Another Day on the River

After I spent 3 hours returning cans today (I'm almost done!), I convinced Bella to come kayaking.  Luckily Kelly and Benjamin were able to watch Peter so we didn't have to take him along.  It was a lot of fun for all of us, but Bella's emerging teenager was really showing.  She's become so conscious of what other people think of her that she's completely paralyzed in public situations.  We paddled happily along the river until we got to the portage.  There were lot of families and kids swimming and enjoying the deep water.  She became completely sullen and moody.  She sat like this the whole time while Christian swam around.  She hardly talked and never looked at me.  She eventually got into the water, but only stood in it, completely still.

 Finally we went back along the river and I found a nice, secluded swimming spot and she became herself again.  She and Christian found a string of seaweed, named it "Mr. Seaweed" and built it a home.   That was the Bella I know.  It was nice to see her happy.  We all had a good time and I'm so glad to have a kayak trailer and lakes/rivers so close by.

Same Old Same Old

Some days I get really tired of the monotony of our current life.  Every day feels like every other and I go a little crazy.  This weekend we've tried to break out of that a bit.  Kelly took Bella and Christian on a bike ride along the DTE energy trail.  Benjamin still hasn't been out of bed so he couldn't go and I had to stay home with Peter, but I was glad that they could go.  They had a great time and said it was a really fun trail.  I love that we have several fun outdoor things we can do with the kids - motorcycling, mountain biking, running, hiking, and kayaking.  I really would love to find somewhere we could go in July to break up the monotony a bit before our trip in August, but things are harder with Peter.  I don't want to disrupt his schedule too much.  He's finally doing a little better with his sleeping at night and I don't want to mess with it.  I'm glad we have a lot of places that are close that we can do as day trips.

Today Christian and I went on a hike in the forest at Rotary Park.  Bella didn't come.  She wanted to stay home and read.  Bella is reading a series called "Keeper of the Lost Cities" which has turned my formerly "There's too many words in that book" girl into a voracious reader.  These books are long but she reads for hours a day and is speeding through the series.  I put Peter in the front carrier and we explored trails we'd never been on before.  Whenever we got to a fork in the trail, we "chose the one less traveled by."  It made for a fun adventure.  Of course, before we could begin our adventure in the woods, we had to make a stop at the river for a cooling dip.  Christian plunged into that nasty, murky water fully clothed in long pants and long sleeved shirt.  (He'd worn those things in case of mosquitoes and poison ivy.)  I would never have done such a thing but my kids have never minded murky water and I've tried very hard never to be the "Ewww, don't touch that!" mom.  I love that they explore and discover.  He loved that he got to wear cold clothes for the rest of our hike. Christian happily sloshed around in his boots the whole rest of the time.  Peter enjoyed it too.  He was quiet and attentive to everything around him.  Only when he got tired did he start to babble to himself.  He does that whenever he's getting sleepy.

 Other things he loves/does:  If you say "corona,"  he'll cough.  It'd be a great trick to show everyone if only we could meet with other people! :)  He has started to make real word sounds when he babbles.  Most noticeably, "mama" and "dada" although he doesn't seem to have attached any meaning to those sounds yet.  He is really cruising around now.  He can walk all along the couch, over to the piano bench and the bean bag, all without getting on his knees.  He also walks around the table legs and around a ladder and then climbs the ladder and gets back down independently.  He LOVES the stairs, but I try to keep him off them as much as possible because they're always full of cat fur.  Mumbo's favorite spot to sleep is on the top step.  I hate it.  Peter really is getting so cute.

The Beach? Sure, Why Not?

Today started out mundane - daily trip to the bottle return facility (it's going to take weeks to unload all these!!), piano lessons, school work, etc.  At 2:45, Christian asked if we could go to the beach.  He said he was in the mood to go swimming.  Normally I'd say no to the beach that late in the day, but we didn't have any other plans and I loved that he wanted to do something away from the screen.  So, we packed up as quickly as we could and drove to Island Lake Park.  We got there just before 4 and swam for an hour.  One hour doesn't seem like much but the weather was a bit cloudy and windy - just the low 70s - and so an hour was just perfect.  By the end of it, we were all shivering a bit and Peter was getting fussy, so we didn't mind leaving.  It was perfect.  We were home by 6 to have dinner and everyone had a great time.  I'm really glad we went.  Sadly, I didn't remember to take a single picture AGAIN! 

