Gymnastics

Man, I wanted to have some amazing pictures to share about the girls' gymnastics lessons. The problem? My camera sucks and the whole point of gymnastics is movement. So, 9 out of 10 images are blurred beyond recognition. Even with mom attending the last lesson and taking care of Connor to give me the chance to snag a few pictures ended up with few worth sharing. However, share I shall, because that's what I do here!

The girls enjoyed the class and were both a little sad when they realized today is Wednesday and they will not be going to gymnastics. "Hercules" is a poor substitute (though I did treat them to the summer movie deals at the local theater to go see "The Lego Movie" instead). Each day of gymnastics they practiced 2 different events. For four of the six classes, they did floor and beam, and the other two were spent on vault and bars. I think it was meant to be split evenly, but the week off for the 4th of July threw them off, I think.

Cadence, the one time they were allowed on the elevated beam. She terrified the coach by slipping out of his hands and jumping off the end, spurring every following student to attempt the same.

Megan's turn. These pictures are from a few weeks ago. The coach left the following week for a new job.

Floor exercises: Megan is doing a forward roll and Cadence is examining the cartwheel mat in the background.

Cadence attempts the cartwheel, but is so focused on placing her hands and feet in the correct spot, she forgets the ever important need for momentum to pull the move off.

Megan's turn to try the cartwheel.

A little coaching for Megan on the third floor exercise. Don't ask me to recall the name of it. They never did it correctly, anyway.

Practicing the Relevé walk on the practice beam.

So, it was a worthwhile 6 weeks. I'm already eyeballing the parks and recreation program for the rest of the year, but not signing the kids up for anything yet. Next year Cadence is eligible to take a martial arts class and a drawing class. I'm thinking the drawing class is going to be her summer project next year. Megan might be enrolled in gymnastics all over again. We'll see. :-)

For now, we continue to plod along toward Cadence's first day of school. I have a shopping list still that I need to tackle, but it has to wait another week or two. She has her uniform shirts and her backpack and lunchbox, plus all the school supplies on her list (through a convenient supply service the school works with to get a major discount for parents). Mostly, we need new shoes, socks and pants for Cadence, plus a few other odds and ends. We meet her teacher in just over 3 weeks! I still get a little teary-eyed over the thought, but I'm reaching the point of being excited to see her reach this new milestone, experience something new, make new friends... She's so excited and she's so ready.

Nana's Visit and then some

Nana has come and gone. It was a fun visit, but we're all missing her. It was a relatively quiet week, all things considered. We hung out on Monday, went to visit a cousin on Tuesday, headed out to the indoor playground on Wendesday, story time on Thursday and the zoo on Friday. Perhaps the most exciting moment was when we had a power outtage for an hour or so Saturday evening. But we made the most of it and went to a Chinese buffet until it came back on. ;-)

Waiting for Nana at the airport. The trio got a lot of "aww" looks from passing grandparent-type people. I'm betting most of the grandmas were jealous when they saw the cute brood waiting for their Nana.

Visiting Kerry in League City. Connor was enthralled with the small dogs and followed them almost the entire time we were there. My favorite part of the visit? Free Chick-Fil-A. Kidding. ;-)

At the indoor playground. Connor has no fear and does his best to keep up with the big kids even though he runs the risk of being trampled.

Getting off the carousel at the zoo with Nana. Megan and I sat on the sidelines when Megan had a mini meltdown over which animal she wanted to ride. But Connor and Cadence enjoyed it. It was a miserable day to be at the zoo, though. It was the only day that week it didn't rain, but the humidity was a nasty warning the storms were not yet over. Easily one of the worst days this summer to be outside.

Not from Nana's visit at the zoo, but I forgot to post these so here they are. This is from our trip to the zoo the week before Nana was here.

Roaming free. It wasn't busy and Connor was thrilled to escape the stroller for awhile. He made it all the way from the chimps to the giraffes before I scooped him up again.

They all rode the carousel this time without complaint.

