Where did July go?

I know it has been a while. I remember as a kid that July was the summer month that always seemed to last the longest. And so it has been this year, busy and fun but sort of one week melding into the next, nothing really standing out in a major blog worthy way. We’ve been swimming a lot in the evenings. I regret to say Jacob did not “pass” his Session 1 lessons. He did put his head under, float and paddle around, he just waited until Lesson 5 (out of 6) to begin to try all those things. We intend to re-enroll him but we all needed to take a bit of a break (including, I think Mr. Pat the swim instructor). We are proud of Jacob, he even dips under to look at things – we play the game where I hold up fingers or make a sign that he knows in sign language. This past weekend we tried these new swim vests, they are awesome and on very good sale right now. With the addition of the vests Jacob is now paddling all over the place. This is a huge deal compared with where we were just three weeks ago, so all in all I would say swim lessons have been successful. Ah, my two babies are so opposite in many ways. Bella knows no fear. Bella’s favorite thing to do is to leap right off the edge into the pool; she doesn’t necessarily concern herself with jumping to an adult, so I have to be hyper vigilant with her. The vests make me feel better, though of course we are very watchful. I have been shopping and planning for the kid’s upcoming birthdays. Bella’s birthday will be a Sesame Street theme and Jacob’s is going to be Backyardigans. I’ve found this really nice vendor on eBay for birthday supplies. She went out of her way to help me get everything on time, and even refunded me some money because she was able to ship it for less than what was originally calculated. She could have kept the difference, I would never have known, but I was really impressed that she did that. I’m reading a lot again. That’s the other reason I’ve not been blogging lately. Will and I hit up the new used bookstore down in Kingwood and we both found great books so we’ve had several nice evenings with candles and books instead of TV. Will is reading a biography of Jackie Kennedy and I’m reading the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and also rereading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I want to see the movie but I like to refresh myself on the book first. Anybody that wants to go see the film with me please let me know! YAWN. Sorry, I know none of this is particularly riveting, but that’s how July is – long, hot, blissfully redundant. Swimming, supper on the grill, curled up with a book – perfect.