The A's, part 1: swimming and more

Simi: On a completely unrelated note- what strategies did JP use to get your kids to be so confident in the water? It's not like we can enroll our kids in his school (though we'd love to) since we live 2000 miles away, but I would love to hear how to foster water confidence and safety in my kids (ages 5, 2, and 2). Did they use floaties? How did he teach them to trust the water will keep them afloat?

First of all, he is not a fan of floaties (his first words in response were "no floaties"). He finds they ultimately decrease confidence, making kids think they can't support themselves in the water without them. Teaching water confidence is a lot of little steps: holding them and asking them to put their mouths in the water, then blowing bubbles, then putting mouth + nose in water, then putting whole face in water, and then very gradually letting go of them as they become comfortable with their whole head in the water looking down. But along the way there's also using their arms to "monkey arm" around the pool, kicking on the side, being pulled through the water on their tummies, learning to climb out of water by themselves, etc. For gaining comfort, contact with water is so important ("the biggest thing is exposure")- if you have access to a pool, get them in it as much as possible as young as possible. Sign up for lessons. Have them put their faces in the water in the bath, have them turn their face up to look at the shower as it rains down. If you're teaching them yourself (something he doesn't recommend, even after teaching ours that way), you have to push them. Claire cried during Every. Single. Lesson. he gave her for two years. But we always made sure to have non-lesson swim play time and she is a strong swimmer who LOVES the pool and asks to swim every day. But when JP got in the pool with her last weekend to work on her stroke a little, she immediately burst into tears. I don't know why, but I promise it didn't scar her for life and she never would have learned otherwise.

Life in Vet School: Oh, I second Simi's swim question! We've started H (who's 3) in a swim class at the Y, and they're teaching a little bit of floating, blowing bubbles, kicking, basic skills like that. But what I really wanted was self-saving type instruction that would help him protect his airway if he ever fell into a body of water. I know general familiarity in the water is probably helpful regardless of what's being taught, but I'd like to work with him myself on practical skills that he could use in an emergency, except I have no idea what to teach him or how to do it. I can't find any ISR type classes near me. Thank you!

ISR is a whole other kettle of fish. JP doesn't teach it and unless you have a small child in real and regular risk of falling in a pool (like if you have an unbarricaded pool in your backyard), he doesn't recommend it. It's an amazing technique and can be very effective, but he has also slowly and painfully counseled many emotionally scarred children who did ISR as toddlers and are now water-safe, but are absolutely TERRIFIED of it. Also, if you do go the ISR route, be sure to find someone who is actually certified in the method. It is expensive and takes a long time to get certified, but it is a dangerous technique and you have to have someone who knows what they are doing. A friend of mine nearly lost her little boy due to an "aggressive" swim instructor using the ISR method without proper training. Her little one swallowed so much water from all the dunking during the class that he ended up seizing on the pool deck afterward and went into a coma. He is okay now, but he could have had permanent brain damage. I know that wasn't really what you were asking about, but as long as we're talking about swim lessons, I had to get that PSA out!

Okay, on to your question- how to incorporate some practical skills. You're right that familiarity in the water is something, and it's a very big something, but there is more you could do when you're in the pool with him. One of the first things is to start talking about putting your hands up if you're underwater. Crazy enough, that is not an intuitive thing for small children! So, teach: "What do we do if we're underwater?" "Raise our hands and kick our feet!" Repeat. Start working on crawling out of the pool in the deep end: elbow, elbow, tummy, knee, knee. Work on cruising around the whole edge of the pool using just his hands. And then the biggest thing is teaching him to turn on his back and float- so anytime he's in the pool, he knows he can always float up and turn onto his back to get air and relax. That is always available to him. Then he can kick until he hits a wall, grab the edge, and climb out (elbow, elbow, tummy, knee, knee!). You can also do "humpty dumpties" where you drop him in the pool right by the edge so he can kick up and grab it and climb out (skipping the float). It's a multi-faceted process, so work on different things at different times and find stuff he enjoys and finds empowering (Claire has always loved monkey arms and seemed surprised and delighted she could get herself out of the pool). The back floating is the hardest thing to teach- there's so much nuance that JP has gathered through his lessons, but toddlers are usually pretty buoyant so H might take to it right away anyway :). JP always lets the kids pick a song they sing together while he lets them float, slowly letting go of them until they float on their own. Here's some pictures of Claire when she had just turned 2: http://lagliv.blogspot.com/2012/08/claires-swim-lesson-commemorative-post.html

Anon: 1. I know you've said before that you will probably move at some point in the future. How much longer do you think you’ll stay in Ft. Worth? If you have plans to leave in a few years, how will that affect JP’s swim school?

