Camp Certification Punch Cards

Girls Camp is just a few weeks away and the final preparations are in full swing. I am making certification punch cards for each of the levels; I love how they are turning out!

I'm in Love with the Pool Boy

Crew enjoys the pool as much as the big kids. He will happily cruise the water in his floatie boat for hours.
My friend Cyndie is a swim instructor in her less pregnant-and-nauseas life. She caught me not-so-subtly observing her while she worked with her own little ones yesterday. She generously taught me the right/effective/safe way to dunk Crew under the water (I had read about it online and was doing it all wrong, or at least it wasn't working). Now Crew seems to really like being dunked! How fun to know that Crew can learn a thing-or-two this summer as well!

Summer of Swim

We have a pool one block away and we had never ever ever ever been to it before this week. I know. Lame. I wasn't feelin' it last year (15 pounds heavier), and the pool was in and out of service the whole summer anyway, blah blah blah.

I hereby declare this to be our Summer of Swim 2011!

Jumpin' Jellyfish!

Tanner is so brave this season!

Swim Lessons Week One

We were having difficulty coordinating our schedules with the local rec center, so a friend recommended swim lessons through a swim instructor that teaches out of her own backyard pool. She's been teaching swim lessons for 17 years, has children of her own, and we think she's great! She focuses a lot on swim safety, which is awesome. Her rates are reasonable and I love that Kinley and Tanner can be together and that they are the only students in their class. It's the perfect dynamic for their personalities and symbiotic relationship.
In just three short lessons, Bobi had Kinley floating independently on her back and doing exercises underwater facedown...
She had Tanner floating independently on his back and doing the dead man's float (Kinley's amazed/impressed expression makes me giggle)...
She had Kinley zipping across the pool with the American Front Crawl, with Tanner practicing...
And she had them both diving off the side of the pool from their knees, Kinley all by herself!
Tanner is now a wild man jumper, something he wouldn't dare attempt before. He didn't even pause when Bobi asked him to do it. It's the only way he gets in the pool now!
We are really happy. The kids love Bobi and trust her implicitly; they'll do anything she asks without hesitation, never considering their fears. (When I tried to practice with them at our neighborhood pool this week, doing the very same things I had seen her do, they acted like I was trying to drown them. I have the claw marks across my back to prove it.)

Crew mostly slept on my shoulder or bounced contentedly on the trampoline.
I spent every summer as a child in Michigan, swimming endless hours in Lake Huron or the YMCA pool. I always fancied myself to be a "good swimmer". If I fell out of a boat, I could get to land without a problem. I can float, dive, dog paddle, and swim under water with my eyes open. It has been very humbling to realize that I basically have no real swimming skills and that if I'm ever serious about doing that triathlon, I'm gonna have to take lessons myself.

Yeah, and buy a bike.

BLT Wrap Lite

Mmmmm..... bacon.
Ingredients:
One tortilla (Don Julio): 110 calories
4 slices Oscar Mayer fully cooked bacon: 70 calories
2 tbs mozzarella cheese: 40 calories
1 roma tomato: 18 calories
1 cup shredded/chopped lettuce: 10 calories
1 Tbs Kraft Free Mayo: 10 calories

Directions:
Make a quesadilla by putting the cheese on one half of the tortilla, folding in half and toasting in a pan on both sides. Remove from pan and peel open.

Dice tomatoes and add to lettuce in small bowl. Finish cooking bacon in a pan. When bacon is crispy, cut into small pieces with scissors, a knife, or pizza cutter. Add to tomato and lettuce mixture. Add mayo and mix well. Scoop contents of bowl into the tortilla and eat!

Total: 259 calories

My favorite low-cal recipes can all be found here.

Loser Mom Secret Stash

Lest you believe that Pediasure is the most egregious of my Operation Fatness sins, you should know that we are 6 pints deep on Haagen Dazs in our freezer. All for Crew. And he gets as much as he will eat every night before bed. We don't even use a bowl. 250 calories per half cup, baby! Yum!

Sweet Sweet Summer Months

"He'll Eat When He's Hungry"

I once got into a Facebook debate with a mother who was raging against loser parents who feed their children chocolate-flavored pediatric drinks. Her suggestion that I present Crew with a plate of apple slices and broccoli florets was laughable. After all, her child ate what was put in front of her. When she got hungry enough, she eventually learned to eat what was available, regardless of taste or texture. And of course, she is a robust, healthy child... and they lived happily ever after.

The ignorance of her position was amusing, the tenor of her accusations infuriating.

My journey through nutritional hell with Crew has opened up a whole new world of understanding.

Like many former micropreemies, Crew's hunger reflex has been heavily impacted by his NICU adventures. He was either on intravenous nutrition and his belly was totally empty (for weeks and weeks at a time and he just thought it was normal) or he was on continual round-the-clock nasal tube feedings directly to his stomach and he just thought that was normal. That really messes with you. For almost a year, he didn't get "hungry". I am convinced that he could have gone 18 hours without eating and he wouldn't have cared one bit. He never fussed or complained about an empty belly and he certainly didn't like eating.

Most babies understand innately that they are hungry and that eating/drinking will solve that uncomfortable feeling in their tummy. Not so with Crew and his buddies. Even when he got older and started reacting to "hungry" feelings in his tummy, we had to teach him to connect the dots between hunger and eating. To this day there are times that he will cry because he is hungry, but he won't eat and he won't drink. Because he doesn't want to. And he doesn't understand that it will solve his problem. And he's a two-year old tyrant who thinks he knows it all.

