Pool-a-pooloza!

Fresh back from our Florida pool party, we decided to take a quick dip in the pool yesterday at the Wilson Aquatics Center - right down the street from us.  It has been on my list for a while but just never got around to it... my guess we will be spending much much time there!!!!

It is free for district residents.  It is nearby.  IT IS AWESOME! 

I had both Jonah & Vera with me and it was super super fun.

I have been swimming for 40 minutes 2x a week now since we got back from Jamaica at the swanky gym in Bethesda and loving it.  We swam in Jamaica all day long for 10 days.  Most recently, we swam in Florida with our cousins.  This Saturday, Jonah and Mama are going back to the DCJCC pool (Jonah completed a number of swimming classes there when he was 6 mos old) for private swim lessons!  We love to swim!  Swimming is cool!

Anyway back to the Wilson pool.  There is a kiddie pool and yesterday, it had two basketball nets set up and a bunch of balls.  There are these splashy fountains things and these bucket spiller things that came on after we had been there about 30 minutes.  The pool is "zero entry" so it was perfect for my little crew and doesn't get much deeper than 2.5 feet I think.  That being said it is connected to a deeper pool next to it to practice some real swimming with the kids.  We spent a solid hour in the pool having the best time.  Vera even met a buddy from yoga class there!  At one point, a little swimming class started and they brought out the noodles - and the instructor let us have 2 and Jonah & Vera were super psyched about that.

We got home and they were starving - we ate lunch... then Vera was asleep in a instant!

Jonah was tired but would not sleep - he rested...

Perfect Thursday before the imminent snow storm "Nemo" we are supposed to have... ha!  That Nemo... I heard he likes to swim too!

PS:I got around to taing three photos... because you know, we were at the pool and I had both kids... there was sort of a lot going on...

Hellos & Good Byes!

Good Bye Summer - Hello Fall!

Thank godness!

The fall breeze whooshed in yesterday morning!  It made me think of crunchy leaves under our feet, the brilliant colors of autumn, apples(maybe even pumpkins), and YES SCHOOL!!!  We had to find some long pants to wear and everything!

Whoop! Whoop!

Yesterday was Jonah's first official day of school (even if it was a shortened one because he is "transitioning" in a full schedule - and we had an official play date at the playground at his school last week plus an open house on Friday - you can never be too prepared for these things...).

It made me remember how that "not very august August" began... We started August off one Saturday with a fantastic day splashing in another friend's pool on her roof top down by the Navy Yards.  It was wonderful and hot!  The sun was shining and we all swam the afternoon away!   Time to say Good Bye to roof top swimming for a while.

Yesterday, it was Hello to a new schedule.  Hello to a new school bag.  Hello to a new routine.  We really need it over here.

But with the Hello was my first Good Bye to Jonah in his new classroom at his new school.  And wait for it... it was completely uneventful!  How fantabulous is that?!?!

Jonah hasn't been one for Good Byes... especially at school.  So today was a big one.  He walked in to his new classroom - it has birds on the door.  He is in the "Birds or Parrots" class (or Tukim as they call it in Jewish Nursery School).  He saw his new teachers (who he had met last week at the open house) and sat down with the scissors... his new favorite activity. He gave Vera hug and me a quick wave and that was that.  Good Bye. Vera was not so happy about leaving and she sort of had a little hissy fit all the way to the car.  That girl really wants to go to school!

When I showed up just over an hour later to pick him up - he was ALL smiles.  A huge kiss and hug and a big Hello mommy!  His teachers said he had a great day.

Hellos and Good Byes.  Really really heavy & powerful stuff.  Whether it is saying it to a season, your kids, a loved one, a job, a relationship, an address or a way of life... often hard, but part of life.  You know, just like that song by the Byrds (yes, the same name as Jonah's new class) from the Bible passage in Ecclesiastes 2-3:

To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep...

And yes, appropriately so, today is also September 11... 11 years later.  Another moment of Good Byes and Hellos in our national conscience.  All of this, just in time for next week's Jewish New Year, they are my big introspective thoughts for the day.  No matter what happens in life, no matter how many Good Byes and Hellos we must utter, no matter the context, change is what happens in life and often in the midst of chaos.  I see my challenge to make it wonderful and beautiful whatever it may be - and the kaleidoscope helps - but what also is a challenge is to remember the things worth remembering - because forgetting is often worse than saying Good Bye or Hello.  Our memories are what keep us grounded and centered.  They help us not to make the same mistakes twice and to know how to reach our most important triumphs again.  As this season turns from one to another, as we think back 11 years ago today, as we approach the Jewish New Year and as I watch my kids each day becoming more of who they will be, I choose to say my Hellos and Good Byes with strength and introspection, maybe a few tears, but always with a healthy dose of remembering what needs to be remembered for a lifetime to come.

