Harry Potter and Swim Lessons

The title pretty much sums up what I've been doing for the past week. I have FINALLY decided that it's "okay" to read something even if "everybody else is" so I recently bought the first fice Harry Potter books. They're good! I guess I shouldn't be that surprised since nearly everyone I know has said that, but I was reluctant to jump on the bandwagon, I guess. Well, I stand corrected. I started reading the first one Tuesday of last week and by Friday night had finished the first two. I read the third one Saturday and I now have about 100 pages left of the fourth. My co-worker has lent me the sixth one also. Now I'll be stuck waiting around for book 7 like everyone else. I am really enjoying the series, though; I can't remember the last time I read a book that went so quickly! I read all 400-ish pages of book 3 saturday in addition to doing three loads of laundry, cooking breakfast and lunch for DS, cleaning the kitchen, taking DS to the pool, AND going out to dinner for 2.5 hours with DH and a couple he had been teaching to golf. Whew!

The only other thing I've been doing beside reading, working, and the occasional stitch or two is taking Luke to swimming lessons. He's been going twice a week to private lessons for the last several weeks. At the beginning of the summer he wouldn't go past the second step (even though he can reach the bottom of the 3' side, easily, since he's 44" tall) or put his face underwater. He's been making progress over the last month; he's been putting his head under for awhile and playing around a lot more, actually letting go of the wall and all. Well, I took him to the pool on Saturday and he started swimming. Swimming! With his arms and his head under the water and everything. During his swim lesson on Monday he swam into the middle of the pool (not just along the wall like he did over the weekend) and he jumped off the diving board by himself. Twice! Towards the end of the lesson his instructor tried to get him to jump from the edge of the pool (he's always been afraid to do it; this was just before the diving board). He finally did, and swam out to me and then back to the wall. For the next hour he jumped in and swam to me probably 20 times. It's amazing; I hoped he would learn to swim this summer but I had my doubts a couple times!

Yesterday was the first time we hadn't been to the pool in 5 days; I've been taking him to the pool 5-6 times a week for the last few weeks. It's all he wants to do, except play with his Star Wars legos. I've gotten really, really sick of going to the pool, but seeing him jump in and swim all by himself makes it totally worth it.

Well, so that's what I've been up to for the last week. Oh yes, and I bought a bunch of stitching stash on Friday (so much for the "wagon"). I ordered the two upcoming Just Nan shop exclusives at The Silver Needle, as well as another one that's coming out soon, some fabric at Silkweaver, a few patterns at Stitching Bits and Bobs (including Fish City and the new TW), the finishing kit for Mermaid Treasure Box, and I signed up for two more Chatelaine groups. None of it has arrived yet, but I'm looking forward to packages in the mail. The fabric from SW is for Fish City and a baby sampler I need to start ASAP. Like I didn't already have enough projects to last well into retirement (and beyond...) oh well.