| Posers | | Date Created: May 08, 2006, 08:32 PM |
What a great day we had! Considering how bad it's been, today simply wasn't as bad! I took James to swimming lessons this afternoon and it was so much fun watching him. He is always so good during swimming lessons and the trip to and fro and getting changed. It's our time together, and we both love it. Today he did SO well! He kicked hard enough behind the kickboard that Duncan didn't even have to touch him or the board. All by himself! He jumped in without hesitation. He jumped in without Duncan catching him and popped right up. He did great! The funniest thing he does in the pool, though, is not his best skill, but as hilarious as it looks it's actually quite an improvement. On his back he is supposed to do a move with his arms that goes "arms like a chicken, out like an airplane, push!" I have tears in my eyes (of laughter) as I watch his little fists and arms flailing in the water. Sometimes both arms at the same time, sometimes only one then the other, sometimes only one over and over again. You'd never get "chicken, airplane, push" from what you see, but he really thinks he's doing it and I am so proud of him. He even demonstrated all of his "strokes" on the floor for Will when he got home from work and repeated all of the drills he did. I was amazed he remembered it all and touched by how proud and excited he was to tell Daddy all about it.
That's the good news about James. The bad news is that he still has John's number and John's number being had means broken eardrums and crawling skin for everyone in the house. I made John share the building blocks with James and he got over that okay. But instead of playing with his share, James abandoned them and hovered ominously over John and his blocks. Not moving in to take them, just leaning in as if he might. In response, John screams and lays his whole body over his blocks protecting them from James' glare, his arms out wide, his face buried in the rug. Then Georgie says in his Prissy from Gone With the Wind falsetto, "Oh, no! Oh no!"
But even though John and James don't always get along they're still brothers and apparently that still means something around here. James was in time-out--and not quietly so. John came up to Will and me at the kitchen gate and said, "James calling you." And Will said, "Yeah. He's in time-out." "Go get James," John said. He can't live with him, can't live without him.
Georgie continues to be the sweetest--if mischievous--boy on the planet. As I buckled him into his car seat this morning to go to school he noticed he didn't have his sidekick, the plastic zebra, with him. "Zebra inside," he said, meaning in the house. "Yeah," I said sympathetically, hoping he wouldn't try to get me to go back in and get the zebra. "At animal school," he said. "Yeah," I said.
At supper we had lima beans, which my family has always called "butterbeans." "Oooh got buttabeans, buttabeans," he sang. So sweet.
At bathtime, John wanted to try to TT in the potty so he stood on the stepstool naked and aimed at the bowl. Nothing came out, but not for a lack of coaching or "posturing" on his part. After what felt like an hour, I finally came up with this inane advice: Pretend there is a fire and you have to put it out. I left out the obvious "hose" metaphor, but maybe a should have mentioned that apparatus because instead of TT-ing all over the "fire" he leaned over and spit on it.
Before supper I got out the camera because I haven't taken many pictures lately. All of a sudden the boys are not only interested in having their picture taken, but they want to take the picture with them in it together and they want to pose and then look at the result on the camera. After I took John's picture he immediately came over to check it out. "See medal and glasses?" he asked. He couldn't wait to see how cool he looked. Here are the cool guys in one of their poses... |
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