Scary Water

Our complex has a pool and the past few afternoons that I have been solo with the boys, I have taken them for about an hour or so. We have fun, they jump to me in the pool, they put plastic boats in to see whose boat will reach the other side first, or they just sit on the steps and pour water out of a bucket. None of my kids are swimmers yet, but Jack can doggy paddle pretty well and can stand in the 3 ft. section just fine. He is able to jump in the pool in the deeper end if he does it near the ladder so he can quickly paddle to it. This leads me to the other day. Thomas threw he boat into the water near the 4 ft part of the pool and then proceeded to scream and cry because he wanted it back. I didn't really want to get in the water just yet, but Jack was bobbing around and having fun in the 3 ft. part. The boat was pretty close to the 3ft part, though still in 4 ft, and it wasn't far from the ladder, and I asked Jack if he thought he would be able to grab it. He looked at it and said sure it wasn't far. I watched him get right to the boat and then stop. It appeared as though he was just seeing if he could touch down so I let it happen. Then he came back up but didn't appear distressed, he was paddling his arms but then he bobbed under again. I wasn't sure if he needed help and as soon as I was asking myself this, he came up and said-help. I jumped in the pool lightning fast and swam to him. It all happened so fast but felt so slow. By the time I got to him, which was only seconds, he had stopped bobbing. Realizing I could touch, I put my feet down and heaved him onto the side of the pool. He was fine and breathing, he coughed out some water and was, of course, shaken by what had happened. In hindsight, I feel like I should have known immediately that he was struggling, but he often bops and bobs in the water for fun, it was very scary. We agreed no more leaving the 3 ft. area. Not wanting him to become afraid of the water or the pool after about 5 minutes I suggested he get back in and do it by jumping to me in the 3 ft. section, I told him we could do this all afternoon or until he felt comfortable by himself. After just a few jumps to me he was back to jumping in by himself and playing in the 3 ft. section. Oh my.

Pete loves pens. He has loved pens for years. He uses pens for his work and they are essential to what he does, so there are pens in his possession at all times. His shirt and his pants almost always have pens. I have twice this summer assumed his pockets were cleaned out, since his pants were on the laundry room floor vs. our bedroom floor, so I just threw them in. The first time it wasn't horrible and I was able to use a combination of rubbing alcohol and putting laundry detergent directly on the stains to eventually make the spots so light and small that the shorts were still wearable- though it did take a couple days. This time I don't think we will be so lucky. There is actually a lot more ink than what the picture shows. I have tried rubbing alcohol and hairspray but alas they still look like this.

My boys are like many boys and they love sticks. I mean LOVE them. They seek them out, search high and low, and they are very very important. You don't mess with the sticks. They know which stick belongs to which person and what powers each particular stick has and it is very detailed and intricate. No matter where we go, even just to walk to the pool, all boys end up with a stick in their hand. We have quite a collection at our front and back doors. Here is our back door collection.

 I posted this on facebook already but it bears writing here for posterity. We went to the zoo with our friends who are moving away soon. Anyway, between us there were 6 kids. The 4 older ones were running around and racing. They were just ahead of us so we could see them and they weren't bumping into anyone so let them run and have fun. I suppose there was an older lady who did not share this opinion. She saw the kids running ahead and no parents so she said- where are their parents? Then one of the kids tripped and fell. He scrapped his knee and began to cry. The woman saw this too and said- it serves him right. My husband was quite upset by this and said, 'Ma'am, I let my kids have fun now so maybe when they are older they won't be so grumpy.' She looked at him and said-' Well, they are having fun.'

So that has been our week-eventful I'd say. Summer just officially started too- I dare say there will only be more adventures in store for us.