting. I probably tried to do too much (like normal). But the house is looking fresh and new and feels great.

I also had to have a medical procedure done this week, but everything turned out to be okay and I'm glad to have it over.

In other good news, I officially finished my last real class for my master's degree! I still have a teaching practicum in the fall for 8 weeks, but the end is in sight! For now, I'm enjoying a break until the end of August - I finally get Mr. Mister's nap times to do other things besides school work. Yay!

One more thing - my wonderful husband gets to give the sermon at church this Sunday (the other church we go to). If you live around here and want to go, he'd love to see you there!

So that's the update of our busy lives - and all the reasons I've been MIA on my blog. But don't worry, I'm still committed to bringing you all of the highlights of Mr. Mister's life! He is super cute as always and is talking so much. His new favorite phrase is "What the heck!" More stories to come...