That is an excellent question. Now that we're redoing our kitchen, I'm hoping to stay here for quite a bit longer! 5 years at least, more would be better. I would always be open to moving if it made sense for our family, but it's really JP who insists that we'll definitely be moving in a few years. I'm not sure how or why- it's not like either of us are going to be transferred by our jobs, but he seems certain. If we do move, his hope is to sell his business to someone else and then start a new business, swimming or otherwise, in the new place. Those kinds of plans are why I feel we are now highly unlikely to move.

2. Is there another type of law you’d like to practice?

When I first went to law school I wanted to do trusts and estates, and I still think I would enjoy the practicality of it and the close and usually positive client relationships. But I did really like being a litigator, and that is almost certainly what I'll go back to, if I go back at all.

3. Other than returning to a firm, are there any other law careers you are interested in (i.e. professor, in-house counsel, non-law career)?

All of the above! I spent most of my childhood teaching school to all the kids in my neighborhood. I created worksheets by hand, took attendance, gave quizzes and tests- I took it all very seriously! So I could definitely see trying to be an adjunct or doing some other teaching-type role somewhere down the line. In-house is also a possibility, one that currently seems more likely as a next step over going back to a firm whenever I leave the SEC. I like the one client/being a part of a team aspect and I think the lifestyle, while more intense than the government, would still likely be easier to adjust to than private practice. And lately I've let myself think of non-law careers too. I like being a lawyer and think my "main" job will always involve using my JD, but I would love to explore photography more and do a (very) small amateur business involving family portraits. I would also love to get certified in barre teaching and teach an early morning class at my yoga studio for us working folks (6 a.m., a class I would create just so I could go, showing EXACTLY how obsessed I am with those classes). So who knows, but it's interesting to me that I'm so much more open minded about my career path(s) at 31 than I ever was at 18 or 22 or 25.

4. What was the hardest transition for you and JP as parents. Going from married couple to 1 kid, 1 kid to 2 kids or 2 kids to 3 kids?

Oh my god the couple to 1 kid transition nearly KILLED us. Like on the rare occasion we talk about Landon's babyhood it is only to note how surprising it is that we survived. Adding Claire was easy and adding Cora has been so seamless and simple that I don't understand why JP won't let me have a fourth. Day-to-day I found having two kids to be way easier than one (they entertain each other! it's like the best of all the baby gear in one cute little 3-year-old package), and while I wouldn't say three is easier than two, it hasn't been any harder. The older kids keep getting easier, so it kind of evens out when you throw in a more physically demanding brand new one. But oh man, that first transition was so hard. Landon was hard (preemie! NICU! colic! allergies! 27 ear infections!), our lives were hard (law school! investment banking!), we were so isolated, we had no family help, and we then went through actual legal, medical, and emotional hell for a few months... but even without all that- the switch from young couple in the city to young couple + a baby, especially when no one else we knew had babies, was a rough one. By the time we had Claire and certainly Cora, we had embraced our roll as family with young child, so adding another one into our routine was no big deal- family dinners after work, early wake-ups on the weekends, not going anywhere without many accessories, never getting to travel alone with JP ever again... check! We can roll with pretty much anything these days.

5. As busy as you are, I’m curious what is the biggest source of stress in your life right now?

Hmm, I'd say I'm really not a worrier- stress has to be really forced on me to feel much of it. If I had to pick something, I do sometimes worry about making sure we're shaping the kids into the best people they can be. It's a big job, there's no owner's manual, and you can't see the future to know what effects your current actions are going to have.

