They ran back and forth on the beach, from the one or two small pieces of playground equipment to the tame sprinklers of the splash park (which they mostly just stood near, not in), and I could easily keep an eye on them while sitting on a blanket with Ellie. We were very clear about not going into the pond without me, and following that rule was not a problem.  A couple of times, I put Ellie into the Ergo and walked into the water so the kids could splash around.

Well, after wading around for a while, they got a little cocky with how deep they’d walk. Daniel tripped and fell backwards. I wasn’t far away, and pulled him up within what was probably 2 or 3 seconds. The lifeguard was half a stride behind me. Everyone was fine. He sobbed for the next 10 minutes, and since it was almost time for lunch anyways, we packed up and left. I stayed calm, reassured him as best I could. Kids slip, it happens. He was fine.

Except the time it took to make those two or three strides to my son was plenty of time to see the terrified look in his eyes as he frantically paddled under water and couldn’t get his feet under him. He was so scared, and I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t stuck with me. “I tried to put my feet down, but then I was under the water!”, he wailed. “I forgot to hum and I got water in my nose!”, he cried pitifully. (I have tried to use a trick my swim instructor told me about to help people hold their breath and not get water in their noses: hum while you’re under water. Clearly, he remembers, but not in the heat of the moment.)

We are in desperate need of real swim lessons. I am totally fed up with the group classes at our local YMCA. The instructors are inconsistent week-to-week, and the group format means the teachers are mostly herding wet cats and don’t really have the wherewithal to try to really nudge a kid into new skills.  I tried signing up for semi-private lessons there, but never got a call back after submitting a form in DECEMBER.  I would spend most of the summer taking them to open swim, but in addition to having ZERO experience teaching anyone about swimming, I have the small issue of an infant to take care of. Not enough hands to take two preschoolers and a baby to the pool by myself.

I’m at something of a loss, yet feel like we really need to make some progress this summer. I don’t need them to be able to swim a full lap of perfect breaststroke. I just want them a little bit more capable in the water. At this point, they’re happy as can be if they’ve got flotation, but have a long way to go towards horizontal body position in the water. They hate even getting their faces splashed, much less actual submerging. When we visit my mom’s lake house in July, my aunt has promised to help us out, but I think a cold, muddy lake will be a hard sell. But this is not, in my mind, an optional skill. Daniel had his scare at the pond. Rebecca had a terrifying incident in Hawaii when she forgot to put her life jacket back on and got right into the pool. A fully-clothed, soaked, and shaking M greeted me at the patio doors with a crying Rebecca in his arms.  We’ve had our two chances. There are too many awful stories every summer. And yes, I know that even strong swimmers can still drown. But let’s stack the deck in our favor, shall we?

So, here we are. Best I can come up with is giving them goggles and having them practice in the tub, and maybe hitting open swim at the Y on the weekend when someone else can take care of Ellie. But even then, I’m not entirely sure where or how to start.

Any tips out there for getting not-super-adventurous kids over the hurdle of submerging and independent swimming? I know it isn’t a now-or-never situation, but my nervous heart would sure like to work on this one.

We started a new swim class with the kids on Saturday. It’s meant to get them gradually used to swimming without mom or dad in the water, so each week we’ll (attempt to) get out a few minutes earlier and leave them with the teacher.  First class, we stayed in the whole time, and the kids absolutely loved it. Rebecca bragged for the rest of the day about swimming “all by myself!”  And she did, a little, too!  Here’s to hoping that bodes well.

Saturday evening, we went to a cookout at a friend’s house.  And reminded each other that we seriously need to do this all summer long.  We all have 3-ish-year-olds who know each other well, so the yards are appropriately-equipped and everyone knows each other.  What could be easier than throwing some hot dogs on the grill for the kids and letting them get absolutely filthy?  And then everyone leaves in time for preschooler bedtime! Absolutely brilliant.

