Embracing the Normalcy

We've had a lovely week. No sarcasm there. No veiled, hidden meaning. It has been a lovely week:

The weather has been wonderful - temps in the 70s and 80s. We spent time outside, hit a couple of parks, and even managed to squeeze a picnic in this afternoon. It even smelled nice for a couple of days this week. (That's a big deal around here!) The kind of nice where you take several deep breaths, savor the freshness, and allow it to conjure up happy memories from your youth.

While the weather was at its best we hit the zoo. Inspired by the lions, Colson decided to pretend he was Simba from The Lion King and spent some time climbing rocks and roaring. (Side note: The Lion King is the movie of choice around here for the "5 and under set." It's also the soundtrack of choice for bedtimes and the CD of choice for the karaoke machine. There's a whole lotta' Hakuna Matata 'round here!)



The dock was a peaceful, quiet place to hang out and watch the ducks and geese. Also, the boys discovered that the wooden dock sounds really cool when you stomp around on it pretending to be a transformer!



M. put training wheels on Brogan's bike. I think Colson was more excited about it than Brogan was, but Brogan practiced riding for a little while this afternoon. He struggled with pedaling, and once he discovered that pedaling was tough he just wanted to go inside. But M. convinced him to stick to it and he improved.



We've gotten a TON of school accomplished. I took an evening and hit Starbucks with my planner and got an outline of what I wanted to accomplish in school *next* year, as well as what we needed to accomplish during the remainder of this year. That kind of gave us a focus and additional motivation this week. We're ahead of schedule in some areas, and a bit behind in others. But we'll finish on time.

Brogan has zipped through his schoolwork this spring. We had not planned on doing any school with him, as he's still in preschool. We've done a bit of cut-and-color type pages, but that's it. He kept asking to work with Braden, so I ordered a small math workbook and we've been doing a little phonics each day. He seems to enjoy doing school "just like Braden."

Colson began swimming lessons. After months of watching his older brothers swim, Colson finally got his chance to hit the pool. We signed up for a parent-tot swim class and have participated in 2 classes so far. The first lesson he spent whimpering and hanging on to me with death-grip hands. At the second lesson he had a much better time. He laughed and giggled. He jumped into the water repeatedly. He sang the songs and did the arms motion. He even did a couple of head bobs, going completely underwater. After each activity he looked toward the bleachers trying to see if M. had seen.

The class is made up of very young families. At both lessons one parent would swim with the child in class and the other parent would be simultaneously cheering and taking pictures or aiming the video camera. It was fun watching these parents and remembering doing this with Braden. Somewhere along the line I've gotten away from taking pictures of Brogan's and Colson's firsts. Maybe next week I can convince M. to come to the pool and take pictures of Colson blowing bubbles or doing the hokey-pokey.

This week we also got the long-awaited chance to ride in the "shuttle" at the mechanic shop, and Colson worried that the chef at the restaurant we visited on Friday was going to set us on fire. But those are blogs entries for a later day.