Adam's first swimming lessons!

It's been a few weeks, so I thought I would check in (with the 8-10 people that will actually read this haha!). We have been plunged into winter now, and last week was really cold but dry, and this week has been warm but rainy so far. It seems you can't get warm and dry here in the winter, so if you want warm you better learn to deal with the precipitation! We've just been hanging out, not really doing too much. Adam did start swimming lessons the Sunday before last! He's had two lessons now and he is doing so much better than I thought! He kicks when the instructor asks him to, he is getting braver with putting his face in the water (still not a desired activity, but it's coming along!) and he follows instructions so much better than I ever could have imagined. It's hard for us to see how much progress he's making at school because it doesn't always translate into his everyday life, but I can tell you that it only took about 5 minutes into his first lesson that I saw the fruit of the hard work that his teachers at RSA have been putting in. I have so much hope that he will actually learn to swim someday soon! It might not be in this session of lessons or even the next, but it looks like something this is possible. And I didn't know if it would ever be possible. He's had two different teachers (the regular instructor was sick this past Sunday so there was a sub) and both of them say he is just the most polite and fun boy to work with. Music to this momma's ears, let me tell you. So thankful this spot opened up, it seems like the timing was perfect!

Nathan may have turned a corner with his potty training. I am very cautiously optimistic - I definitely don't want to get my hopes up too high! Last week, he had a #2 success ON the potty!! Yay!! He said he needed to poop so I put him on the toilet, and he said a few times he wanted to try again later, but I kept trying to distract him so he would stay on the toilet. After a few minutes, it finally happened! Oh the joy I felt! He didn't repeat it until yesterday (so about a week later) when he got up from his nap and went to the potty. At first he just peed and got up, but then he went right back to the potty saying he needed to go poop. I was not terribly hopeful, as really from the day of that big success last week until yesterday, he hadn't been doing well at all in the potty department, even having just pee accidents way more often than he had been. Very discouraging to say the least. BUT as they say, sometimes the darkest hour comes before the dawn! I ran outside to meet Lynsey on the sidewalk coming home from school, and as I came inside, I heard the toilet flush. I have never been happier to see a dirty potty bucket, let me tell you! The evidence was clear, he had done it! Completely on his own, no encouragement from me!! No accidents or #2 successes since then, but I am crossing my fingers that he might finally have figured this out. It's only been almost 3 months, yeesh! It's about time, I say!

More about Nathan - he is so opinionated these days! He cares about what pajamas he wears (what a pain!) and he has learned to change his socks by himself. One day after putting him to bed, I walked in to see several pairs of socks littered all over the floor, I guess he hadn't found quite the right ones yet:). He has been saying some of the funniest things lately. The other day at bedtime, he looks at his books on his bookshelf and says, "I want new books". I told him he had lots of books, and he says, "I want fresh books". So silly! He has been a bit more resistant to going to the gym lately as well, but he always seems fine once we get there. I think he's starting to miss me a bit now that the novelty has worn off. He doesn't cry when I leave him so that's good, I am trying not to feel guilty about it. It's only an hour 3 - 4 times a week, and the girls there are great. I know they play with him and color with him. Another thing we noticed with him is that he loves to sit and play with Lego. I guess we need to start taking that out for him more!

Lynsey and I went to Disney on Ice last Saturday! It was a great show, I know Lynsey really loved it (so did I actually:)). I was really happy I took her. I dream of a day when we can all go to these events as a family - who knows how far away that is!

I have some pictures of Adam's lessons on my phone but I don't know how to put them on the computer right now. Same as with the Disney on Ice performance - they actually didn't allow cameras with detachable lenses. Sometime in the near future I'll take our camera to lessons so I can get some better pictures of our little swimmer:).

Halloween fun, Vancouver fun!

Since my last post, Adam has worn a Halloween costume and we celebrated 7 years of being parents:). Not sure which one is more remarkable! Halloween was fun, and it was so nice to see Adam participate a little bit! He wore his costume at school and for the brief time he spent trick or treating! He didn't make it too far trick or treating, he just couldn't understand that we weren't going into all these houses (how strange it must have been for him, not understanding social conventions - I don't blame him for being confused!). Brian took him home and Nathan, Lynsey and I carried on with some friends of ours. Nathan had fun but he got tired after a while so I had to carry him to houses (and then eventually he just stayed in the stroller). All in all a fun night, and we got so lucky with the weather! It had been raining cats and dogs earlier in the day, and it was dry for a short time in the afternoon and early evening, and started pouring again after we got home! Phewf, close one!

Nathan is cracking me up these days! He loves to sing along to songs, but he's always just a tiny bit behind:). He is doing really well with potty training and I can't help but feel we are only days or maybe a few weeks away from him catching on to poop - he pooped in the bathroom again today. His awareness is increasing! Adam has been home the last few days with a cold and it's been difficult - some days, I find the strain of not being able to communicate with him almost unbearable. It didn't help that I did something to my back as I was trying to deal with him in a meltdown today, talk about adding insult to injury (or another injury to injury??). There are days when it just doesn't seem to be getting any easier, but there are also days when it does, so I should just focus on those days!

We had a really nice weekend in Vancouver this past weekend! The drive there was not so great, we had the very unfortunate circumstance of being stuck in a 6 mile backup because of an accident - after being on the road for an hour and a half, we were just past Everett. Seriously depressing. The border wait wasn't too bad, about 15 minutes, but then we got to Vancouver and we got stuck in ANOTHER backup because of an accident!! Luckily this one wasn't too bad, only about a 25 minute delay, but at that point we had been on the road for almost 4 hours (Lynsey and Nathan had been in the van even longer because we drove down to pick up Adam and then gassed up and THEN got on the road, a total of 5 hours in the van for them with no break!). They did great though, better than Brian and I:-/. When we got there, we met up with Patrick and Jamie, friends from Edmonton that also happened to be in Vancouver that night - they came swimming with us. We went to the Aquarium the next day which was fun, and didn't do much the rest of the weekend. Frances and I did some shopping Saturday afternoon (got stocked up on Lululemon workout clothes!) and Brian and I did some shoe shopping on Sunday, but other than that, we took it easy in the hotel. We had adjoining rooms so the kids had lots of room to run back and forth, and there were full kitchens in each room so we could eat in a lot. It was really fun! I like Vancouver - maybe we'll end up there some day;).