Griego’s Page

Today Ryan graduated from the Pikes swimming class.  It was an introductory to water class, that we nearly could have skipped.  He really enjoyed the water, and it was often difficult to even get him out when the class was over.

On the final day of class, he did a back float, jumped into the water and was completely submerged.  The grand finale was a run down the water slide.  Oh the smiles of a child on his first water slide.

We are going to do more swimming lessons.  Everybody had a good time, and it is long overdue to get this kiddo to learn how to swim.

Ryan and I got to have a special night out since Kim was on a spa night with the girls.  We started off at over childs favorite gourmet restaurant…McDonalds.  Got the happy meal and the ever important kids toy.  Hit the kids gym for a couple of slides and we were off.  We headed out to the local bowling alley, a place called Players & Spectators.  We got to watch an incredibly good bowler, and his buddy.  The good bowler on his bad game scored a 264, and his good game was 299.  Yes, he missed a single pin on the last frame.  It was the weeble-wobble of bowling pins.  It wiggled and wobbled, but wouldn’t fall down.  Crazy times.  Ryan and I with both games that we had may have totaled one of his games.  We did have lots of fun.

This is the third attempt at a Halloween for Ryan. The first one was not all that great. Dragging the kid out into the cold and wind to half a dozen homes. I couldn’t get him to actually ring the doorbells of the neighbors homes, but he was pretty excited about it after we got back.

The second year, it came to an abrupt end when he wanted to continue to go trick-or-treating, but only if I would carry him. Yeah… no thanks. The kid is lanky and getting heavier.

This year was great. It was a mild night, and he knew how to get the job done. Ring the door bell and beg in a cute way that only 4 year olds with that twinkle in their eyes can do, saying “Trick or Treat” and not ever imagining that there is something other than a treat. We had a great night that night, and look forward to next year’s journey with a much larger, sturdier sack for the treats.

Ryan’s daycare hosted a Halloween party for the kids this evening. We took Ryan and his neighbor friend, Diana. They both had a lot of fun. There were lots of activities, and they both came home with a little bit of candy. This year, he wouldn’t go through the haunted house. As we were waiting in line, some older school-age girls were talking about how scary it was, trying to scare their friends a bit. Ryan overheard and was believing it all. He walked in, then turned around and walked right back out, and that wasn’t mentioned again the entire night. He did the cake walk, found spiders in a rice mixture, threw beanbags in a pumpkin face, played a ring toss, and played a fishing game. The fishing game was by far his and Diana’s favorite, and we lost count of how many times they played that one. Ryan got to see all his friends and teachers, and his friend Eric also was there, dressed in a very cool vampire costume. We got some pictures, which are posted in the Photos section under Halloween 2008.

Saturday October 18th was Ryan’s first day of swimming! We signed him up for lessons at the YMCA, and they will continue over the next 4 Saturdays.

He insisted that he didn’t want to go swimming, and told us the same thing for over a week, even up to that first step in the pool. By the time he had both feet wet, he was wearing a perma-grin until he got out.

We are well overdue to get him going on these lessons, but I hope that the pay off will be wonderful. I asked him recently if he was excited to go swimming again, and I was advised that it takes more practice to know how to “swim”.  He is however excited about going to swim lessons.