So both Alex and Melinda did incredibly well swimming in the swim-a-thon.  Alex swam 10 laps farther than he did last year and Melinda swam 30 laps more than last year.  Alex swam 2 miles in 2 hours and Melinda swam a mile in the same 2 hours.

alex putting in the last few laps

Melinda finishing strong

Melinda’s swimming has improved a great deal this year and she has been placing first or second in almost all of her competitions. Melinda has been training with the older kids this season and her confidence has improved greatly. Alex is obviously doing well again and is placing first in almost all of his races. The only one he has had trouble with is the butterfly stroke but I’m sure he will get it figured out in time. Both Alex and Melinda will be competing in the varsity all city meet and I’m sure they will both do very well.

getting it done

showing off her freestyle

working on that butterflystrong and ready for the race

Strong and ready for the race

 It is hard to believe that summer is almost over and school is about to begin.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Uncategorized, parenting by Randall
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Building a brick patch work in front of the house…

It is wonderful how kids will take on a chore with pride.  We inherited bricks.  What to do?  Well – we hated the small rocks at the front of the house where we attached the garden hose.  A great location for brick work.  Alex seems to be enjoying moving around the sand and carefully placing each brick into place.  My job is to get the bricks from around the corner.  Melinda’s job is to dig into the dirt and place the edging in the right places.  Granted we may not be pros but it is great to see the pride on all of our faces as we work together.  Yes – the kids are working together.

Tags: Kid's and animals, chores, parenting by Panayota
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She did not even notice my hair cut

School had a fund raiser – of sorts – last week. One of the restaurants nearby gives the school a percentage of the proceeds during a particular night. So all the parents took the kids out for a night (including us), while their we ran into the family that we car pool with. As parents we find a certain amount of pleasure in teasing Melinda and one of the boys about how they argue like an old married couple. They of course adamantly deny it.  But about this time Alex commented about the other boys new hair cut.  He thanked Alex for noticing and added that Melinda did not notice. NO!! that’s not acting like an old married couple at all.

Earrings?

So this past weekend Melinda wanted to try having her ears pierced again. Last year it just did not work, as they became infected and she had to let the holes close up. Now it is one year later and she is trying it again. Having never had my ears pierced I am not sure why it is so important, but it is! If you look close you can see how pretty her little earrings are.

She went to school with her new earrings in, and at the end of the day she asked her friend (the boy that is not her boy friend) if he noticed her new earrings. His comment: yes I noticed but I was pretending not to notice because you (Melinda) did not notice my hair cut!

I thought the girls were suppose to be sensitive about this sort of thing. And are you sure your not an old married couple? At any rate Melinda is very happy to have earrings again and said she is sorry she didn’t notice his very important hair cut.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Melinda, other kids, parenting by Randall
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Veterans day went well (I Think) at the school. Sounds like some kids were a bit snotty about having vets at school. Of all the silly social crap that gets shoved into kids these days I would have thought that respect for our veterans would be important enough that the kids would all act appropriately.   At any rate, it was great that the school had Veterans stop into the classes. Alex had Grandpa Dan stop by. I think Alex was proud to have his grandfather stop in class. Dan was the only world war two veteran. Dan seemed to enjoy meeting some of the other veteran that had been in different wars. I think it was good for everyone to spend a little time hearing from them and hearing how important it is to serve our country.

Tags: Kid's and animals, Public education RANT by Randall
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Letting the kids make decisions for themselves

 is a learning experience for us (the parents.)

Due to a rained out baseball game Alex “s team had a make up game Saturday. Saturday is when Alex and Melinda have their swim meets. Alex does not need to improve his times to qualify for the varsity swim meet but we thought he would want to beet some of his own time’s. Alex also knows and gets along with the kids on the swim teem better than the baseball team. We were hoping (kind of) that he would want to go tot the swim meet. But he decided to go to the base ball game, a little surprising. This was also a bit inconvenient for us as now we would have to split up and go to two different places. Selfish on our part but we actually get to talk to each other during the swim meets – a rare thing these days. We also like bragging about how well he does with his swimming. It was not easy but we resisted the temptation to tell him to go o his swim meet. Putting our selfishness aside we let him decide and baseball was the choice.

His teem is struggling to under stand tactics of the game and most of the kids need a lot more practice on the basics (including Alex) but this is one of the reasons he wanted to do baseball. I would like to see him be a little more assertive and less timed around his team mates so this is probably a good thing for him. As far as the game went – they lost. Alex made it to home plate twice but did not get the score. His first time didn’t count because the other teem got out the batter (third out) than he was tagged out on the last run. He thinks he made it but who could say for sure as the dust hid what happened. I told him to try to be happy with just getting on base and into the game as many of the players did not. I know it is difficult for him to play a game that takes time and is not always moving, but he is hanging in their.

More decisions for Alex during the game.  

 Do I swing or not?   The other teems pitcher was good but had trouble adjusting to Alex’s left hand swing so he walked Alex twice. Alex wanted desperately to swing but knew to let them go by. 

Do I steal or not?

Go for it and third was his.  

Off to home!!!   Should have been a run.  next game it will be. 

 some good out-fielding!!

I am happy that we let him go to the baseball game!!!

Melinda did well at the swim meet but hit her head on the wall during her backstroke. She said she counted the strokes during warm up but when she counted them during the race she was off by one. She did place (she thinks) even with the head bumping. Next Saturday I should be their to watch her race.  I feel a little guilty not being at her race but I make it to most and I have not yet figured out how to be in two places at one time.  

Tags: Kid's and animals, Uncategorized, family activities, parent guilt, parenting by Randall
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