Peter is getting better and better at eating solids but his way of telling me he's done really leaves much to be desired.  I mentioned that if I'm spoon feeding him, he'll slap the spoon and send food flying.  If he's self feeding from his tray, he will just start swiping all the food to the floor.  Today I tried a couple new foods - pears, pinto beans - and he wasn't a fan.  So after he'd thrown them all to the floor, I tried some favorites - carrots, chicken, cheese.  He was on a destructive roll and swiped them to the floor without trying them.  Pretty soon the floor looked like this:

I gave up trying to feed him anything and just set him on the floor.  I hoped maybe he'd eat the food if it was on the floor since he eats everything else on the floor.  It actually kind of worked.  He immediately ate a few of the items and over the next 30 minutes, he ate about another half of them.  After that he'd crawled through so much of it, that I simply had to clean the rest up.  It's times like that (and only times like that) when I wish we had a dog to clean up these messes for me.

Redeeming Ourselves

After that failure of a kayaking trip on Saturday, I was dying to try again.  Only Christian felt the same way, however.  So I offered Bella $25 to baby sit Peter so Christian and I could go kayaking together.  It was the perfect kayaking trip.  One of my top three favorite ever.  It rained hard all morning so no one wanted to be out on the water, but by the time we got there at 11, the rain had stopped and it was a perfect, cloudy but warm summer day.  With only one kid, unloading and getting on the water took only minutes and we were off and having a blast in no time. 

We only saw two other boats on the water the entire time we were out there.  We saw a heron so close we could almost touch it.  We also saw tons of dragonflies and birds in a dance of death.  The dragon flies would swarm and flit over the water and the birds would swoop down and dive bomb them and then pull up fast and swoop away.  It was so fun to see all these birds and bugs flying all over around us.  A couple times a bird came so close to our heads that we could feel the rush of wind from their wings.   There were so many fish in the water too.  Some were very large.  We paddled all the way up to the portage and Christian wanted to go swimming a while up there before turning around and heading back to the car.  On the way back, he wanted a chance to try to paddle.  He found it harder than he thought and rammed us into the weeds more often than he wanted to and gave up. Next time I'll bring a paddle for him too and we can paddle together.  I think that'll be easier for him.

I absolutely love kayaking.  I love the peaceful sounds of the river, the fresh air, the exercise, the animals and nature so close and I love feeling like I'm right in the middle of it, but I'm not really interfering.  I'm just silently going by and admiring. I would have loved to stay many more hours but I had to get home to Bella and Peter.  She was having a hard time getting him to eat without slapping the spoon and was getting really frustrated with him.  He always tells you he's all done eating by slapping hard and suddenly at the spoon.  He's gotten food all over me at times, not to mention his tray, seat, floor, cupboards, and himself.  I'm currently doing a laundry load that includes 4 pairs of pants which were spoiled by Peter slapping his spoon and sending his food airborne.  She was texting me when I'd be home, so we rushed a bit.  I really wish Bella would have wanted to come along because I think she would have liked it.

Why Haven't We Done This Earlier?

