Galveston Death Grip

I'm decompressing from swimming lessons with Anders.  Although I understand the value of exercise, I wish we could skip ahead to chess lessons.  Anders finds different parts of swimming lessons to hate each week.  This time it was "Ring Around the Rosie" where Anders put my neck in the Galveston Death Grip and almost pushed me down when it was time for "ashes, ashes, we all fall down."  Anders and I "fall up" at this point, as we have done for months.  I suppose he doesn't trust me because a couple of weeks ago I asked him if we could "fall down" and before he could say "not fall down," we fell down.  I'll be paying for that one until the end of swimming lessons next month.
Tonight, Anders got a gentle push down the slide from his swimming coach.  It was the first time in weeks Anders had gone down the big "Alligator Slide" on his own.  He likely will not do that again before swimming ends.
Meanwhile, Anders jumps now, which is big progress.  He counts to 100 in both English and Spanish.  He has a ton of sight words.  He seeks out the rules to read where ever we can find them.  He has been showing more of an interest in his basketball hoop.  He has even figured out how to shoot from close range, but he's more interested in my descriptions of his shots than the actual shots.  He loves when I say things like: "nothing but net," "the swish," "rattles home," "donk!" "banker," et. al.
He has gained much confident on the playground.  He goes down the tall twisty slide on his own.  Anders also likes trying his hand at the unharnessed swing and the teeter totter. He enjoys watching the turtles swim and eat at Oyster Creek Park.  We haven't seen any gators yet, but according to the signs they are around.  I guess they should be around as they are indigenous, and every other elementary school's nickname is the gators.  I never thought of Texas and alligators, Florida yes, Louisiana yes, but not Texas.  That doesn't really make sense though, since we sit south of almost all of Louisiana and if you drew a line due east from SL, then you'd end up in Daytona Beach.  We are south of Gainesville, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola.  I guess encountering a gator is rare, but it does happen especially in the spring with a bunch of randy gators on the prowl.
Our biggest news of the past week is that Anna signed on Friday to join the special ed faculty at Armstrong Elementary in Missouri City, part of Fort Bend Independent School District (FBISD).  In a strange twist for the education job market, she will be starting her job on Monday rather than in August when the new school year begins.  Anna is happy, excited, and relieved.  We are both happy to be able to plan a bit now.  Anna's mom has graciously agreed to come and stay with Anders for the first two weeks of her job as my school year is finishing.
Anna tried to talk Anders into starting "school" (daycare) early, but Anders firmly replied, "No, Anders start school three."  For those of you who don't have an Anders, I realize that it might sound jelly-boned, lilly-livered, and yellow to bow to the wishes of a two year old.  I, however, implore you to take him to a swimming class, a MOPS meeting, or a church nursery and then tell me how crazy we are to heed the feedback of a 2 3/4 year old.  Anders is a well-behaved, model toddler in many ways, until the plan changes.  Anna has been talking up starting school at age three for months with Anders, an early start would not do.  Plus, and perhaps as important, we will not have time to find the right daycare or buy a second car, which we'll likely have to do.
I better go.  Anna needs the computer to compare benefits packages.

Anders Amazes

Anders continues to amaze.  Beyond learning to count to 100 forwards and backwards.  He is now trying to conquer Spanish.  He can count to 30 and he recognizes all the numbers up to ciento or 100.  He can count all the numbers up to 100, but not all at once.  Thus, by the high Anders' standards he can count to 30, but not 100...yet.  He also does funny word play like rather than fall down, he'll say "fall up."  He does stuff like this all the time.  I can't think of more examples now, but he plays around with language in a way that I know is not normal for a 2 year  old.
I have a couple of vague memories from being Anders' age.  One of them was pooping in the car while on vacation in South Dakota, the other was switching Duke Boys from Bo and Luke to Coy and Vance.  I honestly remember that second one, which Anna still does not believe, but when I remind her of the prodigious amount of TV I used to watch with my aunt Marilee, she relents a bit.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dukes_of_Hazzard#Coy_and_Vance
Anders just doesn't care about TV that much.  It is but one of the many things he enjoys doing in a day, but only if it's a show like "Super Why" or the weather or the scoreboard of a basketball game.  He loves watching youtube videos of numbers and letters.  He says "youtube! youtube! youtube!"  I had one of those "he's growing up in a far different world than me" moments yesterday as he requested a "numbersletters" video on youtube.  I pulled out the computer and we watched it.  I recalled waking up and waiting for Sesame Street or Saturday morning cartoons to start, and then if there was some interruption I had to wait a day or a week for that event to come around again.
What a great time to be a kid.  That got me to thinking about all the things to which Anders has been exposed.  He goes to the zoo once or twice a month.  I didn't go to a real zoo until I was 7 years old.  We've gone to the Gulf of Mexico the last three Saturdays.  I didn't see the ocean until I was 8 years old.  Anders has so many great opportunities to quench his thirst for knowledge and broaden his range of inquiry.
We've had another spurt of visitors with Anna's parents and my mom visiting on successive weekends, then we met up with one of Anna's former roommates and her 2 year old daughter in Galveston today.  It seems like these visits come in waves.
I was quite pleased with KU's NCAA tourney run.  It hasn't turned beastly hot yet.  Highs are in the low to mid 80s and it cools off at night.  A quarter mile wide tornado passed eight miles west of my hometown in Kansas, Marquette.  The conditions are  right for more tornadoes tonight.  I hope and pray our family and friends up there are all okay.
The school year is starting to wind down.  We are excited to get out of town before the heat gets too unbearable down here.  Oh, next Saturday is Texas Independence Day!  I am so excited for this pseudo-holiday.  I don't think we will make it to the historical reenactment of the Battle of San Jacinto on the east side of town in the shadow of America's tallest obelisk, but maybe next year...  I've started reading a book about Texas "Lone Star Nation" in honor of the blessed events of this month.
Anders went quickly and decisively down his first curly slide, at least that I've seen, today.  He also sang part of the Glen Campbell 1960s country hit "Galveston" today.  That's Dad's influence...