Monday night we joined "the siblings" for public skating at MRC. Erik has taken Micah before but this was my first time skating in at least 5 years. Thankfully it's not something you forget how to do. But I did forget how uncomfortable skates can be. Maybe my feet have grown a little bit? (I hear having babies can do that to you...)
Micah was wearing his bob skates and using the push-bar thingy. He kept his head down and plugged away at a snail's pace for about an hour and a half. He even yelled at me when I tried to help him.
The bob skates are great for helping Micah stand, but they don't offer much grip on the ice to take off and glide. So, we might transition him to real skates sooner than we thought. It's crazy to think that in a year we could be trying Keziah on the bob skates!
We were allowed to take our stroller on the ice which worked out great. Keziah loved breezing around the rink in that thing. It was kind of nice for me to have my own "push-bar" to keep me on my feet :)
I thought Keziah would get cranky and bored after awhile, but by the time we were half done, this was the scene in her stroller:
Considering how she's been lately, this was a beautiful sight. I told Erik we'd have to go skating every week!
One of my greatest frustrations this week has been swimming lessons which are on Mondays & Wednesdays. Last Wednesday's lesson hadn't ended so well (after a water-up-the-nose incident), so when the lesson started on Monday, Micah started crying, and he didn't stop for the whole lesson! I tried everything I could to get him to calm down but he was SO worked up. The annoying part was that as soon as the 1/2 hour was up and the teacher dismissed the class, Micah's tears disappeared. He turned into a happy little camper and wanted to keep playing in the pool. So, I really tried to prepare him for a better experience on Wednesday. We talked about it a ton, we read a book about a little girl who has swimming lessons and asks God to help her be brave, we practiced his "moves" in the hot tub. But it was all a wasted effort when Wednesday rolled around and our regular teacher wasn't there. As soon as Micah saw the substitute, he freaked out once again and we had a repeat performance. I'm not quite sure what to do with this. But, I decided it would good to go to the pool just for fun and try to "reset" his mind a little bit. So, today Erik and I took the kids for a family swim. We got to take Micah down the big waterslide and enjoy the waves in the big pool. I let Micah wear his water wings and he felt so confident jumping in and swimming around. So, we'll see... Does anyone have any other tips for me?
Micah and Erik had a "guys night" on Tuesday which included popcorn and dominoes:
On Wednesday night we went for a drive and ended up at Costco. Being the bad parents that we are, we let our kids enjoy some good ol' Costco ice cream at about 8:30 pm. I love how cross-eyed Micah is in this shot:
Keziah has been her darling self this week (do you hear the sarcasm?). She really is a tough little cookie and it's exhausting! She will whine at my feet and then as soon as I pick her up, she turns on the charm; jabbering away and smiling. It's so frustrating and so cute at the same time. We are quite immune to her crying already. Today she seemed to break out of it for a bit and played quite contentedly for an hour or two. I found myself rushing through my tasks, waiting for when I would be interrupted by her crying. And when I wasn't interrupted I would rush to see why she was so quiet and make sure she was OK!
Sometimes we wonder if she has more bothering her than just teething. It's so tough to say. She's usually a great sleeper and her bodily functions seem to be in good working order. She has weeks where she is a completely different baby and her "off" weeks seems to coincide with teeth under her gums. We just never dealt with this much crying from Micah, and it makes us wonder why she seems to fuss so much more.
I think I posted a chocolately picture of her last week, but who could resist taking another picture of this chocolate-covered baby?
For being a water-hating feline, our cat sure loves hanging around the bathtub. When I shower, she'll sit on the ledge and watch the water streaming down or pace back and forth on the edge of the tub between the shower curtains. She loves watching the kids in the tub and Micah has managed to pull her into the water with them a couple of times already. Surprisingly, the kitty always comes back for more!
I think Keziah has some Shrek-like qualities in this picture :)
This turned into a longer post than I thought, but I guess there was a lot to say :) Here's hoping that next week will be a better one!
