Swim Buddies

Here are some pictures of Malia and her swim buddy Audrey. Malia used to hate swim lessons. Actually, she went from hate to love back to hate and then thanks to Audrey, she loves swimming once more.

When Audrey first started swim lessons, she cried and cried. But that was OK since Malia cried and cried too. Malia loved it when she first started lessons at 9 months old. Then she went through a period of time at 16 months of age where she didn't want to swim. I figured it was a separation anxiety issue and she'd out grow it eventually. Not the case. I clearly underestimated my kid's stubbornness. One day, after about 8 or 9 months of listening to her shrieks echo off the walls, I got tired of her crying and on the way to swim lessons, scolded her in the car: "Malia! No more crying! I don't want to hear anymore crying at swim, do you understand?"

OK, I admit, it wasn't the shiniest moment in Mommyhood. But come on! It's the same lesson she's been having for a while and nothing's changed. So why was she crying as if the pool was a vat of acid?!

Anyway, I guess she was waiting for me to say something because she abruptly stopped crying. That day. Not a whimper, not a whine. Not even a hesitation to get into the pool. It was as if a switch was turned off. If I had known that was all it took, I would have yelled at her months ago.

After that lesson, which happened to be after Audrey's lesson (and Audrey was still crying during her lessons), I praised Malia for a job well done and asked her: "Malia! Did you cry?" To which she responded: "No, I didn't cry.... But Audrey cried!"

And so she's been saying that ever since: "I didn't cry; Audrey cried." Except now she says it with a little smirk and a whole lot of smugness.

Since Audrey helped Malia get over her hate of swim lessons (no matter how unintentional) I'd figure out a way to get Audrey to like swim lessons too. And honestly, it was getting a little embarrassing how smug Malia was getting with her "I didn't cry... Aubrey cried!" litany. I suggested having the girls swim together for the last 5 minutes of Audrey's lesson and the first 5 minutes of Malia's lesson. I remember Kael doing that with his friend Len and Kael swam his little butt off. It worked for the girls. Now they both love swimming and hopefully this will have them learn faster. Who says a little competition amongst friends isn't healthy?


Malia and Audrey.

Malia still has a hard time floating on her back . She can do it but refuses to. The instant she doesn't feel Sara's fingers, she flips over or tries to sit up, thus resulting in her going under the water. There's been a few times that Sara has been able to trick Malia and she's floated. So I know she's capable.

Here's Audrey doing a back float. She's got the strangest back float I have EVER seen. You can't tell from this picture but only her head and her feet are floating. Her body and butt are under the water. As in way WAY under the water. She's essentially in the shape of a V. Even Sara the instructor can't figure how she's floating.

Kael doing a side stroke.

Kael and his instructor Trevor. Malia's secret crush. She had a make-up lesson one time with Trevor (once!) and it's "Bye Trevor!" after every lesson since then. All that's missing is the eyelash flutter.

What do you see that's the same in this picture?

And this picture?


And this picture?

Answer: She's always smiling. Sure, this is a good thing. I love that she's loving swim lessons again. However, it also means that she's going in the water with her mouth open. I hate to think about how much water she's ingesting. Water that's seen how many people? How many kids? Gack!

Bah Humbug!

It will be an interesting Christmas this year. Malia has been battling a losing war with a cold. She started with the sniffles on Friday. That escalated to an occasional cough on Saturday. By Sunday, it was a definite throaty cough and Monday, the nose faucet was at full blast.

That takes us to today. Tuesday. She's got a chesty sound to her breathing, the nose is still dripping and the cough is a constant companion. Taken as a whole, it's a run of the mill, pain in the butt cold. BUT this is not the usual cold. I have never seen her more ornery, more bad tempered, more bratty than she was today. At the Academy of Sciences she refused to ride in the stroller, she refused to walk -- she only wanted to be carried. While she napped. We have a Phil and Ted E3. It folds flat. It's very comfy for napping. It's like a hammock. But no, only Dad's arms would do. She threw a fit of epic portions when Truong refused to carry her to nap. It was so loud, so leg and body flailing that I walked out of the aquarium, with her strapped in the stroller screaming like it was a bed of broken glass, and sat in the corner by the bathroom so she could compose herself. The thing was... she never composed herself. She'd quiet down to rest for another bout of screaming. I got a lot of "Oh my gosh! That was loud!" from passing strangers. It was a little embarrassing. It continued on the way home until she passed out, still heaving from crying. It was worst tantrum I had ever seen from her.

We get home and she's like white on rice to a parent. Mostly Truong since I had to take care of Taede. Wherever he went, she was a monkey on his back. When we switched so Truong could shower, Malia wouldn't even let me go make dinner for her, she was so clingy. That was when I realized just how out of sorts she was. She's normally a fiercely independent child so to have her so suction cupped on me was a little worrisome.

