Gabriel and Julian play soccer

I had a horrible night again. Anticipating an extra increase in nightly stomach pain, I took some Tylenol with codeine that the gastroenterologist prescribed. Though the codeine mercifully made me sleepy, the pain was still great, plus nausea. It took hours to fall into a restless sleep.

But enough about me. What a breakthrough in swim class today! Julian went from being hesitant and unwilling (though never flat-out crying) to his old death-wish-drowning self. I couldn't keep him out of the water! Teacher Gina would be holding him, explaining something to me, and he'd just stick his face in the water and leave it there. No kidding, he spent more time underwater than above it, and every time he came up, he'd say again that he wanted to go back under.

In playtime, Julian did what he did constantly last year too: jump in again and again, to where I can no longer relax and just watch the kids play. Every time I turn my head, I find Julian underwater again. Julian was underwater so much that he really needs goggles: his eyes were really, really red and irritated, almost swollen shut, from the pool chemicals.

I remember that as a kid taking swim lessons in Camp Sloane's pool that I used to spend much of swim classes underwater myself. It makes me that much more excited to take the boys -- well, the kids, whatever the gender makeup ends up being -- to beautiful seas to snorkel and maybe even scuba dive. I want to do that so much with them that baby#3 or not, we probably will do it when the boys are old enough (Hawaii! Carribean! New Zealand!). I was thinking first of Gabriel, but my guess is that Julian will be my diving buddy.

These boys are going to grow up swimming, partly because I like it so much and will continue to put them in lessons, but also because they like it so much. Really, of all activities I've done with them, they've both taken so well to swimming.

I'm so excited that I just found a few lakes with beaches and even lifeguards, one as close as Fremont, less than half an hour's drive away. And it won't be cold in Fremont in the summer!

It feels like the first day of summer -- it's warm and beautiful, still green, birds are chirping and flowers are blooming. The boys had lunch outdoors today, then Julian wanted to play with a bouncy new ball. This attracted Gabriel, who of course took it away. I made Gabriel give the ball back and ask Julian nicely if he wanted to play, and they did! They actually kicked the ball back and forth, playing "soccer."

Gabriel lost interest before long and pursued trucks instead, but it was so nice to see them really playing back and forth together -- and with physical distance between them preventing the inevitable bashing and wailing!