The One About the Heat, School Shopping, and Swimming Lessons

     I am not a big fan of hot weather.  I would be perfectly happy if we lived somewhere that topped out at 75 degrees in the summer.  I love chilly nights.  I love snow.  I love winter.  So this 100 degree weather has been really hard to handle, especially when I am 8 1/2 months pregnant.  Needless to say, the boys and I have been staying inside as much as we can.  Unfortunately, this also happens to be swimming lessons time so we are forced to venture out from 5-7 each night and sit in the heat.  We did go early to the pool one afternoon to do some pre-lesson swimming.  I was pretty proud of myself for that.  I have tried to keep the boys busy while we are enjoying our central air.  We had art day one morning.  Asher was quite the finger-painter. 

We did football tackling drills in the basement another day.  We have watched some episodes of Storm Chasers and some You Tube videos.  The week really has gone by fast.  
    The tile people have been here this week working on my kitchen backsplash and master bathtub FINALLY!  As happy as I was that they were here, it was kind of a pain to have people working in the kitchen while we were home.  I will post pictures when it is completely done.  The tile was finished today, but the plumbing on the tub still needs completed. As of now, our contractor says he is coming back next Wednesday, so I am hoping he really comes and then stays until everything is finished.  Tomorrow my goal is to clean up my house again.  There is so much dust after that tile work. 
    On Tuesday, I took Gavin with me to my OB appt so we could do his school shopping afterwards.  He got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was so cute.  His smile was priceless.  The boys have been so sweet lately.  They are both constantly rubbing my belly, kissing it, talking to the baby, etc.. This baby is going to have two very attentive big brothers.  After my appt we hit Target with Gavin's school list.  On Sunday he asked me if he could look at his school list.  After I handed it to him, I saw him shove it under my bed.  I guess he thought he wouldn't have to start school if the list went missing.  I hoped this shopping trip might make him more excited for school.  Hoped!
    After this trip, I realized how it must be to shop with me.  Gavin was very indecisive, which I know comes from me.   Among all the supplies, we came home with two different pencil boxes (because who can make a decision between blue vs. green) and about 30 pencils.  I am thankful I had bought him a bookbag last summer for summer preschool so we didn't have to pick one of those out.  Do I think any of this made him more excited to start school?  Not one bit.  We did have a nice afternoon though.  We went out to lunch and just had some quality one-on-one time. 
   The boys are both in swimming lessons this week and next week.  This is Asher's first year and Gavin's 3rd year.  Day 1:  Asher missed his afternoon nap because Shayla and Mark were here till 2:00 playing football with him.  No nap=crabby Asher.  At 5:00, he was a bear.  At first, he refused to even get in the water.  I told him he couldn't trick his instructor into thinking he was scared, because the lifeguards had all seen him swimming there several times and going down the slide.  He was just moody, and didn't want to do anything that I wanted him to do.  Day 1 went like this.

Instructor:  Asher, want to jump in the water?
Asher:  No.
Instructor:  Asher, get in the water and let's play motorboat
Asher:  I'm not going to do that.

He eventually did get in the water, but didn't cooperate very well.  On day 2, I made sure he took his afternoon nap. That made a big difference. He was in the water and doing almost everything they asked. Well, except Follow the Leader, because for some reason he refused to do that.  He also wasn't a big fan of Ring Around the Rosy.  He's really excited this year, because he is 42 inches tall and can touch in the shallow end of the pool.  Here are some pictures of Asher on Day 3.

He even told me he was going off the diving board, but then decided it was "too high for him" after he got up there.  He was okay with letting someone drop him in, and I was very thankful that one of the other mothers offered to go out on the board with him to drop him down.  I was afraid that my balance would be off, and I would fall in. 

     Gavin's lessons were very different.  He was like a fish.  The biggest problem was that he was swimming underwater so much that he didn't always hear the directions.  He was swimming under the water for several feet and adding his arm movements and leg kicks to his front float.  I was impressed.  What a difference from last year. 

Gavin had no fear of the diving board.  He was the first one in line, and on the second time asked the instructor if she could NOT catch him and just let him try to swim to the side by himself.  Now if he could just be that confident about Kindergarten.  :)