pamelamyers | August 26, 2016
Sam and Mark got to working on some of the Lego kits I got him for his birthday. It was really cool for Mark to be re-building all the old sets that he made when he was just a little kid, but this time, with his own little kid. Here they are with the assembled project (one of them anyway) and below it, a picture of Mark as a little kid, with the same set!
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pamelamyers | August 23, 2016
Sam’s school has a new principal this year (the previous one retired). There was a quick meet and greet at the school and Sam wanted to come with me. It was the first time she had been back in the school since her last day. She seemed excited to be there and to look around, not that we saw much since we only went into the cafeteria where the meet and greet was. Sam can’t wait for first grade and riding the bus, or so she says. I do believe her for the most part. She likes school and wants to be back with all her little friends, but I do know my daughter. She has got to be a little nervous about riding the bus, eating lunch at school, being there all day. The whole thing. We just got her bus schedule. She has to be at the bus stop at 7:30 a.m.! The bus comes for her at 7:41. It is going to be so hard getting her moving in the morning. Based on last year’s schedule, I thought she’d get the bus at 8:06. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it trying to get this kid to eat breakfast in the morning. She is going to have to eat fast! We are still waiting on the letter that will tell us who her teacher will be. I’ll keep you posted!
In the meantime, welcome, Miss Trella, to the SLC! We hope you love it as much as Samantha does!
pamelamyers | August 20, 2016
We all went for a bike ride today. There is a stretch of the Schuylkill River trail near Valley Forge that runs totally flat and shaded for a while so it was perfect for Sam. Yesterday, a new pedestrian/bike bridge, the Sullivan’s Bridge, opened connecting the Schuylkill River Trail with Valley Forge National Historical Park. Mark really wanted to ride over it. There used to be a very terrifying walkway/bikeway that was literally bolted to the side of an adjacent motor vehicle bridge on Route 422. As you can imagine, no one liked it. It was only about 4 feet wide and looked like it was ready to fall off the main bridge any minute. Mark rode over it I think once, but I never would. Here is a photo I found on the Internet of the old bridge.
Yeah, scary. The new bridge is 14 feet wide and gorgeous. A nice passerby offered to take our photo.
Look at the view!
We did bike the trail and Sam did really well. On the way back, I yelled, Stop! Stop! A poor little turtle was trying to cross the path. He was likely to get run over! We stopped and were going to move him. I let some oncoming bikers know so they didn’t run him over, and the man stopped and moved him for us. I took a picture of him/her in the grass. Its head was tucked in so it’s mostly just a shell photo, but it’s a nice shell. Sam was so thrilled! First she saw a turtle at the beach, and now while biking! It’s been a turtle kind of summer.
Right before we got back to the car, Mark asked if Sam wanted to stop and rest a bit by the river. She was a little tired, don’tcha think?
Hopefully, there will be many more bike rides in the future, and longer ones, once those training wheels are off!
pamelamyers | August 19, 2016
Sam had her last swim lesson about a week ago — her 12th. She was making such good progress after the first group of six that we decided to go on and do another six, and to schedule them as quickly as possible. She had six swim lessons in about a week. Sam made such tremendous progress over where she was when she started, but I think she was burning out on lessons. By the 11th, she was very unwilling to do things, wasn’t making progress, and seemed a little stressed out about the whole thing. It was a disastrous lesson! The 12th went better, but I could tell she was done done done. Over all, we are happy though. She can swim a bit, she has lost all fear of going under water, she can tread water, and can sort of float. We took her to the pool a few times since the last lesson to help her practice, but she didn’t want to do much. I really think she just is tired of learning. She kept telling me she just wanted to have fun. And she should. Like Mark said, we can’t take the fun out of it for her or she will never really learn to swim. We had hoped she would pass the “deep water test” at our pool this summer, but she can’t swim well enough for that yet. I don’t think she was that concerned about it. I have stopped bugging her about how well she is or is not swimming at this point and am just letting her enjoy the rest of the summer. Today at the pool, there was a little boy taking the test and my mom and I told her we should watch him. He swam the length of the pool and treaded, etc. just fine. I made a few comments, but nothing to pressure her and Sam said, sort of out of the blue, “I think I can pass it next year.” I was pretty happy to hear it. At least I know she still wants to swim for real. We’ll see next year! In the meantime, I’ll take her to the gym and let her keep up her skills in the pool there. Hey, hanging out in an 87 degree heated indoor pool is not a bad thing to do in the cold, cold, Pennsylvania winter!
pamelamyers | August 17, 2016
Wow. I never thought I’d be one of those moms. But I CANNOT WAIT for school to start! Sam is making us all crazy. It really isn’t her fault because all kids eventually get this way over the summer. She has gotten to the point where she is bored, misses her friends, and needs the routine. And honestly, she really does find school fun, so she misses it in general. We have all tried keeping her as busy as possible with two weeks of camp, a trip to the shore (soon to be two), days at the pool, swim lessons, play dates (although, there have not been many of those, and that is my fault), and all kinds of other things. There is only so much you can do though! Sam has never been a kid who does well keeping herself amused without wanting someone to play along with her. I keep telling her that as an only child she needs to learn how to play by herself without asking me, Mark or Grandmom to play with her, but she just doesn’t like it. Not unlike how she still won’t sleep alone, she just doesn’t like being by herself. Sometimes she will keep herself busy all day without asking for much, but not a lot. School cannot start soon enough! Bring on first grade!!