With those "oh so heavy" thoughts on your mind, I leave you with the pictures below- they are just plain fun!  Enjoy!

By the end of the summer, Jonah was swimming like a fish - without the noodle!

with our cool buddies who had a pool on  the roof!!

Vera napped for the first half of our  pool outing...

Finally all four of us - in the pool at once having a great summer afternoon!

Vera is a little fish too!  GOOD BYE SUMMER!

HELLO FALL!  HELLO FIRST DAY OF NURSERY SCHOOL!  HELLO TO NO TEARS AT DROP OFF!  HELLO TO MY BIG BOY!

Lots of hugs on the porch before they hugged again as we sad GOOD BYE at school!  My two sweeties!

Swimming in Suburbia!

We are on a quest to go swimming as much as possible these days.  Partly because Jonah is going to be "cooped" up for a good 10 days in the next few weeks post his tonsil surgery which happens next week and partly because I love swimming and my kids love swimming - and it is freaking hot out! (It also tires the kids out completely and they sleep blissfully through the night on the days I take them swimming...)

Last week we headed back out to Rockville to visit our buddies.  We had such a good time last time we "visited" suburbia - we figured we go for it again! (see our last adventure here).

We headed to the Rockville Swim Center.  This is a surburban county public pool at its finest! 

It totally reminded me of when we were living in Glenview, IL during the summer 2010 and I took Jonah to the county public pool almost every day... there was a toddler pool, two huge pools, water sprays, water slides, snack bar, playground, the works!  Jocelyn went back to Chicagoland last week for work... and going to the Rockville pool - it flooded me with our fun times in Glenview.  What a crazy, stressful and wonderful two years it has been since our summer in Chicago! 

Getting back to Rockville - this Rockville pool was the same deal - and maybe even better than the one in Chicagoland!  At the Rockville pool there was a nice toddler pool with little sprays and I think three (maybe four) other huge outdoor pools (plus some indoor ones as well?!?), water slides, an entire sprayground, a zero entry pool, and snack bar.  We were psyched!

We were the first ones there.  And the only ones for a bit.  I had my big pool bag with the towels, toys, pool noodle and pool floatys... Jonah wanted to swim in the big pool by himself with his noodle!  Whoop Whoop.  We get ourselves ready, we toddle over to the big zero entry pool... Jonah with his noodle, Vera with her floatys... and we hear a big whistle from the lifeguard...

No noodles in the big pool.  No floatys in the big pool. Oiy!  The agony of DEFEAT!

Jonah was crushed.  But we were with our buddy.  He wasn't so ready to jump in the big pool anyway so we relocated to the toddler pool - all toys and noodles, etc were allowed there and carried on!  The kids had a blast.  We had snacks/lunch at the snack bar.  Then we headed to the "sprayground" which my kids absolutely LOVED!!!!  Jonah went on both water slides - laughing the whole time.  Vera even went on the little water slide!

By then, Vera was pretty wiped out.  I changed her out of her swimsuit, buckled her into her stroller, parked her in the shade right at the edge of the big pool.  Then Jonah and I went for a short swim in the big pool (sans noodle) and sang to Vera while we were swimming. 

By then we were all wiped out!  Another rocking and rolling time in Rockville with some great friends! 

toddler pool!

are we in jail?



sports illustrated - eat your heart out!



Jonah did not go down that slide?!?!

the zero entry pool



the sprayground!



water slides!

Jonah loved it!  he also went down the blue one on the left!!!  and Vera went down this one - with me!  Whoop Whoop!

tired.. waiting for Jonah and Mommy - they are in the big pool!

after the big pool - put this kid in the car - he is done!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 2 YEARS MAKES!  ALMOST TO THE DAY!

Jonah at the toddler pool - July 2012 - Chicagoland

with Mama in the big pool!

with mommy splashing in the sprays

Splish Splashing Summer Fun!

Last week, on the heels of our "shore beach weekend" we returned to the city with illusions of joining the US Swim Team and competing in London this summer at the Olympics...

Well, maybe it was just good weather and we wanted to get wet in out back yard... 

Either way, we busted out our little blowup $9.99 pool from last summer's "hot hot in the city" indoor party (we filled it with plastic balls then) and filled it up cold water!

Jonah's eyes lit up - "we have our own pool mommy?" and Vera just giggled!

They had a blast and splished & splashed all over the place.  Jonah even decided he needed to give the flowers something to drink - because, you know, it was hot out.

I can tell there will be many more afternoon sessions in our play pool this summer!  We are also going to try to hit up a number of "big kid" and "kiddie" local pools in the area!  Kick it up for the summer of 2012!