Nana did bedtime a handful of times she was here. We checked out "The Monster at the End of the Book" just for the occasion, then she'd be sweet-talked into reading extra books. In this picture, Megan is "reading" the book she has memorized.

We meant to get this picture taken when we were all dolled up for church, but got distracted. So they're in their pajamas in their final moments with Nana. When they woke up the next morning, she was gone. *tear*

Reading Updates

Due to Cadence's personality, I have found she does better in learning when I just back off and let her practice on her own. If I try to push it, she shuts down and begins to insist "I can't do it!" So, when she came out holding a book, "The Empty Pot" and announced she had read the whole thing, I was floored. Of course, I've recognized her reading skills have improved as she reads signs and store names while we're out running errands, but I hadn't sat down to see how far she's come recently

So, I finally grabbed a few books and got her to read to me. I'm pretty sure she already has half the kindergarten sight words down plus another few dozen (for example "princess" and "frozen" and "brave" are recognized on sight). What's really astounded me, though, is the rules she's picked up on already. Over the past few weeks as she asks "what's that word" I would talk about "sometimes..." and explain how vowels work. For bedtime tonight, she read most of a book to me. She stumbled a bit over words like "lighthouse" and "seashells" (see-ah-shulls), but instead of getting upset she couldn't do it, she puzzled them out and asked for help.

Ah, maturity. At least... in some circumstances.

I attempted to gauge Megan's reading skills, knowing she's been attempting to sound stuff out on her own, but it turns out she'd memorized the book I had picked out to read with her. I don't know when she memorized it, whether it was from the few times I read it, or if Cadence has been reading it, or if she even puzzled it out herself by sounding it out, looking at the pictures and recalling what I had read in the past.

She is trying, though, so it means when I sit down and work with her, her skills will undoubtedly improve. For now, I'm giving her space, though, to see if she's a self-learner like Cadence or if I should give her a little guidance. So far, I've found she gives up a little too easily when I'm involved and expects me to provide the answer after one half-hearted attempt at sounding out a word she doesn't know.

Connor... is not reading. Surprise? He does like books, though, and will turn pages and ask "wassat?". His vocabulary itself is slowly evolving. At dinner today, he asked for "more" instead of his normal point and grunt. He shoved too much food in his mouth at one point and started to choke, which isn't funny, but once he spit the worst of it on the floor he went looking for Beau. I had to cover my mouth to not laugh too hard when I let the dog in from outside and Connor stood at the side of the table and called in a little stern voice "Beau!" and pointed at the mess with a stern look on his face.

He also discovered kisses this afternoon and has been giving them out by the dozens ever since. Of course, his first kisses involved biting, but he quickly corrected that. It was too cute when he hurt Cadence and then attempted to give her a kiss, but she was crying so her mouth was open and he couldn't kiss her properly. He kept tattling on her by calling my name and pointing at her mouth to get me to fix it. ("mom" by the way is a command, not a name, in his world. It means "something is wrong, now fix it", which is a pretty decent definition of mom in general, so it works). Anyway, when he couldn't give kisses he just kept patting her head, rather roughly, and climbing on her to give her hugs and attempting to get to her mouth again only to discover it now buried in her arm when she was curled up (prompting another bout of tattling on his end).

**My poetry contest, in case anyone cared for updates: The lack of internet for the last week of June meant I didn't get the poems submitted on time. I was able to get the prompts daily and I did finish them daily, but with no way to post them I got 0s on 4 of the days, which put me firmly in 8th out of 11 (or was it 12?) in the final scores. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I didn't expect to place and I did do this mostly for me, but to have my name so far down on the list due to something I had no control over... Oh well. I have a handful of poems I'll probably transfer to my poetry folder, since they're decent enough, on the site and the rest will be tucked away**

My first House Project!

When we first bought the house, as James and I waited for closing, we began a long list of changes we wanted to make. I wanted to re-do the kids' bedrooms first, since the living rooms and master bedroom had been recently painted, but the secondary bedrooms had not (and it was obvious). However, that is a big undertaking and we had a lot of things come up that made such a potentially pricey change not be an immediate option.

