Mommin' It Up!

June 8, 2011June 7, 2011

Grumpy Old Man

If you were like me and started watching Saturday Night Live when you were like, 11, even though it was totally age-inappropriate, but your cool older brothers grandfathered you in, you might remember a character played by Dana Carvey called “Grumpy Old Man”. Grumpy Old Man would complain about new-fangled technology and how times have changed and say things like, “In my day, we didn’t have hair dryers! If you wanted to dry your hair you stood outside in a hurricane! And we LIKED IT!”

I’m feeling a bit like Grumpy Old Man these days.

The pool I have had a pass to the past two years went and CHANGED itself. Did major renovations and now it’s like a mini-waterpark. We went for the first time yesterday and it was ridiculous. Joshua, at seven, is too big for the little kids area. They don’t LET YOU IN unless you are six or under. Umm…ok, I have a baby and a four-year-old, which child should I leave unchaperoned? The seven-year-old or the four-year-old? (Thanks to a BabyEtte water wrap I had Jonah strapped to me.)

To make matters worse, the place was PACKED. And we went after 2:30, when in the old days the place would have started to get un-crowded. No such luck.

The area with the kiddie slides, which Sophie actually loves, was crazy packed and giving me an anxiety attack. And of course, since there is a big bucket of water that dumps on the place every 60 seconds, Joshua won’t go NEAR it. So they four-year-old loves it and the seven-year-old hates it. The seven-year-old would be perfectly happy to be in the little kids area with the four-year-old (she also loved the little kids area) but he’s not allowed. And, trying to keep them both in my line of sight with 50 BAJILLION kids all over the structure? Anxiety attack city.

I’m pretty pissed. I pretty much want my $200 + that I paid for my pool pass BACK.

And I want my old pool back.

In my day, we had a baby pool and a big pool…we didn’t have no new-fangled water park with a splash pad and a giant bucket of water and a twisty slide….just a baby pool and a big pool…AND WE LIKED IT!!

(Oh, and here’s a fun you tube video of Grumpy Old Man. Watch it! I couldn’t get it to embed.)

June 6, 2011

Summer Legs

Saturday morning as I was gearing up for a visit to the Fort Rapids Water Park with Emily and our families (which we’ll tell you about tomorrow!), I did that crazy thing that we women must do when the jeans come off and the shorts and swimsuits go on – I shaved my legs.

And of course, like I do, I cut myself. And Summer, that greedy season, got it’s blood sacrifice, the one it always demands from the legs of the big and small who go running and jumping around in the nice weather. I call them “Summer Legs”.

On her last day of preschool, Sophie stumbled as we were getting into our van and scraped her knee pretty good. It bled and everything! It was very tragic. And very fitting to have happened the second she was released from school and into the summer sun!

Since that moment, her legs have never looked back. At every park or backyard play date we’ve had, they’ve taken another hit, another ode to play. What can I say? The girl has her mother’s grace.

I have used the term “summer legs” so often the past couple weeks, that the other day when I was wiping a big smudge of dirt off of her legs (nothing like a quick baby wipes bath when you’re in a hurry, right!?), she said, “Thank you for helping me clean my summer legs.” Such a cutie!

Joshua’s legs have mostly been protected by school uniform pants, but he gets out tomorrow at noon, so his legs are sure to get summery soon. (And hopefully tan. Man, my kids are white!)

It’s summer! Wednesday we’ll celebrate both big kids being out of school by hitting the pool. How are you celebrating? And how are your kids’ “summer legs” looking?

June 3, 2011

Sophie Lou Retton

A couple of months ago I started thinking of ideas to keep Sophie busy this summer since she L-O-V-E-S school so much and I am not nearly as interesting as her teachers and classmates, and 4 half-days a week is a lot of time to kill! So, after seeing some tweets from Tricia that she had taken her daughter to gymnastics, I thought Sophie would probably enjoy that, too! So this week I signed her up. Wednesday was her first class.

I showed her pictures online of the gym where her lessons would be. We went to Target and bought a leotard. She was SO excited! And terribly cute.

I was a little worried about how she’d act but she was the perfect little follower. She just did what everyone else was doing, and asked for help when she needed it.

She jumped and tumbled, fell down and got back up, and had an amazing time. I watched through the viewing window enraptured as she acted like she’d been there a million times instead of just once. (In attitude, that is. In apparatus, well, it will take a few lessons.)

It was the most fun I’ve had in 45 minutes in a long time . I can’t wait to go back and watch her next week! She can’t wait, either. She cried and cried when it was over…and on and off the whole way home. She kept saying, “I wanna go back! Go back! Go back!” She fell in love at first tumble!

I’ll keep you posted on her progress. 🙂

How are you keeping your kids busy this summer?