First up, "Operation Contain Emmitt." Plans are in the works for a better means of containing him when I need to fix dinner or so that he can play and explore in boundaries that will not harm him. In the meantime, my living room looks as though I will be moving soon! One good thing is that when the kids outgrow clothes, the tubs for their outgrown clothing are already up here! The bad news is, well, it is UNSIGHTLY!!! I finally figured out the baby gate though, so Grandmom, perhaps this is all YOU need for your house! Why am I doing this? Emmitt is constantly crawling under the table and getting stuck. Or crawling in the kitchen and eating things off the floor that I could have SWORN I swept up before I allowed him to go in there. (On a side note, my attempt to get a second functional baby gate was futile! I checked Craigslist and took my mom with me. She can attest to the fact that this lady was just plain....RUDE...not to mention she listed the COMPLETELY wrong item picture on the advertisement and I was too chicken to go get my money back after realizing I had not received what I thought I had purchased. So if you know anyone who needs a nice metal baby gate for the top of their stairs or just wants to keep their pets in and doesn't mind a few holes in the wall to install it, I will happily sell this $50 used gate for $20!)
(To the left is the entry to the kitchen from the living room. To the right is the space between the dining room and the living room where MOST of the trouble happens.)
Operation number 2, "Operation BRAVE!!!" SO, you remember HERE where I talked about how comfortable my Jesstine is in the water and how much she LOVES swimming lessons and LOVES to swim, but could use some skill development so I thought it would be a good idea for her to take lessons again??? Well, something happened last week and that little girl disappeared! She turned into a little girl who cried and got scared in a situation where she normally wouldn't bat an eyelash (aside to remove dripping water perhaps). This session, we were supposed to be with her BFF, Kylie. Well, that didn't happen. So she was upset. Then we noticed Koen from church was there! Her level is technically the "Eel" level of which there were SEVERAL other kids (13 I believe besides Jesstine). These kids varied in skill level, but are mostly much less advanced in the level than Jesstine. She actually only has four things to complete before moving to the next level which is the highest she can go for her age group. So...her former swim instructor happened by as the new swim instructors were testing kids (which is another story entirely as one instructor didn't even give Jesstine a chance to swim and labeled her "uncooperative") and decided that she would be better suited to join the group of kids that were a level above her as she is really an "upper Eel." This proved to be a great thing as Koen from church was in that group (which helped her forget that Kylie wasn't) and because within the first two days she had checked at least one, if not two of the four items remaining on her list!!! But then the last two days of the week (4 days of 40 minute lessons a week), she all of the sudden started to get scared and then wouldn't even jump in the water (which if you know her, you know it is her FAVORITE thing to do)! Hence, "Brave week" begins tomorrow.We discussed what it means to be brave and she surprisingly knew exactly what I was referring to. I used "Jesstine language" by relating it to her favorite topic, Disney Princesses!! Made for a great segue into what the reward for bravery would be during the week. A trip to see the newest Disney Pixar Movie, "Brave" along with getting to go to Target and get the "Brave" princess crown to wear to the movie!!!
I hope to update you on these operations at a later date. Please pray that Jesstine finds the confidence needed to continue to excel in her swimming lessons! We are going to try starting with the "Manta Rays" again this week and then if she continues to struggle, she will move back to the Eels. I will be fine with that so long as she at least tries.
Here's to hoping that Stephen is not looking at another operation on his ankle! (Another story for another time!)
In Him,
The Hutchins Family
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