The PE Edition

We started tennis lessons today.  The boys were excited: they got new shoes and shorts.  I decided to take Jean with us, as the tennis court is next to a playground and a half mile running track. While the boys were playing tennis, he was playing on the playground, and while Melva played, I started the couch to 5K program with him.  Today we walked briskly for five minutes, and then jogged for 60 seconds, walked for 90, eight times.

He was more excited about running than this.  I am not sure he knew I was taking a picture.

He loved it.  He was not as tired as I was, I am sure he will soon want to run faster than I can, but running is the one sport that he really can do with us.  Just getting out in the fresh air and sunshine is good for him.   Sometimes he struggles to sleep and I think it might be because he avoids the bright sunlight during the day. He still prefers to go outside when it is dusk, just as he did when he was a baby.

Christian is just so adorable, especially in his white shoes.  He vowed to never ever get them dirty.

They got to play with their best friend.

Just before his mini breakdown.

The boys enjoyed their lesson. Martinus got frustrated because he could not bounce the ball with his racket, but the instructor was firm and just ignored him when he started whimpering.  No one gets his name right, today he was Martin, with the short i sound in the last syllable.  I liked it, maybe we should call him that.  At choir a week ago Miss Cathy called him Marcelo, and he responded without any objection.  We called him that for a little while at home too, just for laughs.  You cannot take your name too seriously if you move to America.

They are growing fast.  Christian lost both of his lower incisors a week ago.  He is picking up books to read by himself, and while they cannot read fluently, we are working through McGuffey's Eclectic Readers at a steady pace, and I am sure they will be strong readers by the time we start first grade.  Having had two children who could not read before the age of seven (Jean only started to read chapter books when he was eight) I am grateful.  As I grow older, I realize more and more that we really have nothing that was not given to us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)  I did not pay more attention to them, I did not try to teach them much when they were younger, I waited for them to show an interest and they simply showed an interest sooner than the other two did. It is a wonderful gift.

The weather is starting to cool down, with highs in the low 90's and lows in the low 70's all of this week. Over the weekend a cold front is suppose to hit Central Texas; the maximum forecast for Sunday is 28 degrees Celsius and the minimum will be 11 degrees Celsius! My heart beat a little faster when I read that.  Summer wasn't too bad, but it is time for a change in the seasons.  Fall is my favorite season.  Apparently in every hemisphere.