Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Little fishies
The girls have taken to swimming like fish this summer. During our recent trip to Disney, Vienna sprouted an as-yet-unseen love for water when she finally opened up to wearing goggles, and became no longer petrified of getting water in her eyes during pool excursions. She instantly began enjoying it as much as Hana, which led to nightly swims during our vacation and 3-4 xs/week swims for the remainder of the summer. Both girls also tried parentless swim lessons for the first time as well. It was actually the second time for Ha, but when we tried two summers ago, she was not at all open to instruction in the water; now, thankfully, she adores teachers in general and swim lessons in particular. While us parents were not in the water with the kids, we got to watch from the bleachers--and capture some great pix/videos.
Besties, ready for lessons!
Hana was in an intermediate "Eel" class at the YMCA, and some great firsts for her include: learning rudimentary freestyle ("ice cream scoop") stroke, swimming without goggles, jumping in by herself and swimming back to the edge of the pool, learning front and back floats, jumping off the dive block in the deep end, swimming the width of the pool. Her instructor recommended one more session of intermediate, and then she thinks Ha will be ready for the advanced "Ray" group. Hopefully we will find some comparable year round lessons in Enid!!
Before and after the jump!
Hana, in action! (and seriously hamming it up for the camera!)
Vienna was in the beginner "Pike" class (and was the youngest in the program!). Some firsts for her include: jumping in and swimming to the wall, using a "noodle" float effectively, jumping off a dive block in the deep end, swimming about 15' without a float belt, and floating on her back. V's instructor thinks she is ready for intermediate sessions with Hana already! Two nights ago, she did her first back flip (underwater) in my folks' apartment pool, which was shocking. Definitely following in big sister's footsteps in terms of love for swimming.
Waiting her turn:
Here they are, in the backyard pool, reenacting a scene from Winnie the Pooh:
Besties, ready for lessons!
Hana was in an intermediate "Eel" class at the YMCA, and some great firsts for her include: learning rudimentary freestyle ("ice cream scoop") stroke, swimming without goggles, jumping in by herself and swimming back to the edge of the pool, learning front and back floats, jumping off the dive block in the deep end, swimming the width of the pool. Her instructor recommended one more session of intermediate, and then she thinks Ha will be ready for the advanced "Ray" group. Hopefully we will find some comparable year round lessons in Enid!!
Before and after the jump!
Hana, in action! (and seriously hamming it up for the camera!)
Vienna was in the beginner "Pike" class (and was the youngest in the program!). Some firsts for her include: jumping in and swimming to the wall, using a "noodle" float effectively, jumping off a dive block in the deep end, swimming about 15' without a float belt, and floating on her back. V's instructor thinks she is ready for intermediate sessions with Hana already! Two nights ago, she did her first back flip (underwater) in my folks' apartment pool, which was shocking. Definitely following in big sister's footsteps in terms of love for swimming.
Waiting her turn:
Jumping in!
Heading to the deep end!
Pike class noodle train!
It is so great to see them love swimming and learning so much! :o) Ha has tried a number of different sports lessons (soccer, gymnastics, dance), and while she is really into dance as well, loves nothing as she loves the pool. V loves swimming as well, asking about a dip as soon as she wakes up every morning. :o) It is so fun watching their little personalities and passions unfold.
Monday, August 15, 2011
OKC Spraygrounds: Macklanburg Park Pool & Earlywine Aquatic Center
Well, it looks like the girls' and my highly anticipated adventure of checking out all 16(?) OKC Spraygrounds will come to an abrupt end, thanks to our impending move. I am thinking over the next year, we may cover a few more when we visit friends in the area, since the girls have two besties who live in Edmond...and I know many people from Enid take to traveling to OKC, Tulsa, and Norman somewhat frequently, as Enid is somewhat small-town. That, however, is a feature I am HUGELY looking forward to. We are generally happy wherever we move, but I have noticed that in places where there is perhaps less to do and get distracted by, it is easier to develop deeper relationships with those around you, so I am looking forward to that aspect, for sure. And Enid certainly has intriguing features of its own, such as an unusual flat metal cattle/cowboy statue park, a city museum with a castle-theme playground, and all the fun activities put on by the base (such as monthly events for families and children, and outdoor rec always has great ideas too).
Anyway, back to the spraygrounds. We did enjoy two final visits before focusing on our move (and squeezing in our Tennessee/South Carolina grandparent vacation). Firstly, we visited Macklanburg Park at 11700 N Stratford (for about the fifth time), and have started using the *free* pool there.
At first glance, I was not planning to use the pool, mostly out of concern for safety, as it is often filled to capacity (as in there is a line to get in), and its hours (M-F, 1-6pm)--which pretty much prohibited Matt from coming with us. I wasn't hugely into the idea of taking the girls swimming on my own, as neither of them require flotation devices anymore, however, both are into nonstop daredevil action (no concept of drowning) that require constant, close-up supervision (as in, I like to be about 2 feet from Hana and within arm's reach of Vienna at all times). This is hard, because they like to swim all over the place and jump in the water a lot. During a visit with Julia and Amanda one afternoon, I decided to give it a try, as all three girls were clamoring for a chance to check it out. Upon entering, I was shocked and thrilled to discover that the water goes from about 2' at its shallowest to about 4-4.5' at its deepest.