On Friday, Benjamin had a meeting with his scout leaders to further his eagle scout project.  The discussion concerned fund raising and how he was going to get the money to buy his needed supplies.  One leader suggested a bottle/can drive.  A great idea considering that the bottle returns have been closed for months and just opened this week.  People have months worth of cans sitting around and the only way to get rid of them is to stand in crazy long lines.  We got on that right away.  We made a flyer on Friday night saying basically, "Don't want to stand in the long bottle return lines?  Give them to me and I'll use the funds for a great cause."  We distributed them to 250 houses in our neighborhood on Saturday morning.  Mostly Christian and I did, but Benjamin joined in when he woke up.  Today we went around to collect the donations.  By we, this time is was me, Christian, Bella.  Benjamin hasn't left his bed since Saturday when he cut up his foot.  We carry him to the toilet and that's it.  He eats his meals in bed and never gets up for anything.  Bella and Christian weren't happy about having to do his work but it's not like he was doing it out of laziness.  Christian was a hard worker and despite getting tired, he pushed on and collected for the full 2 hours, hopping out of the car and running bag after bag from porches to the trunk.  Bella let her social anxiety get the best of her and spent a lot of time complaining and refusing to get out of the car if she saw anyone.  She'd hide on the floor of the car and say, "I hate people!" or "There's people out there!"  "Mom, why do you have to be so mean!?!"   I just calmly reminded her that this time could count for scout service hours, oh and that her screen time depended on it, and amazingly, she complied.  Before we started, I expected maybe $100 worth of cans/bottles.  A van full, basically.  Wow, I was wrong.  We filled the van to capacity 4 times.  Each time we had to go home, empty it out and go out again.  It was incredible.  One house had a note on their bag of cans that said, "Please knock, we have more."  So we did and when they opened their garage, my jaw dropped.  They had about $75 worth of cans in there!  In the end, we collected enough cans and bottles to fill our garage.  We had to sort it all and repack the van so we could take as many as possible to the store, but it'll still take 3 van loads.  We spent 2 hours at the store returning what we could but there are limits on how much you can do at a time right now.  After you hit the limit, you have to get back in line, and wait again.  So we could only do three grocery carts full, But just that made $100 so far today.  Not even a dent in our supply.  My van looked as full when I left as when I came.  I'm guessing we have about $600-$700 worth of cans and bottles, maybe more.  I'm curious to see when it's all gone what we'll have.  It's going to take about a week to get it all returned.  Benjamin was so excited.  Now he'll have plenty for supplies and enough to make a donation to the school in addition!  It'll be great.  I am so thankful for the generosity of our neighbors.  I was blown away.  Our neighbor, Jackie, across the street even came over and offered to store stuff in her garage or let us use her truck to take everything to the store. We had a lot of fun today doing this project and even the bottle return was fun.  Lots of nice people in line and seeing that money rack up was awesome.  Only bummer - forgot to take a single picture!!  So like me.  So I'll just include this cute one Christian took yesterday.

The Kayaking Trip that Wasn't

We've been wanting to go kayaking for months now but it's not easy with a baby so we kept putting it off.  Today we finally took advantage of a free Saturday and good weather and did it.  This was the only happy picture I got of the whole thing - the moment before we unloaded the kayaks. :)

After that, it kind of went downhill.  Peter won't keep on sunglasses or a hat, so I lathered him in sunscreen to protect his skin, but there was nothing I could do for his eyes.  He wasn't on the water long before the glare off the water made his eyes start to burn.  They were visibly red and watery and he began to cry.  He cried very loudly and we all tried to do whatever we could to help him calm down, but nothing helped.  Finally, Benjamin agreed to get out of his kayak, attach it to the back of mine, and walk with Peter along the bank of the river while we kayaked.  He made it about 20 meters before he called to Kelly, who was behind me, that he'd cut his foot on something.  (I had counseled him to wear water shoes but he'd refused saying he didn't like them.)  He said it with such calm that neither Kelly nor I thought it was too serious and Kelly jokingly replied, "Are you bleeding to death?"  "Yeah, I am," came the equally dead-pan reply.  Kelly and I turned our kayaks around to investigate and by the time we got there, Benjamin was standing in a pool of red. He must have stepped on something sharp because there was a deep gash in his heel, the entire width of his foot.  Benjamin had downplayed a very serious injury again.  Just like when he jammed the scissors into his palm and nearly went into shock but just calmly walked into the kitchen saying, "Look mom, I cut myself" like you'd say, "Look mom, I drew a smiley face on my hand," all the while trailing blood down the hallway.  Kelly immediately had Bella switch into Benjamin's kayak and Benjamin sat in Kelly's with his foot up.  Kelly speed paddled him back to the car and the first aid kit, while his foot bled all over the front of the kayak.  I followed behind and saw the trail of blood in the parking lot when I got there.  So, between Peter's crying and Benjamin's bleeding, we were only in the water for about an hour.  We'd prepped and loaded up for 2 hours and had about an hour of clean-up afterwards, so it was definitely not the day we'd planned, but I'm glad we got out and did something.  Bella and Christian got to soak in the river while Kelly and I patched up Benjamin's foot and Peter calmed down once we got him in the shade and away from the glare of the water.  I think Peter would like to stick with watching the fish in his room instead. :)

