March 9th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
(Damien, Swimming)
Damien’s first day of swim class without a parent.
Damien was fine I on the other hand had to force myself to turn him over to the instructor at the door. Two of the other Mom’s decided to carry their child all the way to pool side, which only made the separation worse.
Damien was the most positive and fearless student. You could clearly hear him answer with an enthusiastic “YES” to each request the teacher had, like who wants to jump in the water, or who want to swim with a fun noodle.
The most fun for him was when he learned that he could bounce off the bottom of the pool, so that he was not in immediate fear of drowning.
He pretended to “fish” with the fun noodle while waiting his turn to swim. Then he got the other kids to join in. He hasn’t hit anyone yet, yet. Then he pretended to lose his noodle accidentally on purpose, just so he could reach for it and fall in on “accident”. Mostly so he could bounce off the bottom some more.
Damien swam back and forth, with his fun noodle, on his front and on his back, and didn’t panic or freak out, I was very proud of him; even though he was with the teacher all the time.
When it’s Cally’s turn, he tries to fish her out of the pool with his fun noodle as she swims back and forth.
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January 19th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
(Damien, New, Sergey, Swimming, work)
Well In-Laws are safely back in Russia, and Kids are back to daycare, and I have a level 80 in World of Warcraft. Now all I have to do is find a job.
There are two interviews that I have for this week, so hopefully they will go well.
On the down side, Olya’s work will be laying people off in March, so here is hoping that Olya makes the cut {I’m footing for you honey}; also her Dad is also unemployed, essentially, as the only customer they have has decided not to pick up their contract.
On the plus side I am dabbling with baking, and have a nice recipe for Russian Pie, and have a freash loaf of home made bread in the cupboard.
Damien had a good time swimming, he actaully propelled himself very well, while on his back clutching a foam kick baord for dear life {maybe it was the sense of immanent doom that provided motivation}.
Boys both went down by 9:15, when they asked for “Mommy” who is a sucker too kind hearted, I just told them it was “Just Daddy”, Sergey didn’t take it well but he went down anyway.
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October 13th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
(Damien, New, Swimming)
Damien is doing way better than before.
He is laying on his back with his ears in the water without screaming (I am teaching him the finer points of the ceiling in the pool, which gives him something to do when the water goes in his ears).
Damien can tread water with a fun noodle tied around his waist, as well as swim with one, without the fun noodle not so much, but it is a step in the right direction.
He is asking to go down the slid by himself, and smiling ans laughing all the while.
Good Times.
The biggest surprise this time was that he asked to take a shower after class.
Showers at the gym have up to this point been verboten, and apparently on par with amputation, so this was a really big step for him, and he handeled it like a pro. 
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October 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
(Damien, Dan, New, Sergey, Swimming)
Well work was terribally busy the last two weeks, lots of working through lunches and such.
I’ll just try to blog some thing quick every day rather than try to get a good story going.
 Most of my stories start off as short info blurbs anway and balloon into stories. Not that any of them are any good so if I write another bad on no big deal.
 Last weekend by brother Dan (not to be confused with my other brothers) came to Milwaukee for a visit. The big bummer is that he had so little time to spend with us.
Dan went to swim class with me an the boys taking Olya’s place, on the down side he does not look as good as Olya in a swimsuit, on the plus side I could see his nipples, and I am here to tell you they were perky.
Normally Damien is the complainer, and Sergey is the swim champ, so I let Dan help Sergey, however, it appears that Dan is no substitute for Olya where Sergey is conserned, so we switched kids. All in all it was a great bonding experiance for Dan and the boys.
Damien is still asking for “Uncle Dan” every other day.
 Auto Spam may be broken 
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September 20th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
(Damien, New, Sergey, Swimming)
Well we don’t want our children to drown so we decided to take both of them to swimming class.
On the first class Sergey adjusted right away, and over all he was one of the most talented students in the pool. Technically he is too young for the class, you need to be at least one, and Sergey is two weeks shy of that age, but they let him in anyway.
Damien on the other hand was on the other side of the spectrum. He screamed and cried from the moment we got in the pre swim shower. He did not let up until after class had started, everyone was singing a song very quietly, and he went quiet so he could hear what they were saying.
It didn’t help that Damien was shivering, poor guy has almost no body fat, and he was not moving around much, plus he may have had a slight cold or flu, it is that time of year (daycare).
At the end of the class the teacher set up a slide for the kids. Damien wasn’t initially very interested in sliding into the water, but watching all of the other kids splash into the water, and into their parents arms made him want to try.
He got out of the pool and stood in line, but he was frozen in place with his shivers, the other kids were typical kids, meaning that they cut in front of him without thinking. So I got out helping him up the slide, while Olya waited below for Damien to splash into her waiting arms.
Now all of the other kids hit the water and splash over to Mommy or Daddy, usually keeping their heads above water. I mention this only as a point of reference.
Damien Slides down the slide, and splashes into the water. Here is where Damien shows his creativity, instead of splashing over to Mommy; he decides to head straight to the bottom of the pool. Damien goes disappears from view, and Olya looks at me with the “what am I supposed to do now” look on her face. “You’ve got to pick him up your right next to him” I say. Olya scoops Damien out of the water who is not happy, but none the worse for the ware, at least we know that he can hold his breath. Next week we can work on staying above the water.
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