Hana can stand in most of the pool, and Vienna can stand in about a third of it. There is a separate deep-water pool with a dive, but it is separated from the main pool by a concrete barrier. Plus, they allow pool toys and floaties! This setup made swimming there with the girls easy and a joy. They were able to enjoy considerable independence and were spared from my nervous nagging when I obsessively drum up safety concerns.
Granted, this pool gets crazy-crowded, and unsupervised kids are literally dropped off there by busloads, but we found that the population is generally manageable from about 1pm until 2 or 3. It is a great community resource and I definitely recommend it! :o)
The other sprayground we visited (as a family, for the first time!) was Earlywine Aquatic Center, adjacent to Earlywine YMCA at SW 119th & May. We swim at the Y indoor pool intermittently, as it is a bit of a drive, but also houses the best indoor water park we have seen in the area (waterslide and frog-themed sprayground in addition to lap pool), but had yet to try out the city-sponsored pool. Unlike all the others we've visited, it is not free, but it is well worth the $6 per person admission fee--and the occasional wait to get in, as it is apparently frequently full to capacity. One way around this, I learned, is to book a party there (additional $20/hr), but guaranteed admission at the time you schedule it for. This pool is great because it has a water slide that kids and parents can ride together in interlocking inner tubes. It is a great, long slide, that has a toilet-bowl type swirly-feature halfway down. Ha, who has been trying to ride a water slide by herself (as most do not allow parents to ride down with their children) for some time, but always getting too scared to go down once she climbed to the top, absolutely loved this, and it was a HUGE confidence booster for her. We took her to a community pool in Tennessee this week, and she actually went down the slide there by herself--and loved it, something I wouldn't have dreamt of her doing a couple months ago. There are also two other slides there, that I believe kids need to be 48" to ride. I think the minimum height for the "Big Bowl" one is 40" (V was still too short, but loved the other [sprayground] features). Unfortunately, I do not have any pix from this adventure. Our camera is not waterproof, so I miss capturing a lot of our water fun, as both Matt and I are generally hands-on, in the water, for the entirety of these adventures. :o) There are some cute pix on the park's website, though, and it is definitely worth checking out!
Well, here's hoping we find some fun spraygrounds in Enid, and also get to check out at least two more OKC ones (namely the Pirate Ship and Under the Sea themes, as those sound too cute to pass up!).
Other City Spraygrounds we've visited include:
Harvest Hills Park
Macklanburg Park Sprayground
North Highland Park
The other sprayground we visited (as a family, for the first time!) was Earlywine Aquatic Center, adjacent to Earlywine YMCA at SW 119th & May. We swim at the Y indoor pool intermittently, as it is a bit of a drive, but also houses the best indoor water park we have seen in the area (waterslide and frog-themed sprayground in addition to lap pool), but had yet to try out the city-sponsored pool. Unlike all the others we've visited, it is not free, but it is well worth the $6 per person admission fee--and the occasional wait to get in, as it is apparently frequently full to capacity. One way around this, I learned, is to book a party there (additional $20/hr), but guaranteed admission at the time you schedule it for. This pool is great because it has a water slide that kids and parents can ride together in interlocking inner tubes. It is a great, long slide, that has a toilet-bowl type swirly-feature halfway down. Ha, who has been trying to ride a water slide by herself (as most do not allow parents to ride down with their children) for some time, but always getting too scared to go down once she climbed to the top, absolutely loved this, and it was a HUGE confidence booster for her. We took her to a community pool in Tennessee this week, and she actually went down the slide there by herself--and loved it, something I wouldn't have dreamt of her doing a couple months ago. There are also two other slides there, that I believe kids need to be 48" to ride. I think the minimum height for the "Big Bowl" one is 40" (V was still too short, but loved the other [sprayground] features). Unfortunately, I do not have any pix from this adventure. Our camera is not waterproof, so I miss capturing a lot of our water fun, as both Matt and I are generally hands-on, in the water, for the entirety of these adventures. :o) There are some cute pix on the park's website, though, and it is definitely worth checking out!
Well, here's hoping we find some fun spraygrounds in Enid, and also get to check out at least two more OKC ones (namely the Pirate Ship and Under the Sea themes, as those sound too cute to pass up!).
Other City Spraygrounds we've visited include:
Harvest Hills Park
Macklanburg Park Sprayground
North Highland Park
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Flexible
As a military family, that is definitely what we have come to be. As much as I profess to love stable plans and the expected, I wouldn't trade our Air Force adventures for anything, and they have brought about yet another unexpected turn of events in our lives...which also accounts for my near-monthlong blogging hiatus.
