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.