Pool Days

We've spent the past few days playin it up at the pool. The pool is so much cleaner than the beach. This is nice. The sore eyes and floating ears from the pool water are unfortunate side effects, but we love it all the same.

I've been working on teaching Emma to swim. She started out really scared of the water, but as the hours have ticked by, she's become more comfortable and more willing to branch out and try new things. Such as jumping into the pool completely on her own, without someone holding her hand and being directly in her path for her to crash into. This is a nice development. I really thought she'd broken my fingers a few times and my wrist once.

Today, my cousin Carrie and her little boy, Aidan, came down to play with us for the day. We had such a blast with them. I was able, thanks to Carrie, to get some pictures of Emma jumping in, because, let's face it.. she still won't jump in completely on her own, someone has to be in the vicinity of her path for her to feel comfortable jumping into the big blue abyss... at least this is how she seems to view it.

I guess it's a good thing that she's got a certain amount of fear when it comes to the water. Well, I know it's a good thing. Like I've told Tony, though, it's a little hard for me to understand her fear of moving her arms and legs simultaneously and moving through the water. I never took swimming lessons, I've just always known how to swim. I'm going to find somewhere to get her some formal lessons when we return home, though, because she really is learning quickly and getting better and better at holding her breath.

Aidan was loving the throwing up in the air. What kid doesn't?

He was a little crabby toward the end, so he got the crab towel. :)

It's been pretty sad being at the beach without Tony. I guess because we had such a great ten days here while he was home. I've found myself being quite short tempered and easily irritable since he's been gone. I don't like this side of myself. I get so angry with myself and just generally feel a sense of self-loathing when I loose my temper with my kids. I feel like a horrible parent and an even more horrible human being. I'm ready to be a complete family again. I'm tired of being fractured. So, it's a great relief that my grandma was here this week with us, because she's really kept me company and helped me a lot with the kids and I'm so thankful for my friends who've come down to spend time with us to further keep my mind occupied and away from the darkness of loneliness.

So, on this note, I'm going to tell you another story of why I've hated myself this week.

While we're here, Noah and I share a room. Noah is a light sleeper a very light sleeper and since I am NOT a morning person, I've been turning my phone to silent at night to keep from him being awakened by some annoying telemarketer at 7am when I am SO NOT done sleeping. So, I never do this at home. NEVER. Noah's room is a mile away from mine at home and I'm really paranoid about missing an important call. You never know what may happen that someone may need to get up with me.

Anyway, all this blah, blah, blah... boils down to this... one of my favorite girls, Jessica.. you've heard about her on here lots and odds are, you've read her famous blog. Well, she was coming to see us with her kids yesterday. Have you guessed what happened yet? I forgot my phone was on silent and she came earlier than I was expecting, I guess.. she ouldn't find me (because we didn't plan well, I didn't give her directions the day before, nor did I give her the house phone number) AND she couldn't get my horrible friend butt on the phone, so after she drove ALL THE WAY out here, she turned around and drove home. OMY GOSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~!!!

So, of course, I called her when she was half way back home. This is when my sorry self saw that she'd been trying to call me forever.

Have I said I hate myself?

WEll, not all the time, just when I do really stupid S**T like this!

So, anyway, I'm professing my horror to you, because she was nice enough not to blast me on her blog.

I still don't know why she doesn't hate me. She should. She totally should.

So, since she doesn't, I love her all the more and I'll probably never again put my phone on silent. It'll just be on vibrate from now on when Noah and I are in the same general sleeping vacinity.

Oh, and Jessica and her clan and Amber and her clan are coming to visit me tomorrow. Can you believe it? OH, the mercy I've been shown. And she'll be really happy with me for giving her blog some exposure. Go visit her. She'll love it. She loves being famous.