Living in Arizona means that swimming lessons are a must.  It’s non-negotiable…something that Mason hasn’t quite figured out yet.  As it turns out, he has quite a bit of anxiety when it comes to water.  I’m not sure where it comes from, though I know it’s completely normal.  It’s funny because Emma is a fish in the water.  She can’t get enough of swimming.  I wish we had a pool so we could work on swimming for both of them.  But for now, swim lessons and swim times at grandparents and friends houses will have to do.

And so now I sing my praises about Kim Courtney Swim School.  Kim Courtney has been teaching swim in the valley forever.  So long, in fact, that I took swim lessons from her when I was about Emma’s age.  And she’s good.  She teaches my kids in a way that no other swim school has.  Granted, her approach isn’t for everyone.  But I don’t know of many people whose kids haven’t come out of there better swimmers.  So, if you’re in the Metro Phoenix area, and are looking for a great swim teacher, I highly recommend Kim Courtney.  She’s located in North Scottsdale.

Maybe the summer has already gotten to me…I’m feeling a bit antsy.  But worn out at the same time.  I think I might have spoken too soon in this post.  This week has been SOOO busy with different activities.  All of them fun, of course.  I mean, it is summer afterall.  But swim lessons every day (which, actually, aren’t so fun for Mason -YET!), playdates, tutoring, birthday parties, dance recitals, etc.  There’s a lot going on!  And when I was at a playdate yesterday at Christa’s house, and I was noticing all of her craftiness, the wheels started turning.  I’d like to do a craft.  I’m very crafty, you know.  It’s just been awhile.  A long while.  Here are some things that interest me.

Bubble snakes found here at somewhat simple.

I love this menu calendar found at The Idea Room.

And this dry erase activity book would be GREAT for the kids on our upcoming road trip.  I found that here at somewhat simple, also.

It all got started when Christa completed this project and it turned out SOOOO cute!! (I’m not able to upload the picture for some reason).

These crafts look like so much fun!!

Are you up to anything crafty right now?

**POST EDIT: 2 of the pictures got cut off because they’re so big….sorry!  I’m not good enough to figure that one out yet!  But click on the links to get all the pictures…these ideas are so cute!

Well, we’re off to a good start in our household!  I think we’ll have a nice rhythm and routine going…something solid enough to keep Mommy and Emma sane!  Emma has been working wonderfully with her “tutor”.  They will work together at least twice a week, and for at least one hour each time.  I think Emma enjoys working on her skills.  And her keeps things new and fresh, and will change it up when she senses Emma gets restless.  Last week we took the kids to the Phoenix Children’s Museum.  It is a place I absolutely adore.  I really do think it’s one of the best Children’s Museums out there…and I’ve been to a lot of them!  I’m so bummed I didn’t bring my camera that day, but there’s a good chance we’ll go again this summer. I think that Tuesdays will be our outing day.  Weather we hit a museum, a splash pad, or the movies, we’ll try to do something fun and exciting for them (and, really, for all of us).  It’s so nice to have an extra adult on hand when the kids want to go in opposite directions!  We’re very lucky to have her (we’ll call her J for now!).

The weather has been getting pretty warm here, too.  We finally hit 100 last week.  But mostly we’ve been in the high 90′s.  The temperature hike keeps us indoors during the middle of the day, but they are outside in the morning and late afternoon and early evening…and I don’t want to stop them!  They are loving it!  While we don’t have a pool, we have an inflatable pool my parents got them and that’s good enough for them!  Here are some pictures from their play time outside!

Love this action shot with Emma running and Mason getting splashed in the face!

Emma's face is so funny...she's sooo excited to go down a slide of which her legs take up the entire length!

What do you guys do to keep cool during the summer months?

Before school got out, which was just last week, I wanted to think about summer goals I had for Emma.  I will set some goals for myself as well.  And Mason, well he’s along for the ride!  Although one thing we’ll work on is writing his name.  Anyway, back to Emma.  I decided I was going to keep it easy.  I mean, it’s still summer!  She has 2 goals.  The first is to swallow pills.  If you remember this post, you’ll know that it’s not something I really know how to teach.  It’s interesting, though, that she started taking an interest in preparing her medicine.  She will take it all by herself, but the preparation is where the time commitment comes in.  There’s the crushing and dissolving of pills.  And juice and applesauce are heavily involved!  So her taking an interest in preparing is a good first step.  On Sunday, I simply asked her to swallow one of her pills, the cortef.  And she did.  It took a few big gulps of juice, but she got it down!  We are now halfway to that goal.  She will swallow her cortef and levothyroxin.  My next goal (starting next week, perhaps?) is to work on getting her to swallow the capsules.  Undeniably bigger in size, but perhaps easier to swallow because they’re gel-coated and slippery?  We will see.  It might be a struggle that involves a reward at the end.  As well it should.  Wish us luck!