All the same, I wanted to do something to make my mark on our new home beyond hanging pictures. So I turned my attention to the main bathroom. One of the things I liked is the separation of the sinks and the rest of the bathroom. I can imagine smooth sailing in terms of getting ready in the morning. Showers can still go on while others brush their teeth and their hair (and eventually add make-up to the mix).

However, the underwater aquarium look had to go. I marveled at some of the choices the previous owners had made, including their decision to paint the light switch plate and the back of the door. Not to mention their sloppy work along the baseboards near the floor (sadly there is still dark blue paint along the grout by the baseboards that I have yet to figure out how to clean up). It was even worse when you closed the door and were surrounded by dark blue paint in a very small room.

So, this became my first project in the house:

Before: I had already started a little. The white lines are where I sanded down the worst of the wallpaper seams, but that's about all the progress I made before taking the pictures.

During: First up? A layer of primer to cover up the stencils and give me a more or less clean pallet. It stayed like this for the better part of a week. 

After: A single, simple color and a proper-colored door and door frame. Also replaced the light switch plate and hung a curtain the complimented the wall and tile. Conveniently enough, the previous owners had left a full quart of the color used on the baseboards in the main living room that I was able to use in here instead of buying some myself.

The biggest difference, though, is you're able to use the bathroom and close the door and not feel too confined. It honestly feels like we added an extra foot in either direction because of the lighter, brighter colors. We are planning to continue the color out into the sink portion of the bathroom, but for now... this might be the prettiest room in the house. ;-)

"Staycation"

Buying a house can be a pretty pricey venture, so a family vacation was not much of an option this summer. Instead, we opted for a "staycation" to visit a few places in the Houston area we haven't had the chance to yet. Originally, we were supposed to do it at the end of next month, but, as always, "the best laid plans..." Due to problems with his machine at work, James had this week off, so we decided to move our staycation up a few weeks.

First stop? The Space Center! It's been on our to-do list for awhile, so on Tuesday we crossed it off. A lot of it went over the girls' head, but they did have fun exploring what they could. Once again, I was reminded how much I dislike school groups with their lame adult-to-child ratio at places like this, but the girls didn't notice the things they missed out on because the other kids crowded them out. There was a 15 minute video about the history of space travel. Cadence was watching and she was the one to laugh out loud in the theater when the Challenger exploded on screen, at least until I explained what had really happened.

The entrance to the "current exhibit".

Cadence insisted on posing in front of the "girl astronaut".

A restored prop from the original Star Trek series.

A diorama of a moonwalk

Inside an old training capsule for the International Space Station

Connor on the Jupiter scale. He weighed in at a hefty 52lbs.

Wednesday morning, we risked the thunderstorms and drove to check out another beach. We didn't bother with bathing suits, but the trip was enjoyable nonetheless. The kids and I kicked off our shoes to wade into the waves. We ended up with sand everywhere and the humidity of the incoming storm chased us back to the car.

Connor's first few minutes on the sand.

Despite being a water lover, he was NOT a fan of the waves

The girls drew with sticks most of the time we were there.

Selfie!!!!

A trio picture, I needed at least one.

Cadence, however, LOVED the waves.

On the way home from the beach, we stopped at a sea center/aquarium, since it was on the way home from our beach of choice that day. It was another thing on my bucket list, but was too far and too small to venture to on my own. Stopping by on the way home from the beach, though? Totally doable. There wasn't much, but there were a few aquariums, a touch-tank. We lingered long enough at the largest aquarium to see the shark feeding, which was underwhelming, but it was fun seeing all the larger fish dash around to gobble up shrimp.

After exploring the interior of the sea center, we wandered out to their "wetlands" exhibit, despite the light rain. Of course, by the time we reached the end of the pier it was no longer a light rain. James and Connor ran back to the car, but the girls and I took a more leisurely stroll and even stopped for my second selfie of the day.

Thursday was more or less shot. Internet went down Tuesday afternoon during the storm and the tech came by Thursday morning. We eventually ended up waiting around all day and getting nothing fixed.

Friday, today, we ended up at the zoo. The kids and I go regularly, but James hasn't been able to go since the first winter we were in Houston (unless you count the Christmas lights exhibit we went to last winter). The girls showed off all their favorite animals and we all took a turn on the carousel. Afterward, we went to a hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint we found via Food Network's tendency to spotlight small business type places. This one advertised a country fried steak large enough to need a pizza pan to hold it. James was adventurous enough to try one of their larger ones, though not the largest. Neither of us were impressed by the steak, but the smoked beef I ended up ordering was fantastic.

Sorry, no pictures of our food, though we did joke about taking one.

Sadly, Monday things return to normal, but only mostly. James has Thursday and Friday off for Independence Day and we've got a family-hosted ward-invited BBQ to go to. The girls have a break from gymnastics this week, but 3 more classes to go. I'll have pictures and details on that later.

15 month stats

Connor had his 15 month check-up this morning. I have yet to find a pediatrician closer to home (I keep meaning to ask for recommendations but never remember when I'm in the position to do so), so we traveled the distance to our old one for the appointment I had set up after his last one. I'm in no rush to change pediatricians. I rarely wait for long for any part of the appointment (the longest time is, of course, the wait between the nurse and the doctor, but even that is only about 5 minutes). As long as I have an urgent care nearby, I might just keep our pediatrician for the time being.

Anyway, as always, he's growing perfectly well. I got another reminder that poor Connor inherited his dad's uber-fair complexion and we should invest in sunscreen stock, but I was complimented because she could tell I took care of his skin when out in the sun because of how fair-skinned he still was.

When I hesitated over the question of "does he have any words yet", she assured me it's normal. He does have words, but other than "mom" and "Beau", I couldn't think of any. He communicates more with grunts and non-verbal cues. Still, I think I might make a little more effort in naming things for him as we go through our day. I do so much for him without talking to him about it. Oh, he does wave and say "hi", so I guess that counts too. He just doesn't talk as much as the girls did at this age and it was kind of a shock to realize that.

And now for stats. Like his sisters he continues to slim down. He dropped on the weight chart enough that the doctor commented on it, but expressed no concern, pointing out the girls were. She was even less concerned when I mentioned we had finally stopped most of our nursing sessions, dropping 2 of them in the past month alone.

Height: 31" (50%, previously 21.5")
Weight: 22lb 2oz (10-25%, previously 21lb 9oz)

I have more to share, but that will have to be later. For now, summer keeps going and we're enjoying ourselves.

Bugs at the Zoo

I'm doing my best to make the most of these last few weeks with Cadence (less than 11 weeks until her first day of school!!!! Perhaps not the official definition of "few", but 11 seems very few to me at this point). To encourage new experiences, I've loosely assigned a theme to each week and I hope to include a handful of games, movies, places to visit, etc. with each week.

This week's theme? Bugs.

Started things off right on Monday with picking up "Cooties" from the store and having "ants on a log" for a surprise snack.

Then this morning, we braved the heat (not bad, 82-83 degrees in the morning) and the humidity (that sucked, about 80% if not higher, I didn't check until we got back) and went to the zoo for a quick visit. There were two new exhibits that were my main goal for the day. A giant animatronic bug display and the newly opened bug house (which was air-conditioned, thank goodness).

We stopped at the sea lions, mostly because they're literally right there as you walk in through the front gate and they were rough-housing on their new "island". Then we walked past the birds to the giant bugs. Though I described it as "giant bugs" to the girls as I bought the tickets for the display, I don't think they were expecting what they got. A 6 foot grasshopper was our first stop and, despite my assurances it wasn't real, Megan hid behind the stroller as we approached. When our next sight was an even larger black scorpion, both girls anxiously asked if we could move on.

Just as I thought the ticket price was going to be wasted, we saw the firefly, which allowed you to turn a wheel to light up its butt.

