Heard Around Here

Such a joy to watch these boys grow and process ideas through their ever expanding wealth of information. Some conversations around here over the past few weeks:

1. Tegan talking to a mom at Classical Conversations and trying to explain how my Kindle works..."It throws ink against the screen so it's not like the tv or computer screen that kills brain cells." (brainwashing going well)

2. Tegan explaining to Andy why it's so gross that our dog, Kemah, just licked his hand..."Well, she licks her genitals too. Yuck!"

3. I saw Riley throw his piano book on the ground and admonished him for throwing a book and told him he should never throw books. He responded with..."Even if Obama wrote it?" (indoctrination progressing successfully)

4. We had an unexpected lesson on the female cycle while reading one of our assigned read alouds. I explained as much information as I thought they might want and a little about what hormones do to emotions. After all three provided the requisite "Ugh!" "Gross!" and "I'm glad I'm not a girl" Riley asked "So, when you get mad and yell at us should I ask if you're bleeding?" - much too observant - my response..."No, that usually doesn't help. Just assume you're doing something wrong and fix it." - Andy said he'll have to fill them in on his side at some point.

On a slightly different note, Conner made another big accomplishment this week. They had their first swim class on Friday and he was amazing. Not until early August did Conner decide he could venture into the area of the pool where he couldn't touch so when he went to swim class he had been really swimming for about a month. During the class he was put into the youngest group where the instructor held him each time he went out to demonstrate a stroke. Riley and Tegan were each in separate classes where they swam laps for a full 30 minutes. I didn't think Conner was ready to join Riley's group with laps, but I knew he wouldn't learn anything if he stayed in his current group so I talked to the instructor in charge afterwards. One note: the kids all take turns with their 30 minute lessons and while they are not in a class they can free swim in the other half of the pool. So, by the time we leave they will have been in the pool for 1.5 to 2 hours total. This was the case at the end of the lesson when I talked to the instructor. She looked at Conner and asked him if he could swim to the other end of the pool (25 meters). I kept my mouth shut and he shrugged and hopped in. All I could think was "poor guy, he's not going to make it because he's exhausted." Well, he made it all the way down. Then she told him to turn around and come back doing the backstroke. He had never even tried this before. For the first half of the length she instructed him while he was trying and by the last half he was doing a great backstroke. Needless to say, he'll be in Riley's class next week.