First week of summer

*It's Friday afternoon, so we're officially through the first week of summer (which was only 4 days). These first two weeks I have literally NO plans. It's been nice to hang out and relax, but I'm also trying to schedule some playdates for next week...

*We went to the pool twice before the warm weather took a hiatus. Luke is very cautious about the water - he wants me to hold him, and then when he gets down, he just walks around in the shallow part with his toys, like it doesn't really matter that he's in the water. However, he threw a fit when it was time to leave, so I guess he liked it.

*Katy went off the diving board 3 times - Brian jumped in ahead of her and swam to the side so he was next to the ladder just in case. She didn't need him, but the water is 12 feet deep, and she can just barely swim to the edge alone, so we feel safer this way for now. Her goal is to be able to go down the slide and swim to the side at Grammy's house in a few weeks without help. I know she'll do it. (She shed some pretty heavy tears that her classmate is tall enough to go down the big slide this year and she isn't. I didn't mention it, but I think it'll be 2-3 years before she's tall enough. Sometimes it's tough to be short.)

*David had the lovely experience of throwing up in the pool - after swallowing too much water and being thrown around by some rambunctious daddies. And I loved the 16 year old lifeguard's reaction when we told him: rolling eyes and "oh, GREAT." I mean, yeah, that's my reaction on the inside, buddy, but maybe save a little face next time?

*So remember when I was lamenting about night terrors a few weeks ago? Well, my friend Jen commented on that post that they had figured out that her son's night terrors were associated with becoming overheated while he slept, and that they moved his bed off the heating vent and the terrors stopped. When she said that, things started to click in my mind...the terrors had started back up as the weather had gotten warmer. Nearly every night as I put Katy to bed, she was complaining about being hot and sweaty in the night, even though we have central air and a ceiling fan in her room. But her room stays warm, and when I put a thermometer in there, I discovered that it was 80-82 at night, even with the AC running. So...I put the tower fan from the guest room 3 feet from her bed and pointed it right at her, blowing all night. That was over a week ago, and she hasn't had any night terrors since!! I'm not completely confident that they are gone for good, but I'm thankful to have maybe made that connection and found somewhat of a solution. So thanks, Jen!

*We've joined a couple of summer reading clubs and are off to a good start with that. Katy got a set of Junie B. Jones books for her birthday so we're working on some early chapter books. She hasn't been interested in the past, but these are catching her attention. (Although it makes me cringe that Junie B. calls everything "stupid" and "dumb" - those words are so piercing to my ears!)

*Last night I made a list of all the fun things I'd like to do with the kids this summer, and then made the mistake of reading it to them. All day today they've been saying, "Are we going to the climbing wall today? When will we go to Jungle Jack's landing? When it stops raining can we go pick strawberries?" We've got good times to look forward to, that's for sure...