Swim Lessons. Ms Cathy Style.

After hearing a few people rave about this swim teacher in Austin who goes by Ms Cathy I decided to look up her info and see what it was all about. She teaches a two week, 8 class session and says kids will be swimming at the end.  Ok.

I signed up, wrote my check and tried to not forget about what time I was supposed to be there.  We started Monday.  It was pure chaos.  15-16 screaming kids.  Logan and Isabel were actually fine the first 10 minutes or so but then decided they needed to scream and cry along with the rest of the kids.  At one point while I was assisting Logan little Isabel decided to try and climb over the fence to escape.  Twice.  It would have been pretty funny had I not been by myself trying to manage a 3 and 4 year old.  It was actually still pretty funny.  Ms Cathy said it looked like some of the people she cancelled showed up since the limit on class size is 11 kids.  I was afraid Logan wasn't going to talk to me ever again.  He was not amused and wasn't hysterical like I expected.  He just looked betrayed.  It was worse than hysterics.

So Tuesday we head over there and both the kids are like "NO!  I'm not going!"  I was expecting freak outs and melt downs, but somehow it didn't happen!  It was like night and day.  There were only 11 kids there and all but one sweet little boy were relatively calm.  Logan demanded that I carry him the entire time, but when it was time I tossed him in the water as he was ok.  Very few tears.  Wednesday was great.  I still held Logan, but Isabel was jumping in by herself and she actually used her arms one time to swim!  She did it just once, but I was so proud!

Thursday we went and the kids were actually excited to go.  I still had to toss Logan because he wouldn't jump in on his own, but he didn't have to be carried around by me.  I told Isabel that if she used her arms to swim I would give her a yellow oreo (the 'spring' ones).  It worked!  She used those little arms and AMAZED everyone.  For a few minutes I was picturing her winning gold at the Olympics.  :-)  And I'm sorry I'm not sorry that I used food to bribe my kid.  They got to jump off the waterfall and swim to Ms. Cathy.  Isabel did great.  I'm almost to the point of saying that she's swimming on her own!  Logan did great too, but he still needs help.  Isabel was his biggest cheerleader.  It was so cute to see her cheering him on "Go Logan!  You can do it buddy!  You're almost to the wall!"  I must get some video.  I can't wait for next week.

Swim lessons day 1.

He was a little worn out.

Swim lessons Day 2.

Swim lessons Day 4.  I love how Tank is like 'uh, you ok?'

 Today Isabel's BFF came over for a few hours to play.  I loved that they could occupy themselves for 4 hours straight, but the constant chatter was making me a little batty.  Two bossy pants little girls right here.  They can usually work out their disagreements by themselves, which is great.  Little Logan just wanted they to play trains with them.  They were more into playing 'sleepover' and trying to curl Izzy's hair.  So Mommy ended up playing trains for a good 2-3 hours.  When your kids grabs your hand and says 'Mommy, play with me please!' you play!

'Decorating' the fence.

BFFs

Aggies! Outlets! Chuys!

Logan checking out the village.  There is a train, so he is pretty stoked.  It doesn't move, so he's still stoked, just not crazy-stoked.

Yay, Christmas!

On Friday Isabel had swim lessons and it was water safety week so half the class was devoted to that. They learned how to get in a boat, what to do if they fall out and that they need to 'yell and tell' an adult if someone is in trouble in the water rather than jumping in to help. It was so funny watching them in the boat and then watching the teacher flip them. No one freaked out and there was lots of giggling. I was amazed.

Saturday morning we decided to go outlet shopping for a bit. Mainly because I had a 40% off coupon at Gap. We just hit up Gap since Logan was still not feeling great. Brian stayed with the kids for a bit and let them ride some of the little quarter rides around the stores. The line was SO long, so I texted Brian and asked him to stand in it for me. We were in line for an hour. Insane, but I got some good deals! I was thisclose to bagging it and just leaving, but I'm glad we toughed it out. Only one major meltdown towards the end.

Since shopping took longer than expected we decided to stop at Chuys up north for lunch. It was SO loud. Like, it was so loud that I couldn't hear my kids screaming and I was 10 inches away from them. Perfect kind of place for us! Logan broke a plate, but other than that it was a pretty good lunch. When we got home we put the kids down for naps and started watching the A&M game. Oh my gosh. The Aggies beat Bama! Whoop! Awesome game!

Today we stayed close and just went to Lowes and Home Depot in search of a new security light for outside of the garage. The other ones we've had shorted out of something, so hopefully a new brand will work better. Not sure what's going on with that, but it's annoying. We also went in search of an inflatable train for Christmas for the yard. After looking online and in stores we decided on one at Walmart, but none of the ones around us had it and it was out of stock online. I'll keep looking. I was amazed at the number of people out shopping and buying Christmas decorations!

When we got home from our search we set up the Christmas village. Brian had planned on starting cleanout of the garage, but I think he got a little overwhelmed and stopped. It's a mess and desperately needs to be organized. It'll have to get done slowly over several weekends.

I am happy to report that today Logan is completely fever free!!!!! Yay! It seemed like the longest virus ever. 4 days with a high fever is not fun.

Getting in the boat at swim lessons.

Logan took all of Mommy's pillows.  This was Thursday.  Day 2 of the fever.  We watched of lot of movies.

Victory dance!

Isabel after her impressive face plant at the park.

Cbuys!  Pre plate breakage.

Racing.  Isabel after another fall.

Brian teaching Logan the 3 point stance.

Open House and Advanced Aquatot

We had Isabel and Logan's open house yesterday. Despite being right in the middle of nap time it went ok. Isabel played for a couple of minutes in her new room. It's a lot bigger than her 2 year old room and connects to the other 3 year old classroom via a hallway and bathrooms. I didn't get the best picture of her room, but here is one with her and Logan playing.

Logan spent some time in his class too. He did ok. He had the most pathetic cry when the assistant teacher tried to talk to him. It reminded me of what Fargo does when you put clothes on him. He just froze and then the years started. Luckily they didn't last long, but returned when his teacher said 'no' about something. Sensitive would be an understatement. He did use the potty while we were there, so that was good.

Today Isabel had her final swim lesson of the semester (she starts next session next week). She did great and swam around 20 feet!!! After her nap she told me she had a dream that she raced Princess Ariel in the pool. :)