Hard to believe we’re one-third of the way through the year already. Where has time gone?
While you ponder that, enjoy a little rocking-out on the bayou between Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino. That’s some nice piano playing there.
April 2009 Archives
I know postings have been a bit sparse this month. I apologize for that. This should have been up yesterday, but I forgot to follow up in posting it after generate this follow-up to his last swimming video. I have newer — and higher quality — video of Will’s latest swim lesson. You get to see him continue to improve. I love how, even when he doesn’t seem to be going very far very fast, he doesn’t give up and put his feet down but instead keeps going until he gets to the end.
I probably won’t take video next week, but will take some the following week, which will be his last lesson.
I learned 2 things today:
- We must be extremely lucky or rich here in Hanover County. We got a nice double rainbow after a storm front blew through. We didn’t get much rain where we were, as the heavy stuff passed just to our west. We did hear the thunder, though.
- Apparently, it was Santa Claus that parted the Red Sea, not Moses. Daniel looked at the picture in an illustrated (kids) book of Bible stories, and the picture of a older man with a scraggly, white beard was identified as Santa Claus. When I told Daniel his name was Moses, Daniel corrected me, “No. Santa Claus.”
Of course, when Will was this age, he saw Charlie Daniels performing during the Super Bowl pre-game show and said, “Santa Claus.” And he really did look like Santa Claus.
Even the swim instructor was amazed at what Will accomplished today. Up until now, comfort in the water, whether lying on the front or the back, has been a struggle for Will. The kicking and floating was not comfortable. Dunking the head and blowing bubbles was fine. Diving to the bottom was fine. But he just wasn’t comfortable stretched out.
We had off last week, because of Easter. When he came back this week, he was almost changed. I don’t think it was the new swim goggles (we lost his previous pair). He struggled again for about the first 10 minutes. Then the instructor took Will out halfway down the lane and just started having him go back and forth. Then he came up and had him go back and forth from the backstroke-flag stand to the wall. Sometimes, Will needed to stand, but he’d go right back into it. Will just loved it — he was finally doing something like swimming.
(Sorry about the video quality. I wasn’t prepared with even the Canon camera to take video. As I said, this was a bit out of the blue. So I had to take video with the cellphone camera.)
That last part is really cool. Now, he not only jumps in (something he generally wouldn’t do on his own until about 6 weeks ago), but comes off the bottom and starts to swim. I’m almost about to cry, I’m so proud of him.
Easter content will be coming, once I can sort through it all. (Hopefully, better than the Christmas and Thanksgiving content I still have.) However, there has been nice and not-so-nice news to pass on.
- Kellie’s mom had a birthday last week. I won’t give away how many years, but she’s plugging along and enjoying time with her grandchildren.
- Unfortunately, one of Kellie’s aunts passed away at the beginning of last week. I believe she was 88 and lived a full life. She was always kind to me and the kids, and I will remember her for that. Kellie and her mom are doing okay.
No family news. Just something a little strange and different that I wanted to pass along. (I may use Fridays to pass on news like this on occasion.)
It appears we don’t have to hold the tournament this weekend. The rats down at the Science Museum of Virginia have predicted that Connecticut will win the championship on Monday night, beating UNC. Last year, the rats were 3 for 3 in predicting the Final Four.
Although, given that this is only the second year they have done it, I’m not sure the statistical sampling is good enough to believe in it. I guess we’ll have to see.
