July 24

I am back in the swing of things. We went uniform shopping on Tuesday. I had thought it was optional to have Sonia come along and would just make things a bit easier. Technically that is true. Experientially…oh my goodness! I am sooooo glad she was there. From the moment I read through the lists of the different school uniforms my head has been spinning. I made my own lists to help myself think. My head still felt like it was spinning. It felt like an out of body experience to be having the girls try on uniform clothes at Old Navy (thank goodness someone told me that for Amy we could get stuff there; for Sarah we could only get some of her things there). Sonia and I each took charge of giving a girl things to try and sorting what we were keeping and what didn’t fit. My head was still spinning. Then we went to a restaurant for lunch, which felt like a very exciting and rare occurrence. Then we went to the uniform store to get the remaining items for Sarah, some of which have to be monogramed with her school’s name. As I was paying, the girls did what we all felt like doing and just flopped on the floor. When we got home all four of us promptly napped.

We put the bags in the laundry room to keep the girls from getting into them before I had sorted through the clothes again to make sure we wanted to keep everything. Ha! Wednesday morning Amy came downstairs wearing one of her school jumpers. I went upstairs and discovered all of the bags had been opened and the contents were strewn all over the laundry room floor. Sarah was in her new gym shorts, which I had known would be her favorite item. I made them take the clothes off and I hid everything in a new place. They are both excited for school to start so they can wear their new things. Amy also gets a scared look when she thinks about school. It will be a big change for her to be in full-day school 5 days a week. I am more scared about Sarah’s experience because I will be farther away if anything happens.

I took the girls to the pool this week by myself. Twice. It was mostly easy and fun. The trickiest part is that when anyone needs to use the bathroom we all have to get in our towels and shoes and go inside and down 2 flights of stairs or one flight and an elevator ride. Sarah sometimes now says she needs to use the potty as soon as we get back from a bathroom trip. When I ask if this is so she can ride in the elevator she says yes. At least she is honest! In the water I feel relaxed about the idea of the girls learning to swim. Mainly, I’m not worrying about it. I encourage and invite some things that might help them learn. I figure the most important thing at this point is that they enjoy being in the water and continue to explore how their bodies move in the water. Amy is doing lots of mermaid moves and some bunny and bicycle moves. Sarah stays on the steps or walks back and forth and sometimes lets her legs float out when she is holding the railing.

Amy, Sarah, and I played Candyland this week and I had to remind myself how impossible such a thing used to seem. There used to be a time when Sarah didn’t want to play at all or just wanted to enjoy the board but not in a regular game-playing way. Once again, I was almost bored by how normal and easy it all was. WOW. So many thing, over and over again, go from seemingly laughingly impossible to rather common place and blah because they are such a regular part of our life. Have I mentioned how much I love Son-Rise?

What do you do with an ornery bean? You give it snuggles until it softens into a sweet bean.