Peter showed some more language recognition today.  He was playing on the floor with some toys and it almost bed time so I wanted to feed him one more time before bed.  I went over to him and asked, "Peter, are you hungry?"  He stopped playing, looked up, and gave an excited smile and squeel.  "If you're hungry," I replied, "You need to come with me so I can give you food."  He immediately let go of the toy he was holding and reached both hands up to me so I could lift him up.  This could all have been simply a reaction to seeing me (smiling, reaching for me) but it was so perfectly timed with my words that it seemed to me that he really understood what I was saying.  It was so exciting to see.  I can't wait until he starts actually speaking and having conversations.

What....No Wading?

One of my kids' favorite spots in our area is Shiawassee Park.  The river in the park is the cleanest of any river around and it has bridges, ducks, shallow and deep parts.  It's the perfect river for kids.  We went there yesterday and the kids had so much fun they asked to go again today, so we did.  Two days of splashing, wading, playing, and having a great time.  Then today, almost as we were leaving, I saw a sign by the side of the river, "NO WADING."  Say what?  When did that get put there?  I had never seen it before.  I decided to continue to pretend I'd never seen it.  We've been wading there for 13 years.  I don't plan to stop for several more.  Initially Peter was shocked by the cold, but he got used to it quickly and had a lot of fun playing in the water.  I stupidly forgot to photograph him until the very end when he was hungry and tired and he would no longer sit independently in the water, so these are the best pictures I got.  I was sad Benjamin didn't want to come with us.  He's growing up.  Splashing around in the water just doesn't appeal to him as it used to.  Christian, Bella, and Adrianna (our neighbor behind us) came both days and had a lot to fun.

Such Great Kids

I had one of those proud mom days today when you just think to yourself how amazing your kids are and how thankful you are to have them in your life.  Bella and I made a pie together today - a chicken pot pie, crust and all.  It was fun to do it with her.  She's such a sweet girl.  I enjoy spending time with her and talking to her.  Our interests don't overlap much but I find that her talents are in so many ways the very things I lack and so I am so grateful for her and her insights.  She's also the only child of mine that enjoys board games as much as I do, so it's nice to have a companion in that aspect.

Christian and I went running together again today and then we played in the backyard with Peter.  Christian hurt himself doing a back flip two days ago and now he's too scared to try again.  Benjamin did the exact same thing shortly after he learned back flips and didn't do one for over a year.  I'm hoping Christian recovers and tries again sooner than that but I'm not rushing him.  I don't want him to get hurt worse.  So today I swung him in the hammock rather than jumped with him on the trampoline.  He's such a sweet, thoughtful, compassionate kid.  When Benjamin came out and was rude to me, he gave me a big hug.  He could see it hurt and he understood.  He's also wonderful with Peter.  Sometimes I think he loves him more than I do.  But I think that's just because he doesn't have to get up all night with him.

