My report

It might have been a crazy day: a broken air conditioner, leaking solar panels on the roof which dripped down into the apartment below, a jammed garbage disposal, a tenant calling to complain about ants in her parking space (!), and a plumber coming to work on rusty pipes.

However, the day started nicely at the boys' school and continued very well. I was helping Booster Club at the new family breakfast and was treated to bagels and pulp-free orange juice. Scott got to play on the kindergarten yard for over an hour with kids his age and was extremely happy. He has no fear and makes friends naturally. When we go to the school, he tells me, "Mom, there are no strangers there." He loves wearing his assistant manager badge when we go out so everyone will know his name.

Back at home, all the vendors who came to deal with the problems listed above came during their scheduled windows and none of them overlapped. Scott read me a silly story that made us both laugh; I got in a quick nap before running to the bank, picking up Ethan from school, and vacuuming. The boys played nicely on Mr. M's computer during my one violin lesson of the day, and I got the pork chops in the oven before the boys' last swimming lesson with Tyler.

Ethan's freestyle is much-improved; his arms are consistently coming out of the water and now he just needs to master the headmotion of breathing. Scott had a momentous lesson today, swimming 3/4 of the length of the pool freestyle (5 strokes, 1 breath, 5 strokes) and diving to retrieve a torpedo from 7 feet. Both boys cited swimming lesson as their favorite part of today.

Ethan ate everything at dinner (!) and cut his pork chop with a knife, rather than spearing it whole on his fork and biting off chunks. He even said nice things about the food. Scott declined a pork chop, but ate lots of mashed potatoes studded with peas. They listened to our after-dinner Book of Mormon chapter without wiggling or jumping on each other and then read quietly on the couch from the same Asterix and Obelix book. Ethan also practiced standing on his head. His record, which he just set tonight, is 1m 27 seconds. (My record headstand from my teenage years was 6m 32 seconds. Is he my son or what?!)



Tonight after the bedtime ritual, I'll do some tidying and probably read some more of Beethoven's Hair and Blessings of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. Last night I finished Wild Swans, a very intense book about 3 generations of Chinese women from the not-so-distant past. Or maybe I'll just go to bed. I'm sleepy.