Our plans to attend the county fair were thwarted by torrential downpours which lasted most of the day. So we moved on to plan B – a trip to “Chunky Jesus”.
Calling “Chunky” to set up a playdate.
Meeting up with “Chunky” for a car ride.
Whacking some sharks.
Defending his air hockey goal.
Defending the planet.
Counting tickets.
Enjoying his prize.
We attended a birthday party today for one of MonkeyBoy’s friends. I’m trying to make all of our gifts this year and I wasn’t sure what to make for this particular little girl, especially since her mother is a very talented seamstress and crafter. As I was going through ideas, I remembered that when my mother visited last fall we went on a tour of area quilting shops and at one she had bought me a set of patterns for animal towels. I decided that would make the perfect gift for this little girl – she could use it as a towel/pool cover-up or simply wear it in her dress-up play.
I went with the ladybug pattern, which I just love. I felt a little guilty giving a present that is most likely going to require its own load of laundry since I’m afraid the red will bleed. I did pick out colorfast fabric, so hopefully it won’t cause too much extra work for the birthday girl’s mom.
MonkeyBoy was kind enough to model for me so that I could get a few pictures. I think I’ll have to make him one of his own soon.
It’s been a trying day. With a hurricane nearing, the weather is cooler, windy, and thunderclouds are passing through. Since it was just overcast during swim lessons they were still held. With the wind, some debris had flown into the pool and MonkeyBoy spied something floating in the water (probably a leaf) and high-tailed it out of the pool. He also started screaming “It’s a crab! There’s a crab in the pool! It’s going to get me!” The rest of the class was spent with either the instructors nicely coaxing him or me not-so-nicely telling him to get back into the pool. He’d climb in for a minute or two, and then scamper right back out again to sit on the side of the pool and pout.
For some unknown reason – I’ll blame pregnancy hormones – I decided that yesterday was the day that potty training would start. It was triggered by him somehow maneuvering his diaper so that he ended up peeing all over himself and the floor. I decided if I was going to have to clean up pee, he might as well be wearing underpants. So then I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up one puddle after another. I think he had three failures and one success. Today he was in pullups for half of the day, and now he’s in underwear until bedtime. Since it will be rainy most of the week we are stuck inside, so we might as well spend the day marching back and forth to the potty. So far today’s potty adventures have included trying to go in a public restroom and using the upstairs non-childseat potty where he let go of the sides of the seat and almost fell in. Luckily he found that hilarious, so at least he isn’t scared to try again.
I had to work yesterday so MonkeyMan suggested taking MonkeyBoy out on the river to keep the house quiet while I typed. I wasn’t too keen on them going without me, since I thought two adults might be better to keep MonkeyBoy from jumping overboard. So we went today as a family to celebrate Father’s Day, after a brunch of queso and pancakes at one of MonkeyMan’s favorite restaurants.
We took MonkeyBoy’s lifejacket from our Hawaii trip last year and he was very excited to see it again. We rented a canoe, plopped MonkeyBoy in the front so he could “drive” and off we went. We were able to see several kinds of fish, turtles, ducks, and tons of hydrilla in the water.
Here’s some examples of MonkeyBoy’s swimming skills after two weeks of lessons.
He’s about to jump at me, but it was difficult to take pictures of him “in flight” while also trying to catch him.
We’re halfway through week two of swimming lessons and they are going great! The other boys in MonkeyBoy’s class all wear goggles and MonkeyBoy thought he needed a pair for himself. I wanted to keep the number of “crutches” to a minimum and wasn’t planning to buy him goggles since I didn’t think he really needed them at this stage. But then over the weekend we all went swimming and MonkeyMan shared his goggles and MonkeyBoy happily started dunking his head. A quick trip to the sporting goods store and MonkeyBoy is a proud owner of his own pair of goggles.
