Vacation Bible School. Exactly 14 hours after Chris and I placed our feet back on American soil, Sam and I walked into church to participate in VBS 2011. It was pure "Pandamania!" We spent the whole week learning about how "God is Wild about You!" Sam was in the youngest class of the preschool program. I'd love to tell you how much he loved every minute of it, but that would be a lie. It was a bit overwhelming for the toddlers, especially the one who'd been all over the country for the past three weeks. He was happiest in his little classroom - never made it through the story/worship time once. One day I asked him if he liked storytime today and he said, "I cry. illiam cry too." Poor guy. BUT all was not lost. If you asked him about the panda stamps on his hand he'd yell "Thank You God!" and by the end of the week, he could do the motions too. That made a mama's heart happy :-)
I was in charge of the Friday Night Dinner this year. Not gonna lie, it was a good bit of work. And if you asked me at about 5:35 on Friday night, I'd have told you it was a disaster. The food showed up at 5:20, I had 250 people coming at 5:30 - YIKES. But at the end of the night we fed 270 people in an hour in a building we weren't sure could hold that many for a meal. And then we played games, bounced in multiple bounce houses, sang songs, etc. Everyone else told me it was a hit, so I'm choosing to believe them!
Swim Lessons. The very next week Sam and I started a 2 week swim class. We went everyday (Mon-Thur) for a half hour. It was a Mommy-And-Me class for 6-36 month olds, so the class was a bit varied. We sang songs, played with kickboards, and bubble belts. Sam's favorite was the "Piser Song" (Itsy Bitsy Spider). He also loved the balls that he could throw and "swim" to. He is now quite accomplished at kicking and paddling when you hold him in the swimming position, and can blow some mean bubbles, but not all at the same time. If you get him to the wall he can climb out. He's awesome at jumping off the edge.
But going under must still be on his terms. I lost a little bit of his trust by forcing the issue - he won't let go of me in the pool anymore! But the last day he would let go of the wall and "swim" to me (i.e. go under water and move his arms and legs until I grabbed him). I was a little bummed he wouldn't try the water slide, but they made the toddlers wear life jackets to do it and he really doesn't like tunnel slides. All in all, we both had fun.
Summer Reading. So this was our first week without any planned activities since mid-May. That was surprisingly daunting for me! We did schedule a playdate, but we also decided to check some summer reading programs off our list. We made piles of books we've read over the last few weeks, made our lists, and went to various locations around town giving away free books for those who read 10+ over the summer. Yeah for free books! We've earned 3 so far.
There is still a great deal of hot, sticky, nasty summer weather ahead of us. Its looking like the baby pool will get much use, and the library will get many visits. As will the mall playgrounds. I'm thankful that our church plans weekly playdates over the summer, too! And believe it or not, we aren't done traveling yet! So stay tuned as our adventures continue...
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