After that amusing experience, the girls were a little more excited about each new thing. The next one was a beetle that had buttons you could push to control its movements.

They were jumping with excitement as we passed a giant moth, an orb spider and a praying mantis. A passing zookeeper offered to take our picture in front of the tarantula. When I joked about feeding Connor to it, the girls did get a little nervous and pulled the stroller to safety. I guess they like their little brother after all?

The bug house wasn't open yet (and the new wombat exhibit was depressingly empty) as we emerged from the giant bug trail, so we stopped by the playground in the children's part of the zoo. Then, we stepped into the cool air of the bug house and admired the bugs. The girls were grossed out when I pointed to the hissing cockroaches and told them I once had a teacher who put them in his mouth, but they eagerly peered at every display, searching for the camouflaged bugs.

These ones were huge. That yellow curled spot a few inches from Megan's nose is the bug.

As always, a trip on the carousel ended our day. Once we got off, I asked the girls if they still wanted to go to the elephant exhibit, but all of us were looking a little wilted. So we walked to the car instead and went home.

We'll probably continue to go to the zoo throughout the summer, but next time I'm bringing a spray bottle to mist us and a giant water bottle (which I had meant to grab, but left behind, oops). And we'll probably stick to the air conditioned exhibits for at least half the time.

As a side note, the poetry contest I mentioned in my last post continues. We're not about 1/3 of the way through it. The "standings" change daily, but as of day 6 (the last update to the standings) I was in 4th place. I was completely shocked and more than a little pleased. This can change quickly, of course, but to be near the top even once is an amazing feeling. Undoubtedly, I'll slip in the standings soon. I turned one in late recently and that's an automatic 0 for the day. However, sifting through the dozen or so poems I've written so far, I may even like about half of them enough to keep around. The rest will likely be taken down and hidden away from the public eye once the contest is over.

I'm still enjoying most of the prompts. After a few eyerolls over how many depressing assigned subjects there were (scarred hearts, death, etc.), we've had a few more open-ended assignments and I wrote a poem about couches last night. Yes, couches. I was pretty pleased with that one. It made me chuckle.

**Poetry Update: Yup, the new standings are up, including my big, fat, zero and I'm no longer in the top 5. It was a nice ego boost, though. Gave me some fresh confidence moving forward in the challenge, because it is grueling. Trying to find time to write a prompted poem every single day? Phew!

Poetry on the Brain

I don't write about myself much in this blog anymore, except as an extension/observer of the experiences the kids now have.

So here is a minorly self-centered post.

I used to write. A lot. I used to fill pages of scenes from stories where I was supposed to be writing calculus notes. On my computer, I currently have a folder crammed with old, badly written stories. I've been at Writing.Com since I was 16. In a few years, if I stick it out, I will have been on that site for half of my life.

The site still houses some of my less embarrassing works. Some old poetry and short stories, and the occasional snippet from a half-started novel project that I've tinkered with over the past few years.

I completed NaNoWriMo 3 years ago. It was stupendous and I was ecstatic, even though the end result was a poorly written piece of slop. At least it had been written! I attempted it every year since and failed within the first week, losing motivation and steam in one fell swoop. November is a truly terrible month for me to attempt such a feat.

Yet, when asked to describe myself, one of the first words that comes to mind is "writer". Though I haven't successfully written much in the past few years (Though I am particularly pleased with this piece: Motherhood).

I hope to attempted NaNoWriMo once again in November.

Until then, I entered a poetry contest. I have no aspirations of winning, simply of finishing. My skill as a poet is mediocre at best. That is, I can write something enjoyable, but not truly impressive. A common comment in reviews of my poetry includes the word "simple". I just can't think abstractly enough to crank out top-notch poetry. Though I do enjoy breaking down complicated experiences into simple words. Then, sometimes I wonder if it's too simple and I just don't understand what poetry is. Especially when I read the masterpieces written by others following the same prompt in the same amount of time. The sample poem for the prompt of "Washing the Car" was stupendous. I came up with this:

"Their laughter spills over
like the suds over the side of the bucket
that bangs against their shins.
They do not notice the bruises.

