Wow we only took one flight last year. With security the way it is now, I think I’ll be planning more driving vacations than flying.

I thought for sure that this dentist appointment would go well. Peter seemed to have matured a lot in the last few months and we had prepped him with more books about the dentist. But as soon as the dental assistant reclined his chair, Peter freaked out. The dental assistant wouldn’t even try to deal with him. She just put us in the enclosed “fish tank” room and had us wait for the main dentist. Peter responded to that dentist better but we still ended up having to hold him down for his exam and cleaning. It probably only took a total of 5 minutes but Peter was covered with tears and snot by the end. Poor thing! He even admitted later that it didn’t hurt at all, so I don’t understand why he has so much anxiety.

So we had another horrible visit to the dentist, however this time they found no cavities. Yay! I just hope he loses his anxiety before the next visit in 6 months.

The hay maze:

Playing in the corn:

Not much else going on so I guess that’s it for now. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Our own home project this weekend was taking down the pool. The weather is starting to cool so I didn’t think we would be using it much anymore. Toward the end of summer Peter didn’t even want to go in or he wouldn’t stay long if he did. He always said the water was too cold. I guess he got spoiled with the heated pool at swim class.

Speaking of swimming, Peter started his next class, Level 3. He’ll just go a couple times a week for 4 weeks. I really liked our experience in the last class but so far I’m not happy about this class. For one, they are teaching them in 3ft water so Peter can touch the bottom. Because of that I notice he puts his feet down way too often instead of trying harder to swim. I’m already thinking he won’t improve his forward stroke just because of that. Another thing I don’t like is he was moved to a class with Level 2 kids so they are learning at a slower pace. He started in the Level 3 class but 2 other kids were way more advanced (already swimming) so they moved Peter and another boy back to Level 2. I argued with the instructor but she said it wasn’t fair to the boys that could already swim. My argument… the other boys can swim, why are they even in swim class. At least the class is cheap and Peter says he has fun so I guess that is all that should matter. I won’t be signing him up again though.

Before Peter got moved, when he was actually learning something new - to float unassisted - although the got this picture right before the instructor let go:

Other non-swimming news… Peter got a haircut and a new pair of shoes.

What a difference a year makes. I thought I would be holding him down for his haircuts until he was a teenager:

Big boy shoes with laces. Now we just need to teach him how to tie them:

And if you can picture Mike, Peter looks like his mini-me - black shoes, white socks, and khaki cargo shorts. I noticed the resemblance while walking behind them at the mall. I couldn’t stop giggling.

We also played at the park:

And we built a cover for Peter’s sandbox. I found cat turds in his sand. The neighbor cat had been getting under the tarp so we built a wood frame and stapled the tarp to it. We also replaced all his sand.

We’ve also been watching our corn and sunflowers grow (thanks to our squirrels). Not sure if the corn will be edible though:

I’m planting a ton of sunflowers next year (on purpose). They are so cheerful looking:

The other birthday was for Peter’s preschool friend, Laird. It was held at a mini-golf place. It doesn’t get more dangerous than a bunch of 4 years olds wielding golf clubs.

Unfortunately it may be the last party we attend for any of these kids. Our playgroup no longer meets and a bunch of his preschool friends switched to a different school. I’m not sure we’ll even do a birthday party for Peter this year. The attendance list would be very short.

While at one of the parties, Mike dropped my point/shoot camera - the one I use for all my video. The lens is broken and is too costly to fix. So we are purchasing a new one. Thankfully the camera cost has gone down half since we bought this one.

This is what he does when it’s not his turn to swim with the instructor. He was scared putting his whole face underwater just a week ago:

We also had digital phone service installed this weekend. Initially we got it because our regular phone service had developed a constant static noise. The phone company said they would fix it for free if there was a problem with the line from the phone pole to the outside of the house. But once it comes into the house, if there was any problem, like animals chewed through the wire under the house, then they would charge us $60. So why risk having to pay $60? We just switched to digital instead. It actually saves us $20/month anyway. And we get free movie channels and upgraded Internet speed for 6 months. The phone seems to be working great, at least no more static. Also, I love that we can easily forward our calls. So when we go on vacation, we’ll just forward our home phone to our cell phone.

The cats are enjoying life again: