Swimming lessons!

As a kid I grew up with my grandparents having a pool we used to ride our bikes over in the summer and go swimming all the time Grandma and Grandpa's was the place to be especially on those really hot days. I taught myself to swim with the help of my parents and only had swimming lessons in Grade 4 as part of our class.

So when it came to our pool we have at our house and L I had to decide what to do if I would just work with her and teach her how to swim myself, put her into a group swim class or get her private lessons.

I always thought that I would just teach her myself and that she would just start learning as she has been while we use the pool all summer which if she has anything to do with it we will be in the pool every day! I knew I didn't want to do a group swimming class I didn't think she would learn as much as she would be trying to show off or play with the other kids around her. So I had decided that swimming lessons weren't happening at this time and I would teach her.

Walking home the other day from school with L and I happened to notice a sign and I stood there and read it with L yelling at me to hurry up. The sign was for private in backyard swimming lessons! Honestly how perfect L could learn one on one and in her own pool! I took a picture of the poster and headed home. Later that night after L was in bed I pulled my phone out to look at the poster again. I looked up the website that was listed and read all about the program.

The program is set up through the red cross so If L does the required amount of lessons and passes she would have a swimming certification which I thought was pretty cool. On the poster it also had a coupon code for your first lesson which I also thought was awesome. They have a selection between 3 lesson types 30 min, 45min and 60min sessions. They were all reasonably priced as well in my mind!

So I signed the kiddo up and she will have her first lesson in a few days!!

Giving options

I feel in my household that it's important to give my kiddo options when it comes to things like giving up toys. I don't want to just take things and give them away without her knowing I think it's good for her to make those decisions for herself. This is something that I have been doing with her for the last few years.

It all started with an overwhelming amount of stuffed animals that were taking over our room. I sat down with L and held a stuffy up and gave her the option to keep or get rid of. I was very surprised when she narrowed it down to just a few stuffed animals. We ended up getting rid of a whole garbage bag of stuffies!

Our next endeavour was to go through her toys. This one I was positive was going to be a struggle. I told her that the toys she didn't want to keep we were going to give to new babies so that they could have fun and play with them. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! another box of toys off to new babies and a less cluttered room! I can't believe how easy it really has been and even if she says she wants to keep something and I don't think its something that she will ever play with she is super easy to reason with.

Today we tackled her clothes. We went through every drawer and she said she wanted to keep or give away. There were a couple items that she was far to happy to give away because she hates them (jeans). Then there were a few things that she thought she wanted to keep but I didn't think she would need or would still fit so I would reason with her. Most of the time she will give in and give that item up because she will realize that mommy is right and that item doesn't fit with her age and what not anymore.

It makes me proud to think that L can make those decisions and she doesn't get overly upset if at all about getting rid of stuff. Basically I'm glad she's not a hoarder. I know myself I have a hard time getting rid of my own stuff. You always have that thought in the back of your head. What if I need that someday? That I am glad L doesn't have and I hope she never does.  

Morning walk

Today we went on a lovely morning walk in the fog to get to daycare. L loves fog she says its her friend and talks to it as we walk. "Good morning my friend Fog" "look mommy my friend fog is here" she's the cutest! along out short walk to daycare the birds were out and L had fun pointing them all out to me. I love seeing that the trees and plants are starting to regrow and come out. As L would say Spring is BEAUTIFUL! There is a tree on one of the corners near our house that L loves because this tree has Pine cones that fall to the ground and she loves to pick them up. We currently have what L likes to call her pine cone family. I only allow her to pick up the pine cones that are on the side of the fence that we can easily get them I wont allow her to go into that persons yard.  After dropping L off at daycare I took my time walking home thinking about what I was going to write for today's blog. I also stopped a few times to take some pictures of different trees and things that I liked the look of. I would love to do more blogs like this where I take pictures of details and things and post them for you guys and I think that will be something that I will slowly start doing more of as the weather gets nicer and I spend more time outside with my camera. I'm super excited for this year and this summer. Last fall my dad decided that he wanted to ask my aunt and uncle if we could do a big family vegetable garden out on there property in the country and they said yes that we could. So I think soon we will start getting prepared to start this and I am very happy about it. I think it will be a great thing for L as well. 

SO NERVOUS!

So today is the day it's my first in car driving lesson. I have only driven 2 other times in the last 2 years and that was in the country. I have never driven in the city and it scares the crap out of me. did I mention its also raining today! Gah I have butterflies! I know I will be fine and I'm going to do fine it just all makes me nervous. Thats the point of having an instructor to teach me how to do all this so I really shouldn't be that nervous cause she will be there.

I am however excited to get driving and learning so that I can get my license and have more freedom. I have had a car sitting in the driveway waiting for me for the last 2 years. I think its definitely time to get this done and over with and rip off the bandaid.

There is so much that this will allow me to do and I think I will feel better about myself as well. I will be able to just get out and go. Take L to do things on our own without needing anyone else to take us. Maybe I can even get L into gymnastics and be able to take her on my own so that it doesn't depend on what anyone else is doing.

Oh great now its snowing wish me Luck!