Well, it's been a busy few weeks for us here.
Stirling and I have been taking Parent and Tot 2 swimming classes these past couple of weeks (last summer while I was pregnant, Stirling and I did Parent and Tot 1). My mom came out and watched us and Madison at Bonniedoon twice a week, which was really nice. It reminded me of my childhood and how my mom taught me to swim; it was nice to be able to share Stirling's growth in this with her. Thank goodness my babysitter is out of school for the summer; I had her watch Madison on the other days at the house. Stirling is great a doing his back floats and he's getting better at his front floats. He officially likes having his head under the water, but he won't put his face in the water for his front float, which is the only thing holding him back on that one. He passed and gets to continue on in Parent and Tot 3 or Preschool 3. I was originally trying to get him into the Preschool 2, but it was full and took P&T2 instead. I figure I can get him into Preschool 3 in September; but it's only on the weekends so it will take a while to finish it. At least I can watch Madison while Stirling swims and won't have to pay babysitters. Even though in the end, I think swimming for eight classes cost much more than it needed to - $20 a day for babysitting plus another $20 roughly depending on what we decided on for lunch before I took him back to daycare after 1pm. It was still worth it.
It was a whirl wind couple of weeks. We missed the first class as we already had a birthday party to go to at Let's Play for Lorelei's 5th birthday. The next day we arrive to find out we are the only people in P&T2! Oops; I feel bad now because the instructor must have thought she wasn't going to be teaching anyone. Oops. Anyhow, it was great and Stirling got better quickly at everything as the week went on. Holiday Monday there wasn't any class, which was good, because Stirling came down with the stomach flu Saturday night and we ended up stuck in the house for the entire weekend. The beginning of the second week after the holiday, another boy joined us; being demoted from the Preschool 2 class to learn more in the P&T2 class. Unfortunately, this boy didn't speak any English and his father wasn't really paying attention to instruct his son on what to do. Needless to say he and his son didn't show up for the last two classes and he needs some vast training to catch up :o( All the while daycare is fitting into this schedule - Tuesday thru Thursday; drop him off before nine, come back here to let Madison nap, pick him up at daycare at 11:00 to be at Bonniedoon for 11:30; swim for a half an hour, grab lunch from some place convenient to bring home or come home to make something to eat and get him back to daycare for 1pm. I had to pay for daycare whether he was there or not, so I took him.
I did manage to get out on Monday and went to Salisbury to buy some flowers; I know its late in the season to be planting, but I love the cheap "leftovers" I've been broke for six months what else can I do to get rid of a gardening fix?
Stirling's last day at daycare is the 21st; giving him a couple weeks off before he starts preschool in September. He'll be going Monday, Wednesday, Friday, in the afternoon starting after the long weekend. Which will be perfect for Madison's afternoon naps.
Madison has been teething; bottom two on either side of the front teeth have been slowly making an appearance since before we started the swim classes. She started to sleep better through the night on the long weekend; of course it was the night Stirling was sick and he was up every hour. We had an entire week of less interrupted sleep. By the end of that week the top two on either side of the front started to come. So it's been up and down emotionally and restfully for everyone. She has managed to almost make it past 7am; although I still have to get her resettled around 4:30. Monday night she went down without even wanting her bottle. She didn't have any the entire night! Yahoo, you say. She did wake up at 2:25 I think it was for her soother and that was it. She seems to be getting better at not relying on her soother or bottle to get her back to sleep. She is also starting to get herself back to sleep without me having to get up. I hope it lasts - but does it ever, really? She won't stop saying dada and daddy; and we swore she said kitty when we were at Smitty's on Sunday. Speaking of words; we thought Stirling shouted s**t in the restaurant everyone turned and I was mortified; both of us were "what did you say?!" and he repeated himself and it still sounded wrong, on the third try we figured out he was saying sit! A couple of days ago she started to see mum but she doesn't say it often - not as easy to say I suppose. She is trying desperately to walk, and has mastered the stairs after two attempts over a month ago. She's already taller than Stirling. We swear that when we moved in here (Stirling then 16 months old)Stirling fit under the fridge door (we have one with the freezer on the bottom) while standing. Madison bangs her head already! Watch out!
Anyhow; David is out of town this week, so I am trying to keep myself busy to keep my sanity. I need to run, Madison is waking from her nap, and I need to be at Millwood's Town Centre for 11:30 to pick up a friend at the bus terminal. TTFN