Monday Nights

Max started ice skating lessons a few weeks ago and he LOVES IT. He also really loves Brittany (his super cute skate instructor). He'll try anything for her: jump, skate backwards, sing silly songs! She has quite the motivating presence. Apparently.

Anyway, he is always very excited for Mondays now... and I actually look forward to the lessons too. After we all skate together before his lesson, Alex and I go up to the heated balcony and watch. She sits there so happily and quietly... munching on a snack and captivated by all of the kids (I had no idea it was possible for a child to be still for that long). I can actually relax... and, honestly, there really is nothing more entertaining than a bunch of kids learning to march and glide on ice.

X-country Skiing with a 3 and 5 Year Old

The 1000 words... or so : Dan leaves for his turn to skate. Off we go - the three of us - shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Max quickly realizes that he really likes to fall and flail about in the snow with his skis in the air - LOOK MOM, I'M A HELICOPTER! I plea for him to get back up (the correct way - yes, Max requires specification). Alex stops shuffling and insists that I take her gloves off so she can use Max's poles. I insist that she keep them on and she immediately drops to the snow in a crying fit. Max is back to making helicopter motions and noises. I help Alex up and take the gloves off. She shuffles away - yelling at me to not look at her. I make more pleas for Max to get up. He finally does so and actually begins to ski while trying to catch up to Alex. NICE JOB, MAX! Down he goes. Down Alex goes. Her hands get cold. She starts to cry. I pick her up and start skiing with her. Max gets up slowly and this time realizes that he can ski bent over with his hands resting on the tips of his skis. Alex is dying to try that. She screams at me to let her down. Now they are both bent over and, basically, skiing on their hands. It's actually an even slower motion than you might think. At least 50 people pass by - and enjoy the free spectacle that is my children on skis - most make a comment about my stupidity bravery. YOU HAVE NO IDEA, PEOPLE! An hour goes by and we finally make it around the quarter-mile-loop. Max yells out WHOO-HOO! THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! Alex agrees. Our tour was a raging success.

Max and His Brilliant Ideas

This is the view I got tonight as I turned away from the stove to see why they were playing together so well for more than two minutes... seriously they were having one heck of a time... he was pulling her around on the wood floors and she was pretending to be a dog.

I have no doubt, if Alex survives her time with Max, she will be able to handle anyone and anything!

Please, let him be right!

So, we're watching the last presidential debate tonight and at one point Max just says - totally out of the blue - Mommy, the boy with the white hair will never win!

He Did It!

Max went off the diving board yesterday for the first time. It's been his goal since he first submerged his head in the water last Spring. When we started swimming outside this summer he would see all the kids lined up and jumping off the board and he so badly wanted to be able to do it. We told him he had to learn to swim first so that he would be able to swim in the deep water by himself... and so he did.

He tried going off the board last week, but got to the edge and was too scared to go so he turned around. He was still pretty scared this week, but he really wanted to do it. For his first time, Dan was able to be in the water nearby. And I cried, of course, as I watched him. I was so proud of him for working so hard to be able to do that... at four! He was so pleased with himself!!!!

He started crying at bedtime last night... Dan asked why... and he said, I don't want the first-day-I-went-off-the-diving-board to be over.

Floating in Bubbles

This was one of those rare times when the bath had a calming effect on both of them. Usually water is flying everywhere, the playful noise is deafening, and they are yelling at me - "Go away, Mommy... so that you can't see what we are going to do... Mommy, go fold some clothes!"

Return from the Void

It’s been about three months since my last post... every time I’ve slumped into this chair at the computer to write I’ve had absolutely nothing to say...nothing funny or eloquent or even remotely interesting... even when my finger stopped throbbing when it struck the keyboard. At least that’s how I felt. But my fingernail has finally come off and it seems a good time (completely absurd reason) to get back to the documentation.

This summer we camped at the Sand Dunes, visited friends in Durango, traveled to the East coast to visit Dan’s family, traveled to the West coast to visit Tootie and Fox, went swimming almost everyday in between, and on the second weekend in July we camped near Lake Granby... at one of the worst campsites ever. It was so bad, when we pulled up to our reserved site I just started to cry.

Let’s just say it was the the type of campground where you got nothing but extremely good views of your neighbors’ cars... where you constantly say to yourself...what the **** is the point of this?!... and then you see how fabulously happy your kids are playing in the rocks and dirt next to the fire, and roasting marshmallows, and then they’re unbelievably ecstatic to brush their teeth outside and get ready for bed because they can’t wait to be sleeping in a tent - in their own sleeping bag - with you!... and then you’re all, this isn’t so bad... tomorrow’s hike will be so good... ya, you’ll really feel like you’re in the mountains tomorrow...

Eight hours of constantly waking every 15 minutes go by and I get up and make coffee and it tastes soooo good and the kids wake up happy and everything goes pretty smoothly and I almost don’t even mind having to wake up in a parking lot because we had a magnificent day hike through Rocky Mountain National Park planned. Everyone was pretty excited when we all started hiking. Alex was in the backpack and Max was walking. Then, a quarter of a mile in... SCREECH!!! Max stops suddenly and declares, “I’m done with this. I’m tired.” It was a beautiful day, the scenery was amazing, and I just DESPERATELY wanted to HIKE. We were finally in the mountains!!! After all of the positive reinforcement, then deals, and eventually, pleas I could muster; I realized he really was - absolutely - done. So I gave Max a piggy-back ride... for the better part of about six miles. And it was well worth it. On our way out, we spotted this moose. It was one of the best moments ever.