We had a small agenda today, but on the list was a visit to the pool. Labor Day is the end of the summer, at least it used to be sort of, and as such, the neighborhood pool will be closing down for the season soon enough. While Mommy rested at home, Daddy and Madison snuck off to the pool - and though there were others there, it wasn't overwhelmingly crowded. This might have been because of the looming rain, or it could have been because of the recent dip in temperature. It was a high of 81 today, or something close to that. The point is, it's been cooler. Still, the water was fine, and Madison had a good time. She's improving with her swimming efforts, although she's still not a swimmer by any means. She was able to cross about half the pool without touching the bottom. We get her to cross at a place where she can touch the bottom easily at any time. So off with the floaties, and on with the swimming lessons. She did okay, and every stroke towards learning how to swim makes us happier parents. But we think that lessons will have to come from some place away from Mommy and Daddy. It seems odd that her own parents can't teach her to swim, but we hear that instructors see this a lot. It also seems odd that she can't exactly swim yet - she just loves any pool at all. It's just about the highlight of any trip. When Daddy was her age, he was skimming the bottom of the pool, holding his breath and trying to swim underwater from one side of the pool to the other. In time, she'll get it. And we'll all look back on these years and poke fun at her a little, I suppose!
She had a great time. We wound up playing catch for quite some time, throwing a small wet ball back and forth, one designed to absorb water in a pool. The game quickly became, "Catch or Splash," where it was less about catching the ball, and more about trying to create a big splash just in front of yourvictim partner.
We got out of the pool to rest a bit, and read. And wouldn't you know it? The rain started to come down! We got out of the pool just in time! We scurried back to the car, and to our house, and off to finish more of the "Labor Day Checklist" that Madison made up.
The next activity was playing the game of LIFE. This is the Star Wars version, one we've been playing a few times earlier. She likes this one the most presently, even though we're very much into the Pirate's LIFE right now as well. We've been reading books from the library, the next one called, "Silver." Mommy and Madison sit at Madison's bed upstairs, and listen to Daddy read a few chapters each night, learning more and more about the earliest adventures of Jack Sparrow. Daddy does his best with the voices, which sort of lends itself to the piratical atmosphere.
Because of Mommy's healing process, we did a movie after the boardgame, one that none of us had seen before. It was called "Bad Hair Day," and each of us liked it a lot. Madison of course really liked it, as it was quite 'girly' with themes about the prom and girlfriends and so on. It really wasn't a bad movie at all, although the hair was pretty bad. But bad in a good way.
For dinner, there was Chick-Fil-A. The free offer of the month (because of the calendar with free stuff) was an order of grilled chicken nuggets and a large drink, and that was perfect for Mommy's diet and current ability to eat. So Madison and Daddy went to Chick-Fil-A, and picked up an order to go. It rained a lot on the way there and back. But soon we were back, enjoying a nice meal together before bedtime.
So that was Labor Day 2015, a simple one by design - but also full of some fun stuff for Madison too. She did some piano homework today, catching up completely. Also, she did some more artwork as well - she's been amazingly into origami, creating an army of characters that is slowly filling up a lot of space between the kitchen and the great room.
After Madison went to bed, Mommy and Daddy continued their binge-watching session of "The Twilight Zone," where we meet a poor man named Henry Bemus. We heard so much about this episode - it's a classic - so we were certainly ready to check it out. Only, we ended up feeling pretty sorry for the guy. I mean, he's got an abusive wife. He doesn't have the best social skills, and has an addiction problem with reading. And oh yeah: there was an apparent atomic apocalypse, and everyone died but him. And just as he finds something to do - reading books - his glasses break. End of episode.
We were pretty bummed to say the least. But I think he's a smart guy. I believe he could use fragments of his glasses to find his way around, and if there are all these books left unharmed by the previous destruction, surely he could find his way to the optometrist where he got his glasses in the first place. Perhaps there's another pair there. Or, if matters were worse, he could put put on two pairs of glasses simultaneously to enhance his vision. Granted, that's a best case scenario.
Anyway, most of these episodes end up with a twist like that. Which was probably really novel at the time - the problem is that it is over fifty years later, and you can see more than a few of these twists coming a mile away. Still, it's fun to watch, and of course here Rod Sterling's voice pop out of nowhere welcoming us to... the Twilight Zone.
She had a great time. We wound up playing catch for quite some time, throwing a small wet ball back and forth, one designed to absorb water in a pool. The game quickly became, "Catch or Splash," where it was less about catching the ball, and more about trying to create a big splash just in front of your
We got out of the pool to rest a bit, and read. And wouldn't you know it? The rain started to come down! We got out of the pool just in time! We scurried back to the car, and to our house, and off to finish more of the "Labor Day Checklist" that Madison made up.
The next activity was playing the game of LIFE. This is the Star Wars version, one we've been playing a few times earlier. She likes this one the most presently, even though we're very much into the Pirate's LIFE right now as well. We've been reading books from the library, the next one called, "Silver." Mommy and Madison sit at Madison's bed upstairs, and listen to Daddy read a few chapters each night, learning more and more about the earliest adventures of Jack Sparrow. Daddy does his best with the voices, which sort of lends itself to the piratical atmosphere.
Because of Mommy's healing process, we did a movie after the boardgame, one that none of us had seen before. It was called "Bad Hair Day," and each of us liked it a lot. Madison of course really liked it, as it was quite 'girly' with themes about the prom and girlfriends and so on. It really wasn't a bad movie at all, although the hair was pretty bad. But bad in a good way.
For dinner, there was Chick-Fil-A. The free offer of the month (because of the calendar with free stuff) was an order of grilled chicken nuggets and a large drink, and that was perfect for Mommy's diet and current ability to eat. So Madison and Daddy went to Chick-Fil-A, and picked up an order to go. It rained a lot on the way there and back. But soon we were back, enjoying a nice meal together before bedtime.
So that was Labor Day 2015, a simple one by design - but also full of some fun stuff for Madison too. She did some piano homework today, catching up completely. Also, she did some more artwork as well - she's been amazingly into origami, creating an army of characters that is slowly filling up a lot of space between the kitchen and the great room.
After Madison went to bed, Mommy and Daddy continued their binge-watching session of "The Twilight Zone," where we meet a poor man named Henry Bemus. We heard so much about this episode - it's a classic - so we were certainly ready to check it out. Only, we ended up feeling pretty sorry for the guy. I mean, he's got an abusive wife. He doesn't have the best social skills, and has an addiction problem with reading. And oh yeah: there was an apparent atomic apocalypse, and everyone died but him. And just as he finds something to do - reading books - his glasses break. End of episode.
We were pretty bummed to say the least. But I think he's a smart guy. I believe he could use fragments of his glasses to find his way around, and if there are all these books left unharmed by the previous destruction, surely he could find his way to the optometrist where he got his glasses in the first place. Perhaps there's another pair there. Or, if matters were worse, he could put put on two pairs of glasses simultaneously to enhance his vision. Granted, that's a best case scenario.
Anyway, most of these episodes end up with a twist like that. Which was probably really novel at the time - the problem is that it is over fifty years later, and you can see more than a few of these twists coming a mile away. Still, it's fun to watch, and of course here Rod Sterling's voice pop out of nowhere welcoming us to... the Twilight Zone.
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