Turning a Corner

I've been neglecting the blog lately in favor of knitting. At the moment, I'm working on a pair of socks, a sweater that has been taking up most of my knitting time, and a tank top that should fit, but sure looks like it won't, so I'm losing interest.

After a weekend with Mr W, I always feel like I've done a lot of parenting. I guess it's because he's an only child, but I feel sometimes like I work a little too hard at making sure he's got fun stuff to do. I do still need to intervene because if I don't, he will play on the computer for hours. Literally. So I ask him to take a break and he does and I suggest something else. Sometimes I'll play with him, but he's also got to entertain himself because I try to get house work done.

I've noticed a couple of things about him lately, though, as he settles into being 8 1/2. The first thing is that he doesn't want to sleep with a lamp on in his room anymore. This was his idea, I didn't really have an opinion one way or another. A couple of weeks ago asked me to turn the lamp off one night. OK, I said. He fell asleep without a peep (good thing about summer camp, it wears them out) and stayed out for the night. I did slip in and plug in a small night light, in case he had to climb down in the middle of the night to pee.

The other thing was that he's finally getting comfortable being in the water. This is the kid that has passed exactly one level of swimming per summer for the last two summers, when they have the opportunity to pass three or more. At the beginning of the summer, I told him this is the last summer he'd be able to use a mask and snorkel for swimming lessons. He did not take this well. I don't know if it was because I said that, or if he was just ready, but he's been making more progress with the lessons, and he practiced holding his breath during his bath the other day.

I'm proud of him.

Oh, this struck terror in my summer-loving heart: we were are Target a week ago and they were starting to put up the back to school supplies merchandise. Holy Toledo.