2017 Life Logs, Day 213: Welcome, August
Date: Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; High 84, Low 65 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA

As I am sure you are aware, today was the first day of August. Welcome to the last month of summer! The weather today was once again sunny and warm. I went to pick up Sam, Jonah, and Ollie and we headed to Falmouth Heights Beach for swim lessons. And today was another banner day for Jonah. When his class headed to the water, he was the first one in and he dove underwater. I heard Michael, the instructor, yell, “Jonah?” Michael couldn’t believe that Jonah was finally ready to get that head underwater. After lessons, Jonah spent time with friends and Ollie and Sam collected floating eel grass and made ovens (pits in the sand) for cooking stew at the water’s edge. The boys had requested we head home for a low-key afternoon, but when I tried to get them away from the beach, it was difficult. I gave the 15-minute warning and we all headed back into the water. Sam frolicked with his boogie board, Ollie snorkeled, and Jonah asked me to hold his boogie board so he could dive under and come up on the other side. He did this over and over and then decided to do what the swim instructors call ‘whale breach’—jumping up and flopping your whole body down sideways in the water. After many breaches, he finally declared he was ready to go. Unfortunately I have no photos of this as I was in the water with Jonah. Maybe I can capture it tomorrow. But the important thing is that Jonah is evidence that every kid will swim when he or she is ready, and Jonah is now ready. Fantastic!

After our daily ritual of showers, screen time, and lunch at my house, we headed home for a free and easy afternoon. It was so delightful to see the boys sitting outside in the grass reading books, swinging, and just relaxing. Tomorrow will be more of the same with the addition of a 7 pm turtle release. Kemp Ridley turtles, the smallest and most endangered of all sea turtles, come north to visit every summer, and every fall, a few stragglers stay too long and are harmed by the cold. And every fall they are rescued and then rehabilitated at the National Marine Life Center before being released the following summer. Ollie and I found out about this last week when visited the Marine Life Center and tomorrow night we will witness the release of eight turtles on Craigsville Beach located between here and Hyannis. We are all looking forward to this.