Cooper's Swim Classes

Cooper has been attending "Splash Week" at the YMCA this week.  It's a free program that teaches children aquatic safety.  At first I was thinking it was a swimming class, but it's mostly a drowning/water accident prevention class.  Hey, this momma is 110% ok with that... I'm very glad he's able to go to it.  I desperately wanted Clark to go too, but he wasn't old enough yet.  

Since we've been taking him swimming at the Y regularly, I knew Cooper wouldn't be scared to get in the water.  I don't do the class with him, so I was afraid he wouldn't get in without me.  I sit about 10 feet back from the pool, so I'm in his line of sight at all times, so he was fine as long as he knew I was there.  He normally wears a puddle jumper when we swim, and they wouldn't let him wear that, so I was afraid that would cause a meltdown too, but he's been fine in a lifejacket or swimming bubble.  

Some of the kids in his class have been absolutely terrified of the pool, like they scream at the top of their lungs for the whole 45 minute class, but Coop's loved it.  He jumps in with no help, does all the little exercises they tell them to do, swims all over the pool (with a bubble on), and always tells me that if someone is drowning to call a lifeguard, a parent, or 911.   He's got two more classes left, and I know he'll miss it next week when it's over.  He'd probably really enjoy swim lessons, so we're going to look into doing those this summer.

 Poor Clark has been so upset that he can't get in and swim with Coop.

Monday Update

Happy Monday, friends!  We're entering one of the busiest times of the year for my family, and I'm starting to feel the stress.  I don't know why, but May is always jam packed for my little family.  I'm winding down the end of my school year (3 more weeks!!!), we celebrate our anniversary, Mother's Day, Andy's birthday, my dad's birthday, Memorial Day, and a few weddings during this busy month, plus we've got a lot of other events crammed in on the calendar, too.  I'm just trying to take it one day at a time!  Here's a look back at our week!

• Cooper's soccer has been cancelled the last two weeks due to rain, so it's been pushed back and rescheduled.  He's got swim lessons each night this week at the Y, and soccer is throwing a wrench in those.  It's not so much swimming lessons as it is lessons on teaching him how to not drown if he falls in a pool, but I'm 100% happy with that.  I desperately wanted to sign Clark up, but he wasn't old enough yet.
• I broke down and bought Big Hero 6 on DVD this week for the boys.  They loved it so much that I felt that it would be a good investment.  I'm not big on buying movies because they lose interest in them so quickly, but I knew this would be a good one for car trips.  The movie also came with a digital download, which in my opinion, was the best part of the purchase.  I was able to put the movie on our iPads and iPhones, plus am able to pull it up on any computer, so that will definitely come in handy. 
• When I bought my iPhone 6 Plus back at Christmas, I had a tempered glass screen protector put on... little did I know how much that little thing would protect my phone.  I dropped it last week and cracked the screen, but the phone screen was fine.  I replaced it this weekend from one I ordered on Amazon, and it couldn't have been simpler.  I was dreading it because I was always awful at putting on the thin film screen protectors, but this was easy.  Sunday night I dropped my phone into a bathtub full of water while bathing the boys, but thankfully (somehow), it ended up unscathed... I don't know how.
• I broke down and bought a swim cap yesterday at the Y.  I had been jokingly saying I was going to buy one for months so all the ex-private school swimmers would take me more seriously, but since I got my hair cut, I thought one might really help keep my hair out of my face.  I also have issues with water getting in my ears, so I thought it couldn't hurt.  Well, let me tell ya, that thing did hurt- literally!  By the time I got done swimming my head was throbbing.  I have a large head, and it was one size fits all, so I knew that would be an issue.  I also wore earrings while wearing it, so a few times I thought my ears were going to be ripped off.  
• I had a newborn photo shoot this weekend.  I'll be very honest in saying that newborn shoots make me the most nervous of any kind I do.  Don't get me wrong, they're naturally the cutest ones by default, but lighting and editing is really hard with newborns.  I spent a lot of time exploring Lightroom, so I was really pleased with how they turned out.
• It's been 3.5 weeks since I got my hair cut and colored, and I'm finally going back tomorrow to get my roots touched up!  They are shining right now.  I feel like my hair's grown faster than normal, so I need it shaped up some, too.
• I trimmed Clark's hair up this week.  Now, I know I didn't go to hair school, but I think it looks cute.  We generally keep Cooper's buzzed during the warmer months, but I just haven't been able to do that to Clark's.  I'm trying to hold onto my "baby" as long as I possibly can.  His hair is so blonde, soft, and fine that I just can't bear to see it too short.
• I haven't mentioned this yet because I didn't want to "jinx" myself, but now that it's done and over I'll go ahead and share the good news.  I will be back at Lafayette Middle School next year!  I signed my contract a week ago, and I couldn't be more thankful!  This is the first year since I've been working that I haven't had to worry about a job in the fall, and it's taken so much stress off of me.  I really love my job, besides being away from the boys, so as soon as I was able to I ran and signed my contract before anyone could change their mind!

Well, I'm off to fix dinner and get to swim lessons.  This week with swimming and soccer makes me dread the days in the future when everyone is playing different sports and being pulled in a million directions!  Have a good week!

Sunday Update

Happy Sunday, blog friends!  We had an awesome start to our weekend on Friday with a sick baby and tons of rain... more on all that fun stuff in a minute.  Alright, here's a look back at our week.

• Clark finally seems to be feeling better from all the cough/allergy issues he's been having.  The steroids really helped the cough, even though they did make him crazy.  Thankfully, he didn't turn into a mean steroid baby, just an off the chain, wild steroid baby.  It was pitiful at times because it was like he didn't have any control over himself.  I'm glad he's done taking those!  He's still on two allergy medications every day, plus his inhaler when he needs it.  All the rain has helped the pollen though, so I'm thankful it's helping him some.
• Cooper ended up sick on Friday.  He had a high fever and vomited a quite a bit, but didn't really have any other complaints besides just feeling bad.  I came home from work early to be with him, and we did a lot of lounging on the couch, watched lots of TV, and made some frantic runs to the bathroom for a few vomit false alarms.  Thankfully, he was feeling better by Saturday.  He was still a little puny today, but other than that he seems to be in the clear.
• We've had a massive amount of rain this week.  It's been a bit ridiculous.  I'm hoping the worst of it is behind us and we'll have a dry week this week.
• I'm still struggling a bit with my new haircut.  What's so funny is that I used to keep my hair cut this way almost all the time, but now I can't seem to figure out how to fix it.  I got it to curl/wave some this weekend, so maybe not all hope is lost.
• I've started adding back swimming into my workout routine.  I was doing it faithfully during the colder months, but had slacked a bit with it the last month or so.  There's so many other things to do at the Y that are less involved (changing wet clothes, showering, etc...), but have started adding it back in this week.  It's been a struggle!  I'm slowly working my way back up to where I was, but let me tell ya, my lungs are screaming at me by the time I finish.  I still look ridiculous beside all the serious, ex-private school swimmers in the lap pool with me.
• We have four weeks left of school!  We've got testing this week, and after that, my goal is to keep the kids from crawling on the ceiling for the next three weeks.  

Well, our week was pretty low-key, so I'll leave it at that.  I hope everyone has a great work week!

Vacation Countdown

I know I've said it A LOT lately, but I'm really looking forward to our family vacation this summer!  We're heading to Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast, and I can't wait.  Our trip is just over 2 months away!  I'm really excited that we're staying in our home state, only having to travel 6 hours, and that despite that, we're still exploring somewhere new that has a beach and ocean.  Both sides of our family are doing their own things for vacation this summer, so it'll just be the four of us.  Thankfully, the boys keep each other entertained (that has it's positives and negatives), so not having their cousins there isn't too detrimental to their fun.

If it were up to me, I'd lay on the beach or at the pool all day long on vacation, but the boys (all three of them) are a little too restless for that.  I've been scouring the internet, mainly Pinterest, finding all kinds of fun and neat things to do while we're there.  St. Simons is a neighboring island with lots of things to do too, so I'm sure we'll be over there plenty as well.  Here are some of the things I'm most looking forward to... I'm also really looking forward to the photography opportunities!

*If you've traveled to Jekyll or St. Simons and have any must see/must try places, please let us know!  We love suggestions for trips!

