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The Samayoa family has been fairly busy lately!
Right now, the kids are participating swimming lessons. Julia is doing the parent and tot class, and James is in on his own with a teacher. Both of them love the water, so I’m grateful that they inherited their fish-like qualities from their father, and not any rock-like qualities from me. Julia has been going in the water with Jose mostly, and I have been interested to note that at the first 3 sessions, the class has consisted of a majority of dads (about 7:3). As a result, Jose doesn’t feel out of place. Julia laughs and shrieks from the first moment she gets into the pool, she just loves it. James is doing a great job in his lessons. He’s learning to float on his front and back unassisted, and to go out to the deep end on a pool noodle, and according to his teacher, he’s “doing amazing.” As with most things, James swims with exuberance. After his first class, we had to talk to him about listening to his teacher instead of fooling around, but he’s improved markedly since then. They’re swimming today again, but I will be missing it because I’m currently sitting in my mum’s kitchen in Cochrane. Jose enlisted the help of Papa Toño. He arrived in Lethbridge last night, and the plan is that he will go in with James as it’s parent participation day, and Jose will take Julia.
Before swimming lessons, the kids took gymnastics lessons this spring. That was a weekly Saturday event as well, and lots of fun. Julia was once again enrolled in a parent/tot class, and for the most part I went in with her, although she was also accompanied by her Papa and Auntie Catherine at various points. James had a gymnastics birthday party in March for his fifth birthday. That’s sure a great way to do a party! We were able to invite lots of kids, and all I had to do was hand over my Visa number! Ok, so I also baked a cake, and brought some fruit and veggies, but the mess was out of my house, and I loved it! The kids really enjoyed themselves. James especially, but he was incredibly wired. At his lesson in the morning, his coach had to give him a talking-to, and he had to do some sitting out at the birthday party. Too much excitement for one little boy!
James was playing soccer until the beginning of March. I asked him if he wanted to play outdoor soccer, but on the last day, he decided he didn’t want to. There was a little boy on the other team who was picking on him that day, and I think that soured him on the idea. In retrospect, I’m rather glad he didn’t want to play because we haven’t had the nicest spring (it’s snowing right now and it will be June in 3 more days), and sitting around outside in less than ideal weather conditions does not appeal to me.
Julia can’t wait to start ballet in the fall. And I didn’t even have to coerce her into wanting to dance! The girls at the day home do ballet, and that’s where she picked up the idea that she wanted to do ballet too. She’s going to look adorable! James got her some real ballet shoes for Christmas, so she’s raring to go! Also on her list of things she’s excited for in the fall: preschool and Sunday School (instead of just going to the “laundry” or nursery). She can’t wait to be a big girl, but I would like to cling to these moments of littleness. She asks me regularly, “Mummy, when am I grown up?” Rather sad in my opinion.
It’s hard to believe how big my kids are getting. They are capable of so many things. I consider myself very blessed to have two such healthy, bright babies. When I look at some of the things the kids at school struggle with, I know I am blessed indeed. James knows all his letters, and his number sense is quite something. He’ll be counting sleeps to an exciting event, and will know how many are left when he wakes up in the morning without me telling him. It’s really handy when I’m in a room without a clock, because I can ask him to read the numbers off a digital clock! Julia can count consistently to 12, and she can actually count objects correctly, not just rattle of a list of memorized numbers. James is up to 30 with just a little help at 17 (he tends to skip from 16 to 19!). He’s off to kindergarten in the fall, and he’s definitely ready. I just hope he’s not bored! He soaks things up like a little sponge. With his understanding of words and letters (he loves to play rhyming and opposite games, and “what does this word start with?”), it wouldn’t surprise me if he could read some words by the end of the summer.
Through the winter and into spring, our family stayed pretty healthy. Julia had something flu-like a couple of times, but we haven’t seen much of James’ asthmatic cough. He did get a mosquito bite that got infected though. However, with a little “mezitin” it’s all better. I’m just hoping this isn’t a regular occurrence. It’s happened before. Not surprising really when you watch him play outside. He’d stay outside all day if we let him, playing in the dirt, climbing, looking for bugs, flinging sand (yes, he still flings sand). I got him a bug catching kit, and he’s been examining all sorts of creepy crawlies. Another thing that Julia says she’ll do when she’s bigger is hold a ladybug, a snake, and a crocodile (the snake part comes from James holding a snake in Drumheller, and the crocodile part comes from James saying he’s going to hold a crocodile one day). She has an aversion to things creepy, crawly and feathered, just like me. And I swear I didn’t pass it along by my actions! I’ve been very encouraging about touching those types of things (as much as I can without getting too close myself of course), but she just doesn’t like those kinds of creatures. We just keep trying to calmly reassure her about them, and hopefully she won’t be as easily freaked out as I am when she grows up.
Jose and I are both plugging away at work. Jose’s company continues to buy up Case dealerships, so he’s been traveling more in the last year. He’s also done some work on the side under his very own company’s name, SamayoaTech. I think it would be cool for him to strike out on his own, but he’s not sold on the idea. I am counting the days until summer (22!). It’s been a bit of a rough year, as I’ve had a class that takes a lot of energy (to put it nicely). I’ll be moving up to grade 4 next year because our district had to cut 15 teachers, and one of them was at our school. Due to numbers, I was the lucky winner of a promotion. I’m looking forward to the fall. It means I leave behind an amazing team, but I get to work with a very good friend again. I have to take 1/3 of my class with me, but I’m hoping to reap some of the benefits of my hard work this year! There’s always a silver lining if you look for it.
I think that’s enough for now. Now that I’ve got a posting up, it’s a little less daunting to do more. Obviously I haven’t written about our entire life from January until now, but maybe I can fill in a few holes in the next little while. And then there are pictures. One day soon I hope!