It didn’t hurt, of course, that they have an excavator in their yard at the moment.  There are few things more exciting to the 3-year-old set. Though attempting to get seven kids in the same picture was probably quite the entertaining sight for the neighbors.

Operation: Purge is starting slowly but well. Six big bags of clothes were dropped at Goodwill, and more are to follow. Many boxes of books are loaded into my car for donation.  And we’ve done our best to involve the kids. Rebecca got it in her head that the clothes and books are going to “a baby,” and she likes adding more things to the box. She did a great job helping me sort through her old clothes and books and was quite generous in what she elected to give away.

The focus of the purge, at the moment, is the room we usually refer to as “the changing room.” There wasn’t enough space in the kids’ nursery for two cribs plus dressers and things, so they sleep in one room and their clothing lives in another (we have four bedrooms, but none of them are very big).  The plan is to make the changing room into Daniel’s room. But because it was a room in which no one actually lived, a metric butt-load of crap has landed in there.  So we have to get rid of it to make space for Daniel to move in.  Exciting stuff, long way to go.

And to cap off this bucket of random-y randomness, some photos.  The first is from a few days ago. It was rainy and I was taking the dog out into the yard. When I turned around to come back in, this was the sight that greeted me at the front door:

My dear Daniel, love him though I do, may not have a stellar athletic career in his future. Hand-eye coordination is just not his forte. Don’t even get me started on trying to ride his tricycle and the fact that he has absolutely no concept of steering.

Anyways, when my turn came around, I took my first Isis class at their original center in Brookline, and it was Parenting Multiples (the class was so-so, but reports from other friends lead me to believe that it’s really awesome now).  I got my prenatal massage there.  And when my itty bitty babies were five weeks old, we started Great Beginnings, the very first in the mom/baby class series.

Oh, how I loved that class.  So much knowledge and comfort.  I loved our teacher, Carole, who had such a way with both the babies and the moms.  I loved our group, the fact that we all got along and that we still try to get together when we can.

Since those first days more than two and a half years ago, we have taken almost the entire Child Development class series. Social Butterflies. Sprouts.

Sign & Sing. Explorers. Lightning Bugs.

There’s a part of me that’s pretty sad about the fact that my kids are about to age out of the Isis offerings.  But we’ve had an awesome time there. It was always a safe place to go. A place where they understood babies who cried, toddlers who touched things they weren’t supposed to, and moms who were exhausted, at their wits end, or celebrating the biggest or tiniest of accomplishments.

So, when my friend Cindy at Isis invited me to a big launch event at the Boston Isis location, I was tickled. While I’ve always been skeptical when a company does some “rebranding,” in this case I think it was a fitting evolution.  It started as “Isis Maternity” six years ago, and quickly became the largest provider of prenatal education in the country. It is the official childbirth education provider for nearly all of the major Boston hospitals.  Their prenatal classes of all varieties (hypnobirthing, anyone?) are great, but they go way beyond those few months of pregnancy. Classes through age 3.  Toys and gear and clothing from nursing bras and slings to puzzles and ride-on toys. Every product is on someone’s “must-have” list, and is the latest in gadget-y, organic-y, and of-the-moment-y stuff.

Their new identity is “Isis: Parenting Starts Here.”  That couldn’t be more fitting. It was really and truly where I got my start. I could go on for days about how the classes there gave me confidence, taught me how to get out of the house, taught my kids how to behave in a group class setting, and always was one of my favorite outings.  Boston-area parents, do yourself a favor. If you’re at all accessible to Arlington, Boston, Brookline, or Needham, sign yourself and your babies up for whatever class you can. If the price seems too high to manage, talk to someone at the center, because they’ve got a community fund to help if the cost is prohibitive.

I have never regretted signing up for a class at Isis, and I bet you won’t, either.

My knee-jerk reaction was “oh, no, I don’t want to sign up for too many things.  It’s summer! We’ll be out of town too much!”  Um, hi.  That was my old life.  I’m sure there will probably be a 2-ish week trip to Chicago.  Maybe a trip with friends?  But the honest truth is that, most of the summer, we’ll be right here at home.  M still has to work, and we don’t have a lot of fabulously wealthy friends with summer mansions on the Cape.

