Ruff Party of Five: Week 5: Where has the summer gone?

This week we all got to meet the newest addition to the Ruff family, baby Sophie Witcher. Emily, Tripp, and two-week-old Sophie came to stay in Memphis for a few days. Penton, Winsey, and Twipp play so well together. Sunday I took the kids out to swim at Nani's house, and Kate even got in on the action and floated for a while in the pool. Lindsey, the 'fraidy cat of the family, likes to hang out on the shallow shelf and usually still has a ring on there. But Sunday, she decided she wanted to jump off the side in the deep end. Before I knew it, she was jumping off the side and swimming to the shallow shelf. And she did it again and again and again. Wonders never cease. Good thing we had swimming lessons scheduled this week.

Lindsey took swimming lessons with Ms. Melissa, and much to my amazement she was in her swim suit each day by 8:00 asking when she could go to swimming lessons (10:00, Lins, get comfy in that spandex). The 10:00 lesson messed up our daily routine of going to the gym but it was well worth the result of Lindsey learning to swim better. I fought the daily battle of Benton wanting to go swim, but I always had a sucker handy to divert him. She was excited about swimming lessons all week, especially Friday when the lesson ended with a show for the parents. Lindsey was bummed that David had to go to work, so he told her I would video tape her and he could watch it when he got home. I guess he didn't think through the logistics as he was trying to console Lins, because I had to juggle two kids and two cameras at the show. All the parents (and some grandparents; seriously, it's just swimming lessons) were sitting in the chairs lined up by the pool. All the parents but one; I had Kate on my hip, Benton by the collar of his shirt trying to keep him from jumping in the pool, a video camera under my arm and the camera strap around my neck. It was one of those days that I got the dreaded "bless her heart" look from other parents.

Before class started. Notice who is the lone goggle wearer. That's my girl.

Reward for swimming in the deep end: taking a ride on the airplane float. Benton has a new trick where he says, "I'll be right back" if he wants to go somewhere he knows he should not go. He spotted the airplane float when we got to the pool and said, "Mommy, I'll be right back." I knew he was headed to the raft and held him back. So, imagine the breakdown Benton was having at this point. "I wanna wide da air-pane!!"

Wednesday we met Nani, Uncle Jon, Emily, Tripp, and Sophie at the zoo. At noon. And it was hot. And we stayed until 3:00. But everyone had a blast and no one had a meltdown until they were restrained in their car seats on the ride home. We go to the zoo often, but the experience is always different. Take this day, for instance. It was the first time we saw an elephant poop. The kids (including Jon) stood there with mouths agape for a good minute before Tripp announced, "He went poo poo!" followed by Benton's wise observation, "That effant went stinky. He nasty!" Oddly enough, Benton went poo poo on my bedroom floor earlier in the week just like the elephant. The kids also experienced the snake house for the first time because David and I have never told them snakes lived at the zoo (luckily they still don't know about the bird exhibit, because birds freak me out more than snakes). We walked through the petting zoo, and the kids loved petting the sheep. But as they followed Nani into the hand-washing station, a donkey HEE HAWED from behind the fence and we saw two toddlers in oh-so-cute matching crab outfits high-tailing it out of the hand-washing station. Between the sobs I heard Benton say, "Quit laughing at us mommy." Never a dull moment with these kiddos, and Kate wasn't even there (she might the wise decision to stay in Ms. Lynn's air conditioned house).