February Odds and Ends

Random pieces of our life from February:

Scout Sunday - you can just barely see her, two over on Father's left (sort of behind the candle).  She was thrilled to celebrate mass with her fellow scouts.

Emily meditating in her class; seriously, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Each week, Emily (and her classmates) have sharing - here she is showing off her Wishing Star (the letter W, of course!)

Early in the month, Lee and I went to a Bruins game, which was my anniversary gift to him (back in October).  We had terrific seats and the Bruins won in a shoot out, so it was a great afternoon.

Emily is obsessed with Angry Birds - we gave her this shirt for Valentine's Day and she wears it all the time now!

Elizabeth participated in her school's Invention Convention - she designed, drew and wrote about her invention without any assistance from us.

Swimming the big pool!  Emily no longer wears any sort of bubble and has graduated completely to the big pool.

Elizabeth is learning how to dive and how to do the breast stroke and butterfly!

Elizabeth was selected to read the Responsorial Psalm at Ash Wednesday services.  Lee and I were pretty much bursting with pride as we watched her.  And a big first for both Lee and Elizabeth - receiving ashes!

Swimming Again

After taking a month over around the holidays, the girls started up swimming lessons again in mid-February.  We are starting to see some real improvements with both of them.  Emily is becoming more and more self-confident, while Elizabeth is starting to make so real strides with her crawl stroke and back stroke.  We will likely start another round of lessons as soon as these are complete so that they get the chance to push themselves a little more.

Warm ups. 

The goggle obsession. 

Jumping in.  Elizabeth won't pass this class until she can dive, but she is not interested in trying yet.  And I can't say that I really blame her, considering the loud, slapping belly flops that the other swimmers do every week. 

The real reason I brought my camera this particular week was to capture Emily swimming without her bubble.  Emily, however, decided that this would be the week that she absolutely freaked out in the pool.  In four years of swimming at the Y, she has never cried (she's been terrified, but never cried).  She spent this entire lesson screaming and crying.

Swimming Again

After an extended time off, both of the girls both started swimming lessons again in mid-November.  Elizabeth is in a very difficult class and she is by far the youngest student, by as many as two years.  One of the parents told me that they don't pass this class until they can swim all of the strokes, so it will certainly be a challenge.  Emily is also being challenged - she is swimming on her own (with a PFD) and starting to get a taste of what it will be like to swim without a PFD.  They are both really enjoying themselves.

Bobbing during warm ups. 

  

Taking a rest. 

Working on the crawl stroke. 

Waiting.

Emily becoming more independent. 

Happy girl.

More Swimming

We are in our last round of swimming lessons at the Y for the season and we couldn't be happier with the progress the girls have made over the last few months.

Emily in her first week of lessons without a parent.

Go Emily!  We are so proud of you!

Emily with her teacher Ashley, who is by far our favorite - she has really taught both girls a lot this year.

Elizabeth, our swimmer extraordinaire.

Hurry up and wait - this session, Elizabeth is definitely the best swimmer in her class, so she either goes first (to show how to do a new stroke) and ends up waiting for everyone else, or last (because she catches up to everyone else so quickly) and ends up waiting around for her turn.

Water Bugs

They simply cannot get enough of their weekends in the pool!

Jumping in.

Getting stronger every week.

Listening.

Finally - No Hands!!

You know when you reach a point as parents when you decide that you child is just never going to get over a certain hurdle?  Never going to sleep through the night; never going to be potty trained; never going to learn how to swim?  And then, just as you've pretty much given up, something clicks - and they get it.  That's what happened with Emily last week at YMCA pool.  Emily has never taken to swimming like her sister - for the last three summers, she has pretty much lounged on the steps/ladders of swimming pools, all but refusing to go in.  Even at the beach, she does little more than get her toes wet.  Lee and I were ready to give up hope that she would swim on her own, because she has simply shown no interest in doing anything other than being towed around a pool by one of us or sunning herself (after all, she is a bit of a diva!).  Well, right before our very eyes last week, Emily let go - she let go of Lee and started swimming around the pool by herself (with her PFD, of course).  And she liked it, which was the best part of all!  We are so proud of her!!

Swimming with Daddy at the beginning of the class.

Sitting pretty.

First moments swimming without Daddy's help.

Look at that grin (it gets better).

So happy and proud!

Putting a little distance between herself and Lee.

Starfish

At the end of the last swimming session, we were surprised that Elizabeth was promoted to the next level - even though she did really well with the older kids, it was her first session in the large pool and we weren't certain if she should move up.  We followed the instructor's recommendation and enrolled her in Starfish, a 45 minute class that is held solely in the big pool.  Forty-five minutes is a lot of swimming for a five year old and the large pool is significantly colder (about 15 degrees colder) than the small pool where Emily swims.  Elizabeth surprised us once again with how well she handles swimming - aside from some shivering near the end of the class, she was strong and steady and did a great job!

 

She was a little hesitant about starting classes again, but that faded the moment she hit the water.

Floating on her back, just like a starfish!

By the end of the first class, she told me that she didn't want her noodle anymore and started pushing it ahead of her while she was swimming.

She is obsessed with her goggles and is finally figuring out how to de-fog them.

Off she goes!

Not to Be Forgotten...

We wouldn't want Emily to look back on the last series of posts about Elizabeth and think to herself "what about me?!"  So here goes.  Emily is doing great - we had her first parent-teacher conference this week and her teacher is pleased with her progress.  She is a good sharer, a good listener and plays well with other children, which is all we can really ask for at this age.  In the pool, she is still struggling a bit - we think that she has the ability, but that she is simply too afraid to let go...her teacher suggested that she move on to the non-parent class in January, but we are not certain that she can handle it, so we'll have to play it by ear on that one.  Oh, and she is still the cutest little girl around....

Swimming with barbells.

Ready for school.

Swims Like a Fish

For the last six weeks, Elizabeth has been taking swimming lessons.  This is the first set of "big kid" lessons - the classes are in the lap pool, there are not PFTs in sight and the teachers assume that the kids can swim.  And to our amazement, swim is exactly what Elizabeth has done these last six weeks.  She was the youngest child in her class, but week after week, she swam the length of the pool (25 yards) completely unassisted and usually without stopping to rest.  This week, her teacher advised us that she had mastered all of the skills for Rays (her class level) and that she should move up to the next level - that's mastery of the beginners' crawl stroke, elementary back stroke and side stroke.  We are duly impressed.

Excited for class to begin!

Learning a new swim stroke (hence the noodle).

Learning the back crawl.