I took Christian to get his hair cut today for the first time since February.  He was so anxious to get it done but I didn't have a mask that hooked on the ears.  I only have masks that go over the back of your head, which wouldn't work for a haircut.  The salons won't cut your hair if you don't wear a mask, so we were stuck.  I prayed for help because I didn't want to pay $25 for a box of different masks when I already have plenty of good ones and then a few hours later, Kelly was on a bishop's counseling call with a member when their cell phone died.  The member decided to drive over and meet with Kelly in his car in the driveway, but felt that they should wear masks if they are that close and handed him a new one (a disposable he'd gotten from work) - a mask that hooks over the ears.  Kelly brought it in and gave it to Christian.  He was so excited.  Gold Bars.  He wore the mask today and we went.  All the waiting room chairs were on the sidewalk and the check-in was outside where the lady asked questions about our health and took our temperature.  We could wait in the chairs outside, but we'd parked close enough that we simply waited in the car with the windows down and played Uno until she called his name.  I always see parents had their kids a phone when they wait somewhere, but I always bring a deck of cards for such times.  I much prefer that. They were very busy since salons have only opened back up 2 days ago, but the wait wasn't too bad because we got there early in the morning.  By the afternoon the wait was about 3 hours. He was so excited to have short hair again.  He's hated how his hair bounced when we ran. :)  It just never ceases to amaze me how different our lives are now.  Temperature checks and health questions at Great Clips?!?  Masks required everywhere you go, even when meeting with a friend to talk?!?  I wonder how long we'll have to live like this.

Peter is so cute.  He's a big fan of ladders.  Give him a ladder and he'll climb it immediately and proudly stand at the top for as long as you're willing to let him.  Today was no exception but I really wanted to swing Christian in the hammock and I couldn't do that and watch Peter.  However, the trampoline ladder was right next to the hammock and Peter was climbing it constantly.  I decided to collapse the ladder temporarily to keep Peter from climbing it.  Peter looked so confused.  He knew it was his favorite ladder, but couldn't figure out why he couldn't climb it.  He crawled up onto it, went from the bottom rung all the way along them, and finally sat down on the middle rung and just stared. At one point he reached for something and toppled off it.  He immediately climbed back onto it and sat there some more.  It was so cute.  He was going to be on that ladder no matter if it was up or down. 

This evening I sat with Benjamin at the table while he showed me a skill he learned in the game Legend of Zelda.  It's called "wind bombing" and he's super excited about it.  I played Zelda on my Nintendo when I was Benjamin's age.  I didn't think it was any more interesting then than I do now, but I sat there staring at my son and was so overcome with amazement at the man this little boy has become.  I watched his gorgeous face as he stared, smiling at the screen.  I looked at his perfect features, his beautiful, thick hair and his strong shoulders and arms.  He's perfect and wonderful and I'm continually amazed that this is my little baby boy.  That little baby that I carried and held and played with.  He's now taller than I am, is starting high school, and has dozens of ideas, feelings, and secrets which he keeps from me.  Although the game he described is so boring, I was so happy that he was sitting with me, sharing with me, talking to me.  Most of the time lately he just sits in his room and acts put out if I enter.  He asks repeatedly, "Why are you still here?" or "Are you done yet?" as we talk.  So, often, I rush the message I came to share and I get out.  But not tonight.  Tonight I got to sit there and be next to him, watch him, and admire him.  He's 100% rude teenager, but he's also brilliant, creative, funny, and handsome and I'm so honored that God sent him to me.  I pray every day that I can be inspired to know how to lead and guide him.  He's tricky because he is so outwardly resistant to anything I or Kelly try to teach but I'm sure he's listening in some way and I want to help him the best I can.  So I follow what the spirit tells me, try to be consistent, remind myself that he's only 13 after all, and I pray a lot that God will send people into his life to whom he will listen and that he will end up on the right path.

I have great kids and I'm a very lucky mom.

Just Loves to Be Outside

Peter is happiest when he's outside.  If you ever say, "Wanna go outside?" to him, you'll get a huge grin and an excited giggle.  When you pick him up and start heading outside, he full-on wiggles with excitement.  It's adorable.  You don't have to do anything in particular.  Just sit in the grass or on the trampoline or just let him crawl around in the driveway while you pick weeds.  He's just happy to be outside.  Today was a simple day of morning run, summer-school work, bike rides, and games.  Not much to report, but this little cutie loved every minute he spent outside.  His eczema doesn't seem to be getting any better, sadly, and his hands seemed to be bothering him a lot today, so I took him outside in the afternoon to get his mind off it.  He happily investigated the flowers and the porch while I sat with Christian and Bella and talked.  Then Christian read a book next to him while I fixed dinner.  He came back in dirty and happy.

