Swimming Lessons

Today the kids had their third swimming lessons. I am SO proud of both of them. Juliet just absolutely LOOOVES everything about it. When I tell her on Friday mornings that it is swimming lesson day, she picks out a bathing suit and carries it around with her until we leave. She talks about it and all the things her teacher tells her and what she is going to do. Today, she impressed her teacher too! The teacher was having her jump off a platform in the water to practice her "head down barracuda" but Jules started climbing out of the pool and said she wanted to jump from the side. That's a skill on the next level, but her teacher went with it and she did fine! She also passed another skill that is for the next level as well...floating on her back unsupported! Here she is doing the barracuda, the back float and then going under and back up.



Last week, Aidric was really nervous. He swallowed some water during his first class and while he stayed in the water and did fine, he didn't forget. By the time we got there last week, he refused to get in. Hid his face by my side and wouldn't even watch the other boy swimming. I finally handed him over to his teacher kicking and crying. That lasted all of 5 seconds before he really began to enjoy himself! This week, he told me on the way there, "I'm going to get RIGHT in the water today mommy!" ...and he did! He did a great job, doing everything she asked him to do. She is taking it slow with him so he doesn't get freaked out (which I'm thankful for!)



And this video has nothing at all to do with swimming, but it cracks me up. Aidric is in tee ball and loving it. I really need to post some of those videos...will put that on the to do list =) But, here he is trying to pitch to Juliet the way his coach pitches to him...and instructing her....and hitting her in the chest with every other pitch!! (Oh, and all of those black things on the porch behind her are the snails she collected right before...when she realized the snails were escaping, the baseball lesson came to an abrupt end!)

What's that saying about little boys, snails and puppy dog tails???

Does that work for girls too? Aidric has never been particularly fond of bugs, worms or anything that moves really. He likes dogs in theory, but not too close. Juliet is the exact opposite. We can't walk from the front door to the car without her searching for snails and trying to take one with us.

Chris and Aidric were doing a Home Depot run and when I asked Juliet what she wanted to do, she immediately said, "Play outside!"...we went out and I realized when she immediately went to the plants to start her search, it was a good opportunity to document her current favorite hobby.

By the time I grabbed my camera, she had her first capture....



She miraculously looked at the camera AND smiled for me...once. After that, I had to settle for profiles and back shots. She was busy with her snails.




She likes to move the snails to a new spot..it's usually the rock, but for some reason, it was the front steps on this day.




But one snail wasn't enough..she went back in to find another.


This is where she likes to "collect" them.


Oh, my girl! She begs to wear a tutu or a pwetty fwess every day, but do not mistake her for being a girly girl!

Height Chart..September to May

At the beginning of the school year, one of the moms took all of the kids' pictures in front of the giraffe height chart. I didn't even know she had done it, but just saw them last week and am SO grateful she did it. How CUTE is the first picture?? Did I even LOOK at his hair that morning?? I have no excuses...he used to cry a lot when I combed his hair, so I just didn't =) But seriously, I love it...it is SO him.

I worked at the school yesterday, so I took an "end of the year" photo of each kid.

Here are Aidric's pics. You have to zoom in to see the numbers, but (w/o counting the hair) he was 38" at the beginning of the year and is 39.5" now.

Sick Days and Dirt Pudding

Juliet has been sick for a week and it caught up with Aidric and me over the weekend. We stayed home all day Monday and Tuesday, just resting/recovering and trying not to pass our germs around.

When I first realized we would not only need to skip our playdate on Monday, but should probably not leave the house at all, I DREADED the day. We never stay home all day...just isn't "us". So, I knew I'd need a plan. I thought of some things we "needed" to do (water the garden, laundry) mixed with some new, different things we'd add in for fun (drink hot chocolate while working on a craft project). We ended up having 2 really, really great days. If you ask Aidric, he will now tell you that watching a movie during the day is what you do when you are sick! (Land Before Time on Monday and Tangled on Tuesday)

I should have taken a few more pictures, but I just didn't think of it until Tuesday afternoon when we were making dirt pudding. So, of our 2 full days at home, all I have documented is dirt pudding =)














Health Update: Juliet is about 90% recovered...Aidric has a lingering cough but not so mucousy or harsh and I'm probably the only one who is actually worse. Last night was the first night my kids let me sleep w/o someone needing something in about a week and I was up b/c my throat hurt so bad I couldn't sleep!

Mini Session with Grandma

I did share these on my photo blog, but I want them here to make it easier on me when I make the 2011 blurb book. (Not sure if I ever shared pics of the 2010 book?? Love how it turned out!!)

Randomness

Just catching up a little....first 3 are what most of our afternoons look like. After naps, we generally spend a little time out in the backyard...watering the garden, blowing bubbles, playing kickball and teeball (Aidric appoints Juliet the "coach" which means he hits over and over again while she chases his balls :), jumping on the trampoline, follow the leader, red light/green light, Simon Says, etc.





I'm pretty sure we made cupcakes for no good reason other than the box mix caught Aidric's eye while we were at Target...and they had been so good in the store, I figured why not.


Totally random...I feel like this SHOULD be from at least 10 weeks ago considering my "bump" no longer looks anything like this. I'll post a pic soon, but it's a full blown pregnant belly at just 23 weeks now! This was taken April 13...so 5 weeks ago, which means I was 18 weeks.


Just a few pics hanging out with grandma during her visit!

Build A Bear

This was our first time at Build-A-Bear. A great activity to do with grandma! Juliet chose a lamb (later named "Little Lamby") and Aidric chose a rock star bear with music.

Can we pretend it's April 6th for a minute?

B/c that's how far behind I am in blogging. These are just some pics I took of Juliet one afternoon while Aidric and Chris were at tee ball. She had a horrible runny nose and wasn't feeling great, but she loved her "2 ponies" on top of her head and this is one of her top choice dresses, so I just wanted to capture the "look". She also loves the dollhouse Santa brought!







By the way, we'll be "pretending" it's April for a few more posts =)

Happy Mother's Day!

I am a lucky, lucky mommy! I spent Mother's Day in Washington DC with one of my best friends. And while I didn't mean to plan my trip for mother's day weekend and was super sad when I first realized that I had done it, it worked out really well. I spent the weekend gushing to Bonnie about how much I love these kiddos and how amazing they are. Sometimes, you need a little time away to remember and appreciate all the little things. It didn't hurt that I was able to sleep in, eat numerous meals in peace, get a mani/pedi, go shopping and overall just RELAX for an entire weekend. Amazing!!! I received this video from Chris on Sunday and watched it a billion times, smiling the entire time. I love how seriously they are taking their production...I love how their personalities come through. Aidric is concentrating on getting it right and Juliet just can't contain herself to stand still. And I can't neglect to mention my niece Grace who got in on the action too- I love that they were all about to spend the weekend together!