A Long Weekend in NH

Week two of swimming looked a lot like week one of swimming, with a lot of improvement, but also a lot of the same: kicking, floating, scooping, etc.  I knew that what MiniM.E. really needed was some time to practice what she's been learning, but with swimming taking up our entire morning, and nap taking up most of our afternoon, there just hasn't been time to get to another pool to practice.

Fortunately, this past weekend we had TWO really great reasons to visit NH.  One: lots of time for swimming practice.  And more importantly, two: Auntie Jen and her boyfriend and son E. were going to be visiting at the same time.

The weather really didn't cooperate.  It rained most of the time and the high for the weekend was 67. But Gram and Grumpy were nice enough to really heat up the pool for us so MiniM.E. was able to spend hours in the pool anyway.

She really did just need some practice because after just the first evening of swimming, she was jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder all by herself.

And by the end of the weekend she could almost swim from one end of the pool to the other!

LittleL.G. forgot she was only one and a half and didn't want to be left out, so she did a lot of jumping too!

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She was also really excited to see Auntie Jen and spend some time with E. They had a great time swimming and playing together.

Welcome Baby G.!

We are so excited to welcome our friends' newest addition, Baby G. who arrived almost a month early on July 1st.  We invited ourselves over to see the baby today under the guise of dropping off food for the family.  He was too cute.  The girls were immediately in love with him.  So excited to meet you, Baby G.!

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

Last year we were in NYC for the 4th of July, which felt a little crazy and a little extravagant, but was fun and exciting for sure.  MiniM.E. remembered just how much fun she had (she must have forgotten the fireworks) and repeatedly asked if we could go back again this year.  Sadly for her, the answer was no.  We decided to lay low and have a relaxing long weekend with (almost) no plans since our weekends have been so busy lately.

And it was a nice, low-key, productive weekend.

Friday afternoon we started our long weekend downtown for a carousel ride and some ice cream.

Then we did a lot of house and yardwork Saturday and Sunday so we could guiltlessly enjoy an evening at Brown's Beach.  The fireworks over Saratoga Lake were Sunday (as MiniM.E. would say, 4th of July Eve), which worked well for us because I knew the girls would be a wreck after staying up late and Tuesday we have swimming so we needed a recovery day.

Brown's Beach was the PERFECT fireworks watching location. The girls waded and played in the sand while we waited for it to get dark.

We had a beautiful view while the sun set over the lake.

And then it was almost time for the fireworks!

4th of July Eve fireworks will definitely be a new tradition for us!

As expected, today was a much needed recovery day as both girls were exhausted! We just laid low at home, did some swimming and took a nice walk. MiniM.E. stayed up til dusk so we could light off some little fireworks in the backyard.

Happy Fourth of July!

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!

A Happy First Birthday Party

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.

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.