Who are the people in your neighborhood?

This was the scene outside our house yesterday morning as I was getting ready to go away and Todd was inside throwing up...




The pictures don't do it justice. There were cops everywhere! There were at least 15 cop cars within a block of the house. The guy across the street from us robbed his parents house and when the cops came to pick him up, he ran. They thought they had him boxed in near our house, but then he was spotted running down W. Genessee St. So all the cops packed up and left... I don't know how it turned out because Todd stopped throwing up and we left for Rochester.

Swimming Lessons

Last week the boys started swimming lessons at the YMCA, and today I actually remembered my camera. Thursday is Gabriel's day, Jake's lessons are on Tuesdays. That is one of the things that I do not like about how the Y does swimming lessons - just once a week. Personally, I think that Red Cross swimming programs tend to be far superior to the way the Y does it. But, I value my Y membership, and swimming lessons are free with the family membership. Plus it is good for Jacob to be at an indoor pool because he always gets really cold when swim lessons are outside - and he can't stay in the pool the whole lesson.

Both boys have made some good progress after only two lessons. Jacob is jumping into the deep end (10 ft) and swimming in the deep end without any floatation device. It is not so much that he was unable to do these things before as it is that he was terrified of doing them. I kept telling him "It doesn't matter how deep the water is if you know how to swim - just swim!" Well, the peer pressure of swimming lessons has helped him get over that fear. He is still tentative in the deep water, but at least he is trying! Now if we can get him to put his head down while he swims, he'll be doing great.

Gabe is actually coming along a lot better than I expected. When we are at my sister's, he would rather be on the side of the pool than in the pool, and he wouldn't let go of me (even though he had a life vest) when he did get in. Step one for the polliwogs - get in the pool. The first lesson he hung on the side of the pool with his belly on the deck and his butt in the air whenever it wasn't his turn. As you can see, he was much braver today!

He is having a great time. He grins from ear to ear every time it is his turn to do something, and he is really trying hard, too. The only thing that still seems to trouble him is the backfloat, I can see the worry on his face when the teacher flips him on his back.

What other exciting things are happening in the Young house, you ask...well Todd and I marked our seventh anniversary on Sunday. Yeah! Most of my bridesmaids didn't think we'd make it to five. We are celebrating this weekend by going to Seabreeze without the kids. I would have preferred Darian Lake, but Todd has to take Dramamine to go on the rides and Seabreeze is closer. Plus, there are lots of great music stores in Rochester. So we (and by we I mean I) will be bass shopping on Friday. But that is the one kind of shopping Todd doesn't mind spending all day (or week, or month) doing - usually I am the one looking at him thinking "can we leave this stinking store yet?" If I remember the camera, maybe I'll post some pictures after the trip.