Sibling Love

What warms a mother’s heart more than looking into the back seat to see her kids holding hands?  Or Tucker tearing up the morning that Molly got up first and they couldn’t wake up on vacation in the same room, giggling at each other?

Vacation Pictures

   

The Leaves on Tucker’s Thankful Tree

At preschool this year, Tucker’s class had a thankful tree that the children all periodically added leaves to.  They sent the leaves home with him at the end of the year, and I found some of them particularly endearing.

Molly at the Park

Swim Lessons

The picture above sums up pretty well what Tucker thinks of swim lessons.  He is not very much a fan.  The first lesson this year he wouldn’t even get in the water and the only thing he would do was kick sitting on the side of the pool.  He even cried when I asked him to try as hard as he could to participate with his class!  I was hoping another year would have cured his fear of the water but that first lesson was a repeat of last year.  Last year I had to get in the water for him to do anything the entire time. 

After consulting with Austin, we decided to call in the big guns and shamelessly bribe him.  I told him that if he tried everything his instructor asked at the next lesson, I would buy him a toy at Dollar General (the only store in our little town that has toys besides the thrift store).  (We also went early to work on things just the two of us.)

Anyway, the bribe was so worth it.  Tucker totally changed his tune.  His little body was stiff and he looked like he was in physical pain, but he did everything the instructor asked.  And he was so proud of himself and picked out a remote control car, and is in love with it.  Of course, he has been campaigning for something every day since then but no dice with that, except for an ice cream treat a couple days. 

He was even brave yesterday when he almost drowned!  (Slight exaggeration, but he did go down for a few seconds.)  He was holding onto the edge, and the class was in an area that he could touch IF he stood on tip toes and made his face look up.  But he must have thought he could stand up regular, and he let go and went down.  The instructor was 10’ away holding another kid, but I was right there to grab him.  I thought that that would be the end of swim lessons for the summer, but he got right back in and tried more at his next turn.  I was pretty impressed because that situation was legitimately scary.

Sibling Love

 

Molly has been very into giving Tucker hugs lately.  Tucker giving Molly a hug is not big news—he’s up for hugs all the time—but vice versa is a new story.  Molly also likes to sometimes get on Tucker’s back and ride him like a horsey around the sunroom.

  

First Fish

Tucker got his first fish on Tuesday night, a large mouthed bass and was absolutely thrilled.  The boys cooked it up and ate it as soon as they got home.  Tucker is hooked!

Champion Blastball Player

Tucker finished his first sport season last week, and stood about 10 feet tall after closing ceremonies with the medal with his name on it hanging around his neck.  (Soon he will realize how meaningless participation medals are, but I enjoy his unspoiled bliss now!)  In case you’re thinking this is poor attendance for a team photo, his blastball team actually only had four players on it!  It took informal to a new level, which I thought was dumb at first but ended up working well. 

Tucker is not necessarily super inclined towards conventional sports, but this team piqued his interest in learning how to catch and throw and he also has gotten the idea of needing to field the ball when the other team hits, and the idea of running to the base after hitting.  T-ball will be a big step up next year: they will even need a glove!

Quote of the Day

“Molly Junebug, where did you come from?” Austin asked, as Molly ran around the room like a complete maniac.

“She came from Jesus!” Tucker replied enthusiastically.