10 comments:
Just wanted to say, that I have SO been there. Your posts about frustrations with Keziah remind me so much of Autumn at that age - it's so challenging, and a week can seem like an eternity at times. To encourage you, you are doing a great job, you are not alone, and it WILL end. Autumn is turning out to be one sweet little girl - though she still has her moments! No advice on the swimming thing, you're doing exactly what I would try so ??? Praying it will be a better week for you!
when i was micah´s age i went to those swimming lessons as well and i didn´t really have a good time....my mom was kind of frustrated, but after two weeks of crying and whining she decided to postpone the lessons and when i was 5 years old i did it again and since then i LOVED swimming more than anything else!
maybe that might work for micah as well?
i would just be afraid that my kid might start hating the pool, water, swimming......but micah seems to be happy in it, right?
hoping that you´re having a better week!
leslie
Sending you a BIG HUG!! :D Hope this next week is easier!
We have the same type of "battles" around here the last week in regards to skating lessons...I think once children get into a certain mindset about things it's really hard to get them off of it. Stick with it and I'm sure Micah will get adjusted! I know my biggest thing with Taylor right now is that I know if I give in to her and not take her to skating she will feel as though she has "beat me" and gotten what she wanted...she's fine as soon as she is off the ice also....it's very frustrating, I'll be praying for you! In regards to your comment on my post, I was the one who said the comment about getting together with your sister....I had mentioned it to her on her blog a while back, and it still hasn't happened, I should really try to connect with her though :-) I also understand about not having a vehicle, etc while you're here too...if you don't have time, it's totally fine! Also, very cool that you allowed you to bring your stroller on the ice, I am going to look into that here now!!! Hope this week goes better for you guys!(and for Keziah also!)
Hi Jamie,
Man I feel your pain about the swimming and the grouchy kids.
I tried swimming lessons last summer and it didn't go well (the story sounds similar). I ended up just pulling our kids out because I didn't want them to hate the pool. I think it was Evy who told me that Bethany didn't like swimming when she was younger so she just waited and then when she was 5 or 6 she put her in and she loved it and did great. I may try that with Ana. (You can see one of my earlier posts on our blog about that!)
Zachary was a real crier compared to Ana and even though he is older now he still is way more grouchy than her. I don't always know what to do with him but at least the "crying" gets better with age.
Skating looked fun. I totally want to take our kids skating some time. I think they'd really like it. I wonder if my skates still fit...?
Great pics Jamie! I used to love takin Livvi in the stroller on the ice too, kept me up! lol As for the swimming lessons, my friend had the same struggles with all 3 of her kids, and she ended up pulling them out when they were that little, and re-registering them when they were 5, cause to her it just wasn't worth the battle and fear that it was causing...here's hoping both kiddo's give ya a rest this week! :) And as Laura said I double it, you are doing a GREAT job, you are NOT alone, and this too shall pass!!
Oh man, am I ever in the same boat as you. Just a little sick and tired of being a mom. But, you're right, there are always highlights, and I guess we just need to hang on to those moments to get us through. Hope this week goes better!! :)
Hey James: Cute pics!! I'm glad things are going "well" for the most part!! TAke care and I hope to read more comments on my blog from you soon...
I can actually remember doing the exact same thing Micah's doing when I was younger. My mom used to bribe me with popsicles(it didn't always work) but I can't remember what I was so upset about. I think it was the whole mindset thing - I had made up my mind I didn't want to go to swimming lessons(i loved swimming otherwise) and that was it. I would encourage you to keep at it. I was never scared of the water even after my mom forced me and I loooove swimming now. Hopefully this will pass soon - praying for you Jamie.
I think it's a great idea that you had a family day at the pool outside of lessons. I hope it was fun.
Has Keziah had any teeth pop through with all this complaining of her's? She sound a lot like Isaiah with teething. Did Micah teeth like this?
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