Riley and Avery

The girls have really been enjoying their swim lessons. Avery took a little time to warm up to her teacher, but now she has to the be kid who is always right next to the teacher. The first two lessons, she kind of pooped out 10 minutes before the class ended, stopped cooperating, and was let out. Now she is really making an effort to do what is asked of her. She'll put her mouth in the water and blow bubbles, but she still doesn't like splashing and getting water on her face.

Riley is having an absolute blast in her class. Seriously, her laughter fills the pool. Her teacher is really great with the kids. There are only 4 kids in her class. The teacher is like an Uncle Ben, he has a lot of fun with the kids. Riley really digs him. She will put her face in the water, but still doesn't like it much. Both Riley and Avery are getting so much more comfortable in the water. Not too shabby for $17.50 per kid. Riley for sure will be taking lessons again, we'll see if Avery want to as well. She says no right now, although I'm sure she wouldn't like going to the pool to watch Riley take lessons. Rudi has really enjoyed this too. I think he gets more involved as the children get older. He has actively been a part of this swim lesson thing, and we all know how hard it is to get him to do anything in the morning, much less 5 mornings in a row.

Speaking of 5 mornings, I doubt there will be swim lessons tomorrow. The roads are quite icy and they're calling for another 5-8 inches overnight. The people here are seriously paralyzed by ice. Two feet of snow? No problem. Ice? Yikes! But now I don't know how to figure out what level classes to put the in next session. I'm not sure if Riley is done with level one (although that's unlikely since it was a half-session) or moving on.

Speaking of classes...Riley is really really really into foreign languages. She says that her French class at school isn't moving fast enough for her and she wants to learn more and more. She wants to learn French and Chinese in particular. I don't want that language acquisition part of her brain to die. American's just stink at knowing other languages. So anyway, I found the Colorado Springs Chinese Language School which teaches Mandarin Chinese on a semester schedule with two hours of instruction per week. The cost is $125 for the three-month semester. I haven't run it by Riley yet, but thought I'd ask her closer to the semester start, otherwise she may bug me about when she gets to go, etc.

Speaking of school (the segues are coming easy!) I have a conference with Riley's teachers on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll talk more about what to do with Riley next year. It would be nice to have some closure. For once. I think I want her to go to the Montessori school, but it all depends on tuition. If they offer me work over the summer in exchange for tuition, I'd jump on it.

Speaking of summer (oh, yeah, I'm on a roll!) we are still trying to decide when to go to Maryland. I'm thinking about just throwing my hands up and just going July 1st. That way we'll have the money from the education grants for my summer classes. Also summer classes start at the very end of May, and if we leave in July (I'm going to take online courses) that would give me a chance to try and get ahead in my classes so I don't have to do much while in Maryland. Hmmm....

No smooth transition this time...We got the bunk beds via FedEx and they are fabulous and beautiful! Real wood smells so good. So different from the particle board we are used to :) However, one of the upper headboards was damaged in shipping. Damaged as in "broken". I kind of panicked when I discovered it since we bought these bunk beds incredibly cheap ($265 with free shipping!) and though their customer service must suck. You can never find cheap stuff plus good customer service. But I was wrong. Their customer service was great and our new headboard is due to arrive tomorrow via FedEx. I got the lower bed assembled and both girls slept in it for most of the night. I also fell asleep in it, but that's another story. Avery woke at 6:30am and I took her into our bed and nursed her back to sleep (I was too sleepy to try and get her back to sleep in her own bed). Riley came in at about 8am. Not too shabby. They looked so cute sleeping in the same twin bed. Oh, Avery also did not nurse to sleep last night. She nursed a bit, said she was done, asked for lemonade, and then asked for a story (Goldilocks and the Three Bears) and went to sleep without nursing. Nice. And not nice at the same time.