26 January 2008

A Madison Saturday

What a Madison day we had today!

I started off the day (after a very nice lie in) blowing a few inches of snow. My little Toro is just great. I can do the walks on two sides of the house, the drive way, the three aprons to the street, and the front porch within 45 minutes.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens brought an incredible Chicago dance group – the Alyo African Dance and Drumming – for two performances today. I had no idea how Julia would do and as things went we sat very close to where the drummers played. The drummers were loud and in the beginning Julia had to cover her ears, but she was fascinated with the music and when the dancers came out, she was overjoyed. The dancers were all young girls and they danced with skill and confidence and so much enthusiasm. The drummers were young men with two young boys; all of them worked hard and kept all of us clapping and tapping our toes.

Julia sat mostly in our laps, but for two of the dances, she pushed away from me and sat “with the kids” who were in front of us. It was good to see her enjoy a performance and to want to be independent.

After the show, we went to the Y for some swimming. After reaching a plateau in her swimming since the summer, Julia is moving past what she was doing in a pool. Today, she spent lots of her pool time doing an underwater dogie paddle. I have been trying to get her to kick more effectively and she is getting better at holding her hands in a cupped position. She also loves to ride piggy back as I swim underwater. Julia must have been a fish in her last life; she is far too happy in the water not to have had water as home.

The other half of the pool was used for a class to learn logrolling, the lumberjacks' sport. Logrolling! There were at least two instructors teaching and a few kids and teens who were pretty good at it. Julia and I both enjoyed watching the rollers although I think I was more surprised to see it than she was.

We finished up the day watching the Nationals Ice Skating competition. Julia was not crazy about watching them at first but she got into the pretty costumes, the music, and finally, the ice skating it self.

Yeah, a great day.

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