Team Towner: Cliff, Gina, Laura & Nathan: Spring Happenings

Spring has finally arrived here in Nebraska! This time, we think it might even be here to stay. Life has returned to time spent outside, playing in the yard or across the street with the neighbor kids at the playground. Cliff is experiencing 'senioritis' for the last time ever in his life as he heads in to the last 4 weeks of classes toward his doctorate. After that, he will spend May & June finishing up his dissertation before defending it in July and becoming, at last, Dr. Towner! Here are some recent big events in our household:

1. Laura has returned to swim lessons, this time at the 'Eel' level. She seems to have conquered her insecurities in the water once and for all. Her first Eel class was entirely done in water in which Laura can not touch the bottom. She was completely at ease with this. She swims with a float belt, with a kickboard, and even for a little bit, without either one of those. She jumps in and fully submerges and dog paddles back to the wall. She even floats for a little on her own. Most of all, she has fun!!

2. Nathan has started swim lessons for the first time now that he is old enough for the 'Pike' class, the one from which Laura was recently promoted. He was excited for his first class, greeted his teacher, sat and listened to her safety talk on the pool deck at the beginning of class, followed her to the pool ledge where they all sat and kicked their legs...then when his teacher pulled him in the water for their first one-on-one skill, he started bawling. I sat in the hall (outside a big glass wall) watching his silent anguish debating whether or not to intervene. The instructor seemed fine with his crying and kept class running smoothly, so I decided to give him the space to calm down. When I arrived at the pool deck near the end of class, he ran to me and said (with ..... representing sobs between his words), "Mommy....she...keeps....calling...me...by the....wrong name. She....keeps...calling me....Thomas." The poor kid!! All of his anguish was stemmed from being called the wrong name and not knowing it was OK to correct his teacher. We think we have it all worked out now, so we are hoping for a much smoother second lesson this week.

3. Laura has returned to another session of gymnastics at the YMCA. She is very into all things gymnastics and has become quite the Husker gymnastics fan. We even watched an online video stream of the Huskers competing in the NCAA regionals last night.

4. Nathan has started Live Y'ers, a preschool gymnastics class at the Y. He came home from his first class already able to do a somersault on his own!

5. Cliff spent the second half of his spring break last week in Seattle with his professor for the College Band Directors National Association convention. He and Dr. Barber presented a session at the convention that was very well received. This will be another feather in his professional cap / nice line on his resume. :)

6. Laura is back on her bike and is almost independent enough to go on a ride with Dad on the bike path.

7. Laura had her first field trip (which also included her first ever school bus ride) on Friday. Her class went to the nature center at Pioneers Park on the edge of the city. She talked non-stop about her adventure all the way home from school that day. She saw a bald eagle, frogs and various other birds, she fed trees and got to crawl through a log. Grandma H. will also be proud to know that she now knows the importance of being quiet on the school bus when approaching a railroad track. :)

8. As for me.....I may not have any 'big events' to post, but my role in life right now is to see my 3 favorite people through their big moments....and I think that's just fine. :)

And now for some photos......

The kids fielding for Dad during a front yard T-ball session: