Lifelines

These photos were taken last Sunday after our visit to The Wilds with the James family.
We went back to their place for pizza and swimming and since I’m currently too tired to find my camera to show you what we’ve been up to since yesterday, I’m digging in my archives.

Our backyard is filled with fallen leaves.
ALREADY.
I can’t believe that summer is over.
I said this the other day to Charlie, “Where did the summer go?”
“It’s right there in your arms,” was his reply.

And it feels that way.
It sort of feels like we missed summer somehow.
Hmmm.
Well, I think I feel that way but I might be alone in that sentiment.
Lots of people stepped in to help make sure that my kids had some summertime fun and didn’t just sit around the house while Mama nested with baby.
Thanks, People Who Summer-Funned My Kids.
You know who you are :)

Anyway, there won’t be many more wet and wild posts–at least for awhile!

It went fast but what I DO remember was a ton of fun and I am very, very sorry to see it go.
(Except for the heat. That heat was horrible and it can just scoot right on down the road and not come back ever again. I thought we were being barbequed alive.)

It was an amazing summer for my Littles, with BOTH really taking off in the water. Looking back at our trip in early May where we could hardly even get Greer off the pool stairs, she just blossomed over the past three months. She’s not a strong enough swimmer to be out in the deep end un-vested but she’s well on her way.

Creux definitely takes his cues from Greer, too. If she’s willing to do something then he’s all in. If she’s not, he thinks whatever it is a bad idea. (And trust me, it takes a LOT to convince Creux that something is a bad idea.) He can swim un-vested in the pool too–but only if we’re right there in the water. He has a high tolerance for half-drowning himself–meaning, he does fine but swallows most of the pool in the process and sets my nerves on the highest setting allowed.

I’m not sure what she’s so worried about in this photo but I just like it for some reason.

(Maybe she’s realizing that her care-free summer days are ending? That’s the look I’ve been wearing for days now. I saw a squirrel racing through my yard yesterday with a huge nut in his mouth and I dropped my head to the table in defeat. It will be snowing before I know it.)

Sweet Emma and sweet Luxe, enjoying the end of the night together.

Jenny & Gang, thanks for all the fun this summer–we’ve had a blast with you guys!

I first heard of Greer’s new swimming achievement from Jenny.
My kids had joined hers for a night swim one night and both William and Greer wanted to try swimming without their vests and they took turns paddling out to Jenny and Kevin.

And then the second week that Luxe was here, Emily took all of my gang to the indoor pool to get them out of the house for a bit and she came home with a similar report, as did Charlie who saw her in action on Saturday at the same pool.

“Greer is swimming without her vest!”

I couldn’t imagine.

This is a really weird thing for me, to hear second-hand of stuff like this as I’m ALWAYS with my kids, but I finally had the chance to see her in action for myself the other night and I was amazed!!!

She’s definitely found her fins, my girl.

And I couldn’t be prouder or more excited for her!

(And it should be noted that Creux is hot on her heels. He HATES to be different from his siblings so he’s on the fast track to being vest-free himself!)

These two are so darling together sometimes.
Other times, I’m ready to sell them both to the highest bidder.
Or ANY bidder.
But not on THIS day :)

They’re often mistaken for twins when I’m out in public.
Have I mentioned this here before?
It’s alway sort of wild to me because they are 26 months apart but I know they look very much the same age to others.
(She’s a bit taller; he has bigger feet and weighs a few pounds more.)

I hope they’re always as close as they are now.

Clearly I have escaped Luxe’s suction-cup grasp on me for the moment as I’m cranking out posts filled with pictures and low on words as fast as I can :)

While our wee bitty pool sufficed for the day, we packed up and headed to a bigger pool to play away the evening hours! I can’t take Luxe out during the day right now so we aren’t swimming as a family until after the sun goes down.
But once it does, out we come in full fun-seeking force!

We had to get another stinkin’ pool.
The other one, the cute, small, undrownable one, didn’t come with a filter and no manner of Charlie’s improvising could make it happen.
And we need a filter because that pool was getting gross and this mama was having to scoop crud out of there with a net.

I. Don’t. Think. So.
That is NOT in my relaxing-in-bed plan!

So today, the first pool was emptied and a new one was installed in its place.

This pool is bigger.
I don’t like it as much but I’ve been out-voted.
Charlie likes it, Rhyse likes it, Greer likes it.
Creux is as leery as I am and Chas is never home to know what’s going on these days so I’d be surprised if he even knew we HAD a new pool.
(Note: the teen years should be called the “absenteen” years because you don’t really see them anymore. And when you do, they snarl.)

I told Charlie earlier, “It’s too deep! I don’t like it this deep.”
He says, “It’s fine. It’s FINE!”
To which I replied, “Well, I’m going to be PISSED if he drowns.”
Because I really will be :)

(And it’s not exactly THAT deep, I’m just a hyper-paranoid freak around pools. What I REALLY wanted in the beginning was a little plastic splash pad. No danger there!)

Ah well.
It’s up and running and…being filtered.
We’ll see how it goes.

This is the Parental Prevent-Drowning Station.
You can see clearly in the halfhazard and careless way that I’ve photographed the couch just how worn down I am from this pregnancy currently.
Not a pillow straightened or fluffed for this photo.
Getting lazy ’round here…

Oh, HOW could this be blurry?!?
The water was so cold and she was freezing but having way too much fun to stop!

Look at her go!

She’s really getting comfortable in the water these days–and reports from Jenny’s pool are that she was swimming over there with Jenny and Kevin without her vest on, too!
Charlie is using this as his defense for getting the bigger pool.
SHE learns how to swim.
CREUX learns how not to sink to the bottom.

She’s so proud.

They’re so sweet.

And I’m so wet!

This pool was the right thing to do!
Operation Happy Kids is in full effect and has led to Operation Sane(ish) Mama!

But beyond that, Greer has really taken off in the water–one month ago, we were convincing her to get her face wet back at Swank Beach.
Just look at her now!

While the bigger kids headed off to the rest of the music camp, Jenny, Holly and I took our smaller sets out for a bit of swimming before those olders commandeered the pool.
(Though really, the little ones had so much more fun when the big ones came out to play!)

Super sweet here is the pairing between William and Greer—both who took tremendous pleasure in jumping in and swimming together.

THIS is what we worked so hard for with Greer! We just wanted her to be able to get off the stairs and have some good, old-fashioned, crazy, wet fun this summer.

(And thank you, Chas, for making this happen! She would never have done it without your constant encouragement!)

We began our music camp today with Miss Cathy, our piano and music teacher.
The boys have taken piano lessons with her all year long over at Jenny’s house every Monday and since the summer is so busy for all of us, Miss Cathy decided to combine some lessons into a fun near-week-long event.
Greer will be joining her brothers in August for regular lessons and she’s already playing small pieces of music! Creux will likely never be able to sit still long enough but hey, three out of four (five!) ain’t bad :)

So, this morning we…

Made our Mom feel really lucky before 10:00am by just being so cute:

Joined our friends for a fun family-inclusive sing-along (thanks Miss Cathy for including the little ones!):

Found yet ANOTHER reason to laugh and giggle with our best friend:

“Drove the car for Cre-ux, Cre-ux, Cre-ux”:

Thought our baby brother was just the cutest thing EVER:

Tapped our sticks and actually tapped them to ourselves.
(Sometimes we like to bang others upside the noggin with them because that seems to be incredibly fun too.
Oh, and we melted Mama’s heart with that smile–smitten, she was.)

PLAYED WITH SCARVES!

Completely disrupted class.
Like we always do.
Sigh.
(Chas is the human jungle gym to these kids!)

Were the apple of our sibling’s sweet singing eyes today and didn’t think we were too old or too cool to participate.
(And it wasn’t lost on me, either. Thanks Chas, for being so great and for just being happy to be a kid still.)

Pretended that we were pooped.
We weren’t.

And here’s proof–and a preview of our afternoon:

Thanks for a super fun day Jenny and Cathy!
We’ll be back for more on Wednesday!

I haven’t been so good about Greer’s swimming progress, have I?
But we DID make some terrific gains with her (though she left not exactly swimming on her own but fully mobile around the pool–OFF THE STEPS, which has been her safety perch for two years now).

Day one, she kept that vest on and though would jump in, there was no face-wetting involved.
By Day two, Charlie convinced her to take the vest off for a bit and just play around for awhile.

There’s more to Day Two but I’m just taking a quick break from cleaning and promised myself I’d only blog for ten minutes and then I’d get back to work :)
This day and day eight were actually the days of biggest progress and I’m so glad I kept my camera busy because I’ve got all of her “milestones” just sitting in my travel file, waiting to be shared with her.

(And I can with, just the click of a button, access her “swimming” (or lack thereof) last year and show her how far she’s come. Love this whole blog keepsake thing. Love it.)

Back to the potties…sigh….