Daily Adventures

From July 27-August 6, it seemed like every day was a new adventure. 

Tanner had a two week swimming class during this time, but we only made it to 5 of the classes because things kept coming up! Tanner had mixed feelings about swimming lessons. A few days leading up to it, he was excited. On the first of class, he was extremely anxious. He said he'll sink! I told him the teachers will keep him safe. He said all the kids will look at him! I told him if they look at him, he doesn't need to worry, it's because they want to watch him and maybe talk to him. Tanner said he already knows how to swim! I told him that's great, class is to give him a chance to practice and get better. He said that he was afraid to get his head wet! I told him that's part of swimming, but he doesn't have to put his head under the water if he doesn't want to. After that, he couldn't come up with anymore excuses to not go to his lessons. 

When we got to swim lessons, he got really worried. I told him that all I expected was for him to listen to his teacher. He didn't even have to get in the water if he didn't want to, but he had to stay by the pool and listen the whole time. After taking deep breaths, counting to 5 and going with his class, he decided that he would try getting in the water. It was actually super cold, some kids came out of the previous class with purple lips! So he cried. I talked to him while he was in the water, helped him calm down and helped him decide what he wanted to do. He chose to sit on the edge for a minute. Then it was time for him to have a turn swimming with his teacher. He plopped back in the pool, and after that, he was all smiles the entire time!

That's why I was so surprised when on the third day of class, he screamed and cried the whole time. I tried to let him figure things out on his own instead of going to the pool to comfort him. That obviously didn't satisfy him, haha. At the end of class, he said he was crying because the water was SO cold. I told him we can't control that, but he could try gritting his teeth and kicking his legs and bouncing up and down when he gets cold.

On the fourth day, Tanner was as happy as can be. He said that he kicked his legs under the water the whole time, even when he was waiting his turn and he didn't get too cold. All of this was a good learning experience for me. Being patient and giving my child coping tools to work through his problems pays off!

One evening, we enjoyed dinner at the Blake's home out in the country. We had a fun devotional for family night with them and we played scripture story charades. Then the boys got to jump on their trampoline.

On another day, I spent the morning getting Angelina's house ready for her to bring Baby home from the hospital. Leighsa continued to clean and arrange things at Angelina's house while I took our kids to school lunch.

The boys got into a lot of mischeif while I did projects and cleaning. One day I found them under the table drawing marker on themselves. Tanner whispered to Dallin. "Shhh, don't tell mom." And Dallin faithfully whispered back, "Okay." Then I said "what are you guys doing?", and the two of them looked up at me a little surprised, trying to act like nothing wrong was going on.

Another day, I found marker on their toes. Tanner said they couldn't get any nailpolish, so they used marker! Ugh!

Another day I discovered that Tanner had found some instruments I use for teaching. I didn't really mind him getting into them. 

It was the mess that he made of the laundry to accompany his music that I was not happy about! 

It seemed like every time I turned around, my little Tan Man was on to some new experiment or project. One day, I found him creating trains with these marbles.

Another day, I discovered that he tried to draw tiger stripes on Dallin's legs, but Dallin thought it was better to draw on the carpet.

One morning while I was still sleeping, Tanner bounded into my room and announced, "Mommy, you don't have to worry about us painting without you. We can do it all by ourselves now!" I tried to control my panic, still opening my eyes. Paints?! Where's Jeremy? What time is? 7:30. How could they possibly be getting into paints this early! "But don't worry, Mom, because we washed our paintbrushes and our hands, and we put our paintings on the counter to dry so they won't get messed up!" This is going to be interesting. I stagger down stairs, preparing myself to clean up a gallery of paint scenes splattered on my kitchen floor and furniture. But instead of mayhem, I find...nothing? No mess! No paints in sight! Not even the paint brushes. "See Mommy? We cleaned it all up!" I had to ask if he was using pretend paint. "It was real! See? Here's what we made!" I was shocked, in a good way. I smile. I cheer. I give hugs. A miracle! A literal miracle!! My preschool child CAN be responsible!!

Nearly every night, Jeremy made more progress on the bathroom.

On Saturday, Aug 1, we went to Minneapolis for a trip to the Mall of America (for actual shopping, which we never do there!) and then we went to a Twins game. I found lots of jewelry to use at the Robertson family photo shoot. I don't shop for jewelry very often, and it was fun.

The boys got slurpees.

Jeremy tried really hard to find kahki shorts for the photo shoot. 

After too long of a time at the mall, we headed to the game! As we drove there, we made a turn into what seemed like a parking garage, but the next thing we knew, we were on a freeway headed to North Dakota. We tried to get off several exists and turn around, but all the roads going back to the city were under construction and the detours kept taking us in circles! It made us 45 minutes late for the game. We were pleasantly surprised that only the 2nd inning was underway when we got to our seats.

Our seats were free, and they were super nice, in some elite area! 

The boys did really well. Tanner was extremely involved in the game, asking all kinds of good quesitons. Who is going to hit next? Why didn't the guy run to all the bases? Does everyone get a turn to hit? Does it hurt when the ball hits someone? How many times does he get to try hitting? Why are all the seats so far away from the field? Why is the pitcher taking so long to throw the ball?

Dallin liked looking around and dancing to the music, but he wasn't nearly as intrigued by the actual baseball game as Tanner was at age two. Instead, he became a little clown and made everyone near us turn their heads and giggle several times at his silly voices and jokes. He is such a little ham!

The following day, we had dinner with the Bennings! It was a fun visit, and fun to see our kids play together. I just have to say that every time I'm with Kellie, I feel like she has made me a better person. I love her!

Maybe it was the painting miracle that helped me start to see how well the boys have been playing with each other. Tanner makes all the plans and ideas, and Dallin says "okay" and goes along with everything. Tanner got Dallin to play baseball with him. They took turns hitting and pitching, without any arguments! It's really fun to see their friendship building more and more now that they can talk to each other.

On Monday, August 3, I ended up throwing all my plans out the window because Jeremy needed to get an emergency tooth extraction. We spent the day in Rochester while he got the procedure done. 

On Tuesday evening, Dallin and I went to an event called National Night Out. We got to see firetrucks and police cars. We took Serious with us, and the three of us had a fun time!

On Thursday, Aug 6, we had a fun playgroup trip to the county police department. We took a tour and met some police men!

Tanner and Dallin really enjoyed it. Tanner remembered everything that the police man had around his belt.

That day, Jeremy removed our kitchen cabinets.

And some contractors brought in new granite countertops!

I was excited to get new counters, but I'm still not sure why Jeremy decided to get them installed the day before we left on our big trip to South Carolina. It caused me a little more stress than I needed at the time. But they sure look beautiful!