Goodbye, Floaty Suit

Tomorrow afternoon, swimming lessons begin. This fact has Cullen swinging back and forth between excitement and trepidation. He loves the water, but has detailed and elaborate imaginings of every possible disaster that might conceivably occur at the YMCA pool. Every worst-case scenario - he has already thought through it, believe me.



We are off in just a few minutes to the pool for a little more practice going under the water. Every time he jumps in, goes under and springs back to the surface when we swim together, he seems so surprised that he has survived once again!



Here is a picture from yesterday, our last picture in his "floaty" suit with the foam built-in. I say "last" not just because he won't need it after this next week, but also because it ripped into pieces somehow not long after this photo was taken. We learned never to pull a little thread on a swimsuit while you're wearing it!

Short and Sweet Summer Break

We've been taking a little bit of a break from any and all structured learning over the past month. Cullen does a baseball skills class on Friday mornings, he still has taekwondo a couple times a week, and he begins swim lessons this coming Monday at the Y. Other than that, we've just been taking it easy for the most part.


I had been planning to begin our first grade year after a trip to the beach in early August, giving us a few more weeks off. Several days ago, as we rode in the car, Cullen asked me when we would be starting school again. When I gave him my answer, he actually started crying! I assumed that he was having such a great time being lazy that he really dreaded getting back into the school work. But NO!!! To my absolute astonishment, he begged to start right away, tearfully telling me how much he missed science and math, etc., like the subjects were best friends he hadn't seen in a long time! Sooo, we've moved up our start date a little! I'm just hoping he still has some of this enthusiasm a few months from now!


A little bit of "Fun School" is what we are doing this week, and next Monday we dive in completely. He is looking forward to history (once he understood what "history" means!) but not nearly as much as I am. That has always been a favorite subject of yours truly!


During our break and much of this week, I've been putting extra time into my little business. It is our peak selling time now, at the beginning of the back-to-school season. (If you're curious, follow this trail: http://www.drosonline.com/. ) Cullen helps where he can - he is really good at sweeping warehouse floors, rolling boxes around on hand trucks and sticking the packing slip pouches on cartons for me. His favorite task of all is trying to knock dents out of metal shelving with a rubber mallet! When he is not busy with manual labor, he works (plays games on my old laptop) at his own desk (a large empty cardboard box) in a corner of my office.

Notice the sign he made for his desk:
If you need fun and love and smiles, he's the man to see!!!
Just don't ask him yet how to spell "office"!