Sopping wet rags and shirts and bare feet.
They dance back and forth,
glistening green appearing where they go,
brown remaining where only an adult can reach.
With a thumb set against the mouth of the hose,
they scatter from the onslaught, their task forgotten.

Dripping bangs in their faces
and a smile completes the memory.
Dirt remains, in the crevices of the door
and the rims of the tires
and the unreachable top.
A professional might have done the job better.
But what fun would that be?"

There is a certain thought process in writing poetry that is different from writing prose or simply writing. I personally enjoy the simplicity of my pieces, but wonder if it even really counts... Ah, well. (Please note, I am NOT saying it's bad poetry, just not stellar. Obviously, I have a certain level of pride in the piece or I would not have shared it).

But the switch is turned, so if I post some weird phrase or put my thoughts down in an obscure pattern, blame this poetry contest. You should have seen some of the lines I considered writing down as I thought about writing a blog entry on some unrelated topic.

Summer Practice

Summer is right around the corner. We're finally getting some warm temps down here, even with the rainstorm dropping 4-5" of rain on us early in the week. We have some summer plans, but we're not quite there yet. Still another week or so before summer really starts.

Last weekend, we went as a family to the pool in our subdivision. The girls showed off their newly learned skills to James. Cadence learned she can walk (on tiptoes) the full length of the shallow end of the pool and both girls willingly went under water for a moment to show off their ability to do so. The pool is only open on weekends until school is out for the summer, so when it got warm today, we went to one of the splashpads instead. Too bad we couldn't stay too long. Just as we were drying off to go, a friend showed up to play. Oh well. I'm sure we'll see them next week.

Megan got a little spritz and decided she was done. She kept me company instead.

Cadence was soaked in a matter of seconds.

Cadence enjoyed herself, but the real fun was watching Connor as he explored. He'd stand at the edge of the splashpad and scream and laugh loudly, then toddle on in. Every time he got hit with water he'd gasp and tense up, then turn around and do it again:

Swim Lessons and at the Park

Our last swim lesson was yesterday afternoon. I'm sure the girls are going to miss going so regularly to the pool, but I do hope to take them to the wading pool our subdivision has once it's open more. They've both improved by leaps and bounds from their first swim lessons last September. Miss Megan, who wouldn't even put her ears in the water, was finally relaxing and Cadence even managed to float by herself (well, she was holding a boogie board) in the final day.

Both girls had scares in the water. Cadence, while holding the boogie board on her back, at one point lost her grip and went under about a week or two ago. Megan attempted to reach for the floating thing that disperses the chlorine tablets and ended up losing her footing on the step and going in over her head for a few seconds before the teacher was able to get to her (she was just out of my reach and by the time I realized that, the teacher was a step away). However, both girls managed to shake it off and still move forward with swim lessons. A little nervous, but they kept at it.

Learning to swim with their ear toward the water. Originially Cadence would have her back arched and her butt high in the air. Her form has improved drastically.

The only pictures I got of Megan. This is when they attempted to coordinate their arms and legs in the proper technique. Megan never got it down, but she certainly gave it her all.

You can't really tell, but the teacher is actually not touching her. She managed to float on her own, which is huge for her since this was the position she was in when she went under 2 weeks ago.

We also went to the park for a playdate with our new ward. It's so nice to have playdates right down the street from us, rather than having to drive 20 minutes. I am slowly but surely getting to recognize people. In the meantime, the kids are enjoying the regular outings and chances to explore new playgrounds. Connor's a daredevil on the playground, but also knows his limits. So he gives me a few scares, but manages to never really come to any harm. Still... I keep an extra close eye on him.

Connor figured out how to use the slide safely.

He did it repeatedly. Next time, he's wearing a onesie so he doesn't have his bare belly against the slide.

Cadence figured out the monkey bars trying them for months. She was so excited she went back and did it again and again until her arms were too tired to do it anymore (even then she kept trying until I convinced her to rest and try again next time we came).