Also, Peter has learned the word "hug."  If you ask him for a "hug," most of the time he'll lean against you and put his head on your shoulder so you can hug him.  That makes the multiple nightly wake ups worth it, I tell you.  So adorable.

Definitely Time for a Haircut!

The salons and barber shops are officially allowed to open tomorrow and I think we'll be some of the first in line!  Benjamin has started wearing a band in his hair to keep it out of his eyes.  His hair is so thick and amazing, and when he can't cut it (and won't let me cut it), it gets long fast!

Peter has begun cruising along furniture and started to use his toy walker a bit.  He also almost never swiffer crawls anymore.  He full crawls almost all the time.  He's really growing!  He's starting to climb more and more and get into everything.  His favorites are the dishwasher and the fridge.  If either of those are open, he makes a bee-line for them.  He loves to clean out everything in the door of the fridge and then play around with the bottles.  He accidentally poured worcestershire sauce all over his pants yesterday when I thought the lid was on securely but learned the hard way that it wasn't.   In the dishwasher,  He loves to climb onto the door and throw out things from the racks. The one problem is that he's too heavy for the dishwasher door.  I'm worried he'll break the latch.  I have to take him down off it a hundred times while I'm unloading/loading.  Today I got him a stool and let him stand on that while he helped me unload.  I quickly cleaned out all the glass items and then let him play around with the plastic ones.  He had a great time, but I couldn't leave his side because I didn't want him to fall.  It's so fun to see him explore, though.  He's becoming better and better at self-entertaining.  It's been a refreshing change.

It was a bit of a lazy weekend around here. Nothing much going on.  Benjamin and Kelly went motorcycling on Saturday and the rest of us just hung out at home.  Benjamin has really liked going motorcycling.  He says he wants to go every weekend.  He came home Saturday night so happy and smiley in a way I haven't seen in a long time.  It was adorable.  He was bursting with energy and was telling me all about it.  It made me happy to see that.  He also said he fell right asleep when he went to bed, which is something that never happens to him.  I'm so glad Kelly decided to try this new hobby with Benjamin.  Is seems to be a good one for him.  Sunday we rode bikes but otherwise hung out at home.  I'm so glad we have a yard that has so much space for fun things and trees perfect for a hammock.  I tend to get motion sick in it so I don't use it much but I'm always happy to swing kids in it and the kids love to lay in it with Kelly.

Back Flips Are Easier than Front Flips

For years Christian has watched Benjamin do back flips on the trampoline and has listened to him tell him that back flips are easier than front flips.  He has always watched and listened with a mixture of awe and frustration.  "How can they be easier?!" he's questioned.  "They look so hard!"  He was always terrified of throwing himself backwards.  He didn't want to get hurt.  Today he was watching Peter for me and he took him out onto the trampoline.  While they were out there, Christian started letting himself flop onto his back.  He continued to do it with greater and greater force.  At one point, his legs flipped up over his head and he unintentionally nearly completed a back flip.  That's when the light came on.  He started making slight modifications to his move, one after the other, until in just a short time, he completed his first back flip without fear.  He had done it!  He came running to tell me to watch and I couldn't have been more proud.  Not because back flips are so miraculous (although they are hard), it was because when Christian has a goal, he just keeps on working.  He threatens to quit, and sometimes he does quit temporarily, but he always comes back and keeps trying.  He continued to go outside off-and-on all day to do more flips.  He was so proud of himself.  I was so happy to see him like that.  I love watching my kids work hard and achieve things.  I love the pride and joy they feel. At one point I asked him, "So do you think back flips are easier than front flips?"  "Oh, yeah!" he said.  "They're definitely easier."   My favorite part of the video, honestly though, is watching Peter bounce clear into the air and then go right back to eating pine cones.  He's completely undeterred by the fact that he's constantly bouncing.

