Swimming & Screaming

Today was Zachary's first swimming lesson at our new place. Actually, it was a make-up lesson...the real first class isn't until Sunday, but he's going to miss the 3rd class when we go to Philadelphia, so they wanted to go ahead & schedule his make-up class now. Weird, but whatever. He did well, except that he would not. stop. talking. He wasn't really even talking about anything relevant to the lesson - he told the teacher about the sharks on his bathing suit and about the sharks on the towel he used for water day at school today and how his friend Cameron takes swimming lessons there too and told him that it was inside of a building...and so on and so on...He did put his face in the water, which was great. Did not get fully submerged, but there wasn't really an opportunity for that. I will be curious to see how Sunday goes, when Cameron is there too. On the one hand I'm hoping that when Zachary sees all that Cameron is doing in the water now, that he will be more motivated to get to the same point. But on the other hand, I'm so worried that the 2 of them will just chatter the whole time & distract each other. We might have to just keep them separated.

Josh was going to meet us there, but he left work a few minutes late, which would have put him there around the time the class was over. So he just went home & waited for us to return. I had to take Liam with us, and he did fine for about the first 20-22 minutes. Then he got tired of being confined. But the floor was soaking wet, and I didn't want him to sit down in it. He was fine once we left. He did great in the car, but then all hell broke loose when we got home. He is in a phase now where he wants to be carried everywhere. And he gets mad if you don't pick him up. I got him out of the car & put him on the floor, and he wanted to be picked up (of course!). My hands were full of all the stuff we had from the day, so I tried to get him to just follow me. That didn't make him happy. He plopped himself down behind my car and just screamed his head off. I continued getting the rest of the stuff out of my car, and I guess Zachary thought I was just going to leave him there because he then got upset and kept telling me that I couldn't just leave him there. I had zero intention of leaving him there. I just had to get the rest of the stuff out of the car. At that point Josh came out to greet us. He picked up Liam, thinking that would take care of the screaming. Wrong. We figured he was just hungry (even though they both had snacks & drinks in the car on the way to swimming). Nope - not hungry. Or thirsty. He swatted away anything & everything we tried to offer him. Nothing - and I mean nothing - would console him. Finally around 7:00 (about 35 minutes into Screamfest '09) I took him upstairs for his bath. Which he screamed through. He also threw the soaking wet washcloth at me 3 times, as well as swatted the bottles of baby wash onto the floor twice. I noticed his 4th molar was breaking through, so I'm not sure if that's what was bugging him or not, but Josh put his pj's on him & put him to bed. He passed out shortly thereafter. It's no wonder - he screamed for an hour solid. Didn't even know that was possible. I figured he'd get tired/hungry/thirsty long before it turned into an hour. I feel bad that he went to bed with no food or milk, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. He just wanted nothing to do with any of it.

So now it's my turn to go to bed. I always intend to go to bed early & then decide to do just one more thing...which takes me much longer than I thought it would. Like now - planned on getting ready for bed half an hour ago, and what am I doing? Updating this blog. I think all the cooler weather has got the trees & plants thinking it is fall, and that whatever things make pollen in the fall must be out in full force right now. It has just attacked me (didn't help that last night I had dinner with a friend & we sat outside because the weather was so nice). So now I mean it. Really going to bed now.

Really.

Good night.