6. What are some of your favorite traditions with the kids?

Ooh, so many! I'm a tradition lover- we had so many growing up in my own little family, things that I'm sure were no big deal at some point but our now completely sacred and beloved, and one of my favorite thing about being a parent of increasingly older children is the creation of our own. So far, the following are ones the kids already talk about:

- getting donuts with dad alone on your birthday before anyone else wakes up (this one is new, but it is a big hit and I LOVE the idea of a high school Claire getting up early to go eat donuts with her daddy on her birthday)
- picking any dinner you want for your birthday night
- the little candle on your place mat on your birthday morning: purchased for $2.99 each our dino and piglet candle holders are something the kids really look forwarding to having by their plate on their birthdays and it's nothing that requires me to prep anything the night before!
- decorating Christmas sugar cookies
- Christmas at the lake house. This is a funny tradition for me because I always loved my family Christmases in my own house without any extra family growing up- it was cozy and ours and completely stress and drama-free, but my kids now associate Christmas with Papa and Gigi's house and that's nice too. Though I do think at some point we'll start doing Christmas Eve in our own home and then drive to the lake on Christmas Day morning. It's getting harder for Santa to travel.
- Valentine's Day heart pizza for dinner. We have to shape them by hand now, but they're still happening.

I expect there to be lots more.

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More answers to come! The next tranche involves a lot of junior associate, OCI, and marriage advice. Ole!

In other news, also on our crazy Monday, Cora started in a new classroom at school! She was too big, too fast, and too dominant in the baby class, so the director created a new mini-class for Cora and her posse of other bigger babies to bridge the gap between the fierce-crawling now and the toddling future.

Don't let her sweet visage fool you; the girl is crazy. She's sweet too, but she thrives in chaos, crawls like a demon, and wants to do, touch, chew, hit, eat, and be a part of ALL of the things ALL the time.

She played so hard in her new padded baby gymnasium that she slept for 14 straight hours Monday night. Luckily I had my work laptop at home so I just logged in and worked from the kitchen table until she woke up.

Now I'm sick with a bad cold and am going to try to drug myself enough to sleep through the burning throat, runny nose, and sinus pressure that makes me wish my head would just split open and be done with it. But hey, I finally got some Q&A posted and Top Chef's latest iteration is playing on my TV- happy Wednesday!

Lake Housing, Jury Duty, and a Thursday Monday

I am still going to bed way too late and getting way too little sleep. I can't even blame it on the baby in the house, or the other two kids- they're all in bed by 7:45 and we don't see them again until 7 a.m. or later the next morning; no, it's all JP's booming business and his neverending overflowing inbox of lesson requests combined with his inability to send an email without obsessing over it and my inability to go to sleep without him. On the upside, that overflowing inbox is what's paying for our new kitchen (more on that later; MUCH more, I'm sure. with pictures.), so I'm trying not to be yelly about it.

Since JP is so busy and swim team is over for Landon, this past Saturday morning I threw all three kids in the car with some swim suits and pj's and drove them to my parents' lake house for the weekend. No one loves a car ride like Claire loves a car ride- all her family in one small space? What could be better?!

Landon was immediately reunited with his rope swing and proved right away that he is SO MUCH stronger than he was last summer. Swimming has seriously toned him up and he could hang on to the rope really far out over the water. He's lost all that baby boy softness, which would be sad, except that he's 7 and I still have a squishy baby with glorious thighs of thunder to chew on.

I even got in the lake! When JP isn't around I have to step up and remind the kids that they do have two parents who know how to swim. I was wearing a one piece swimsuit and then I saw my mom in her bikini and was like dammit, I can't let my 57-year-old mother completely show me up, so I went back and changed. I love Claire's grin here- she is never happier than when she's physically connected to another person, and it's even better when that person is a Gigi.

And then I had to show Landon that I know my way around a rope swing. Ropes and swings and jumping from high elevations into large bodies of water dominated a lot of my childhood.

Claire kept watch, shouting out praise to her Landon every time he popped back up in the water after a jump.

