Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A mother's love...

I hate snakes...
but I love my boy...and in addition...
I love to see him smile, be happy, and interested in his own thing!
This was a first...for me and for him.
A Redbelly snake and he wanted to pick it up!
Two hours later and he is still playing.
He asked me to look up to see what it would eat...so now he is hunting for bugs!
Again...

Saturday, August 04, 2012

More Summer Fun...

 The heat did not deter us from having a picnic at the dam, 
hiking down to find bugs and rocks,
and exploring a bit...
Inspecting Lunch

Owen leading Gabby on a bug hunt

Gabby loved this tree!  :-)


Rock hunting...latest "passion"

"I want to go up der--on the bridge!"

"Common Gabby!"
 But it sure feels good to get in the pool.
Gabby is into paddling and kicking...
I swear she'll swim very soon-
if only she'd put her eyes and face under the surface!
Pool Fun!
 Owen's imagination has always been great fun to watch.
He so wanted to feed the squirrels.
He realized it wasn't working to throw the acorns at the squirrels.
So...
"The squirrels are up there!"
 He and Gabby started a pile at the base of the tree.

Piling up Nuts!
 Owen even asked, "Mom, what if the acorns are all gone 
when we get done with swimming lessons?!"
 Gabby plays along, but she wanted to walk on the "balance beam" after awhile.
 Our latest "project" was learning about polishing rocks.
I want Owen to see he can do something with his interest in rocks.
So, Gramma Momma found a tumbler at a silent auction, bid, and won!
As soon as we got it, we put it to work...

Before...
 We put them in for the minimum number of days for each stage.
We also did not wash out the tumbler before the polishing stage,
so, I guess they could turn out even better!
After!
 Our next experiment is to try to tumble rocks that we found
instead of rocks that come packaged with the tumbler.

Rocks we found in MN!  Some are from Gramma Mimi's driveway!
 We will try tumbling these a bit longer, checking them more frequently,
and rinsing and cleaning when we are supposed to.
We'll keep you posted!
Summertime popcicles...always our favorite.
Time together...precious as well!

Thursday, August 02, 2012

We passed!

 I know I've written about Owen's "relationship" with 
swimming and water...
I don't even think he passed his class a year ago,
but...
 No fear and no worries this year!
OK, so I guess he could be a bit bolder on the diving board-
 but I can wait for that to come on its own!
All week he was talking about going down the HUGE slide!
And, he told me tonight about how you go faster if you are on your back; 
you go slow on your butt
And then it was Gabby's turn...
I knew she didn't want to do it...
 So when she got all strapped in,
just the slightest bit of apprehension set in...
 And then the tears set in...
 Oh she didn't want to do it...
but she hung in there, climbed up by herself, let her teacher walk her...
 ok, so she got dropped in but I was so proud of her for not balking!
 So the diving board was not on the checklist...
but in the end, both passed their levels!
Owen has been on this kick about what he is able to do and what Gabby is 
not able to do.
I am annoyed...only because if  he only knew that she is already doing things he did not do until he was 5!
No, I won't compare.  Never.
And don't worry.
I don't tell him about any specific examples 
(walking, riding a bike, buckling/unbuckling seat belt, etc...) but I do tell him to consider her age and let  her learn things at her pace.
She is not less.  She is younger.  :-)
Competition...will it always be?