This Week

- Survived week one, sense of humor and stress levels (mostly) in hand. Gosh, I missed this!!! Got to coach four times (once covering for a coach who didn't show, once because I was training a late hire, and twice with the advanced class), and got in the water to soothe two criers. ;) Also had one parent bring their hysterical child to me while I was trying to coach the advanced class and demand that I calm her down "because you're the only one who can get her to stop crying when she's like this." (I did, within thirty seconds. I was so glad to see her again I wasn't even annoyed, more amused.) I learned all the names of my new coaches (after failing spectacularly at this on Saturday, so badly that my boss tried to help me out). I've written two thank-you notes already to coaches who helped me deal with especially difficult or trying kids (and I need to write a third tomorrow, to the team in general, for surviving the first week). I also got a good start on learning all the names of my new kids this session (trying to get back to my goal of knowing everybody's name and face).
All in all, a good week. :)

- The triplets and I are finishing our second week of "tot school" and this week we've been focused on the letter B and the color blue, with an "All About Me" theme (we've done lot of name-recognition games, traced our bodies on the driveway to decorate with chalk, and measured everyone with a yardstick). (Last week was A and red, with a "back to school" theme). We also went to storytime on Thursday since the pool is closed for maintenance; L completely closed up and sat on my lap the whole time, A sat by herself but refused to participate, and M jumped in wholeheartedly and seemed to have a great time. Hoping that the girls will warm up a bit as it becomes more familiar.

- This week was really exhausting as I jumped back in to my new Autumn schedule for the first time... it's not necessarily harder or busier than last year, but it's definitely got a much different rhythm to it, and I was a little stressed all week about forgetting something. Luckily the only thing I forgot was an assessment for swim (lucky, not because it was unimportant, but because I'm pretty much always there early anyway so it didn't matter).

- Speaking of Autumn... it's sending me very mixed signals so far. The sky looks extremely autumnal (the sky always looks closer during fall - true story) but the ridiculously hot temperatures during the day seem to scoff at that idea. On the other hand, I bought a pumpkin yesterday (couldn't resist - my love of pumpkins is profound) and today I bought an orange chevron printed burlap banner. Clearly I'm mentally ready for fall... I just need some cooler temperatures to support it.

- Some views from my life lately: the flag at half-mast on 9/11; finding a magazine about wooden boats for Cris; prepping to teach writing and literature to Ruth and Dari on Tuesdays (we're studying The Red Badge of Courage and man, it's been a long time and geez, I totally underestimated/forgot how much WORK this is! ;)).