As a fun sidetone, he's a little summer countdown information:

1. We have less that ONE MONTH left of school!

2.  The NeedtoBreathe concert is ONE MONTH from today!

3.  Our vacation to Jekyll is less than 3 months away!

Saturday Update

Happy Saturday!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  I'm tired from a late night of card playing with some of our friends last, but we had a lot of fun.  Here's a look back at our week.

• On a whim, I ended up at the doctor with Clark yesterday.  He's had a relentless cough for a solid month now that wasn't getting any better... we'd already gone in for it once.  With the pollen being so bad this week, his nose and eyes were pouring, and he just felt like crap.  I ended up taking him, thinking there wouldn't be anything they could do for him, but I was wrong!  When we got there, Dr. Meredith told me right away that he was wheezing (which I didn't hear), and that he was having some major allergy struggles, which was what I was afraid of.  He upped his inhaler usage, put him on an oral steroid for the next week to help with the cough and wheezing, and then put him on two different kids of allergy medications.  It's like wresting a bear to get all the different medications down him, especially since he's vomiting like crazy from his cough, but I've seen an improvement just since yesterday!  I'm hoping we can kick his cough this week and then control the allergy symptoms until the pollen's done.
• Cooper had another soccer game this morning.  He still wasn't aggressive or overly interested by any means, but he's definitely improving each week!  He ran after the ball, tried to get it several times, and didn't hold his coach's hand the whole time, so we were thrilled!  Every time he comes out he asks us if the game is over yet, so he's not excited about playing by any means, but he seems to be having fun.
• Right after Cooper's game, Andy left for a weekend golf trip.  He's coming back Monday night, so I don't know what the boys and I will do while he's gone... probably just try to survive!  I'm going to attempt to take them to a movie this afternoon and to dinner somewhere, but last time we went to a movie it didn't go well.  We've got a busy day tomorrow, so I'm hoping they'll be worn out the whole time he's away.
• Last Friday I had my hair chopped off.  I had been working for 2.5 years to grow it out, but it was so unhealthy I didn't really have a choice but to cut a lot of it off.  I had about 4 inches cut off into a bob/lob that hits right at the base of my neck/collar area, and I'm still getting used to it.  I used to keep my hair cut like this all the time, but it's been so long since I've had it short that I'm still adjusting to it.  It definitely takes quite a bit more effort to fix it, and I still can't figure out how to make it wavy like my stylist did when she fixed it.  I'm hoping it'll grow quickly this time around since we improved the overall health of it so much.  I can still pull it up into a little nub of a ponytail, so not all hope is lost!
• We start our state testing next week at school for two weeks, then we only have three weeks left until summer break!  I really can't believe how quickly this year has passed by.  I'm ready for summer!  The boys love swimming, thanks to our extra time at the Y, so I know they'll love all the pool time and our vacation this year.  Life is so much more enjoyable in the summer when we can spend a lot of time at the pool without anyone crying and begging to go home.
• Last Friday night Andy and I went on a date.  We ate dinner at a Tremont Tavern downtown, and it was really good!  After that I got a pair of leopard print Chacos that I'm in love with.  I've had a pair of Chacos since my freshman year of high school, and they still look brand new.  If you're thinking about getting a pair, they're definitely worth the money.  We hit up Ben & Jerry's at the end of our date, and I finally had some of the Jimmy Fallon ice cream in a milkshake.  It was divine!  

Alright, I'm going to try and rest a little bit before I tackle a movie with my two wild men.  Clark is passed out from all of his medicine, but Cooper is still holding strong.  He'll pass out the minute I put him in the car, but he pretty much refuses to nap at home.  Life would be so much easier on everyone if he'd just give in!

Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter today.  Besides Clark vomiting all over his first outfit this morning at church, the day went pretty smoothly.  We had an egg hunt at my parents, then finished the day up with dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Here's some pictures from our day.  Happy Easter!

A Day Spent Hiking

This morning we packed a picnic, loaded up the truck, and headed out to the middle of nowhere to do a little hiking.  We took Andy's mom with us, and we had a great time.  We hiked 5.5 miles, with the boys walking the majority of it, so we came home exhausted.  Here are some pictures of our day!

 Andy took these pictures... there was no way I was getting near that mess.