Sno Cones gone wrong...very wrong!

This week started out with the girls' first ever joint swim lessons.

See, here they are before...excited and very cute I might add.


And here they are afterward...they survived and Jade already has candy in hand. So fun.


And even though Jade declares she didn't like the "switching" of teachers at the beginning of this video, and Lily isn't fond of the "no spitting" rule (can you imagine!?!), it seems they are content to continue with lessons.



I was pretty proud of them for doing so well considering the many tears, hours and dollars dropped on Lily's lessons last summer and the fact that Jade has never had lessons at all.

On the way home I spied a sno-cone shop that 1) looked worthy of trying and 2) had a drive through. Feeling that they deserved a treat for being brave during swim lessons, we pulled up and ordered a rainbow of syrup covered ice crystals.

Soon after pulling away, Lily reminded me that we're in a rental and shouldn't be eating/spilling in it. Just a week after our accident, I've apparently gotten pretty used to sporting our little Jeep. By looking at the coffee cups, various receipts, and fast food bags that now line the interior, I'd say we've pretty much made it home. Why not? After being hit by an illegal immigrant with questionable insurance, might as well enjoy the rental. It's sort of like throwing towels on the hotel room floor to me.

Lily had a point though...stains in a rental? That is a whole other issue. Lily exhibited self control by deciding not to eat her sno-cone until we got home. Jade and I, on the other hand, dug right in. All was well. Jade is a neat eater, and I am a pro at eating while on the road, so there were no issues.

UNTIL we go to the driveway. Lily wanted a taste of Jade's red flavor. Somehow during the transfer, Jade's sno-cone got dumped. Dumped out into the front seat...where, I can't decide if it is fortunately or unfortunately, my purse was laid open.

There was still definitely a mess on the seat, but my purse took the brunt of it. What a mess. Here are what my money and checkbook look like now...


And I had to take that picture with my cell phone, because guess what was laying inside my purse? MY DIGITAL CAMERA. Ugh. It is sticky suhweet now.

I rinsed out my purse as best I could, because it is leather so I couldn't throw it in the wash.

Let's just say I don't think I will be bringing it to any summer picnics.

Impressive, but only kind of.

As we near the end of Lily's private swim lessons (which I swore I'd never do), look what my baby girl did yesterday.

Whee!

I seriously couldn't believe it. She did it 10 or 12 times in a row. Either my hand was shaking with excitement or my new cell phone takes really crappy pictures.

But before you are too impressed, the slide didn't exactly end in a deep pool of water. Not even a pool of water at all really.
More like a trough.

As the saying goes about being able to lead a horse to water but not being able to make them drink...well, the same goes for Lily about swimming.

This time I really am DONE with the formal lessons. She has gained confidence in the water but still really isn't swimming.

Surely the library or YouTube has some aides for this mama. I'm about to tackle the horse myself.

I guess we're not sweet enough to melt...

or else we definitely would have by now. It is so stinkin' hot. 10 degrees above normal all week means we have broken 100 daily. It takes 1/2 an hour to cool down the car as your back sweats and your kids complain and you lose your mind.

It is 6:30 AM here and I just went outside to water some flowers. After being greeted by the curtain of death I decided I better change into my swimsuit and try again later...when the hot breeze begins to blow. When the swimming pools feel like bathwater at 9AM, you know the only relief is to just stay indoors.

We are doing just that. We've been spending time coloring under the fan while the A/C blows full blast.

Check out these new color rolls my aunt made for the girls.

I'm sure she has a much cuter name for them, but that's what is coming to my mind at this fine summer hour. Stay tuned because when she gets her website up and running, she's planning on doing a giveaway here. She is so crafty...these little color rolls are a work of art themselves.

We've also been practicing new hairdos. My poor children were born to a hair challenged mama. You know your husband has embraced this fact when you find him trying to fix your 4 year old's hair with a stack of Wikipedia pages next to him entitled "How to Braid Hair". God love that man. I sure do.

I did manage to get Jade's locks into a little pony. Meet Bam-Bam.

Bam-Bam has been a wonderful observer all week at Lily's swimming lessons.

As far as news on that front. Hmm...well, she's the oldest one of the four and the only one with previous swimming lesson experience. Yet, she's without a doubt the most behind. I like this coach though and going every day versus once a week is giving me a glimmer of hope. I'm still sticking to my guns though and giving myself a break from lessons after this session.

This session has been fun though...there are twins in our class and then a private lesson with triplet girls going on next to us. Makes me thankful I don't have identical triplets of Lily...I seriously can't imagine swimming lesson stress x 3!

Well, I'm off to enjoy a heat advisory with a side of ozone alert...make yours a good day too.

Glutton for punishment...swimming lesson style.

Remind me, what are the purpose of swimming lessons?

Oh, yeah. To learn how to do that "s" word. Swim? No, swim wasn't actually the "s" word I was thinking of. Survival was the word on my mind.

We have survived two 8 week sessions since January and I am feeling like a glutton for punishment by enrolling her in yet another session. Obviously I don't have a future swim team member on my hands here, but I would like her to be able to survive if she ever accidentally fell in some water deeper than 18 inches. 16 lessons later and we still aren't at the point of flipping over and swimming to the side.

To Lily's credit, she has overcome a lot of her fears and will on occasion put her face in the water. It is in a quick plunging manner though that has caused us to have our first bout with swimmer's ear...kind of odd for a non-swimming kid.

Also to her credit, we haven't exactly had the perfect coaching situation. We've experienced 4 different coaching changes over those two sessions which is enough to confuse any child I'm sure.

