The Joy in my Life

The title of my last post makes me laugh. I had SOOO many words yet none of them seemed to make their way out of my head and onto the page of a new post. Oh well. I did get to talk to my girlfriends and share in the joy of their lives so I suppose that is what really matters. As for an update on the joy in our lives...well here it is.

Caitlin spent eight wonderful weeks driving to and from work with me each day, and while I worked she studied the lives of various animals from around the world at The International School. They spoke Spanish all day everyday, her language skills grew along with her confidence and we were all sad to see that portion of the summer come to its conclusion. Caitlin also participated in twice a week swimming lessons, twice a week yoga lessons (at T.I.S. ) and twice a week Tae Kwon Do (at 'home') so she was able to grow strong in mind and body. I'm pretty jealous- I want to go to the International school for the summer instead of work! She managed to smash her finger in the door at school one day and broke her middle finger which was an unpleasant event for all of us but she's recovering now- and her finger nail is about to fall off. Yuck. I've put a band aid over it in hopes that it'll stay on a little longer because the thought of a nail-less finger grosses me out.

For the two weeks between the end of T.I.S and the beginning of first grade, we scheduled all sorts of fun activities. We went camping on the coast in Florence for the first week and then back to work for a couple of days followed by a trip to the State Fair and a "daddy day", then a couple of sleepovers with cousins. The camping trip was pretty fun this year because the weather stayed sunny and the company was nice. Our friends Paul and Sam came with their son Dominic. Plus Ryan's Mom, brother Matt, sister Kim and her family all joined us as well. We rode bikes, swam in the lake (ok the kids swam in the lake while the mom's read books on the shore), and spent many hours playing on the campground playground. Ryan went crabbing a couple of times so we had a delicious meal one afternoon, and we even went into town for a day to check out the "old town" shops. About 3/4's of the way through the trip Caitlin decided that she needed more challenges in her life and had us take the training wheels off of her bike. She's not one hundred percent proficient yet, but she's determined and I know that with a little more practice she'll get there. We also made a deal with Caitlin that in exchange for 10 horse back riding lessons, she would speak to Grammie Maggie in Spanish the entire time we were camping. She accepted our offer and followed through except for the time Grammie forgot and spoke to Caitie in English! Poor kid thought that she's was going to lose the deal until we explained that as long as she responded in the language she was addressed in that the deal was still on. Arda came down to spend a day with us and Ryan took all of the kids out on the boat for a tour around the lake. I think everyone agreed that we would go back to that campground for another camping trip because there was just so much to do.

Now here we are only three days out from the first day of first grade and Caitlin has spent the last two nights away from home just to prove that she can. Thursday night with cousins Lucas and Mason at Chandra and Mark's house and then last night with cousins Gioia and Ian at Kim and Rob's house. She has it in her head that she's going to spend the night somewhere else tonight but I think I may put the kabosh on that one. Tomorrow is my birthday after all- I think that she should stay home and go to church with me. We'll see what happens because I like how proud she is of herself for having these successful tear free sleepovers and it's kinda cute the way she likes to push herself to do more and to test her own limits. Either way she's sleeping at home tomorrow and Monday night because after all I am the mom I get to say yes or no in the end.