Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pooh, Tenley and the Transformer

Tenley and I started reading the Winnie The Pooh stories before bedtime. She seems to be enjoying them and we are progressing a story or two per night. Tonight we read the chapter where Pooh and Piglet try to capture a Heffalump. In the story, Pooh is trying to decide what kind of trap to lay for the Heffalump and he says to Piglet that it must be a cunning trap.

At this point, Tenley pipes up and says, "Daddy, I know how Pooh could get the Heffalump?" "A Transformer could be in the trap and it would just rip the Heffalump apart!"

I said, "Tenley, Pooh doesn't have a Transformer." She jumped up, dug around in pile of animals and toys that must sleep with her and produced her Transformer. She proudly held it out and proclaimed, "Well I have one!"

Take that Pooh! If you only had your own Transformer.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

4

Are you still here?!? You’ve been reading this blog for 5 years now, did you know that? I know that because we started the blog about a year before we actually got Tenley, and we just had our 4 Year Reunion!

This was just a small gathering of a few of the families from So Cal that were in our group- there was another reunion held up north that we unfortunately didn’t get to attend. The girls swam and played in the giant inflatable waterslide, swung on the swings and made tye-dye t-shirts! Here (thanks to Natalie) are some pictures of our beauties and their big sisters…


L-R: Maya, Katie, Carissa, Lauren, Grace, Tenley, Soshanna, Amanda, & Lila




Tenley...looking like a bad Japanese ad for popsicles ...or porn...or both......

Grace...living up to her name and being adorable....


Amanda...either showing us her manicure, or giving us the hand.....

Shoshi...just lovin life......

Thursday, July 16, 2009

BANZAI!


Yes folks, this is the end of Swim Lessons, Week I.
Ten has spent the bulk of her class time for the last two days underwater. Her choice, not the coaches: as she's sitting on the steps waiting her turn to practice a skill, the kid just holds her nose- takes a breath- and dunks under. Amazing considering that 2 weeks ago if you told her to go underwater she'd start screaming and crying.
The picture above was taken at the very end of today's class- the coaches decided to let the kids bail off the diving board into 9.5 ft of water (and the waiting arms of coach Brit). Coach Meghan was up on the board to stand behind them, bolster confidence, and give a little push. Alice was timid, and required a push but liked it so well she went back for a second time. Paige went in pretty well, but came up crying. Ditto Corbin. Mailia had to be pushed, and nailed poor Coach Brit right in the breast bone. Then came Ten. We expected Coach Meghan to block her exit and have to talk her up to it and give a little nudge...but no. Ten breezed right past her and confidently banzai'd right into the water. Jeff and I were floored. All smiles, she wanted to go again, but they were out of class time. She happily settled for ice cream in honor of a job well done.
Week II starts on Monday!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

“If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Try Again.”

To say that Tenley didn’t succeed at the swim lessons she took in the summer of 2007 would be an understatement. We set her up for success, to be sure: it was a “parent and me” class taken with her favorite person in all the world- Daddy, it was only once a week (for 6 weeks), and they were taking it with best buddy Jaxon and his dad. Perfect recipe, right? Not so much. Ten & Jax spent 6 weeks velcroed to their dads screaming bloody murder while the other kids happily blew bubbles and learned to float. The experience was so bad, that Jeff vowed he would “never ever under any circumstances do that ever again!!”

So last year I just threw the summer activity guide away without even mentioning it….but I spent allll year telling her, “ Next year, you will take swimming lessons all summer and you will learn to swim!”

It comes down to this: Ten doesn’t like getting her head & face wet. She loves the pool, or a bath or shower- but there’s always drama if you get her head/face wet , or say try to rinse her hair.
So today, the time came for me to make good on my promise/threat. We signed up last week, and at 6:30 we tried again. I reminded her to listen to her coaches and that they would keep her safe.

She got right in. Coach Meghan said “blow bubbles”- she blew bubbles. Coach Brit took everyone down the side of the pool to kick- she went down the wall and kicked.

Then Coach Meghan said “ Ok everybody! Now we’re going to float on our faces!” I took a deep breath- the kind Ten needed to. I braced myself internally- when the screaming began, I was going to be kind but firm: she was not going to be allowed to get out. She still looked calm. Corbin, Alice and Mailia took their turns. Coach Meghan held out her hands to Tenley….
…who without a second thought went right to her, took a big breath, plugged her nose, and face planted in the water. She came up giggling. WTF? Yep. Floated on her back, on her face, dove under to get a diving wand off the bottom step, and jumped in and dog paddled back to the steps 3 times.

She got out shivering and pronounced swimming lessons “fun”, and was overjoyed to learn that she got to do it again every day for the next 4 weeks.

We’ll see if she still feels that way at the end of the week…but here’s to success!!