Remember this post? Well, we started out with a guy so young that I swear his mother must have been dropping him off to teach the lessons. So I made a change to a young mom who was excellent. Lily started to build a rapport with her and things were on the up and up. See these pictures? She is actually off the step and in the water...big improvement over this.



It takes a lot of effort to float on your back and keep your ears out of the water at the same time.

Then the club abruptly changed instructors which brought us to another guy who was easy on the eyes but not so great on the lessons. Yet again another staffing change delivered a sweet grandmotherly woman who Lily simply didn't respond to. Sadly, 4 months of dragging two kids to the gym for lessons at the crack of each Monday dawn didn't produce many results.

Although I'm not asking for prayer for her swim coach like I did in January, please keep us in mind as we try another venue this afternoon and hopefully stick with the same coach for these next two weeks of daily lessons. Third time is the charm, right?

And if it's not? This mom is thinking of a "d" word. No, not drowning....just DONE...I plan on being done with swim lessons regardless of how all this turns out...until it is time to put Jade in of course. Notice how I wait until they are old enough to do it on their own? Mommy and me swim lessons just do not sound fun. If I'm going to be dealing with a screaming and kicking child, I'd prefer to be humiliated while fully clothed. Thank you very much.

No blood was drawn.

We all survived Lily's first swimming lesson and no sharks were drawn to the area.

I believe it was near 80 degrees this past Saturday, which could actually put one in the mood for some swimming. Not so yesterday. I am not a good photographer, but here is a shot of what was left of the icicles outside the gym yesterday afternoon. Not impressive to those of you who are surrounded by drifts of snow, but to those of us who only get a couple of ice days a year, I was hoping that her first swim lesson being on one of them wasn't a bad omen.

The indoor pool area had to be warmed to at least 90 degrees. They call it temperate, I call it a furnace. And for a mom who was already literally sweating over the lesson anyway, it really prevented me from at least looking calm, cool and collected. I'll be dressing more appropriately next time.

Here is Lily's "Mom, are you sure its time for swimming lessons?" look.

Now she's ready to conquer the water. All three inches of it.


I thought I'd be heading up to the bikes for a little spin and a bird's eye view, but it became apparent that I would be needed for support. My support consisted of telling her that she needed to do everything that the coach asked her to do and that if she cooperated we would go get a hot fudge sundae with lots of whipped cream and a cherry afterward.

I thought I would get some shots of the action, but quickly realized that people will stare down their nose at you for having a camera out in a place where various aged people are in various stages of undress.

So here is a quick non-pictorial description of the half hour that seemed like six.

Within the first five minutes she came running out of the water so fast that she slipped and did a complete wipe out. Tears ensued. Great.

By the time I got her calmed down, the coach was taking the other little student toward the deep end (3 feet...an abyss in Lily's mind) where there were two benches immersed in the water, one at the edge and the other about 8 feet out.

It took everything in me to get her to stand on the bench at the wall. I really felt for her. I was thankful that I hadn't shaved my legs or else I would have just rolled up my pants and gotten in with her. The Lord's provision in the tiniest of things. Leg hair.

She got in!

While the other little boy and her took turns with the coach going back and forth between the two benches, Lily's grasp had to be sucking the air right out of the coach. I was glad I had trimmed and filed her nails. The other little boy progressed to kicks and back floating and all sorts of other maneuvers under the guiding of the coach's arm.

Lily just clung.

Until the last little pass between the benches.

Her progress?

With the encouragement of her coach, she let go. With one hand. And waved to her mama. For like half of a millisecond.

And then she clung again, but her face shone with such pride for releasing that clutch for that solitary moment. She was beaming.

And to me, that was worth the hot fudge sundae folks.

My prayers are with her swim coach

Tomorrow Lily will have a first. One of those firsts that I'm afraid we waited a wee bit too long for.

How am I preparing her for her first swim lesson? I am trimming and filing her fingernails. Just doing my part to prevent blood from being drawn. Her swim coach will thank me.

I met him the other day. Poor unsuspecting guy. Just a young cute kid. Will he be able to handle Lily and her tremendous fear of water? The fear that sends her into ear piercing screams? The fear that prevents her from going under water at all? Or even just standing in it if it is deep...you know...above 18 inches. And she applies the 18 inch rule not only to herself, but to anyone who is holding her.

I experienced being squeezed to death by the 4 legged octopus last summer when I proceeded into uncharted territory...the depths of three feet. I did the only reasonable thing that came to mind...I dunked her. I used to torture my cats with water baths as a child...but now I have kids. It’s just as fun and their claws are much easier to maintain.

I can’t wait to see what his approach will be tomorrow. If you’re in town and trying to peg where the screams are coming from around 4 PM, just turn your ears towards (or away!) from LifeTime Fitness. Or if you want a ringside seat, join me upstairs on the bikes. They overlook the pool perfectly...from behind glass windows which I hope are soundproof. If not, I’ll probably be making snide comments to whoever is around me...whose kid is that? Look at her! Man, she really has a set of lungs. Hopefully I won’t have my cover blown by a page for Lily Gibson’s mommy to return to the pool area.

The swimming lessons are a gift from my mom. Lily is soooo thankful. I should have asked for some extra money...I think it is going to take some bribing to get this guy to come back for day two. Should I slip him a twenty? Maybe just a ten. That should be enough for some Just for Men. The least I can do is help him cover the gray hairs he’ll surely be sprouting over the next few weeks.