This year’s July 4th fireworks were out at the the Circuit of the Americas stadium instead of the usual Ladybird Lake, due to construction at Auditorium Shores. We didn’t feel like staying up late to watch fireworks in a stadium on the outskirts of town, so we skipped the fireworks and opted for the neighborhood parade in the morning instead.
The parade was a funny mix. It started with a few active soldiers from Camp Mabry, followed by some Civil War guys in Union blue, then some WWII units in real halftracks (wow) heading down the street. They were followed by families in old cars and local businesses throwing candy to the kids. The kids made off with a pile of candy, like a mini-Halloween in July. Once the parade passed, the crowd fell in behind and headed to the nearby park to enjoy some ice cream (gelato, actually), lemonade, and just run around and play.
Molly was feeling fitfully patriotic and wanted to bring her “America flag” to the “America Day” parade. Claire was mainly happy to see several of her school friends who she hadn’t seen since school let out for summer. I was feeling patriotic myself and made a comment about how America is such a big, diverse country with so many different kinds of people and places, and it somehow all just fits together right. Nobody cared about my moving comment. Still, it was a good time and a lot better than sitting in a Formula 1 stadium with two sleepy kids.
In the afternoon, I headed off to work like mad on my next app, which I am trying to nail down with a few days off this week. So Kit had the kids to herself for a quiet July 4 evening.
Today was not our first time to the Schlitterbahn, the amazing water park in New Braunfels. But it was our first time to go with Claire fully able to swim and Molly kind of able to swim (both thanks to many hours at Emler). Kit had the week off, and I took a couple days off too. We departed our house a little after at 8:00 am on a Wednesday with the purpose of getting there before it is (1) crowded and (2) hot. Or at least before it gets really crowded and hot. Actually, Schlitterbahn provides lots of shade and of course water, but we still wanted to put things in our favor with an early start.
Drying shoes: the only picture we have from our wet day at Schlitterbahn.
We spent most of the day in the newer, eastern part of the park for a change, mainly Blastenhoff and Surfenburg. Claire was able to handle herself pretty well in the water, much better than last time we came a year or two ago. She absolutely loved The Torrent and found it difficult to leave. The Torrent is a large circular “lazy river” type of ride combined with a wave pool. Most people ride in a tube, but Claire and I both favored a free swim approach. We also tugged Molly along in her tube. Molly was thrilled and all smiles until the the fifth time through, when she said did not want to go again. Claire was a little bit heartbroken to leave her beloved Torrent.
Stock photo of Claire’s favorite: The Torrent
Molly’s favorite was Han’s Hideout, a 4-story really drippy pirate boat featuring several small, kid-friendly water slides. Han’s Hideout was custom made for Molly. We all liked Kristal River and Kristal Cove, a basic wave-free lazy river that we got to float or swim around many times. Molly even did a little bit of (closely supervised, very brief) free swimming here. Kit is not a big swimmer but did her best to have a good time at this crazy water park. She did get stuck with all the bathroom trips for the girls and tended to get stuck watching Molly play in the little-kid areas, which is just not as much fun as splashing around in the Torrent. Kit made sure we had a fully stocked cooler and a good picnic table in the shade. We definitely got some smiles out of Kit on Kristal River, too.
Stock photo of Molly’s favorite: Han’s Hideout
By the end of the day, it was finally hot and crowded, and we were all getting exhausted. Claire started to seem just a little less safe in the water by herself. We’ll have to come back next year when she is rested up to take a fifth turn at The Torrent and Molly can do a little more free swim.
At the end of second grade, Claire brought home piles and piles of her art and other work from the year. It had been sitting around our house for weeks. Kit took some of her last week off to scan some of it. So here it is, a review of Claire’s second grade art.
Dinner with the kids is usually pretty nice. The girls tell us a little bit about their day, or at least Claire does. Molly usually doesn’t remember much about the day and sometimes thinks we are having lunch instead of dinner. She has no idea what day of the week it is. She really lives in the moment.
Tonight, dinner was a challenge, sort of a throwback to Molly’s toddler days. Molly convinced herself that she did not like her cheese pizza. She objected that it had too much sauce on it, actually any sauce at all. Eventually Molly worked herself up into a full-blow fit, crying loudly, holding up a limp slice of pizza and pointing at the sauce on it. I reminded Molly the she had enjoyed lots of pizza with sauce on it just like that before, but of course logic would not help right then.
Claire got agitated by Molly’s loud fussing and yelled, “What are you crying for!?!”, like a parent at her wit’s end. This, of course, made Molly more agitated and loud. Meanwhile, Claire was on this kick about choking. She kept asking, “Am I choking?” and “Did I chew this enough?” I told her that if you’re talking, you’re not choking. So she would say to herself, “I’m not choking.” throughout dinner as she ate and Molly continued to cry. Craving some somber music, I had The Joshua Tree on but had to kill it; it was only adding to the cacophony.
Recently, Kit’s work hours have made it tough for her to get home in time for dinner. By the time Kit got home, everything had calmed down. Molly had collected herself and was enjoying some salad with ranch dressing but was still red and splotchy from crying. Kit said Molly looked hot. Claire and I said in unison that Molly had been crying. Molly asked us to please not talk about it. She was a little embarrassed from crying, which I guess is the difference between a four-year-old and a three-year-old. Molly would go a little crazy later at bedtime too, but she ended up falling asleep with a stomach full of pizza which had she eventually remembered that she liked after all.
Enjoying hot chocolate and warming up after a summer swim.
