The exciting stuff usually happens on the weekends, but here's a handful of pictures I've snapped with my iPhone over the last week - when it's just W and me.
If Westin could pick any activity to do every day, it would be swimming at "the pool with the big diving boards." We went twice last week, as well as to the lake one day, and he just never gets tired of being in the water. I, on the other hand, want to collapse by the end of the day. Between walking to and from the lake or pool (30-40 minutes each way) and running around, swimming with, or treading water to catch him off the big diving boards, I am finding myself more exhausted now than ever before. He's certainly keeping me in good shape :)
About two weeks ago, there was a day (literally one day) that I thought, "hey, maybe I can teach W how to swim." I looked up some lessons online and thought I'd give it a shot. Hahaha. Silly me. W was not having it and wouldn't even try anything I asked him to do. I quickly decided not to push it and save it for the professionals when we get back to the states. However, the following week, Westin was showing a little more interest in swimming on his own, so I thought I'd sneak in a couple swim lesson moves after he jumped off the edge of the pool to me. To my surprise, he did what I asked without hesitation! (The move was to put his hands on my shoulders, head in the water and float on his belly while I walked backwards). We repeated this exercise after most of his jumps and then stopped when he wanted to. Later that day, in the shallow kids pool, he was practicing floating on his belly and paddling with his arms - totally on his own - but only in shallow water when he could easily set his foot down. He won't let go of me in the big pool, but we're definitely making some headway. I'm just glad he's getting more comfortable and confident with putting his head in, face first and holding his breath for a little while.
Another quick story about the pool - at the lake, there is also a shallow kids pool. The other day, Westin decided he was going to be a swimmer there too. He was splashing around in the water like he was swimming laps, got out, and walked over to me. He then grabbed my hand in a fist and put it to my mouth and said, "now ask me something." It took me a minute, but then I realized he was pretending to be an Olympic swimmer and wanted me to be the person who did the interviews after the event. So for about the next 20 minutes, he would swim in his event, get out of the pool, and I would ask him questions about how the event went or how he felt about his performance. One time I said, "how does it feel to win the gold medal?" He replied, "that wasn't a race for the gold medal. Just a qualifying round."
Good stuff!
Ok, so the other stuff...
Always a big helper at the grocery store
We try to Skype with family and friends every week. Here's W talking to Uncle T
And yesterday we finally talked to Eli and Isaac. The boys were hilarious - they talked and acted as if they were actually together in one room. At one point they were even trying to pass a bat through the computer (pretend, of course). Also during the conversation, they each asked to go to the other person's house about a dozen times. I can't wait to get back to LA just to have these two reunited!
A few weeks ago I heard about an International Mom and Kids Club that meets at a nearby park once a week. The families in the club are from all over the world, but everyone speaks English. We finally made it over to one of the park days and were able to meet a few people. Unfortunately, Westin didn't take to the other kids as well as I thought he would have. I think he just assumes now that no one else speaks English, so he doesn't even try to talk to other kids. I had to remind him several times that the kids spoke English, and by the end of our visit, he was finally running around with a few of the boys. The park, itself, is beautiful...
Walking down the street in Zug, we stumbled on our friend Lightening McQueen.
And we're still working on our daily reading and writing lessons. We finished lesson #40 today. Sixty more to go!
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