Category - Family Life

Today was our scouting day. Pumpkin Girl had her first Daisy Girl Scout meeting in the afternoon. I wasn’t really sure how this was going to work out. At first she wanted to be a girl scout because Boo was so excited about being a Cub Scout. So we found a Daisy troop on base and signed her up. Then we found out that parents are not allowed to stay for the meetings and she started getting anxious. I took her to the sign up day so she could meet her leader and see the room and become familiar with the set up. That seemed to help. So we went out and bought her the uniform. Well, when we got home, she decided that she didn’t like the way it looks. Ack! That girl just kills me with her clothing issues. I told her that she didn’t have to wear it, but that all the other girls would be wearing their uniforms and that she would have nothing to put her petals on when she earns them. Finally she agreed.

So off we go to Daisy Scouts today. There was a craft set out for them when we got there. Pumpkin Girl is so into crafting these days, but that’s a blog for another day. When she saw the craft, she just sat right down and barely even waved goodbye to me and the boys. When we returned to pick her up, she was all smiles and happiness. She told me she had “the best time in the whole world.”

Then this evening we had our first Pack meeting for Boo. Of course, the big storm that had been predicted, with it’s torrential downpours, strong winds and lightening chose the exact moment when I said “ok, go get your shoes on” to unleash. I think we would have stayed home if we hadn’t lived only 3 minutes away. The kids were a little scared in the car, but I kept saying, “we’ll be ok.” The rain was so strong that they couldn’t even hear me. We pulled up to the chapel and I told them I was going to drop them off at the curb, they were to run into the building and I would park the car and join them with Nicholas. They did a wonderful job of following directions. While I was parking the car, the rain started coming down even harder. I didn’t even know that was possible. I sat in the car for moment, trying to figure out how I was going to get the baby out of the car without getting soaked. I opted for jumping out of my seat and into the backseat. I loaded him up in my sling, grabbed my purse and an umbrella and made a break for it. In the seconds it took to get the umbrella up, my hair got soaked and so did Bip. The umbrella could only do so much against the deluge and my pants and sandals were soaked when I reached the building. I took Bip to the bathroom and dried his hair and face, plus my face and shoes with paper towels. There was nothing I could do about my hair. Fortunately it’s short.

The rest of the evening went better. Boo earned his Bobcat badge. I got to pin it on him. Boo then pinned on a Bobcat parent pin on me!
I’m so proud of him. He’s working hard on his badges and he takes a lot of pride in his uniform. Sadly, Phil wasn’t there, so I didn’t have anyone to take pictures. The meeting was fun, but a little long, especially when one is sitting in wet pants, with a fidgety 5 yo and a baby who keeps insisting on low crawling across the floor and pulling off his socks.

It wasn’t raining as hard when we left. It looks like the storm will bring in much colder weather. Good thing our order of Land’s End winter clothes arrived yesterday. We need the long sleeves for soccer practice tomorrow!

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I love Fall! I love everything about it: football, the colors, the crunch of leaves, the wind, the crisp, cool air, pumpkins. Being outside in the Fall invigorates me. I can breathe in deeply (not too deeply, there’s a sewage plant nearby) and feel alive. Summer on the other hand, oppresses me. It’s hot and sticky and full of bugs that bite. After taking a walk in the summer, I need a shower. After a walk in the Fall, I can have hot chocolate! Now that’s living! So I am not sad to see summer go, not at all!

I am looking forward to resuming our daily walks along the Potomac, this time with an eye towards bringing home some nature for our nature journals. Pumpkin Girl has been bringing me all sorts of things to draw. My favorite has been the tiny yellow flower from clover. I never even noticed them in the grass before. She also likes to bring me acorns from various trees. She has learned to take our field journal and correctly identify the trees in our neighborhood from their leaves.

Cooking and baking is more fun in the Fall, too. The oven warms the house nicely and fills it with delicious smells. We’ve started a home economics book recently. Boo and Pumpkin Girl have learned to peel, cut and garnish carrots and have both made the family a carrot tray for lunch. Today they took on cinnamon toast. In the next couple of weeks will be scrambled eggs and French toast. Without a book to guide me, I don’t think it would have occurred to me to teach them these skills at this age. But they are both doing well. They like learning to do things for themselves. We were reviewing the book and saw that in the sewing section was an assignment to create a family flag. They both were excited at the possibility. In fact, we’ve already designed it. I won’t spoil the surprise, but let me just say that it involves happy faces.

But I digress. I am so happy that summer is over. The first frost is not far off and it will kill off all those nasty mosquitoes. It will also kill my basil, but I had such a good crop this year that I have a ton in the freezer for the winter. Bip has been barefoot all summer, so I suppose it’s time for his first shoes. I’d better finish up the poncho I’m knitting Pumpkin Girl.