On Sunday, she was jumping in all by herself. She takes a little longer to warm up than Landon, but she's a pretty fierce little four-year-old once she's assessed the situation and decided to embrace it.

There was some golf watching with Papa. And Cora's all what could you all POSSIBLY be looking at that isn't me?!

I love this picture. The big kids were running races back and forth across the lawn and Cora was watching so intently you see her little thought bubble that someday SHE was going to be a big kid and then she'd win ALL the races.

I'll spare you the other dozen pictures capturing a portion of Landon's 300 rope swing jumps, but it was a really fun weekend. We missed JP, but in September, he'll get to come with us and it will be even better.

And then the weekend ended with Cora not feeling so good (she was fussy Sunday night and both JP and I realized that she'd never really been fussy before because we were both so flabbergasted by a normal baby that expressed tiredness by crying anytime you set her down; it is MUCH harder to get things done when you can't set down your ThirdBaby) and me having jury duty this morning. My first ever jury duty! I was actually a little excited. And then I got picked for the jury! And THEN I was nominated as foreman and THEN (THEN!) I discovered there's been a Jimmy John's lurking in downtown Fort Worth that I never knew about and I could have been walking to all this time to get my #12-EZ mayo instead of driving my car 2 miles down the road and over a bridge to get it when the cravings got too strong to ignore. I have missed out on SO MANY SANDWICHES. And so much walking! And I love both sandwiches AND walking. There will be a lot more of both in my future.

But back to the jury duty. It was an interesting experience, and a good one. The case rested just after lunch and then we deliberated for another an hour and a half on negligence, liability, and damages. It's not often you get 12 adults in a room who disagree on things and rather than glossing over those disagreements and talking about how hot it is outside, you have to explain your thoughts and ask questions of each other and deliberate. It's a great exercise, really. When we first got in the jury room we were 6-6 on whether the defendant was negligence and 30 minutes later we were 11-1. We only needed 10 for the verdict so we moved on to damages. I found everyone to be very thoughtful and earnest, though it was still fascinating to see so many different slices of life that would normally never cross in one room. Good times, a wonderfully short case, and now I'm out of the jury pool for two years.

I ran home to change and grab an extra bottle for Cora and the brownies I made Sunday night, picked up the girls at school, and took us all to Landon's outdoor end of swim team party at JP's pool. Then, after the girls and I dropped off the brownies and made sure Landon was good to stay with JP, I realized I locked my damn keys in my car, so I had to drive JP's car all the way back to our house for the extra set while Cora cried and cried, drive back to the pool with the extra keys, arriving late enough to watch Landon get his award after all (high point!), pile the girls BACK in the car, now with a wet Landon who forgot his swim suit and swam in his real shorts instead, for our fourth trip between our house and the pool, started dinner, fed a starving super sad Cora her bottle and tucked her in bed, and sat down with the kids and their organic mac and cheese and side of fruit- a Thursday night meal if there every was one- at 8:45 p.m. and thought holy hell is it really only Monday?

JP got home at 9:30 after being at the pool for 13 hours and we ordered Thai for dinner because if the kids got to eat like it was the end of the week and the fridge is empty, then we did too, and now it's 11:15 and I'm about to take his laptop to type out the responses to the rest of his emails.

Tomorrow night I'm going back to houzz perusing and range shopping.

Everything and Nothing

I'm here! I'm not sure what's happened to me. Life, I guess? Unbloggable things along with making dinners, doing yoga and barre, researching laptops (still haven't picked one, there are too many), feeling guilty for not starting the kids' photobooks, freaking out that Cora is nearly 9 months old and almost walking (we can condense 10 would-be posts to waaaaaah last baby, MANY TEARS, etc.), meeting with a contractor and researching designs to remodel our kitchen (I'm as excited about that as I am sad that Cora is refusing to freeze herself in time), dreaming about becoming a barre instructor and photographer (what?! says the type A lawyer planner that is 90% of me), and agonizing over Cora's first Halloween outfit (butterfly! mouse! lady bug! monster!) and raging over things like a 2T "sexy jungle cat" option...

Am I going to take my first step? Am I? Ammmmm I?