Matt had been living in Vance AFB billeting for about 2 weeks when we realized the situation just wasn't working out quite as dreamily and meant-to-be-ily as we'd planned it. He'd get home so late on Friday nights and leave for Asian Basketball and Vance so early on Sundays, that we really only seemed to get him for a day and a half, if even that. And Ha, in particular, would go through a rough adjustment patch every Monday and Tuesday after Matt left. Coupled with supporting two residences on one housing allowance and nursing school demands that would necessitate near full-time daycare for the girls from August - May and set against once again enjoying base housing, playgroups, families like ours, relevant support networks, seeing Matt every day he is available (as in not flying cross-country or something), and the ability to enjoy partial stay-at-home mom status while prepping for the NCLEX-LPN (as opposed to the NCLEX-RN I'd otherwise take in May), with the potential option for part-time nursing work immediately thereafter...and there really isn't really much to consider. I am so thankful I can preserve my nursing education in the form of Licensed Practical Nurse licensure, and that I can get more hands-on learning at a lower entry level. Starting out as an Registered Nurse with zero externship experience was a possibility that scared me to death.
We made our decision on a Thursday night, when it hit me epiphany-style, and Friday morning Matt had already arranged for TMO to pick up our household goods. As much of a hassle as moving always is, particularly as I coordinated it on my own this time as Matt has been at Initial Flight Screening at Doss AFB in Pueblo, CO since July 27th, it is such a blessing that the military covers household goods shipments and provided us with both packers and movers. :o) All our ~7,000 pounds of stuff is sitting in storage in Enid, OK right now, waiting for our move-in date of August 29th. We are visiting my folks in the interim, enjoying time with them, two of my brothers, Ha's old playgroup buddies, and a trip to the beach.
In a little over a week, the girls and I will drive back to Edmond, pick up the dogs and hedgehog, and move into billeting in Enid so Hana can start KINDERGARTEN!! We are so excited! The Wednesday after we decided to move, the girls and I drove up to Enid (about 90 minutes NW of Edmond) to check out schools. Hana will be attending Cimarron Montessori School, and after a couple months at home with me, I would also like to start Vienna on their preschool part-day program. We were so impressed with this school and its teachers, and I believe the child-paced Montessori philosophy will suit Hana's learning needs and style perfectly. She actually needed to complete an hour-long interview process before being accepted, so the teachers were able to assess the fit as well, and she loved every minute of it! Vienna was quite impressed as well. :o) Anyway, I have lots of pictures and stories to share...at some point...right now, though, we are focusing on enjoying our Tennessean vacay. Just wanted to post a quick update since so much has been going on! :o)
Matt had been living in Vance AFB billeting for about 2 weeks when we realized the situation just wasn't working out quite as dreamily and meant-to-be-ily as we'd planned it. He'd get home so late on Friday nights and leave for Asian Basketball and Vance so early on Sundays, that we really only seemed to get him for a day and a half, if even that. And Ha, in particular, would go through a rough adjustment patch every Monday and Tuesday after Matt left. Coupled with supporting two residences on one housing allowance and nursing school demands that would necessitate near full-time daycare for the girls from August - May and set against once again enjoying base housing, playgroups, families like ours, relevant support networks, seeing Matt every day he is available (as in not flying cross-country or something), and the ability to enjoy partial stay-at-home mom status while prepping for the NCLEX-LPN (as opposed to the NCLEX-RN I'd otherwise take in May), with the potential option for part-time nursing work immediately thereafter...and there really isn't really much to consider. I am so thankful I can preserve my nursing education in the form of Licensed Practical Nurse licensure, and that I can get more hands-on learning at a lower entry level. Starting out as an Registered Nurse with zero externship experience was a possibility that scared me to death.
We made our decision on a Thursday night, when it hit me epiphany-style, and Friday morning Matt had already arranged for TMO to pick up our household goods. As much of a hassle as moving always is, particularly as I coordinated it on my own this time as Matt has been at Initial Flight Screening at Doss AFB in Pueblo, CO since July 27th, it is such a blessing that the military covers household goods shipments and provided us with both packers and movers. :o) All our ~7,000 pounds of stuff is sitting in storage in Enid, OK right now, waiting for our move-in date of August 29th. We are visiting my folks in the interim, enjoying time with them, two of my brothers, Ha's old playgroup buddies, and a trip to the beach.
In a little over a week, the girls and I will drive back to Edmond, pick up the dogs and hedgehog, and move into billeting in Enid so Hana can start KINDERGARTEN!! We are so excited! The Wednesday after we decided to move, the girls and I drove up to Enid (about 90 minutes NW of Edmond) to check out schools. Hana will be attending Cimarron Montessori School, and after a couple months at home with me, I would also like to start Vienna on their preschool part-day program. We were so impressed with this school and its teachers, and I believe the child-paced Montessori philosophy will suit Hana's learning needs and style perfectly. She actually needed to complete an hour-long interview process before being accepted, so the teachers were able to assess the fit as well, and she loved every minute of it! Vienna was quite impressed as well. :o) Anyway, I have lots of pictures and stories to share...at some point...right now, though, we are focusing on enjoying our Tennessean vacay. Just wanted to post a quick update since so much has been going on! :o)
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