Luke's gymnastics practice

• run & chasse around mat
• stretch
• lots of handstand work - Luke struggling to get legs high enough to stay balanced
• straddle press into a headstand, then into a front roll. These looked great!
• stations on parallel bars with Coach Brandon: swings and dismount over side; supporting body weight with legs perpendicular to torso; creeping up incline bars; knee hangs with pull up on uneven bars & drop into foam blocks. Luke's upper body strength compared to his peers very apparent here.
• high bar stations with Coach Jason: big swing with hitch on high bar; pullover mount with spot from Jason; sideways creep across high bar; upside down vertical hangs from low bar into body position work on dismount
• calisthenics with exercises chosen by tossing the cube - V sit-ups, jumps with 360 spin, bridges, push ups with clap (he can almost do these - right foot hops when he claps!)
• finish with some playful jumping on the trampoline and a flip into the foam blocks

Monday tends to be skill focused, Wednesday afternoons are a mix that includes some gymnastics-based games, and Thursdays are primarily conditioning. He has serious hand calluses. In the next level, they start using grips for bar work. I think he's going to miss the extra practice when school starts. Last week I asked him if practice was good, and he said, "No Mom, it was GREAT."

The church picnic

was quite a production! There was a live band, a magician, and an ice cream truck from Bruster's. Luke participated in a bunch of relays with the big kids - water races were a priority. I tied for 3rd place in the pie baking contest, with leftover berry pie that dripped all over the oven.

Swim Meet - Thursday at Plainview

Thursday meets are apparently not good for the Levinsons. Luke invented his own version of the freestyle, which was one stroke with his right arm then three strokes with his left while floating leisurely along. Maybe relaxing, but not particularly fast!

Luke 25 m. freestyle 1:24 (+14 seconds)
Luke 25 m. backstroke 1:07 (-3 seconds)

Raha 50 m. freestyle 1:00.56 (+4 seconds)
Raha 50 m. backstroke 1:31.51 (+2 seconds)
Disqualified in the breaststroke, but this looked much better than previous week

CSA + time =

This is the first year we've had a CSA share - every Friday we pick up a bag of produce from Fox Hollow Farm. Yesterday was fun, because our farmer (a man in his 20s with a European accept of some sort?) introduced the little boys to his 7 day old chicks. He'd gotten them through mail order, a box of 26 assorted fluffy babies that will be free range chickens for eggs in a few more weeks. Now they are 3 inch long gold, rust, or speckled brown fluff with their first couple of feathers at the tips of their wings. He said that he expects each to lay about 250 eggs a year. We'll visit each week with our veggie pick up to check their growth, along with walking into the fields to talk to the vegetables. Purple and green beans next week, and basil is growing fast!

The hard thing to get used to is the seasonal supply of produce. This week I've been overwhelmed since Mom dropped off their veggies too as they left town. I had 5 cabbages and lots of bunches of green onions, and what seems like an endless supply of mustard greens, kale, and swiss chard. Of course there are other things too (like the bunch of tiny beets that I roasted and secretly ate by myself because I love them), but the ones I don't love do present a challenge. I finally broke down and spent a couple of hours on the Epicurious and Cook's Illustrated websites looking for ways to make meals to freeze for the winter, and I'm now happy that my next task is going to be defrosting the deep freeze to make room for more Pyrex and Tupperware. Today I made: 18 potato-salmon cakes with green onions, 2 meals of Moroccan chicken with olives, 2 meals of sweet & sour beef and cabbage, 2 meals of chicken cobbler with cheddar-green onion biscuits, 2 meals of chicken stuffed with sausage & swiss chard, 2 blueberry pies, 2 loaves of banana date bread, and a big batch of coleslaw for a picnic tomorrow. As my chief dish-doer, Raha was a little stunned.

The other part of the day was a trip to the pool with Luke, Aaron, Sammy, PhiPhi, and Raha so that Tracey could spend some quality time on a landscaping project downtown - a vertical green wall. I was a little anxious about four kids under 6 by myself, but they were wonderful. Aaron borrowed a little inflatable ring from PhiPhi and happily swam independently. I know what to get him on my next stop at CVS, since he kept telling me, "It fun!!"

Tomorrow we had a big church picnic, which apparently includes a visit from Mr. Magic and lots of games. My friend Robin had to cancel her picnic for Ada's birthday in the evening because her kids were exposed to swine flu at summer camp and she's kind enough not to share. Poor kiddos.

Aaron says.....

A couple of recent favorites:
"Car-wee- air-wee-er" is car carrier
"Ca-cheese" is mac and cheese (and heaven forbid, NOT cottage cheese)
"See-sick" is music
"Doy-lion" is dandelion

OT appointment #2

Jane is amazing! Yesterday we focused on stimulating lungs & oral-motor, with the specific goal of reducing the amount of screaming Aaron does. The cool things is that we do this with bubbles & straws....what's not to love? Jane is also ordering us a new weighted blanket and a chair for the dining table, all courtesy of First Steps. Ideas and activities:

• Bubbles - big bag of bubble pipes from Walgreens that require different mouth positions, collect all bubble stuff into a dishpan & put towel down for hand wiping, blow bubbles into a bowl of water & bubble liquid with different sizes & shapes of straws (which require different mouth positions and amount of pressure) then "pop! pop!" all of the bubbles with fingers, sustained breaths and little puffs, straws help with motor planning (blow only vs. inhaling), straw bowl for blowing bubbles and for drinking foods of varying thicknesses, have a bathtub bubble day, races blowing little toys across water with straws
• Voice levels using "Daddy voice, Mommy voice, and Baby voice" and also use these terms with bubbles and breath control
• Harmonica & trumpet mouthpiece
• To encourage him to blow bubbles during swimming, take straws then cut them shorter and shorter so mouth is closer to the water
• Giant stretchy fabric - swimsuit material - drag him in it as our train, have him pull toys, and using it as a swing for full body pressure. Also sing while swinging and gently crash onto cushions at the end of the song
• Use the straws to blow pom-poms - targets, races, or catch between 2+ people, and practice vocabulary "all, none, some, most," and suck on the straw to pick up the pom-poms
• Try CD "Sleepy Ocean with Delta Brainwave Patterns" for calming during quiet time and going to sleep http://www.therelaxationcompany.com/ or on Amazon (we're borrowing to see if he likes it)
  

Swim Meet 6-22

3rd swim meet on Monday - progress! Raha's butterfly looks amazing. The private lessons definitely made a big difference in his form. Luke isn't much faster after the week off of practice, but his strokes look better and his breathing on freestyle is more consistent. I just wish they didn't go so late - Raha and I weren't home until 11:30.

Raha 50 m free: 55.80 (= to last week)
Raha 50 m back: 1.29.24 (- 6 seconds)
Raha 50 m fly: 1.16.54 (-8 seconds)


Luke 25 m free: 1.10.61
Luke 25 back: 1.10.62
no comparison times for Luke - swim meet first week times aren't a good comparison because the pool was not a standard size

This is a gruesome swimming week because we have another meet tomorrow night. So much for catching up on sleep.