Ha, NO! Made you clap.

Wait, but AM I?!

So, that's all taken some time, and yet, I also feel like I haven't done anything. No blogging, no photobooking, bare minimum emailing. If you can be disconnected while still spending a lot of time on the internet, then that's what I've been.

But I have been photographing other things! Mostly involving Cora.

(1) Cora has continued to get to know her fellow four-legged, floor-dwelling creature.

So... dog. This is what we do? We sit? We just... do this. We sit.

(2) Cora went to the mall and got her first pair of shoes!

She is a size 4W, her thighs are made of magic, and I was so intent on capturing her free standing abilities that I failed to catch her when she fell down and hit her head on the Stride Rite floor. MOTY.

Claire selected the second, brighter pink option for Cora and a pair of coordinating pink shoes for herself in her new size 12.5. 12.5! She just turned 4! Claire is going to be borrowing my size 10s in like 3 years.

(3) I finally went to the free botanic gardens that are right by our house. I literally drive by then every day, but though JP had taken the kids a few times, I somehow hadn't been. They're lovely! Even in August!

We came upon a 3-legged turtle and the biggest spider I've ever seen in the wild. And Cora tried to eat all the flowers.

(4) I wore a new dress and felt fancy.

(5) Claire's new favorite game is "going to exercise class" which involves wandering around the house with a nap mat and a purse burgeoning with cell phones, baby supplies, sunglasses, and superheroes. I asked her if she'd like to do yoga with me on Monday after work while dinner was cooking and she got SO excited. Now we've done it every night this week while we wait for the boys to come home from the pool (yogadownload.com, which I continue to LOVE, has some great classes for kids).

Cora is very excited we've all discovered how fun moving around on the floor can be. Down-dogs are her favorite.

And so, that's what's been happening. Mostly. I've also done a ton of reading (the first 7 Kim Harrison Hollows books, though I still can't decide how I feel about them, and Kresley Cole's latest Dark Skye which I loved) and a lot of just sitting with JP, idly chatting and being. I've discovered that just being is a skill and like any, you have to practice. I'm getting better at it. And while there are things to do and decisions to make and some major minor crises to solve and/or survive, in general, I find myself going to bed, wrapped up in JP and thinking about nothing much at all. And that's maybe the best thing I've been able to write in a while.

I'm Here! Briefly. Kind of.

Just a placeholder to say, hey!, it's been almost a week since my last post, which is unusually long for me, but I'm here! Kind of. Totally on my way to bed, actually, but here. Things have been busy. Good, but busy with the kids and work and the swim school (omg the swim school emails, I am severely underpaid for my role with that company) and JP and backyard swimming and cooking and barre class and a minor work crisis and more swimming and then Cora discovering we have a dog.

Whaaaaaat, what IS this?

But I want to write. I miss writing. I know it's only been 6 days, but I spent one insomniatic night reading old posts and ended up in 2012 and re-read the posts and comments when JP lost his job and you guys were so wonderful and the virtual support network of this blog was so VITALLY important to me at that time, you really have no idea. Things were so very hard. In fact, one of my second biggest thoughts upon reading it (after, thank god for my kind, comment-writing, support-giving readers) was "wow, I was so restrained!" It was really hard, but we're past it, and I'm so thankful for those who were there then and are still here for the rather boring good stuff I write about now.

So more writing will come. I need to catch up on some sleep, something I'm already failing at seeing as how it's 11:20 p.m., but I do have some answers to the Q&A's, which are always fun and thought-provoking for me to write, some new pictures (spoiler alert: swimming, the kids, and Cora are involved) to post, and some thoughts on daycare and kids and why it's been awesome for us.

In the meantime, here's some proof of life photos from dinner last night:

Cora loves the baby in the phone.

Claire dubbed this a "girls' picture" and she needed to be part of it, obvs.

Then Cora was all, hey, you guys, that phone looks delicious, I'll get it for us, 'kay? I'M ON IT!

GONNA EAT THAT SHINY METAL THING WITH A BABY INSIDE AND IT'S GONNA BE SO TASTY!