Her last goal is to move out of the pull-ups at night and into underwear.  We have pull-ups mostly for insurance as she’s dry in the morning about 98% of the time.  But I figure that if she has any accidents, cleaning it up in the middle of the night will be a lot easier if we don’t have school the next morning!

And, as far as Emma’s habilitation gal, so far so good.  She met with Emma on Monday and said Emma did really well working.  I think that having a routine of work will help a bunch.  She will work Mondays from 9-12 while Mason and I are out of the house.  We’re going to shoot for Tuesdays as “field trip” days.  And Thursdays Emma’s hab gal will have both kids.  But I will insist they work at least one hour.  Mason can do a lot of this stuff already.

So, that’s my plan as of now.  Of course things can always change!

Do you have any goals for the summer??

After I wrote this post last week, I found out Emma was accepted into the summer program through DDD!  It was wonderful news and I was SO relieved to hear it!  Immediately I went through the directory scouting out options for Emma.  There were only 3 options within a 30 minute radius.  One option was not going to work.  We had tried that option 2 summers ago and it was disastrous.  Emma was at a nationally-known daycare chain and I was not pleased with the service provided.  And I did let them know.  Anyway, the other two options were about 8 miles down the road and 12 miles down the road.  I called both places and was able to get into both the next day for meet and greets.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.  The two directors were super sweet and very engaging with Emma.  However, the location wasn’t warm.  The setting wasn’t “homey”.  More sterile and sparse.  And not even that clean.  More than that, I had the feeling that these were facilities for kids with severe delays.  Many of them non-verbal.  A few in wheelchairs.  All of them much older.  The ratio was great, though…someone to work with Emma much of the time.  Better than a 1:4, probably.  But it wasn’t good enough.  I was frustrated…I thought that one of these places would be a great fit for Emma.  But Emma is where she is…she’s verbal.  She can express wants and needs.  She is like a little sponge.  And I want her to be challenged.  I want her to have age-appropriate behaviors modeled.  It made me sad…why aren’t there more options for her?Why was I doing everything I could for her and it still wasn’t enough?? I was nervous for the summer.  I don’t want her to lose anything she has learned this year.  I know, it’s not realistic.  But it’s what I want.  She’s going to need guidance and reinforcement.  And, as all this was going through my mind cooking dinner (and, yes, drinking a glass of red wine), I got a phone call from one of our babysitters (who’s more like a family friend family) that she had quit her job and would be widely available to help us out this summer.  It wasn’t a HUGE sigh of relief, but I felt better.  And the more I sit and think about it, the better I feel.  I will still do playdates, we will still get together with friends (Beth, I’m coming over!), she will still get that social modeling and interaction.  And she will get the love and support from our sitter who will come a few times a week to help her.  And that’s all I could ask for!

Okay, not really blues per se, but I have to admit, I’m a little bit nervous about what the summer will hold.  We’re not doing any summer camps so we can save money.  Those things are expensive!  I’m waiting to hear if Emma will be accepted into the summer program through DDD (Department of Developmental Disabilities which provides her with OT, PT, Speech, etc., due to her diagnoses).  Apparently she might not get accepted into their summer program because she doesn’t qualify for ESY (extended school year) through the district.  It’s like a catch-22.  She’s doing well enough not to qualify for those things, but she still really needs a program so that she will maintain what she’s learned over the year.  A lot of learning can get lost in 10 weeks!  Not saying we can’t work on stuff together, but you’ve read my Homework post, right? With Emma, she needs routine and consistency.  Something that summer doesn’t bring for us.  So, here are my thoughts for the summer, so that mommy can maintain what little sanity she has left.

• Vacation Bible Schools  in the area
• Swim lessons
• Road trips to California and Flagstaff
• Harkins’ summer movie program (something like 10 kids movies (older ones) for aroune $7 per kid)
• The gym (they’re allowed to stay in the kids area 3 hours per day)
• Jenna…my fabuloso babysitter who I would adopt if I could
• Playdates with friends (friends with pools, especially!!)
• Pottery painting?

I’m hoping those things will help.  Do you have any suggestions on how to beat the summer blues (and the 110+ temps??)

What are your plans for the summer?