And while I like the idea of having the freedom to go here or there and spend lots of unscheduled time in the sunshine and fresh air, the reality is that I think we still need some structured activities.  But what?

At the moment, we’re in Music Together and gymnastics at The Little Gym.  We love them both.  But do we keep them over the summer, or take a break?  Neither is cheap, of course.  Gymnastics is pretty pricey, and I think Music Together only seems significantly better because it’s a shorter session. But the kids have a great time and seem to be learning a lot in both of those classes.  That said, this isn’t the dead of winter when the classes are practically the only way we can get out of the house.  We have our nice big backyard and playgrounds at our disposal, for free.  Beaches, not free but not too bad.  And an aquarium membership (not free, but already paid for).

What about the other SAHMs out there?  Have you started planning yet? How is your summer shaping up?  Moms of slightly older kids, what did you find was a good balance for the 2-year-old set in the summer?

We had a few minutes before class, so we could stand and look through the glass wall into the pool.  The kids seemed interested, and it’s not as though this was the first time they’d seen or been in a pool.  When we went in, Rebecca was not thrilled by the man swimming past her while she walked along the pool deck, but they did fine.  Having an adult for each kid is always a nice perk, of course.

There were only three of us in the class, so yes, my family made up 2/3 of the group.  The other girl was about 15-16 months old, so at least they were of a similar age range.  The class is technically for 6-to-18 month olds, and our kids are 19 months, but I figure better to err on the younger side for their first class.  Especially since the next age group is 19-36 months, which is an awfully large range.

Anyways, we sang a quick hello song, and the teacher encouraged us to put a little floatie on the kids (even though we wouldn’t exactly be letting go of them) and kick back and forth across the pool.  The kids weren’t really into it, but we did it anyways.  Then, singing a little song and going in a circle (kids not at all pleased), she suggested we blow in their faces and try to dunk them.  I didn’t think that was so wise, but she strongly encouraged it, so M and I played along.  As predicted, there was much screaming by our pair.  The screaming didn’t stop until we left the pool.

Here’s where I had a problem.  Aside from the fact that I’m not convinced the “blow in their face” technique works that well on 19-month-olds, after Daniel was hysterical for a solid 5 minutes, I stepped off to the side to try and remove him from the situation and calm him down.  I was immediately instructed to come back in, that I shouldn’t “send a bad message” by taking him out, that we should basically just let them scream and continue about our business.  That I didn’t want to send the message that something is wrong by taking him out for a minute.  I got practically a mini-lecture at the end of class about how crying is fine, that I shouldn’t “give in” to it, etc.

You all know, I don’t have a particularly difficult time being the hard-ass, as a rule.  I don’t overreact to crying, temper tantrums, etc.. I don’t have a problem pushing my kids outside of their comfort zone in the name of learning.  But my whole thing about swim class is to teach my kids to enjoy and feel comfortable in the water.  And while I obviously have zero training as a swim instructor, I feel like maybe the approach could have used a lot more gentle encouragement and a lot less just powering through the screams.  I fear that this approach is only going to lead to my kids beginning to scream the moment we pull on the swim diapers.  Especially since Daniel, for one, was really warming up to the pool in Florida, only to freak out today at the Y.

I can’t decide whether to give the class another chance or just cut our losses and try to find another one.  On the one hand, this was just one session.  Maybe it’ll get better.  On the other hand, if this is going to breed some kind of pool phobia, I’d like to get the hell out as soon as possible.

M also points out there was a bit of an “assembly line” mentality to the teacher.  She was going straight from one class into the next, no break. Didn’t learn the kids names (there were only three of us!), sang the song, kicking activity one, kicking activity two, circle, dunk, ball, goodbye song (what were those names again?), get out of the pool, start the next class.  I can understand that would be a hard way to teach.  But I sort of don’t care.  My experience was that she was not engaged with the kids at all, not encouraging, not adapting to anyone’s needs.  And that doesn’t seem worth scrambling to get out of the house early on a Sunday morning.

