Tumble, splash and roll

The term “sink or swim” has never been more relevant than for my recent 4-day swimming lessons. I guess you could call them swimming lessons but they felt a lot more like water-boarding sessions. The lessons were on consecutive days and there was no parent involvement. There was no concept of “do your best sweetheart” or any other nonsense like that. I was forced to dunk my head underwater and do all sorts of other stressful things. I cried my way through the first class and then the second class was nearly as stressful but by the 4th class I was a veteran of this torture so I was able to gut it out. I am getting better at this swimming thing and Poppy refers to me as a young Ester Williams. Apparently, Poppy hasn’t watched swimming in the last 60 years because there are a few other more recent examples of fine female swimmers.

I also recently finished up my gymnastics classes which was a lot less stressful. There was far less crying involved and much more laughter. I was awarded a medal for participation and got to stand on the podium with everyone else.

Smashing Ants

Mommy, I wanted to wish you a belated Happy Mother’s Day from Ty and I. We love you very much and all of the things you do for us. One of the more special things you do for me is read me stories every night. Daddy sometimes reads to me but he often tries to skip pages or sometimes he simply doesn’t read the story the same way you do. One of my favorite stories is the one you read to me about the boy who is about to squash an ant but the ant is able to persuade the boy not to kill him. The ant explains to the boy that even though they appear very different on the outside, they are not really that different at all. Both have families and friends, mommies and daddies, and other people that they care about very deeply. The boy is moved by the ant’s begging and decides not to kill him, thus providing my youthful mind with a lesson about treating others as I would like to be treated.

You are wonderful Mommy and these lessons will serve me well someday. But yesterday….when I was crouched over at the edge of the driveway you asked me what I was doing with that rock and I calmly replied “killing ants”. You see, those ants didn’t speak to me…so I decided to treat them differently from the talking ants. Don’t worry, I certainly won’t kill any of those.

Pennsylvania

Grammy and Ty, Mommy and Ty

Stacey and Ty at lunch. Tina, Mommy, Daddy, and Mike

A great time at Chuck E Cheese with Grammy and Mommy.

Ty and I with Grammy and Papa Ray.

Ty and I with Uncle Greg.

Ty and I with Great Grammy June and Great Pop Pop.

Ty and I with Uncle Tim and Lorie at breakfast. (Lorie is holding Ty)

Ty with Grandpa Cressman.

Ty with Aunt Lori on his Christening Day.

Ty and I with Rachel at the church.

Ty with Uncle Greg at Grammy's house.

There is a Dairy Queen near Grammy’s house and the good folks there are running a special right now – buy a blizzard of any size and get another one for $.25. Quite a deal indeed so Daddy and Uncle Greg set off to the Dairy Queen on a late night Blizzard craving. However, to their dismay the store had closed at 10pm. “Not to worry” Uncle Greg said, “there is another Dairy Queen 5 minutes away” which would work out fine given that this store was open until 11pm. That meant they had 12 minutes to get there.

Uncle Greg was right – it would take 5 minutes to get to this Dairy Queen….so long as you drive like Batman. And so the two bozos drove like maniacs to DQ nearly getting pulled over in the process. But Daddy told me it was worth it – you just can’t beat a Reese’s Blizzard.

Daddy had to leave on Tuesday to go back to Georgia and pickup Monty at the Vet. On the way to the airport he was treated to some good ole fashioned Pennsylvania roadwork traffic. It is hard to believe these roads take so long to fix with the one worker and 30 supervisors on the job.

Anyway, I am having fun up here but will be coming home soon. When I get back home Mommy will post some pictures of what we did all week.