The fun never stops. Here are some of the highlights:
- Lilah performs in 1st grade school play and does a good job of delivering her one line
- Lilah turns 7 and celebrates with a roller skating party
- Kids celebrate last day of school
- Luke learns to ride his bike (small video clip)
- Lilah learns another song on the piano, one all us parents are sure to recognize
Lilah
This was a really busy month for Lilah. It began with her performance in her first-grade play. As I mentioned last month, she only had one line to deliver and had been complaining about her limited role in the production. What she failed to mention is that she also had many songs to sing in this play — not solo, but as part of several choruses throughout the play. Lilah played the role of one of Cinderella’s mice. My fear with Lilah was that when the time came to deliver her line, she would revert to the barely audible mousy voice she uses when she gets shy. But she surprised us this time as she forcefully delivered her one line, “They don’t treat us very well either,” and we applauded in earnest.
This month, Lilah also turned 7. The anticipation for her roller skating party was tremendous as she kept asking us when we would be going to the rink to skate and celebrate her birthday. Once we got her there she was in her element skating up a storm and even becoming a kind of pseudo-coach to the rest of the girls in her class, many of whom had never skated before. At the end of the party one of the moms came up to Lilah and thanked her for teaching her daughter how to skate. Lilah was very happy with her party.
Another thing that made Lilah happy this month were all the activities she would be able to take a break from — school, Spanish class, piano class — and the new activities she’d be able to participate in — swimming lessons, YMCA camps, seeing performances at the library, and trips to the beach, water park, and, of course, the roller skating rink. Mom sure has a busy summer ahead of her.
Luke
The big highlight for Luke this month was learning to ride his bike without training wheels. I had tried taking him out previously without training wheels but the wobbliness of the bike as he tried to balance on it had made him uneasy. After that, he lost his enthusiasm to try and ride again. But that all changed after he came out with Lilah and Cathy to watch my triathlon in Ventura. Sometime in the early evening of that same day, Luke came up to me and said he wanted to try to ride his bike again. And once he set his mind to it there was no stopping him. Within five minutes I had him riding short distances on his own in the backyard. There wasn’t enough space to let him really get going so then we took off to a neighborhood school parking lot. There we had plenty of space to get Luke going, with me jogging behind him the entire way — pretty tiring after you’ve just done a race, but seeing Luke ride gave me all the adrenaline I needed to keep at it with Luke until he had it down. It’s great to see the look on your child’s face when they finally accomplish something they set out to do.
Luke also began his introductory swimming lessons this month. These initial lessons are just meant to get children used to the water so the lessons consist primarily of the kids sitting on the steps, blowing bubbles in the water, practicing their kicking, and jumping into the pool into the hands of the instructor. Luke enjoyed these lessons immensely and is finally getting comfortable with the idea that if you go into the pool, your face is definitely going to get wet. After Luke’s last lesson was completed he let me know that he had finished his class and would now be going on to “the next level…the guppies.”
That’s another exciting thing to watch with Luke. He really loves to talk and tell you what he did in the day, which is so different than where we were with him just a year or so ago. He’s also not afraid to speak up. For instance, when we walked up the street the other day, some neighborhood kids were playing baseball with their dad. The dad looked over at Luke and Lilah and asked them if they wanted to play. Before Lilah could say anything Luke loudly yelled out, “I do,” and then he joined the game.
Okay, that’s enough rambling until next month…Talk to you then…