We are in that place again.

We regress every time he gets sick.

And that is why he is so small.

And that is why loser parents feed their children anything they will eat/drink, just so that they eat/drink something.

On The Road Again

If you're looking for Kinley, she's probably out riding her bike. She makes me think that maybe I should get a bike myself.

Is it Weird...

That this is my most favoritest picture ever ever ever?Crew doesn't throw volatile, explosive tantrums very often anymore, so this raging screamy face has become photo-worthy, something I want to remember. It is so. cute. (Nevertheless, I'm glad we're beyond the hours-long screech fests.)

Pee-Wee Pianist

We have crossed "linebacker" off Crew's list of career possibilities, but he still has many other options.

Sickly

Crew spent the weekend recovering from some germ he picked up last week. He had fevers between 101 and 102 for several days and a croupy cough. I (very very strongly) suspect he got it from church during the 20 minutes that he was on the premises when Justin and I had overlapping meetings. (Croup incubation period is 2-6 days, you know. I know. Now.)

Sigh...

Illness is so much more than just "inconvenient" for Crew (though sleepless nights are really inconvenient, of course). Illness means lack of development and weight loss. It means that Crew doesn't eat, Crew doesn't grow, Crew doesn't participate in PT, Crew doesn't exert himself to learn or try new things, etc. Illness is a very big deal for our Critter and it's so frustrating. Even when he has recovered, it always takes a while for his appetite to come back and it feels like we spend twice as long clawing our way back to normalcy than we did suffering through the germ!

We did enjoy many many fresh-air walks, including the most delightful late-night excursion ever. We strolled through our neighborhood in the dark, passing time until his next dose of ibuprofen. He was so relaxed, I got some good exercise, the weather was perfect. I had forgotten how much I love late-night walks!

He hasn't coughed much at all today, and I have a good feeling about tonight. He hasn't had even the barest fever today and I'm really happy about that. His appetite has been terrible and I'm very anxious for him to start eating again. Tomorrow we'll start practicing walking again. He had been on a wonderful roll, but hasn't had the disposition to extend himself since he got sick almost a week ago.

It's not all doom and gloom; we had a very happy thing occur this afternoon! Crew brought me a book, set it in my lap, and then signed "book" (for the first time independently) so that I would read it to him. It wasn't a baby book (it was Leo the Lop) and he sat like a big boy, listening to the whole long story very patiently and quietly.

He also knows where his own bum is and he's not too proud to pat it publicly.

I have a sudden urge to go throw my little guy in the stroller and enjoy a late-night walk. He's still awake and I know he's in the mood! See ya!

Friendly Fun

We have some good friends that live nearby. They were actually our very first friends when we moved here and we get together as often as we can, which isn't often enough. It always makes us giggle to know how very few people realize that we're friends because they never actually see us together. We swing in different social circles, our church responsibilities never co-mingle, our kids go to different schools, and our hobbies don't overlap. People always seem very surprised to find out that we are friends and we have long joked about going public with our secret friendship. Today is that day.


Playing a Yankee Doodle duet.



We love you guys, and claim you as our friends! We aren't embarrassed of you or anything!

Primary Talks

My kids like to write their own Primary talks, with a little help from Mom. Both of them are very particular about what they are willing to say in public forums (my suggestions are rejected as often as they are accepted), so I give them a lot of latitude within their assigned topics. I have found that with my pre-readers, a photo sheet works really well to help them be completely independent with their Sunday morning delivery. Once they decide exactly what they want to say, they help me find and choose pictures that will help them remember. This is Tanner's talk from last week:"I believe in Jesus Christ. My faith helps me choose the right. My faith helps me follow the commandments. I know that we can go to the temple some day. We can be married in the temple. I know that we can live together with our family after we die. My sister Kinley was baptized and she felt the Holy Ghost in her heart. Someday I will be baptized too. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen".

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the man I love. Enjoy your french toast and clean house. Your dinner request is already in the crock pot.

Sandy Insanity

My Facebook friends helped me locate local parks with baby swings and this week we went to one! Crew enjoyed the swing, but not as much as I expected. I thought he would LOVE it. He liked it fine for a little while.What he enjoyed more was crawling around in the giant volleyball pit with his siblings.
All good things must come to an end. This is the face of a little girl who has just been informed that her afternoon plans have changed to include many hours of servitude to pay for her brother's lost-forever flip-flop that she buried for a treasure hunt.
We all dug together for a long time, but our recovery efforts were unsuccessful. The whole scenario felt eerily familiar. Kinley and Tanner both tried to convince me that it wasn't "so bad" because "at least he still had one" this time. Yeah.
Of course, that drama was nothing compared to what happened later that afternoon. See this cute little sand critter? See how happy he is? See how he loves to scoop sand onto his sweet little chicken legs?
Now imagine just a very few of these tiny sand crystals remaining lodged in his knee pads after a too-quick pat down.

Now imagine this sweet little sand critter crawling with his almost-clean-but-not-clean-enough knee pads across my wooden kitchen floors.

NOW close your eyes and imagine me having to tell Justin all about it over the phone.

It was as fun as it sounds.

The good news is that I called and whined at the right person, my sister Heather. She pointed me towards Old English Scratch Cover and it really made things look a lot better. I have several regrets about the whole adventure, but my greatest lament is not having my camera handy when Crew was making sand angels on his belly.

Addict

I have eaten this every single day this week.

It never gets old.

Tanner Parking

Crew isn't the only boy that loves park exploration.Little nervous...