4 Aug
The Sweet spot
If you read this blog at all, you know I wrangle with the future a lot, with “what should I be doing” and such.
But but but… for the most part I do not wrangle with happiness. So many things in life are so great right now, I don’t see how they could get much better.
“Boys, it doesn’t GIT any better ‘n ‘is”
That’s from an Old Milwaukee commercial. My happiness has nothing to do with beer, but that commercial just sums it up.
Thanks to friends, the washer and deep freezer are now up from the basement and in the garage. We did manage to destroy the bottom step going into the basement, but it was already a piece of garbage.
“Everything is functioning within normal parameters.”
That’s from Star Trek.
Swimming Lessons — Gwen’s swimming lessons are going well. She improves every day. Thursday she had Bethy come along to watch. She finally got comfortable with going under water, and asked to play the “retrieve the rings” game. Then they went into the deep end. Her instructor is very patient and good with her. I think I enjoy her swimming lessons not only because she is getting a lot out of them, but because it feels like I’m conquering my own “lack of swim,” and in fact I may try again to be a decent swimmer soon as a result.
Aquarium Trip — We went to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago on Friday for the day. We had a good time. The kids had a fantastic time. Though Willow was a bit challenging, the kids overall were very well behaved — much better than I expected. After the aquarium — in downtown Chicago rush hour traffic — we managed to park and go to The Rainforest Cafe as well.
Overdid It — Leigh was a real trooper on the trip. However, by the time we got home, she was just beat. There are other factors that play in to that, as well. Anyway, Ashley thankfully switched Saturday milk runs with Leigh so she could just rest, and we had to cancel plans to visit Melanie that evening. Melanie and her sister did come south Sunday afternoon, though, and Leigh went to dinner with them.
Bicycle Surprise — Some time ago I posted about buying Bethy a banana seat bike on Craigslist. Our attempts at learning to ride fell short. Part of the issue was “the seat is too hard.” I bought her a bigger scooter and said (to myself) “to heck with it.” Saturday, though, Bethy came and asked if I would take the pedals off her bike. I did not say anything, and just did it as soon as I could. See, I read somewhere that you should take the pedals off and let the kid just “scoot” the bike to get used to balancing, rather than trying training wheels. So, she took off, and everything was great. The next thing I know, she’s asking for the pedals back on. I didn’t say anything, expediting the pedal attachment, and off she went. She got pretty ticked a few times, but she recovered. Finally, she came and we worked on raising the seat to a more natural level. I praised her on her initiative. I am really proud of her. I don’t know if some of this was sparked by seeing Gwen’s progress with swimming, or by wanting to ride bikes with Anthony and Jasmine, or what. All I know is I’m proud and so is Bethy.
Family visit — Mom and dad visited Sunday. That’s always nice. Not much more to say about that!
Pool futures — Leigh and I are kicking around the idea of getting a pool next Spring. I want an oval one. I’m looking at ones about 30 feet long by 15 feet wide. They have 45 feet long ones, but they are much more expensive, and there is nowhere we could fit one that long. I want a longer one so we can at least swim a few strokes. It may just be dreaming right now, but we’re going to look in to it and see what happens.
Sorry, still no photos. I stole one from somewhere else for you.
Don't be like this
Posted by Austin on 04.08.08 at 10:15 am
That is awesome what you did with the pedals - especially the not moaning about it! I will have to remember that when my child asks me to do something like that and not fly off the handle like I would probably do if my wife asked to do something similar!!! I’ve gotta say the pool is a bad idea - too expensive and too much risk - especially with a lot of kids. Maybe try living with those door buzzers for a few months to see if you can handle having a pool. We stayed in a house that had a pool for a week in FL and it was stressful with kids and those door buzzers!
Posted by buddy on 04.08.08 at 10:15 am
Thanks. The idea came from the web, of course. I don’t have any original ideas. (just kidding)
I was very patient that week I had off, so when she came to me asking for the pedals off, I thought, “You know, I have an opportunity here. She wants to learn to ride that bike. She wants to try it herself. She’ll probably fall down and fail. But who am I to stop her?”
So I took the pedals off, and now she’s a riding fool.
The pool… (sigh) man I have really opened up a can of worms there. Expensive is the number one thing I’m thinking of, because safety-wise the kids would not be allowed in the fence at all without us initiating it. I’m not sure what you mean by door buzzer? I don’t like the idea of bathing in chlorine, so I found this ionization / copper / blah blah process that is supposed to work, but that also adds to cost.
Then I found some articles on building your own “bio swimming pool,” and it’s really cool looking. They say you can do it for $2,000 if you do it yourself, but after you read the instructions, you’re like, “yeah, right…” I also don’t think we have adequate space to do what I would want.