Rookie Parent Alert

The best laid plans often go awry...

We joined the YMCA at the end of December and I signed Yordanos up for Dance and Swimming, and Habtamu for Tumbling and Swimming. Doesn't sound too taxing, right? Huh...

Monday: Yordanos comes back dreamy eyed from dance class. I promise her if she still likes it after the 7 weeks, I'll buy her the dance shoes and outfit. I went to a Step class, which, when you are almost 40 is pretty hard. I'm still recovering from the sledding incident awhile back, and my tail bone area is twinge-y.

Tuesday: Tumbling. Habtamu and 2 little blond girls. Um. I had Yordanos along too, and they lady said she could see if she liked it. Y liked it, H, not so much. My friend's son used to be in the class, and I think that would have flown better with H, but since he was not in it, we had to do some fixing. I couldn't get my $ back, but I was able to put Y in instead of H, BUT then H only had swimming, and he's the one who really needs more activity. Sooooo....

Wednesday: We all went to Karate. It was $70 for one person or $104 for the whole family. So we all went to Karate. There are classes 4 days of the week, and we can go as many times in a week as we want. We bought H the uniform because we are suckers, and he has been wanting one for, oh, um, since we picked him up in Ethiopia. He started complaining about the new uniform right away, which made me want to rip it from his hands and throw it away, but I resisted, and figured he was doing his "say the opposite of what I really feel, because I can't handle my feelings about getting what I want." I do a lot of shrugging and making my face as neutral as possible these days.

Thursday: Y and H had swimming lessons. (Thanks Uncle Paul and Aunt Carrie!) At the end of class, the teacher asked if they'd taken classes before because they did so well. I was able to be one of THOSE parents and brag that they'd never swam before last June, and aren't they wonderful?, etc... etc...

Friday: It was Family Fun Night tonight. (Forced Family Fun, if you will.) There were not that many families there, and Lee was the only father. Of the families there, many were of mixed race. Not sure why that was. Yordanos wanted to play ping-pong with me, and I prepared myself to chase the ball a lot. BUT, she plays very well for her age. I said "You played in Ethiopia, didn't you?" "Yes, a lot!" Huh. They continue to surprise me. Also, they got to swim, but not until 8 p.m. There is Open Pool from 8-10:45 every night, which makes me think "Oh, thank you very much. What about bed-times, people?" They were in bed at 9:45 (Yikes!) tonight, and were exhausted. We certainly got lucky in the "good sleepers" category. At the Hilton in Addis Ababa, they slept 11-12 hours every night, and they do about 10-11 hours here. They rarely get up at night, unless Yordi gets scared (very rare now), or if someone has to use the bathroom. They got up at 10 this morning. (Sorry, Katherine! - My friend Katherine has early risers, no matter what time they go to bed.) Must have been tired from the pool the day before. Hoping they'll sleep in tomorrow, so WE can sleep in.