Add on to her clinginess, was her dinner. That went down the hatch then back up. All over her Pj's. Ugh. My kids aren't thrower-uppers so I was thoroughly disgusted. After the mess of dinner, she wanted to lie on the couch. And there she lay: on her tummy, hiney in the air, by herself on a couch that sits 4-5 people. She would scream "Go away! GO AWAY! Leave me alone!" to anyone who made the mistake of coming near. Sheesh.

This was the worse I've ever seen her with a cold. I went to check on her and discovered... a fever. Crimony, can it get any worse? No, don't answer that. I don't want Murphy to hear it and make it a Law.

I usually carry everything but the kitchen sink when we travel. Truong hates loading the car with all my junk because I pack so much "what if we need it?" stuff. So this time, I made a concerted effort to lighten the load. That meant no thermometer, no medicines, no snot sucker. Of course, this would be the one and only trip that I would need all that stuff. Luckily, I didn't clear out the glove compartment of the car: I had a brand new bottle of Infant Tylenol stashed in there. So I dosed her up good and got her to bed at 7:00pm. Poor baby girl. Hopefully she gets better soon otherwise we're going to leave for home early.

And poor Taede. With his sister loving on him so much, he's got the awful cough and congestion. Hopefully the fever will skip him but with our luck, it's just a matter of time.

In thinking back, trying to figure out where she got sick, because my kids don't get sick often, I realized where I made my mistake. I scheduled her flu shot on Wednesday, 2 days before leaving for our trip.

Bad Mommy.

The 12 Days of Christmas

...is clearly NOT enough time for me to get my act together. I feel as if I'm drowning in things that should have been done back in November. That's the reason for my absence in the blog.

I just have too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Take, for example, my holiday cards. Not only do I NOT have them made... I don't even have pictures taken of the kids to put on the yet-to-be-created cards. I did make a few attempts to get nice pictures of the kids -- just so you don't think I'm sitting on my butt -- and here are some of the more memorable shots:


I don't know what Malia and Taede were looking at but Kael certainly looked surprised at something.
Malia -- look up!



Well, Malia's looking up... but she's not smiling. I love Taede's "Are we done yet?" look. At least Kael looks decent.
Malia - SMILE!



Okkaayyy. Scary smile. Too much smiling.



This could have been a good picture. Except Kael's shirt is all bunched up around his neck, making him look like he doesn't have a neck. And Taede doesn't look very jolly.



Taede: "Enough! I've had enough!"

--------------------------------

I'm rethinking Christmas cards to New Year's cards....

My name is Kael.

Kael: Kael. My name is Kael. Say it: KAEL.
Malia: Tail!

Kael: No, no, no. Kael! My name is KAEL!
Malia: Tail!

Kael: Ugh. No, Malia! Say it right. Kuh-ai-el. Not Tail -- Kael.
Malia: (pause... pause...) Tail?

Kael: Arghh! NO MALIA! You're saying it wrong. Say it like this: KUH-ael. Kuh. Kuh. Kuh. Kael.
Malia: Kuh. Kuh. Kuh.... Tail!

Kael: ARGHH!!
And he stomps off angrily. Poor Tail. I mean Kael.

Malia and I have been practicing our Kuh-Kuh-Kael's in the car after we drop him off at school. If she concentrates, she gets it right about 50% of the time. However, if she's just talking and doesn't think about it, he's Tail. Most of the time it doesn't bother him. But lately I can hear him trying to coach her into saying his name correctly. Unfortunately, as Kael is fast learning, it's becoming a lesson in futility.

Brrr. It's cold!

I think winter has finally arrived here in Orange County. Nighttime temps are in the nippy mid-40's and today's high is supposed to be in the mid-60's, partly cloudy but honestly it looks completely cloudy to me right now.

Sure, it's nothing close to Erin's Ice State standards but we just had nice sunny 80's weather a couple of weeks ago. I think it even rained over Thanksgiving.

I'm pulling out the long sleeved PJ's for the kids and will be searching for the fleece stuff for when we drive up to the Bay Area for Christmas. I've "winterized" the kids' beds by adding a fleece blanket to the standard top sheet and comforter. Even with all that, Malia still found it to be a bit chilly in her room:


There's our Sleeping Beauty, in her favorite sleeping position: perpendicular to the bed. Cute in her own bed, not so cute in our bed. Warmly tucked in under her sheets.

"But wait...," you think. "That's odd! There's something weird going on with her sheets and blankets." You wonder why it looks off.

Look closely.


She's not under the sheet or fleece blanket or Mermaid comforter at all.

She tucked herself into her pillowcase.
Yes, her PILLOWCASE.