My catlike reflexes saved the phone, and Cora rededicated her evening's work to pulling up on my chair and begging for treats.

God, I really don't think it is possible to enjoy a baby more. That she is nearly 9 months old causes me daily heartache and I have never been one to want to linger on the baby times. 

Off to bed, more to come! One day, soon (ish)!

Family Portraits

I mentioned that we did our family portraits a few weeks ago. It was super hot, super sticky, and about 110% humidity; I didn't have time to do my hair; and I didn't plan for JP and I to even be in the pictures until about 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave, so while I loved the kids outfits and they were in a GREAT mood that morning and we super cooperative, I was too sweaty and frizzy to have super high expectations for the final product. When I opened the gallery from the photographer last week, I was really just hoping to have an individual portrait of each kid and maybe ONE good picture of the three kids together.

And we got them. With a few extra besides.

(My little brother captioned the one above as "Cheese." "Cheeeeese." "I pooped!" and now that's all I can see when I look at it. But I still love it just the same. Or maybe even more.)

I haven't gotten individual portraits of the kids since 2012, so I was really happy to get a few individual shots of my babies at 7 and 4.

Lanman

Clairebear

And of course a few of our baby Cora. When I scheduled the session back in February I thought June would give us a Cora who could sit up and smile, but who wouldn't be mobile yet. Then she started crawling in April, so yeah, that didn't work out, but we still got some good shots! The bow she's wearing is the one I bought the week we found out we were having another girl (and that she's wearing in her newborn portraits) and I just love that.

I love this one- totally captures Cora's "of course I can do all the big kid things" attitude. So she's sure she can go over the ladder, she juuuust might need a sec to figure out how. Also, thigh rolls and wrist rolls and elbow rolls. Two thumbs up.

And we even got a good one of the family! As I said above, I only decided to add JP and I at the last minute, so I hate my hair here (I did not set my alarm to early "get myself pretty" o'clock, just the latest possible "get the kids dressed and out the door" time), but everyone else looks good.

We got several good ones of JP and Cora, but this is my favorite - long live the chins!

And one of me and my smiley smiley girl. Cora took her modeling very seriously, so these are the only big smiles we got on film. She does love to fly (and dance and twirl and do pretty much anything involvement movement, music, and/or her family people).

Another family shot. I'd given in to the humidity and pulled my hair back, and yet still, my now absent hair remains my least favorite part of this picture.

Claire asked to do a picture with sunglasses, and I, THRILLED by the idea that someone else in my house was excited about family pictures, readily agreed to add some sunglass shots at the end. As you can see, Claire was super excited about this. Cora was more "wtf" about it and Landon was just excited to be allowed to pick-up the baby. (Sweet aside: tonight he asked me for a small picture of Cora that he could put in a little frame to keep by his treasure box in his room "and then take with me when I move to my own house one day." It was a double emotional whammy. That kid...)

Cora was pretty over it, but Claire was in full model mode. Girl loooves her accessories.

I love all the pictures, but this is the one I put in the frame on my bedside table. You can't see their faces very well, but it just captures them so perfectly.

I have about 50 more on the CD and I really just couldn't be happier with what our photographer did with an hour on a super humid morning at our favorite local park. I've loved every year with the kids, and I expect to love every one in the future, but this first year as a family of five has been particularly magical- the big kids just love Cora so much and she adores them right back and I'm so glad I have some portraits that come close to capturing that.

Swim Meets and Scrubby Saturdays

I'm doing it again. I don't know what is happening to my weeks- they're a blur of insomnia, work, driving too far to summer camp, barre class, yoga, helping JP with swim school stuff, and reading my new series (The Hollows by Kim Harrison; I doubted during book 1 but I am currently in book 4 and completely addicted) with my head resting in his lap while he responds to his 100 daily emails on his computer into the wee hours of the next day's morning. But the weekends- on the weekends I do things and I photograph them!

On this particular weekend my mom came into town to watch Landon's championship swim meet on Saturday. On Friday we went to lunch and shopped, as we do (for the record I went to DSW and bought nothing, such is my restraint as I look toward Fall boots season), and then we picked up the kids early so they could swim and play in the unusually chilly July temperatures. This picture is blurry because my camera was dying, but it so perfectly captures Cora's life: between two siblings; smiling.

