Trying to stay cool and calm under the Alabama sun

It is the middle of June and we are officially experiencing our first Alabama summer.  I know that it gets hot in California, but the intensity of the sun here makes it so much worse.  It makes me grateful that Jake has brown eyes like his Daddy because my baby blues are of no use to me here.  One step outside and I am literally "blinded by the light."  But no matter how much I would like to lounge around in my air conditioned house until the sun goes down we've got a growing boy to entertain.  Everyday I wake up and try to think of things we can do to keep his body busy, his mind working, and most important, keep everyone in the family from getting heat stroke.

Over the last few weeks we have become regulars at the pool.  Jake is cautious when he is introduced to something new, and after 9 months away from the water, the pool has been a perfect example.  First Jake must spend time assessing his surroundings and analyzing the situation before he can be comfortable.  I feel like he is doing some sort of associated risk survey.   Only when he feels good about his odds does he move forward.  I guess he is just way too much of a thinker to be impulsive and fortunately or unfortunately he gets that from both Arthur and I.  Understanding this, I let him spend the majority of our first few trips to the pool just sitting on the side.  As he plays with his pool toys I know he is carefully observing the other kids splash and wade around the shallow kiddie pool.  It didn't take long before he was ready to hold my hand and make his way across the pool.  Now he feel felt confident enough to jump in himself, but he definitely has a system.  Arthur calls their strategy "calculated risk taking."

While I gave him a few free days, he has not escaped Mommy the swim instructor.  Now we spend at least a few minutes every trip in the big pool working on swim skills.  As I carried him to the lap pool one afternoon last week he said, "I don't want to do up and unders."  I laughed a little because I couldn't help but think, "Jake if I had a quarter for all the children who have said that to me over the years, I would be a rich woman."  Needless, to say like the children before him, Jacob didn't stand a chance.  Like I told Arthur, "Jake doesn't have to be a swimmer, but he does need to know how to be safe and comfortable in the water."  So after only a few days he is warming up to the whole thing, and I hope to have him swimming independently by the end of the summer.

Besides the pool, Jake and I keep busy with all sorts of activities.  I'm no Montessori school, but I do my best to expose him to new things and introduce creative ways to help him become familiar with the things I know he will need for school.  Luckily Jake has always loved to be read to.  He will sit for hours and listen to stories, and now he has most of his favorites memorized.  He can even recite Corduroy word for word, which I find pretty impressive.  I love to catch him reading to himself using the words and phrases he is learning, and I love that the library is one of his favorite places to go (besides the Aviation museum of course).  We enjoy coloring, painting, and sticking stickers (a new Jake favorite) especially if Disney music is blaring in the background.  I don't know about Jake, but it sure helps me get those artist juices flowing. :-)  Puzzles and blocks are another popular way to pass the time, but I've recently also started creating my own little matching games with index cards and crayola markers.  The first game I made is an Alphabet game.  The cards are face up so the focus is more about letter recognition rather than memorization.  While he is getting pretty quick at finding matches, he usually only gets through 4 or 5 matches before he is ready for something new.  The newest game is a color matching game.  We've just tried it once so the verdict is still out on whether or not I was successful in creating something worth playing, but I'll let you know.

I feel so much pressure to make sure that I am giving Jake everything he will need in life.  He is only two, and already I wake up and night thinking, "Did we do enough today?  Did I teach him enough?"  Did we do enough productive play?"  I know it is crazy, but I also know that other parents can relate.  I just love him more than anything and I want to giving him all that I can.  But before I can go too far something happens to reminded me to slow down and enjoy the innocence and joy of childhood.  Yesterday Jake and I spent the afternoon in the backyard playing in the sprinklers.  If you can't run around naked in your backyard when you are two when can you?  Seeing his happy smile and hearing his little giggle silences my busy mind, and rather than worry I just enjoy these moments almost as much as he does.