His flip in slow motion:

Playing in the Rain

We had a large storm this afternoon.  It made the morning a hot, muggy mess.  Christian didn't want to go running, so I ran on the treadmill downstairs and then he and Bella and I went a leisurely bike ride later while Peter napped.  In the afternoon, the storm rolled in and Christian couldn't pass up the chance to play in it.  Peter was also fascinated by the rain and was standing by the door, looking out.  Christian decided to take Peter out with him.   The sweet boy put Peter in a stroller, grabbed an umbrella and headed out.  I watched him laugh and talk to Peter as they enjoyed the rain together.  Then he got Peter's high chair and placed it on the porch and set him in it, so he could fill up the chair's tray with rain water and Peter could splash while they played outside together.  He played with him outside for over 30 minutes and Peter loved it.  I heard him laughing from inside the house.  I'm so lucky to have Christian.  He is so sweet with his little brother.  Bella and Benjamin are equally sweet with him but they don't have the endurance and patience that Christian has.  They won't last as long unless there's an incentive for them.  Christian is motivated purely by love of Peter.  I really hope that doesn't go away when Christian becomes a teenager.

Peter was super crabby most of the morning and was refusing to eat.  I think he might be teething.  I tried a few more spoonfuls in hopes he'd change his mind, but he just slapped the spoon away each time.  Then he turned the slapped food on the tray into body paint.  He seemed so fascinated by the color and texture, I didn't have the heart to wipe it all away.  I just let him play with it. This was the result.  Funny how even if he's crabby, if I smile at him, he'll smile back, even if only for a second.  Later in the day, he ate what was left of the food, so it all worked out.

You Want Me to Swim in Fish Pee?

The kids were dying to go back to the lake today.  We worried about the crowds (justifiably - it was crazy crowded!!) but they so love it there, so we went.  The kids found a wonderful, private entrance spot on the lake and managed to have a pretty secluded time despite the thousands that crowded in there today.  I'm always content to baby watch on the shore and let the kids do their thing in the water.  My job is to get them there, provide snacks, and make sure no one dies.  I do not swim in nasty, cold, fishy lakes.  However, after an hour of playing, the kids asked me to come swim too.  They insisted that it would be much more fun with me.  They wanted to show me their dives and, the full truth emerging only after I was in it, Bella needed someone to hold her boogie board while she dove so it didn't float away.  After much persuasion, my mom guilt won and I decided I should go in the lake with the kids and brave the fish poop and seaweed.  I was pretty disgusted when I first went in, but I got used to it.  After a few minutes I was having fun.  I floated in an inner tube so I could hold Peter at the same time and the kids each had their boards.  However, it seemed that everyone wanted to be with me on the tube instead.  It was pretty crazy crowded at times, not to mention tippy!  I kept trying to orchestrate it so they hung on opposite one another so they didn't flip me out!  In the end, I was glad I did it.  I can't say I'll do it every time.  Public water places still gross me out, but I was glad to spend the time with the kids doing something they enjoyed so much.

Benjamin floating out alone which his large container of sandwiches. No better place for a teenage boy.

Benjamin started an online German class today.  His schedule next year will be so packed, he doesn't have room for it in his classes.  So he's trying to get it out of the way over the summer.  However, I made the stupid mistake when I registered him that I registered for German 1 and he needs German 2.  I didn't notice at first, but I had to call the online service and have them change it and that took 24 hours so now he's a day behind.  Hopefully he has the diligence to work on it.  These kinds of opportunities are wasted on the young.  I'd love to be able to immerse myself in a language class.  I think it would be a lot of fun.  He's dreading it.  I was really glad he came to the beach with us today, though.  He didn't come the last time and it always makes me sad when his teenager shows through and he spends his time just sitting in his room doing homework or playing on his phone.  He's such a better person when he gets out and gets some exercise.  Now if I could just convince him to put on sunscreen!

Finally, We're Free!

The playgrounds have reopened and we decided to bike to Bicentennial Park to take Peter to his first playground.  I would have gone earlier if Covid hadn't shut things down.  It's sad that the virus shutdown took the cool spring months.  It was a very hot day, but it was so fun to let him swing and spin.  He enjoyed it too.  Would have done the slide but the sun had baked it and it was way too hot.  I wish Peter would be willing to wear a hat.  I try to put one on him to block the sun from his bald little head, but he immediately pulls off anything I put on him.