Memorial Day Weekend

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Zander had alot of fun. The fun started with a play date at the Richardson-Vogler compound. I took my camera with me, but was too busy and forgot to take pictures. They had planned a camp out for their children and Zachary. Zander was invited also, but I decided that since he had been sick earlier in the week that probably was not a good idea. The kids played and played until dark. After dark, Ms. Alana got out the glow sticks and the kids wrapped as many as they could around them and just ran all over the yard. It was fun to watch. Zander took his home and we hung them from the ceiling fan for him to watch while he fell asleep.

The next day, we filled up Zander's new pool and turned on the sprinkler for him to play in. Those of some of my most fond memories from my childhood. Jenn and I always had a pool and we would stay out there for hours. I am so glad that he has Rosie and Riley to play with, because it is just not as much fun with one.

On Monday, we did errands in the morning and then went back to the Richardson-Vogler compound for the evening. They had their little pool set up to play in. Then they hooked up the water hose to the slide and made a water slide. That was great fun for all. We set up the big pool and started filling it. It should be ready for the kids to swim in by next weekend. That ought to be interesting.

After that, we went to CiCi and PaPa's to eat supper. PaPa grilled hamburgers and CiCi made all kinds of good eats to go along with them. We had a great weekend. After chasing Zander for 3 days, I will be ready to go back to work on Tuesday.

Swim Lessons

Learning to kick

Zander swimming - not happy about it.

Zander started swimming lessons this month. I took pictures the first day, but of course I have not had them developed yet. I was very apprehensive about these lessons. They take 12 children out of his class and 2 teachers walk them over to the pool where they meet the swim teacher. Now, anyone that knows Zander, knows that his attention span is about 1 second long. If he sees something interesting, he is going to go do it, regardless of what he is supposed to be doing. That would include getting into the water. So I was really nervous about this. I decided that I would watch the first lesson. The water is 36" deep.

The first lesson went really well. He had a very sweet teacher, the kids listened very well and the two teachers from his school were right there (although not in the water and did not have on suits, which I did not understand) in case they were needed. I decided that I was overreacting and went on to work.

Last week, I decided that I would go back and take some pictures. He had a new teacher. He had been sick with a high fever for 5 days and this was his first day back to school. He did OK for a few minutes and then he started yawning. Once he started yawning, he then started crying. Once he gets to this point, he needs to go to sleep. I decided to let him stay in and see if the teacher could get his attention back. She proceeded to look at him, with me standing there, and said, " I don't do crying, whining little kids!" and then she jerked him in the pool by the arm. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Of course, this did not help the crying any at all, he is now scared of her and didn't want to do anything else that she said. I knew that was not the time to make a scene in front of the children, so I waited to see what would happen.

If you look at the last picture, you can see that she had the kids just hanging from the side. She is back about 10 feet with another child. This was even making the life guard nervous. He came over and sat beside of me and eventually took Zander and sat him on the side. Even with the blue belt on, he could hardly hold on to the side. Another child got off of the wall and started coming toward her and she pushed his head away from her and he went completely under the water. That was the last straw for me. I took Zander out of the water. The teacher went over to her after I left and said, "You do know that was his mother, don't you?" She replied, " I don't do crying kids." Needless to say the Aquatics Director and I had a rather long talk later that day. He watched the next lesson and even the teachers said that she was a different person and did a great job. I never know what to do in that situation. It has been my experience, if you say something, they take it out on your child when you are not around. Any one else have any advice on how I should have handled this?

I took Zander to his room and he went to lie down in the book center and went to sleep. All he needed was a nap.