Saturday, August 25, 2012

My grandkids under water!

I loved teaching baby swimming lessons for 35 years, but the most fun of all is teaching my own grandchildren!  Andrew inspired me to make the Learn to Swim with Miss Bea dvd when he was a baby.  He is my main star!  And now he is 8 years old.
Baby Andrew on the dvd cover

Knowing that I would only have a few more times in our neighbor's pool with the grandchildren, I got a cheapie underwater camera and took some pictures.  

Already now the water is much cooler.  

Caroline wouldn't even jump in this last time.  

Caroline is freezing after 15 minutes in the pool!

I had to bribe her with my hat to even get her in the pool and let her dunk me more than usual to get her to stay in the water.  
Caroline just swam to get the hat from the bottom.  We are practicing blowing bubbles.

Anyway, a few weeks ago when it was still hot outside everyone came to swim.

Mimi and grandkids minus Isabella.  (Look for her at the end of this post.)

They went under and through the hulahoop

Lauren

Lauren
Caroline

My kids swim with and without goggles so that they don't get addicted to the goggles.

Read about Andrew's first swim meet.

Durham is not too sure about the whole going under the water thing.  
I don't get to practice with him very often.  
Durham
Look at these eyes!
Maybe we'll have hot enough days again to heat up the pool again- and warmer nights!
I'm looking for an indoor pool that's closer than the one I used last year!
Isabella slept the whole time!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Good-bye Summer!

This weekend we went to the condo one final time before school started - for the kids that is!  I have been retired one year now and this is the second time that I can relax at this time of year and not be all stressed out about going back to school!  Don't forget that I loved it while I was doing it but now that I'm not, it just makes me happy!  We sure packed in lots of crabbing and beach in two days!
Andrew, Lauren and Isabella are ready for the beach!
Some beach activities:

Making real sandcastles!

fishing for small fish to play with!

crabbing at the pier

Yummy!  Crabs for dinner!

hermit crabs to play with!


Andrew found this moon shell with his feet while we were looking for sand dollars in the water.
It is the biggest moon shell we had ever found!  He said that he felt it and thought it might be a crab but still decided to pull on it.  It was stuck in the sand like it is stuck on his hand here!


Isabella is six weeks today!  She still mostly sleeps or cries for her bottle.  These moments of communication are so special!


Sunday, August 5, 2012

I'm not tired of the Olympics!

Being retired, I am watching all the Olympics that I want.  I am recording the three channels that I get. In 24 hours this weekend I recorded 36 hours of competition and commentaries.  Of course I fast forwarded much of it...  and I had the remote control to watch all I wanted!

Don is begging me to watch something else with him tonight.  Before he went outside earlier, he said, "I'm tired of the Olympics!" :( 




But I cannot tire of the swimming and the gymnastics! I was so involved in the tennis that when my sister called she did not recognize my voice!




I love hearing the stories from the different cultures and backgrounds and the obstacles and hardships that many of the athletes have had to overcome to be there.  Did you know that Ryan Lochtes has a Cuban mother with a background much like mine.   In this Interview with his mother she tells how he loves the Cuban food that his 91 year old Cuban grandmother prepares for him.



No matter the age, the competitors give their all.  The oldest male participant is 71-year-old Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan who guided his horse, Whisper in the dressage test at the equestrian arena.  This quote is from an interview with him:
 Faced with the inevitable question of whether this would be his last games, or whether he intended to return at Rio aged 75, he paused for an instant.
"No. I want to but I don't think I can because it's very difficult to find a horse to bring me to Brazil," he said. "My present horse is too old for that." Present. A small but significant word.


I think that the sports that we like to watch the most are those that we have tried ourselves.  Today the synchronized swimming started and I love it because I did some of that 30 years ago.  



I also get hypnotized by the sports that are so amazing!  - For me, the speed of ping pong, the stamina required in long distance races, and the awesome height and trapeze ability with the trampoline and the uneven parallel bars.


I wish they had shown more fencing, or did I miss it?




My least favorite Olympic sport? Women's weight lifting!



One more week of Olympics left!!

How about you?  What are your favorites and what is your least favorite?  Let's not comment on the commentaries or the announcers or the fact that we had to get used to watching a competition where we already knew who won!  That was a new one to me!

Google likes the synchronized swimming too!

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Savor the Moment!

I have five grandchildren and want to spend my time with each of them.  I love them each so much that I want to be a part of their life.  I know that I cannot be with them all the time, (nor do I want to :)  but it is so special when I share my time with them.  I try to be there when I am needed and at other times too.  When I am not with them I feel that I am missing something very important.

Last week, Mary and Brian had their other two children with her family at the beach for the week and I volunteered to watch Isabella - almost one month old - so that they could go see the new Batman movie.  

I was so excited that she was awake for me.  We played and I gave her a baby massage.  We loved it!  (Read about the power of touch in Touchtime.org

After her bottle,   I burped her twice and then thought maybe she had another one so I held her while we watched some TV.

We were watching a new program on TNT, Perception.  We like it!  At the end, he was talking about time, past and future.  We only have the present and to "Savor the Moment."

Well, I started crying as I held my beautiful, sleeping, Isabella.  Too soon, her parents came and took this picture and took her away!  

Savor the Moment!