We went for a swim today at the new Westenfield pool. It was just rebuilt from the ground up — a brand new main pool, a kiddie “beach access” pool, new changing facilities, plus lots of bench space and shade. I love this pool.
We took the girls there for the first swim of the summer. And this was the first family “free swim” we have done in almost a year. Both girls are a lot stronger swimmers than a year ago. Claire can fully swim on her own, even in the deep end. Molly can swim in short spurts on her own, and loved jumping into the pool from the side. She did this over and over — just in, and then a short swim of 5 to 10 feet to me. We had the usual awkwardness of “who has Molly”, and traded off some so Claire and I could go swim in the deep end. Claire and I pretended to be a dolphin family (pod?) swimming in the deep end.
After a while, though, Molly was shivering. Then she was turning a little blue. The pool was too cold! That is not something we normally even have to consider in Austin in the summer. But there was poor slightly blue Molly. She was blue and cold, but she did insist she wanted to stay in the water and swim. Over her protests, we got her wrapped up in a towel and got home, where the girls put in try, warm clothes and enjoyed a hot chocolate to warm up. Yes, that’s right. Hot chocolate to warm up in June. There were no complaints form the kids over that!
Claire has been wanting to start her own YouTube channel, focused on acting out stories with her My Little Pony toys. We finally got in online!
Here is the first creation in Claire’s series, which is a story straight from Claire’s imagination with a running time of about 15 minutes. Claire was the “idea man” in this effort, writing and acting out the concept. I did the camera work and editing. Claire has been working on other concepts with her nanny, Jackie.
Claire calls her channel My Little Pony Mysteries and More. The “mysteries” part refers to her plan to open “blind bags” for some of her videos. I am hoping to get Claire into stop animation and do some extra cool stuff.
Claire is a huge fan of “collector” channels on YouTube, like Disney Collector and Bin’s Toy Bin. Forget boring old TV, Claire is glued exclusively to these niche channels (and My Little Pony). She even sent a fan latter to Bin and hopes it will be read on YouTube next week.
The day after school ended, Claire got to go to a birthday swimming party for one of her friends. She started off summer break in style, jumping off the diving board with her friends over and over.
Originally, this was going to be a bad weather make up day due to several snow and ice days this winter. But the AISD Board of Trustees and the Texas Education Agency basically would take action and “designate March 3, which is already a regular, full instructional day, to serve as a bad weather make-up day.” Huh? I heard the Texas state legislature was also somehow involved in this scheme, which requires me to hire a sitter for the day. But it works for the kids and the teachers, and they do deserve a Friday off!
Claire finished second grade on Thursday. How did that happen? One minute, there was a month of school left, and the next minute it was over.
It was a good year for Claire. She loved her teacher, loved her school routine, loved riding the bus home, and loved her school friends. Second grade was a fun year, but with hints of growing up. I think of it as the beginning of “the later Ramona years”, where Ramona is maturing past the silly little kid she once was and moving into new challenges. (Molly is in the early Ramona years.)
Academically, Claire started the year still struggling a bit with basic reading and ended the year strong, tackling big chapter books. She learned to methodically attack challenging words and was coasting through works like “business” and “experiment” by the end of the year. She also conquered speed math (doing basic addition and subtraction quickly) and addition with 3, 4, and more digits. As a challenge, I would sometimes have her add up two really big numbers like 465,777 + 261,222, which she handled with ease. This is a long way from struggling with 9 + 7 just a few months before.
Celebrating the last day of school at Kerby Lane Cafe
This progress was due to Claire’s hard work and her teacher’s strong dedication. Claire was invited to join two before- and after-school “clubs” lead by her tireless teacher, who had adopted a baby mid-year. Handwriting club was two days a week before school, and math club was one day a week after school. Claire loved handwriting club because it was “cozy” being in the quiet classroom before most of the kids had arrived. She loved math club because her friend Susie was also in the club, and Claire usually got to go to Susie’s house afterwards to do homework and play and hopefully get a Slurpee.
On her report cards, Claire’s teacher praised Claire’s work ethic as “working hard on her handwriting and spelling” and “becoming more confident with continual math practice.” She also focused on Claire’s story telling. “Claire is a lovely story teller. She continually wows me with her word choice and plot development. She is engaged in class discussions and makes fascinating connections.”
Claire dragged piles of projects home over the last two weeks of school.
The main challenge this year was homework, which was about an hour of reading, spelling, and math. Claire seemed to really enjoy her in-school work but often struggled and railed against homework. Sometimes she would complain openly, but more often she would just procrastinate and lollygag as long as possible. I think by this time of day, Claire was tired and felt she had already done her honest day’s work and should be able to just unwind and relax. This may be Claire’s first real lesson in growing up — yes, you should be able to relax now, but sorry, you had stuff to do first. Welcome to the club. Homework had to be finished in the narrow time between the end of Claire’s school day and when we picked up Molly at 5:15, or else it got pushed to either immediately before or after dinner, both stressful times to squeeze in that extra burst of brain focus before calling it a night. Basically, 3:00 to 7:00 was a tough time of day for everyone, with homework, finishing up work, picking up Molly, making dinner, cleaning up dinner, starting baths all sort of at the same time.
The homework issue got better over the year, and eventually our afternoons were improved dramatically thanks to the new after-school nanny we hired towards the end of the year. More on that in another post.
We don’t get to see a whole lot of Claire in school, aside from the occasional class holiday musical, etc. Here is a rare picture of Claire working on a poetry project in her second grade class.
McG Kids 