Moms of older kids, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. Teacher engagement issues aside, did it work for your kids to just push through the initial protests and screams?  If I knew this was going to pay off, I’d totally stick with it.  But I need to know it’s likely to actually go somewhere positive, and not lead to a kid who’s afraid of the water.  Or, do you think my mommy-spidey-sense is right and this is not a good approach?  Any swim teachers out there want to weigh in?

And as a P.S. to this day… within about five minutes playing in the tub, we had Daniel putting half his face in the water, trying to blow bubbles, thinking it was the funniest thing he’s ever seen.  This is not a kid with an inherent fear of the water.

We’ve started an awesome new class at The Little Gym.  They have parent-child gymnastics up to age 3 (at age 3, they start doing independent kid classes).  And if you’ve got a little monkey on your hands like I do, toddler gymnastics is the way to go!

The Little Gym has all of the characteristics I like in a class (unlike my nemesis, Gymboree).  There’s structure and routine (songs, warmup, exploring, activities, bubbles, goodbye), but while the adults are strongly encouraged to model participation in each activity or song, it’s more than acceptable if the kid decides to wander off on the mats.  Age-appropriate, and twin-friendly.  Hooray!

There’s fine-motor activities like sticks and bells.  There’s tons of gross motor running around, swinging from the uneven bars, learning how to roll down an incline, and even walk on the balance beam.  My kids loved it.  Rebecca liked doing a log roll, and after one or two demonstrations, LOVED climbing up on the mat, leaning forward to grab the bar, and swinging on her own!  Then she’d let go, land on her feet, and repeat.  What a monkey.

Daniel loved it, too.  And was particularly receptive to help from our teacher, Miss Erika.

My kids are currently the oldest ones in the class, as the stated age range is 10-18 months.  We may switch to the next age group (19 mo – 2.5 yrs) in a couple of weeks.  There are good parts to being the oldest, but once they’re really comfortable on the equipment, it might be nice to be the youngest and have older kids to look up to.

The only down side is the cost.  It’s an expensive class, and they only give a 10% discount on the second child.  Plus, it’s about a 20-week semester, so that really adds up.  A few sessions in, though, and it feels like money well spent.  It’s clean, very accessible, teachers are enthusiastic and friendly, and they have a very generous make-up policy if you need to go on a different day.  Plus, if you’re unhappy, you can withdraw and get a refund for the remainder of the term.  I’ll take it!

The music geek in me loves that it’s “real” music. Yes, that sounds snobby, but oh well.  I like that it’s a real person with a guitar.  Other classes we do involve circle time and songs, but either mean simply singing along to a CD, or a well-meaning but tone-deaf child development instructor.  Not without worth, but still annoying to my ear.  Here, we had someone who knows how to sing, knows about meter and rhythm and melody and all of that.  I also love that it includes music from a wide variety of cultural traditions.  This session’s CD includes a Hassidic melody, a song in Spanish, a French folk song, and possibly an African tune.

The materials are also great.  You get two CDs of the music (one for the car and one for home), and a booklet that includes all of the words and melodies for all the songs.  Plus, suggestions for modifying them, making up your own variations, and involving kids of different ages.  Plus, chords and chord diagrams if you are guitar-inclined.  I am a poor-to-vaguely-acceptable guitar player, but this actually makes me want to pull it out of the closet and tune it up. (Maybe next week….)

I also love it as an activity, both at this particular age, and as someone who has to wrangle two kids.  It’s structured and routined, but not overly rigid.  It lets the kids be up and active and try dancing, banging on drums, shaking maracas and tambourines, and the like.  It requires me to be an active participant in the class and with my kids’ experience, but doesn’t force them to sit on my lap the whole time.

All in all, a great first session of our new class.  I hope the next two months are just as fun!

