Sleigh Bells Ring

Oh my goodness, is it March Break yet? I was really looking forward to a downtime weekend this coming weekend but unfortunately that got scheduled out from under me, hopefully it'll snow HARD! I don't mind company but February has just been a flat out month and it's not my parents that are visiting, they're easy to take care of and one weekend off would be really swell! It's hard to build a case when the next weekend is March Break and a dead zone though. It's just an extension to the exhaustion.

I convinced Matt to take Alex to Gym and Swim Saturday, I just couldn't deal with the headache that's become. There is a 'problem child' in that session to begin with. He's physically all over the other boys and there's rarely anything done about him, meanwhile his mother's flapping her trap about how unstrict the schools are now a days...I have to sit and put my iPod on to drown her out and not rip into her. Anyway, Alex worked very hard with his Pappy over Christmas and his swimming improved 10 fold. He was assessed at the beginning of the term and went right up to the max level of the group. Unfortunately that meant being grouped with the demon spawn. The second class Alex had done EVERYTHING they were supposed to without whining and did it better than the rest of his class and was peacefully treading water when hell child swam up and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to push him back through the water. Alex sat out and had dry heaves when I got him to the change room. The next session? They put Alex down to a beginner level because he didn't look comfortable, well if you'd been paying attention Barbie you'd have seen why he was in pain. It's been a big fight ever since to move him back up. I'm sooo frustrated. He loves swimming but he's frustrated at having to sit back and blow bubbles when he can swim widths of the pool. I'm not a competitive mom, if he can't do something he can't but how do you empirically measure 'comfortable'?? He's not learning and he's no longer having fun with lesssons and justifiably so and this is OUR hard earned money going into the program. I'm really conflicted as a consumer I'd be asking for a refund by now but really, I'd be taking lessons away from Alex and then he's punished yet again. Sigh...

While the boys were gone I did some fiddly much neglected house work, like washing the valances and cleaning the blinds (dark blinds nice, dust magnets though). I stripped the guest bed and put in more loads of laundry. I even cleaned off some of the grimy prints on the walls. It was nice cleaning and not having the two of them behind me messing something else up! I got their stuff out and ready for the sleigh ride and put on a snack for the quick transition from swim to sleigh. The beaver sleigh ride was fun, although my back is paying for it ;) The potluck was fun but a bit awkward. We're a suburb's troop which equates to no other 29 year old mothers, Matt who's just shy of 34 is probably one of the closest in age to me (but there are at least some there that are his age!) so I really feel out of place. In the city there'd be younger families still in apartments and such but not in the burb's (although I'd have more mother's like the gym and swim mom's so maybe it's better just to be uncomfortable than completely frustrated). The kids had a grand time at the lodge especially since there'd been a birthday party just before we got in and they left all of the balloons. I made Alex one popular kid by teaching him about static electricity and what you could do with that and the balloon!

Sunday I got a little more stitching in (did some Saturday while catching up on Stargate) and tidied up more of my stitching stuff upstairs for transport down to the craft room. No more loose hand dyed's to sort out, hooray! Alex was pretty excited to see my summer dragons, knowing that they'll be for his room whenever they're framed. He and I are still suffering from the aftermath of our bug, decreased appetite and generally just wishywashy so it was a quiet day. I did have to buy another of the nifty 'crafting tackle box' I'd picked up last week, the first was confiscated for tidying up the ninja turtles. Now that they have a place they're played with ALOT more.

Tonight should be stitchy, the Doctor Who season finale's on as well as Heros (well not the season finale of that one), good night to sit and stitch :)