Loving My Summery Kids

This seems to be the summer of leaps and bounds for Zoë. A month ago, she could barely get her balance bike to the bridge. Now she rides a 2-wheeler with training wheels a mile each way to the beach every day. And a parent has to jog to keep up. A month ago she refused to go in the water. Now she can swim out to the water trampoline with only a noodle to keep her afloat.

The other two are having a great summer too. When we're not at the beach (every morning) or in our part of the lake (every afternoon), they're reading books, doing Reading Eggs on the computer (learn-to-read program), or writing cards/stories/letters/etc. They seem to be improving every day. They're also riding their 2-wheelers faster than I can jog and one of their regular requests is "time me on a running race" as they dart off to the bridge and back. They call all of these efforts their triathlon training (gotta be like mom) and their Kids of Steel race is coming up next weekend. Because we inevitably compare them with each other all the time, I tend to focus on all the ways in which they're different. So it's funny when strangers comment on how close to identical they are, or, like this morning, when I asked each of them to step on the scales and both of them weighed exactly 42.2 lbs. Molly's about 1/2 inch taller though!

We went down to Sick Kids on Monday for Molly's 6 month post-surgery check-up. The surgeon was impressed enough with her progress that he called in every resident and fellow he could find to show off his handiwork. She has about 20 degrees of flex in her ankles that weren't there before. As a result, her running gait has completely transformed, so she no longer looks like a speed-walker when she runs. She's getting seriously fast, and her balance is improving. Seems like quite a success story.

I spent part of the morning glued to the computer "watching" my niece Erin compete at the diving junior nationals. After a difficult competition yesterday, she rebounded to finish 5th in the country today. And she still has another year in the 10-11 age group. As always, she is our athletic and general kick-ass role model.

Here's Jacob belting out an ad-libbed pirate tune, while grasping his noodle. Most people won't be able to pick out the lyrics, but they include "I'm a pirate on the open sea. A parrot on my shoulder. My only company." His talents are unique.