Swimming Lessons

The boys have been taking swimming lessons the last couple of weeks. Brandon went from being a non-swimmer to swimming across the pool by himself and grabbing a toy from the bottom of the deep end. He is clearly proud of himself.

Dylan has also begun swimming on his own this week. He tells me, "Mommy, I'm doing my scoops and kicks like this," and shows me while standing up. He is also very proud of his progress.

Owen is still swimming with a swim noodle, but he shows no fear of the water. He's proud no matter what he does.

I haven't been able to go to swimming this whole week due to my deadlines at the paper. Completely bummed, but my saving grace is that our swim instructor has an opening at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. They can show me everything they can do now instead of just telling me.

Dylan scooping and kicking to Amanda

Owen jumping in with Amanda

Brandon showing off his swimming skills

Photos taken by Diane Fuller, aka Grandma

Independence Day

River Park 4th of July Parade

We had a very busy 4th of July. We joined in the neighborhood parade this year. We actually had to force Brandon to ride his razor and there was no talking Dylan into anything other than riding in a wagon. Owen was the only one on board. He couldn't wait to ride his bike in the parade. We decorated everything in red, white & blue flag garland and pinwheels. Everyone ended up having a great time. My crazy mom chased us down the street snapping pictures like a paparazzo. She actually got some good shots that I'm thankful for.

Dylan was the only one who played until the thing broke

The rest of our day was spent hanging out at the house. Russ BBQ'd all day, the boys played on the slip n' slide and the rest of us watched until they broke it. I think it lasted an hour. They were pretty bummed. As it got hotter outside, we talked the munchkins into watching a movie, so we could all enjoy the air conditioned house. Napping, munching and general relaxation was had by all but Russ who was still BBQing. Once he was done though, we ate until you had to roll us away from the table.

When it finally started to get dark, we all crowded across the street for the annual 4th of July dessert potluck and fireworks show. The first loud pop or crack, sent Owen running for safety within the confines of our home. My mom trailing after him. He did not want to watch much more than a movie at that point. Brandon & Dylan were in full participation mode: doing the sparklers, checking out the fireworks table, picking out the fireworks they wanted to see next and eating tons of yummy desserts. We actually weren't able to pull Brandon away this year to see the big Cal Expo display. He was having too much fun.

Owen's brief view of the fireworks

Dylan & Brandon loved it all!

Dylan "graduates"

Dylan has graduated from preschool. I don't think he really understood what was happening, and if he did, he wasn't letting anyone in on the secret. He was pretty happy about his graduation picture. It listed the following:

• Favorite color: All the colors
• Favorite thing to do at school: Play outside and do jobs
• Favorite food: Jelly Sandwich
• My best friend at school: Owen and Ty-Ty
• When I grow up I want to be king of the video games. (Hence the Wario background)

Sadly the graduation ceremony was super lame, and the parents were super silent through the whole thing. I think they were speechless. Being a parent, I think I was in shock that the graduates were lined up, asked each child only 1 of their favorite things, handed their picture to them, and moved on. The whole thing lasted about 5 minutes. Not that the kids noticed. I'm just so used to our old director, Miss Shari, making a big deal over each child and making them feel special. I felt our middle child was cheated out of what could have been an even more special moment. When it was all over, I think Dylan was thankful. He looked like he was getting tired of holding that cap on his head (stupid thing didn't even fit). Not one smile on stage, but big smiles once he came down. He was so excited to show us his Wario picture.

Did I just get stung?

Last night Russ & I were talking on the phone (he's in SC again) and he says, "You want to hear something funny?" The story he tells is so not funny, unless you were the one who experienced it and a year has gone by...at least that's what I think. Let's see what you think:

Russ has been trying to clean up the landscaping around the house these last couple of trips. Yesterday he did some weeding around some stepping stones than no one steps on anymore. He noticed a big black bee buzzing around him, but ignored it because he figured, "I'm not bothering it, it won't bother me." Next thing he knows, he feels a sting. Of course at this point expletives are gushing from his mouth and he's checking his skin for a stinger. No stinger is found, so he assumes he wasn't stung. After all it's been 3o years since he was last stung by a bee, so he can't be sure what it should feel like. (His words, not mine.) Ok, to me, this is just crazy talk! You flippin' know if you've been stung by a bee! Anyway, Russ goes back to standing on this stepping stone to continue weeding. It doesn't take long before he feels *sting* *sting* *sting* *sting*. Only then does he notice that he is surrounded by yellow jackets. They are in the air, on his skin, on and under his clothes. Panic soon sets in and he goes running--yellow jackets still on him. Shaking to get yellow jackets off--yellow jackets sting him. Runs in the house--yellow jackets still on him and stinging him. In full panic mode he manages to kill all the yellow jackets he's brought into the house. He says he was stung at least eighteen times. He spends the next few hours jumpy and flinching at anything that remotely sounds like buzzing.