And soccer! I played soccer as a kid, so I spent a lot of time outdoors in the Fall. Now I’m on the sidelines as my oldest boy is in his third season of soccer. Hey, I’m a soccer mom! In a minivan! Looking harried as I drag camp chairs and a stroller across the grassy field! I love watching Boo play soccer. He is such a goofball! He loves soccer so much, but he’s not the most coordinated kid in the world. After watching his hysterical attempt at jumping jacks the other day, we had some remedial training at home. I coached from the couch, of course. No sense in both of us looking ridiculous. Boo was attempting make his feet go out and in while in mid-air. I managed to keep a straight face while instructing him, “Jump out, jump in, jump out, jump in.” Once we got that down, we attempted to coordinated his arm movements to his legs. Not entirely successful, but at least he looked better at the next practice. His first game is Tuesday.

Ah, Fall. I can almost taste the hot apple cider.

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Well, Philip left for Germany today. In a rare turn of events, the disasters that normally occur on the homefront during a deployment or TDY (temporary duty) assignment actually occurred before he left. The toilet got stopped up and two of our new hermit crabs died. I’m hoping that’s it for the week and not a sign of things to come.

I had to haul all the children down to Boo’s soccer practice today. It was COLD! Pumpkin Girl complained the whole time of course. Other than that, I really enjoyed watching practice. Boo’s coach is not only an experienced youth soccer coach, but he’s a really funny guy. You can tell that he is truly enjoying himself out there on the field. He had all the parents practically in tears during one game called “ouch.” The object of the game was for the children to attempt to kick the ball at the coach and his assistants and if they hit them, the coaches yelled “ouch.” Of course, the coaches were running. Coach Carl was so funny, over-acting the whole time, looking like he was running through water, “falling” down, pretending to tie his shoes, then yelling “ouch” like he’d been shot. I really appreciate a dedicated, fun coach like that.

Pumpkin Girl has been to dance class twice now. She’s taking the whole thing very seriously. This is actually her third attempt at taking dance classes, but the times before were just too much for her. She’s definitely ready now. In her black leotard, pink tights and ballet bun, she says she is an “official ballerina.” Somehow she manages to look all grown up and so tiny all at once. I’m so proud of her for getting out there. Normally she has Boo with her to help her be brave. For a moment there at her first class, I didn’t think she was going to be able to do it. Those big brown eyes of hers were just filling with tears. I reminded her that Rebecca is always with her, which made her smile, and then she was fine. Pumpkin Girl has a natural flexibility that should serve her well as a dancer. She is the only one in her class who can lie down on her belly, put the bottoms of her feet together, and bring her knees up like a frog, all while keeping her legs touching the floor.

As for Bip, he isn’t walking or talking much. He’s babbling a lot, though, and is communicating more and more with signs. I’m hoping that Philip’s absence doesn’t upset his already touchy sleep schedule. How well our week goes depends a lot on how well the baby sleeps. If things go south, I do have a game plan. We’ll make adjustments to our school schedule, breaking things up as needed, to accommodate the baby. As a last resort, I am willing to just take a break from school and concentrate on getting Bip well rested, every one fed and the trash emptied.

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All of our Fall activities are in place and we have quite a schedule this year!

* Monday-Pumpkin Girl, dance
* Tuesday-Philip, choir
* Wednesday-Boo, soccer and Me, every other week is CWOC
* Thursday-Pumpkin Girl, Daisy Scouts, Boo, Cub Scouts
* Friday-Boo, Soccer, me and kids, homeschool group
* Saturday- Boo, soccer game, whole family, church
* Sunday-Philip sings in the choir, kids have Sunday school

We have also volunteered to be the point contact for popcorn sales for Boos’ wolf den. Philip will be traveling this month to Germany and next month to Korea.

Throw in the holidays and birthdays and I’m not sure we’re going to survive all this. But that’s why I strive to have my holidays as planned in advance as possible. Speaking of which, I bought all our costumes for Halloween. The whole family is dressing up as a group and I needed to make sure I could get all of the costumes. Boo’s will need some tailoring. Nothing too complicated, but when I saw that, I was glad that I bought it so early.

I’ve done some other holiday preparations, like updating our Christmas card list. Next on my plan is to inventory the gifts I have already bought and figure out what else I need to buy. I should be done with the kids’ gifts by mid-October. I’ll need to have Boo’s birthday gift by then anyway, might as well have them all done at the same time. After I square away the gift situation, I’ll take a look at my baking plans. I don’t have room in my freezer to make anything in advance, but at least I can make sure I have ingredients on hand.

Hmm. I think that as long as I remember to check my calendar every day, maybe we can actually enjoy ourselves, not just survive.

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Bad blogger alert! I’ve been busy the last few days. My parents are visiting once again and I’ve been using the time to teach myself HTML and CSS. I’d like to get into freelance web and blog design, but I really have a lot to learn. I got a great book to learn from and I’ve been soaking it all in and testing it out. All the rest of you Alpha Geeks out there wanting to get into web design, run, don’t walk to your nearest bookstore and pick up Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML. Or just do like I do and just go get it on Amazon.com. Let the UPS guy deal with the heat, humidity and traffic..

