Whew...

Madeline is off at Basketball camp, Nolan is sleeping, and there are no Olympics on to distract me, so grab a coffee and come in for a chat!  I wish you were here in person; this is a pretty one sided chat...

M is at the U of R this week for a bball camp; it runs 9 - 3:30, and she enjoyed the first day.  I don't think they were run as hard as we were expecting / hoping...  She should learn some good skills this week though, from some high quality athletes - I'm hoping her school season shows improvement this year because of it.  In her last two years playing, her team has won one game.  With M being one of the oldest players, they'll be looking to her for leadership and points whether she likes it or not!  Her big sports dilemma lately has been whether to play city basketball or city soccer this year, as opposed to just school bball or instead of community soccer.  She would prefer soccer because that is her favorite sport, but thinks that there is more of a future for her in basketball, with school sports and scholarships.  (I just looked, though, and I think the high school she's going to has soccer, as does the UofR if that's where she ends up.)  I'm glad she's taking more of an interest in athletics, and hope it's something she can enjoy for a long time.

She had a big babysitting job last weekend - she and a friend were recommended by their grade 5 teacher and sat at a hotel for the kids of 3 out of town sisters while the parents were at a wedding reception in the hotel.  She's got another babysitting job this weekend - it's not her favorite thing to do, but she likes the money! She'll be helping out with VBS at our church next week, too, and enjoys going to junior youth on Wednesday afternoons.  She enjoyed it more when there were older kids around; now that they are the older ones, it feels a little young for her.  We had a good discussion about following and leading and how it's important to still go so the younger ones have someone to watch...  One more year, then she'll be the young one again - grade 9 - high school!!

Nolan is a big boy now, with a third tooth as of yesterday.  He is a week away from seven months, and weighs in at 21 lbs.  He's crawling, starting to climb, loves to pull up to standing, and to walk around holding our fingers.  He naps three times a day still, but usually short ones in the morning / late afternoon, and a longer one mid day.  We're feeding him all kinds of foods, and he seems to enjoy it all.  He's not that great with the baby cookies or baby rice crackers yet - he prefers to chomp and swallow rather than gumming it till it's soft enough, so we'll wait a bit longer for those.  He's active and loud, with growls, screeches and flexing his whole body; it can be pretty entertaining as well as tiring!

And that's all I know - how my kids are doing - that's my whole world it seems.  It's not a bad life.  We don't have any more plans for the rest of the summer, other than finishing the back to school shopping.  The mornings are a bit cooler now, but I'm reassuring myself that there's still lots of time for eating out in the back yard and going for ice cream.  M got a Ladder Golf game for her birthday (aka Mexican Golf, Bolo Ball...), and we had that up the other day for some good fun.  (Thanks, Mom!) 

Off to see if there's anything else on my to-do list that needs to be done during nap time...