Fast forward a bit...Russ has been to Home Depot to buy a spray that shoots something like 24 feet to kill this nest he's disturbed. He's dressed in long pants, his sweatshirt with hood on cinched tight so you can only see his eyes, gloves and bottom pants taped tight so nothing is getting into his clothes. He sprays the nest and goes running. A couple of hours later (not the full recommended 12 hours he should wait) Russ goes out and flips over the stepping stone and takes off running again. No yellow jackets. He jams a stick into the heart of the nest and goes running again. Only a few remaining yellow jackets come out. Russ is successful and has destroyed the nest, which by the way was attached to the bottom of the stepping stone. No wonder those critters were so pissed. Russ was squashing their house!

Good news & bad news month

The month of May was a crazy busy, sometimes wonderful, sometimes horrible month. The wonderful part was getting to enjoy the beach with my family and friends. It was just a weekend, but it was a great weekend. We also celebrated Owen's 3rd birthday at an art studio. Lots of painting and coloring was had by all. I loved the personalized paintings the kids got to take home as a party favor. (I have spot picked out by our front door to put them on display). The party was a big hit and Owen had the best time. He was just loving the attention and imaginative play areas when he wasn't painting.


On the flip side, this was the month of our wedding anniversary, that we really didn't get to celebrate; my dad ending up in the hospital after a heart attack and having quadruple bypass surgery; being "fortunate" enough to be on my boys' preschool's executive board and having to assess the future of the school; two boys with projectile vomit illnesses; and volunteering more than most for our son's baseball team during snack shack week. The day I began writing this I should have been out celebrating a friends 35th birthday, but to be honest, I was so exhausted I preferred crawling into bed to shut out the world. That is May in a nutshell. Hoping June will be a better month...

Giving up FB games

So my excuse for not blogging? Playing Farmville and Cafe World on Facebook. I knew I was addicted, yet I'd still waste many hours playing those stupid games. I can't believe I haven't written anything since the beginning of May! So much has happened since now and then I have my work cut out for me, if I can even begin to remember what actually happened! I know. I suck. I apologize. Facebook is evil.

And the 2010 rookie champs are...

...not the Diamondbacks. The fact that the D-backs made it to the championship game surprised all of us parents. Brandon's team was the surprise of the season. One parent said, "I feel like I'm watching the Bad News Bears!" at one of the tournament games. Our boys weren't that bad at the beginning of the season, but they'd improved so much since March. It was a pretty spot on analogy. They were truly amazing to watch as they dug their heals in and beat team after team. Ok, they only had 3 games before championships, but it seemed like a long haul. On the big day the kids faced off against the best team in our division. The Cardinals hadn't lost a game all season, and they certainly weren't going to give up a game now. At the end of the 1st inning, the D-backs were only down by 1 run. I thought, "Wow! They are going to make this team work for it." It was a fleeting thought as the Cards scored 5 runs the next inning leaving the score 8-2. In the end we lost 18-10, but the kids had a blast. Brandon got to score one of those runs. He says it was his favorite part of the game. He didn't seem sad or disappointed when the game was done. He said he had fun and wanted to get an ice cream from the snack shack. I love that boy!

River Park Diamondbacks

Facing your fears

That is exactly what Brandon did last night at his baseball game. I had told him earlier in the day that all he needed to do at his game was focus on swinging his bat as hard as he could. "Even if you are afraid of the ball, swing as hard as you can. You don't even have to try to hit the ball, just swing hard. If the ball hits the bat, it will go flying out into the field." I must have sounded like a broken record because I kept telling him, "Remember, the ball isn't going to hit you. You're going to hit the ball." I don't know if any of that helped, but he sure faced down his fear of the pitching machine last night like a champ! He made it to the batters box twice and hit 4 or 5 foul balls and 2 base hits. The second time he got up to bat he yelled, "Mommy! I'm not afraid of the ball!" from the batters box. He sure wasn't! He actually did a happy dance and spun around and around on the first base bag. Coach thought he did so great, he gave Brandon the game ball to take home. The boy was walking on air! He promptly put the ball on the shelf next to his other trophies. It is the one thing on that shelf that he's most proud of.

An Easter moment

We spent another Easter at my mom's house. She has the best backyard for the Easter Bunny to visit. He was busy again this year hiding another 100-something eggs. Of all those eggs, my brother always dyes a special egg and hides it really well. The finder of thus egg wins a special prize. This year it was Dylan. The look on his face was just awesome. You could see it written all over his face that he just could not believe he was the one who found it. Once he got over it, his smile just lit up his face.

Deets and the winning egg (found in the compost pile)

Deets with his prize

What does the word "fight" really mean?

Over the past few weeks Russ and I have come to see that Brandon does not really understand what fighting means. He interprets anything that involves pushing, shoving and general horse play to be fighting. Although we are pretty sure the first incident he relayed did involve older boys getting a bit carried away, he has since been participating in rough play with other boys in his class.


He came home from school one day and over a plate of oreos I asked him what he did that day. When it came to recess he told me, "I don't want to tell you, because you might get mad." I prodded a bit more and he told me that he and another boy were fighting with someone on the playground. Well after a few more questions, it turned out to be play fighting. I had to explain to Brandon the difference between play fighting (everyone laughing while hitting and pushing) and real fighting (mad faces, mean yelling, crying and people getting really hurt). Now I think he gets it. It's definitely interesting to hear that he's starting to do more "boy stuff" rather than wander the playground by himself everyday.