2017 Life Logs, Day 200: Swim Lessons and the Barnstable County Fair
Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High 84, Low 67 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was the ninth swim lesson of the summer for both Sam and Jonah and it was a breakthrough day. Yeah! Sam can now swim long distances. Today he, along with his classmates, swam out to the buoy and back, which is the goal of the intermediate swimming class. Then they had multiple races and Sam was right there in the front of the pack.
After Sam’s lesson, Jonah had his lesson and he was swimming the required distances for the second day in a row.
But the real breakthrough for Jonah came after the lessons. Jonah and I were throwing a water football back and forth on the water’s edge and then Jonah decided to get into the water and throw and catch from there. And he did this without his floaties and he didn’t even seem to notice. Previously you couldn’t drag him into the water with the flotation support, but today he was going after the ball into water over his head and not even noticing that he was doing it all on his own. He is still reluctant to get his whole head in the water, but we’ll get there. After tomorrow’s lessons, we take a break for a week while Sam and Jonah attend Fort Building Camp at Falmouth Academy. But they will get one more week of lessons during the first week of August. Ollie is still wearing his floaties, but he is treading water, swimming freestyle, and floating with support. He loves the water and I don’t think he will need the flotation support much longer. So, tomorrow we will have a special celebration of water accomplishments to date.
The boys had made the decision that we would leave the beach right after lessons today and head home for a relaxed afternoon of play. But Sam has met a new friend in his swim class and he really wanted to stay at the beach and play. Jonah and Ollie agreed, so we extended our time at the beach. All three boys had a great time playing ball games on the beach, burying themselves in the sand, making sand forts, as well as playing in the water.
By the time they were ready to leave, it was almost 1 o’clock. At that point, I needed to get some lunch into them quick, so we went to my place which is less than a half mile from the beach to eat. It was much later than expected before I got them home to play. I was going to take them to Heritage Gardens tomorrow afternoon, but we are scratching that to have the promised time to play at home.
Jed came home early and we all got ready to go to the Barnstable County Fair. This is a yearly affair that the boys love. It has become an annual tradition for the Goldstones to go on Wednesday night so they can attend the Demolition Derby. We watched the blacksmith, visited the horses, cows, chickens, and rabbits, listened to the Brian Boru Pipe Band, watched a magician, saw some amazing Clydesdales, and rode the rides.
I headed home around 9 pm but the Goldstones were returning to see the final Demolition face-off of the evening. I think I’ll have very tired little boys tomorrow. But that’s what summer is all about.