‘Tis the season for activity signups.  I’m already registered for the next age group of the developmental classes we take.  15-to-20-month-olds, Thursday afternoons.  Check.  Registration for Music Together, which I’m looking forward to trying out, starts in two weeks.  I’m thinking Wednesday mornings.  There are two gymnastics places nearby that I want to investigate, and have sent emails to try and set up a visit or trial class. As far as organized, paid classes go… I need to stop there.  Fees are adding up quickly, and while I think it’s worth it (especially in the winter, when playgrounds are not as accessible), I don’t want to go totally overboard.

I also finally got around to buying winter jackets and snowpants.  Old Navy was having a sale, and $20 each seemed a lot more reasonable than the nicer-but-pricier ones at LL Bean.  Either way, I have quickly realized that, even if temps are dropping, my kids still want to play outside a lot.

In the meantime, I need to stay on the hunt for good free outings.  Library story hour does the trick, though we went today and Rebecca had a complete meltdown when I informed her she wasn’t allowed to keep the stuffed animal she played with while we were there.  Eventually, back in the car, the Harness Buddy proved to be an acceptably cuddly substitute.

A nearby mall recently installed a small play space near the food court, so that’s an outing with readily available snacks, but to avoid unnecessary shopping, I don’t want to go all the time.

I’m suitably jealous of those friends who actually semi-finished their basements in order to have some indoor play space.  M and I both went downstairs, hoping to see what we had been missing all along, but no dice. Our basement is fairly damp, and though not tiny, has no good space that would work for finishing. Boohoo!

To the cold-winter mom friends out there: any good ideas for wintertime outings or activities that you’d like to share?

Truthfully, my kids were a little on the cranky side, and Daniel just wanted to walk the ink pad around the room and was furious when I told him it had to stay on the table.  But we got a few good prints, and the result is my very first pieces of kiddie artwork! Daniel’s is first, then Rebecca’s:

The brown construction paper was to be a tree trunk in case we were trying to make the design into a tree.  I think one of the singleton moms managed such a thing, but that wasn’t happening with my kids today.  It was otherwise a bit of a rough day.  Daniel kept stumbling and whacking his head on something, and Rebecca was just pissy and throwing mini temper tantrums.  That one’s going to be trouble, mark my words.

But then we had a nice run around in the yard when we got home, and now they’re up (hopefully) napping.  Whew.

You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

Adrift in a sea of leaves.

Today, we started a new class.  It’s at the same maternity/baby center where I’ve taken several other classes.  It’s a little pricey (especially now that I have to pay for the 2nd kid…), but nice to have an outing in a child-safe place with developmentally-appropriate activities.  Gets us out of the house, gives me new ideas, entertains the kids.  And, it’s at 11AM, so gets them good and tired before the iffy PM nap.

The class was fun, seems like a nice enough group. There’s even another set of twins there, though they’re a touch on the younger side, and the mom brought the nanny along (and was surprised that I was there by myself… come on, just do it!).  There were songs and toys and a story and a parachute.  There was even a brief adventure with a water table (next week will, apparently, be sand).  I was really struck by how big they’re getting, and the differences in each of the classes we’ve done.

Almost exactly one year ago, I started my very first mom/baby class there. I was the first one there, as tends to be my way. The oldest baby was 9 weeks, the youngest only 2. My kids were right in the middle.  Almost the whole class was pretty mom-focused.  We learned infant massage, we talked about breastfeeding and sleep and swaddling.  We were all brand new to this whole thing, and the babies pretty much only ate or slept.  We’d try a little tummy time.  All of those babies are now a year old, most are walking. Some moms have gone back to work, some of us haven’t.  One is even expecting her second.  We have a Halloween party planned for next month.

Amazing, the difference a year makes.  First, a picture I took during our third or fourth class.  Big excitement: tummy time and mirrors (Daniel is the noggin in the middle)!  Then, there was today.  Water table and snacks!  Just imagine next year…