7.01.2016

Week 1 of Swimming Lessons

Monday MiniM.E. started three weeks of swim lessons. It was a bit ambitious of us to sign up for swimming lessons 25 minutes away every day for three weeks, but MiniM.E. is anxious to learn to swim and I would feel much more comfortable with her in the water if she could swim too!

She made a lot of progress at Gram and Grumpy's pool a few weeks ago, but in just the five days of lessons so far she's gotten even better!






The best part of each lesson is jumping off the diving board into the diving well at the end of class.




We chose the lessons down in Clifton Park because we heard they were the best but also because there is a kiddie pool for LittleL.G. to play in while MiniM.E. is in lessons.  The first few days we had to be near MiniM.E. as she takes a while to get used to new things.  Yesterday LittleL.G. just wanted to sleep... 


So today was the first day she really enjoyed herself while MiniM.E. was swimming.


Looking forward to another two weeks of lessons and watching my little fish learn to swim!

6.29.2016

What A Happy Mess

Sometimes I am surprised at how much I have changed as a mom over the past four and a half years. The first time around it's something totally new and there is so much pressure to do it right and be the best. The second time around I am much more laid back.

The other day MiniM.E. asked if we could bring water into the sandbox. First time mom would have thought of the wet sand sticking to all the little body parts and immediately said, "of course not!", but second time around mom agreed immediately. Think of how much more time they might play in the sandbox if water is involved!!

So today when this happened and I started to feel uptight first time mom starting to say, "hold on! this isn't how we do things!", I sat back and took photos instead.







6.25.2016

What A Week

Our summer is filling up quickly, as it always does. I imagine weeks of lazy days with nothing planned, just spontaneously driving up to the lake or lounging by the pool... and then I remember I have kids.

But this last week was about as close to a lazy summer week as we could get.  We stayed home most of the week, played in the yard, swam in the kiddie pool out back with some friends and just hung around.  It was actually very nice and relaxing... if you don't take into account that I also decided to potty train starting Monday.

I have to admit, the first few days were extremely rocky. By the end of the day Tuesday I thought I was crazy for trying to train LittleL.G. so young and by Wednesday I'd thrown in the towel and had her back in diapers.

But she had a different idea of how it was going to play out. I put a diaper on her Wednesday and dinner and she stayed dry until Thursday morning- possibly out of the fear that I would make her use the dreaded potty. But after that she was (almost) accident free from then on (there was that one incident where she peed on the bridge at the playground, but I don't think I would have used that public bathroom at her age either and Mommy forgot the potty in the car). I'd like to take all the credit, but she pretty much trained herself.

So that was our week.

So proud of LittleL.G.!

We finally left the house Thursday to go to our favorite Milton playground.

And Friday we dropped Daddy off at work and went to a playground nearby.






6.19.2016

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Daddy and Grumpy and Grandpa in NC... and to all the dads out there!

We are finishing up a great long weekend at Gram and Grumpy's house with a beautiful day for swimming and a rib dinner for the guys.

Since we will be leaving tonight, we had a nice bonfire with marshmallows and some sparklers- a special treat for Gram and Grumpy's!





6.18.2016

Learning to Swim

MiniM.E. has two New Year's Resolutions that she's been working on for a while now.  Her first was learning to read and I'm excited to say that she is well on her way.  We are far beyond "See the fat cat." and she is able to read simple stories from her McGuffy's Primer and recognizes words she sees around.

This weekend she has been making some solid progress on swimming too! Just in time for swimming lessons to start in a week.





LittleL.G. isn't quite as big a fan of the big pool and prefers the hot tub and the kiddie pool on the deck.




MiniM.E. is so much more comfortable in the water she even went down the big slide!


The Friendly Farm

Today we all drove to the Friendly Farm for our annual visit. This was our fourth year visiting in the early summer. Last year we took Auntie Jen with us and this year we took Grumpy and Daddy for the first time. It is such a great farm that is is more than worth the hour plus drive. All the animals are friendly and accessible. Most of them are okay to hold or pick up and the girls were able to feed most of them too!
holding the baby chicks

feeding a goat

holding a goat

feeding a goat a bottle




feeding the baby calf




watering down the pig