I think the goggles must have magical powers. The first day of class after the purchase, and MonkeyBoy wouldn’t do anything the instructors asked because he was too busy bobbing up and down in the water and giggling. That afternoon I took MonkeyBoy to our neighborhood pool to practice his lessons, and lo and behold the kid can swim. We spent two-thirds of our two hours at the pool under water, mostly waving at each other and smiling. MonkeyBoy asked me to take him to the bottom of the pool so that he could walk, and I obliged. He thought he was pretty hot stuff and yelled out “look at me” to every other child around. I was a little freaked out with his new-found abilities and made sure to keep an eye on him at all times to make sure he’d resurface each time he submerged.
Tonight I took him back to the neighborhood pool at his request, and he took his swimming abilities even further. He jumped off the pool ledge into the deep end, turned himself around, and kicked/wiggled/swam his way back to the ledge.
My goal is to have him swimming independently by next summer so that it’ll be easier to watch him and the new baby. Looks like maybe he’s on his way!
It’s biker rally weekend, so we continued our family tradition of watching the motorcycle parade.
MonkeyBoy enjoyed waving at the cycles as they drove by and it only took him two or three motorcycles to remember the parade last year and ask “Where’s the candy?” We were parked next to a group of barbequeing bikers so it was harder to see him this year and only one biker babe tossed him some candies. MonkeyBoy was much distressed when further down the road he spied candies that didn’t make it to the shoulder. Luckily, he understood that it wasn’t safe to run into the street to retrieve that candy.
Candy Roadkill
After the parade we went out for dinner and when we were done eating one of the bikers at the table next to us asked if we had a camera, because he would be happy to let MonkeyBoy sit on his bike. MonkeyBoy was apprehensive and shy, but it was all he could talk about on the drive home.
I signed up MonkeyBoy for a two week session of swimming lessons. He goes four days a week, although yesterday’s session was canceled due to thunderstorms. He enjoyed it the first day and did everything his instructors asked. Today, not so much. He’s a stubborn and clever little boy.
The instructors are working on getting the kids to put their whole heads under water. So today they were asked to put their chins in the water. All three kids in his class bobbed down and went under water to their chins. Then they were asked to put their noses in the water. The two other kids bobbed down all the way so that their noses were in the water. Not our kid. He leaned over so that his face was parallel to the water, and then lowered his head until just the tip of his nose hit the surface of the water. Then he quick flipped his head back and screamed “I did it!” He gets points for creativity, but I don’t think it really helped much with learning how to submerge his head.
Today they also worked on instructor-supported floating on their tummies and backs. MonkeyBoy wasn’t having any part of that and after one attempt, he crawled up out of the pool and put his head down on the side. I debated about going over and giving him a hug and a pep talk, but decided instead to just sit on the side, take pictures, and see how he worked it out for himself.
He laid there on the side pouting for a few minutes until the instructors brought out the dive toys. That piqued his interest and he jumped back in the pool to play. While the other two kids would go under the water to pick up the toys with their hands, MonkeyBoy again used his creativity to conquer the task. He worked and worked with his toes until he kicked the toy up and then grabbed it with his hands as it floated toward the surface, again missing the point of the lesson but certainly pleased with himself.
He did end up letting the instructors help him float for a little bit by the end of the lesson, but it wasn’t his favorite part.
I asked him after the lesson was done why he got out of the pool and sat on the side with his head down and he told me, “I didn’t want to float, so I got out and took a nap.”
On our travels today, MonkeyBoy and I drove past a nudie bar with a giant inflatable monkey on its roof. MonkeyBoy excitedly exclaimed, “Look, a Monkey! You can play there!”. I told him that it wasn’t for kids, so he followed up with “Yes, it’s a play place for daddies. Girls live there.” I have no idea how he’s figuring out so much about the world, but, frankly, I could do without him having some of this knowledge so soon.
The doorbell rang this evening with a delivery and I don’t know who was more excited – me or MonkeyBoy. Inside the giant box was my new pregnancy pillow, which I hope will give me more restful sleep than I’ve been getting lately. MonkeyBoy was over the moon with the boy-sized box.
First he ran to his play kitchen and retrieved two knives to help me open the box.
After those failed to open the bottom of the box, he resorted to the heavy tools.
The original plan was to break down the box immediately for recycling, but I believe it’s been granted a week’s reprieve from the recycling bin. I don’t have the heart to take away a giant box o’ fun from a three year old.