Aqua Tots...

 

We took swimming lessons for the last two weeks.  It was great.  My cousin watched A while I had E in the pool.  Sheila enjoyed watching A and I loved swimming with E.  It was amazing to see how much change that E went through in the 7 days of lessons.  

When we started lessons, E clung to me like a barnacle.  She wouldn't dip her face in the water.  Swimming down to the far side of the pool entailed me holding her on my hip and her kind of kicking as we walked down and back.  To jump in the water, I had to hold on to her by the waist with my hands.  She wouldn't even try to float on her back.  She wouldn't try the ladder.  Getting her face wet caused numerous tears.  Plus, she cried and cried and cried about everything.  The first two days we were out of the pool within thirty minutes.  I felt like a horrible mom because all she wanted to do was leave the water.  She wanted to go to class every day but didn't want to do anything in class once we got there.

The last day of the swimming lessons was completely different.  She scooted up and down the ladder at will...she even went up and down by herself while I was on the far side of the pool not paying close enough attention.  She jumped off the edge of the pool at me without any supports.  One time I wasn't even paying attention to her so she just jumped on me because she was tired of waiting.  She'd blow bubbles and even get her face wet.  There were no tears the last day...even when she got splashed.  She loved doing 'sea-horse' races on the noodles and 'racing' others to get the ball that our instructor, Tyler would throw out.  She enjoyed using the kick board to practice her kicks and had very strong kicks by the last day.  She'd even stretch out her arms and kind of 'doggie paddle' by the end of class.

My favorite part of swimming lessons was that she started wearing her hair in pony-tails because she didn't like getting her hair wet in the pool.  I think she looks absolutely adorable with her hair up.  I didn't have any pics of her in the pool, since I was in with her, but I took lots of pics at home before class with her swimsuit and pony-tails.  Isn't she the cutest?!

A Day at the Zoo

On our way to the wedding, we stopped at Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. Despite the rain showers as we were eating lunch, we had a great visit at the zoo. E loved visiting Africa. Giraffes up close are pretty amazing. A little guy shared a piece of lettuce so that E could feed the giraffes, but she'd just threw it at them. She was a bit scared of their long tongues.

We saw zebras, ostriches, red kangaroos, monkeys and zebus...didn't know they really existed...thought that Larry the Cucumber made them up. We saw lots of birds...a dinosaur...we knew E was tired when she didn't want to climb up on the dinosaur and play.

E's favorite part of the day was the carousel ride and seeing the turtles.

I was a bit disappointed that we arrived as late in the day as we did, but 2.5 hours for two little kids at the zoo was more than enough.  They were ready to go and so were we.  It was fun but very tiring.

The wedding

Kara and Caleb were planning on an outside wedding at sunset, but severe thunderstorms changed the plan. Instead of the wedding at 9ish, we had the wedding at about 10 inside. But, it was still a beautiful ceremony. We all had fun. We were exhausted by the end of the night, but it was fun celebrating with Kara and Caleb.

A finally fell asleep in the Moby wrap right before Kara came down the stairs and E gave up during the ceremony. Uncle J gave her a pillow and Mom thinks she was asleep before her head hit it. She missed out on the toast, the dance and cake...all the other little ones had to investigate her sleeping on the floor. They were quite puzzled by it. It was cute.

Congratulations Caleb and Kara!!!!

The Pre-Wedding Party

We had a great weekend celebrating my cousin Caleb and Kara's wedding on Saturday at my aunt's home.  We had the party first and the wedding followed in the evening.  Everyone had a great time on the lake, in the pool and just hanging out.  E and A had a great time, too.  Both loved being in the pool and watching all the kids.  E enjoyed her first ride on a jet-ski, but she decided that she liked the pool better.  It was a very fun day!

"Blackie"

We were at Mom and Dad's tonight.  E looked out on the front porch and saw the new batch of kittens.  With great excitement she said, "Oh look!  Blackie is a little kitty again!" 

"Blackie" was a baby kitten last summer and is now an adult cat.  I'm not sure what she'll think when she sees them both out on the front porch and how that will register with her schemata.  But for tonight, she was very excited to see "Blackie" as a kitten once again.

I'm not sure that the kittens are any safer this year.  Last summer we had to constantly remind her to pick the kittens up by the belly and NOT the neck.  Tonight she picked one up and promptly 'dropped' it off of the porch to the ground.  She then wondered why they all ran away and wouldn't let her pick them up again.  Although the kittens are probably inbreed, I'm not thinking that they are too stupid if they are smart enough to stay away from the 3 foot tall little girl...

7-month old A

Wow!  What a month it has been for A!  Full of changes and progress and growing up...

A's first tooth (front bottom left) erupted on May 6 and was quickly followed by his 2nd (front bottom right) on May 11th.  The teeth are looking pretty good now.  They aren't completely in yet but they are getting close.

We had our first night of full uninterrupted sleep on Saturday night, May 15th (and he did an encore the next night!).  A still generally gets up once per night but the couple of nights of uninterrupted sleep that we enjoyed this month have been wonderful!

Clapping is A's newest trick.  He started doing that on May 27th.  He started by pounding on the table when you'd pound and it quickly progressed into clapping.  He loves to see that people will mimic what he does.

He army crawls everywhere.  His mobility is changing quickly.  He's not rolling to get places anymore...its the army crawl.  In the past few days, he's learning to get up on to his knees and rock back and forth.  I believe that traditional crawling isn't far away and we'll really be in trouble.

A is sitting up for long periods of time on his own.  He can't put himself into the sitting position but he'll stay there for a long time if he's placed in that position...or until something catches his eye that he wants.

I took a class in elimination communication at the end of April.  I decided that communication regarding urination was beyond my patience level at this time, but we've had great success with #2.  Everyone that reads this may think that I'm crazy, but I've changed very few diapers with poo in the past month...and only 2 diapers that I'd consider 'somewhat' messy.  A communicates very effectively when he needs to go #2 (think lots of grunting) and I sit him on the potty and he goes #2.  He doesn't like going in his diaper and tends to get very vocal if he's trying to communicate with me and I'm not paying attention.  I don't know if he'll continue to voice his opinions about going potty and continue to use the potty for #2, but its so much easier to clean him up when he uses the potty that I'll continue to do my part when he lets me know!  ;-)

He's getting more and more of a personality.  Jut's really noticed that when he comes home, A's whole face lights up and he smiles.  He's so excited to see him.  Jut's also really good at getting A to sleep.  He hold him in the cradle position and rocks him.  It always puts him right out. However, A won't let me hold him like that...too similar to the nursing position, I assume.

A entertains himself more.  He plays in the playpen while I shower...he sits on the floor and investigates things.  He's a very content little guy.  However, we've had to hide all electrical cords and move some foliage because they intrigue him a bit too much.

A took his first trip to Impression 5 this month with E's b'day.  He had lots of fun playing in the infant area.