So while I’ve been otherwise engaged in these pursuits of higher learning, my cousin April reminded me that there are two or three of you out there that actually care what I have to write and get more than a little annoyed if I let too many days go by without a blog entry.

How’s that for a run-on sentence?

Speaking of me going on and on…

I got a job! No, really! I am now a product reviewer for “The Old Schoolhouse” magazine. They send me products, mostly of a homeschooling nature, and I try them out and write up a review. They’ll publish my reviews, at least in part, in the magazine, and in full on their website. How cool is that? It’s really the perfect job for me. I get free stuff in the mail, I can work at the computer, I never have to leave the house, and I get to tell people exactly what I think.

In other news, Philip is now the president of our parish council, Boo caught a catfish in the Potomac and Pumpkin Girl has a nasty looking mosquito bite that required us to take her to the doctor. I’ll share pictures of Boo and the catfish later. They are on my parents’ camera and they didn’t bring their cable with them. Pumpkin Girl’s bite formed a big blister, so I’ll spare you the pictures of that. (yes, I actually took pictures, in case it got better before her doctor appointment.)It’s not infected, so she only got a prescription for Zyrtec to help with the itching and blister.

Hopefully, this quick little entry will help keep my fans happy. You know, sometimes there really isn’t a lot to blog about. Then again, I could always start making stuff up.

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Swimming lessons are over and they were a great success! The last few days were tough on the moms though, because it was already 80+ degrees when we got to the pool at 9am. Add in the humidity and it was brutal! I had Philip stay home with Bip the last two days. It was just too much for the baby.

The children were both in the Level 1 class which was designed to get them comfortable with being in the water. I would like to move Boo on to Level 2, but the classes are all booked. I’ll look for more lessons elsewhere over the winter, once soccer has ended. When lessons started both children were worried about swimming. Pumpkin Girl wouldn’t put her head under water and Boo would only put his chin in. They started in the 2-3 foot junior pool and by the end of the 2 week session, were in the regular pool with life jackets.

The instructor had them taking off their life jackets one at a time and she helped them to swim across the pool. Sometimes she would let go of them to see how they did on their own. When she did it to Boo, he said he used his “freak out moves” to help keep him up. They also went down the waterslides several times until it was no big deal. Then on the last day, right at the end of class, they went off the diving board! Pumpkin Girl went first…

Then Boo…

Overall a great experience!

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The first week of swimming lessons is over. In spite of a rough start, the week went well. On Friday, the class moved out of the 3 ft junior pool, put life jackets on and went in the big pool. A good portion of the moms were wary, wondering how their children would do. Most of them were fine. Boo wasn’t worried at all and swam back and forth across the width of the pool with no problem. Pumpkin Girl wasn’t worried at first either. However, when trying to swim across the pool, she just wasn’t strong enough to propel herself forward. The wake of the other swimmers made her start drifting across the pool. Her instructor, who is maybe 17 years old, but GREAT with the kids, did rescue her and helped her across. On the way back, Pumpkin Girl got a face full of kicked up water and started crying. Again, the instructor got her and brought her to the side of the pool and helped her out. We calmed her down and I gave her a hug and she agreed to try again, now that most of the class was on the other side of the pool. She did great.

Then the class moved on to going down the water slide. I thought there was no way Pumpkin Girl was going to do it. A couple of the kids didn’t and just jumped into the pool from the edge next to the slide. But Pumpkin Girl marched right up there and went down! She cried when she popped back out of the water, but the instructor encouraged her and she was fine. She gave me a thumbs up as she swam by. But once she reached the edge of the pool, I could see she was about to cry again. I got her out, gave her another hug and told her she was doing great. She perked up but said she didn’t want to go down the slide again. But while we were talking, the class started down the slide a second time.

In the meantime, the sun had come out and I needed to move myself and Nicholas into the shade. When Pumpkin Girl’s turn came again, I remained out of her view, but ready to step in if need be. But again, she surprised me and headed up the stairs and the down the slide.

Later, she said her favorite part of the class was getting her face wet. Go figure!

One of the things I have been really happy about is that the instructor does not insist on the parents staying out of things. I was once told by a potential gymnastics instructor that I would not be allowed to stay with Boo, then 3 years old, and I needed to “kiss-kiss him goodbye.” She actually made kissing noises. I stopped filling out the paperwork right then and she ended up kiss-kissing my $175 goodbye. I know my own children, I know their strengths and weaknesses. I knew that Boo would need me to be there, not quite right next to him, for about 2 or 3 classes, then he’d be fine. He had wanted to take gymnastics classes, just needed some additional reassurance. But I wouldn’t want my child in any class that couldn’t understand and respect the emotional needs of a 3 year old.

So I was pleased to see that the instructor actually allowed 2 of the moms to get right into the pool with their children. Those little girls are probably not ready for this level of swimming, but at least their moms are right there, where they need them. And when another mom and I needed to get our children out of the pool for some hugs and reassurance, the instructor was good with that.

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