Saturday morning brought the regional championship swim meet- 15 teams, several hundred swimmers, at a nice natatorium about 40 minutes away. We drove out in two fleets- Landon and JP leaving super early for warm-up and the four ladies following behind 45 minutes later. Claire insisted on wearing her "beautifuldress" (one word) from my sister's rehearsal dinner, which went perfectly with my jean shorts, purple workout top (team color!), and running shoes. Cora bridged the gap in her cute bubble and my mom, as always, was the most put together of us all.

Cora was highly entertained by my mom's multitude rings and bracelets- WAY more interesting than her own mom's solo wedding rings + wedding watch combo.

She was her typically amazing third baby self, smiling her way through a very late breakfast, missed morning nap, and inability to crawl, and she took her swim meet watching very seriously before falling asleep without my realizing it, and then staying asleep through our loud cheering for Landon's last event.

And Landon, who was the point of this whole endeavor, did GREAT!

Lane 3, purple cap, tiny swimmer

We're still waiting on final results (6 & Under's aren't so good at hitting the digital touch pads, so they have to input all the back-up timers' data and they weren't posted yet when we left), but it looked like he got 3rd in free and 2nd or 3rd in back, which was fantastic, especially for his first swim season!

Tiny and unusually fierce and focused

Next year both kids can be on the team and even though some aspects of swim team are a pain in the neck (like all the meets being an hour away), I have really, really enjoyed being a swim team parent. When you combine a sport I actually know the rules of, with my own impossibly happy memories of swim team summers, with the inherent fairness that comes with separate lanes and an impartial clock to judge the races, AND the joy of seeing your child enjoy his first athletic success and suddenly the early morning drives to other area codes don't seem so bad.

My mom especially loved being in the stands. Swim team was such a huge part of our childhood- all 3 of us were on the team and my mom was the ultra-spirited team manager (and at one point, reluctant head coach), and we walked to our little neighborhood pool each morning and stayed until we were water logged sun burnt. We hosted pep rallies, made giant signs to hang along meet routes, and had mixed tapes of Queen "pump up" music going in the car, and even now, all three Rice kids still hold at least one team or pool record from the early 90's. Being in the stands brought back all kinds of happy memories and made me seriously think about joining summer league next summer (adults can compete at the meets, but would it make me sad to be slower than my 11-12 age group record? Maybe, but I think it would be fun if JP and I both did it. Maybe?).

First meet shirt!

We celebrated the day with post-meet-pizza while JP raced off to coach his Saturday lessons. My mom headed home, my dad having just landed in Houston from his business trip to Taipei and both of them anxious to reunite and head to the lake. JP came home and we decided to seize the unseasonably cool temperatures (it was 78 degrees at 2 p.m. in the middle of July, 108 would be much more normal) and clean every inch of the exterior of our house. Ugh, we're such grown-ups.

Spot the scrubbing JP!

I adore our window-covered glass house every day, except the ones I decide we need to clean them. That goes for the 50 sky lights as well.

The kids were awesome helpers. Seriously, they scrubbed all the window sills, the floorboards around the patio, and the tile lining the pool. JP did the skylight work, trimming, hedging, and more. And I cleaned the inside and outside of every single window in the house, removing the wood blinds and scrubbing every inch. All the front windows are original to our 1940's house and it had clearly been a while since someone had taken them to task. Oy. Cora supervised.

We celebrated our sparkling home with dinner out on a patio, belatedly realizing that a few years ago that's what we would have thought to do with a cool July day in the first place.

Today has felt like a bonus day- lots of swimming, a little more scrubbing (Claire really likes her sponge; Sharkie is getting a bath as I type by the pool (or I was, Cora woke up and interrupted me), and a week's worth of meal planning and to-do list writing. After 2 birthdays, 2 birthday parties, a destination wedding, a season of summer league, and a busy testimony schedule, I feel like we finally have summer mostly under control, just in time to take a few breaths before getting ready for school!