Swim Class

Today was a big day at our house: Abby's first swim class! It is technically called a "Preschool Water Adjustment" class, but we just call it swim class. She was SOOOOO excited. Her class only had 3 active participants today (plus 1 screamer and 1 absent for a total of 5). For things that they needed to be 1:1, they took turns with their teacher. Abby even got her new swimsuit just in time - she's the one in the navy/white.

They started out right away by using a watering can to wet their hair, thereby also getting their faces wet. Get that one over with. They worked on blowing bubbles (lots of games for that), kicking, swim strokes (just basically moving both hands-nothing fancy), and floating (kinda). The kids even had to retrieve rings off the bottom of the pool and practice blowing bubbles while they did it. If they got both rings assigned to them, then they got to go down the little water slide. We saw lots of sputtering from Abby, but also lots of smiles.

When class was over, I met her teacher (Miss Emily), and we headed to get into some dry clothes. While we were changing I asked her what she thought of swim class. Her response? "I LOVED it!" I then asked what her favorite part was.... "EVERYTHING!" Guess the sputtering wasn't too bad. To be honest, her joy was palpable. It was awesome.

They played a game called "Ring around the ocean, fishies in our pocket..." They had to blow bubbles instead of fall down. Here is a crazy blurry picture (as if the others weren't blurry enough):

Finally!

Finally!

A little of this, A little of that

This week I decided to scope out Target and see if they had any cool baby water toys. I wasn't necessarily looking for a pool, but maybe some kind of splash toy. The cool splash toy cost over $30. Mr. Crab here cost $12. Easy call.

Here is a still of the girls checking it out. It started out WAY too cold because of the hose water, so then I ran back and forth from the kitchen with pitchers of hot water to warm it up. If you want the full story of how Lily "enjoyed" it, check out the video below. Seriously, why do I try?

On another note, Lily had her first PB&J, which she loved. Before anyone yells at me for introducing peanut butter to her too early, remember that we had allergy testing done and she was all normal.

After a lot of nagging, Matt finally put up a cabinet lock on one of the cabinets that Lily loves to get in. It's one of the "interesting" ones that doesn't already have a cabinet lock. Interesting meaning that she gets in there and pulls out all the napkins. She supervised Daddy.

(It also just occurred to me that I haven't edited or cropped any of these pictures. Oops.)

In the closet

Guess who raided my closet? I'll give you two guesses.

Little Runner

My Abby is a little runner. Today she ran in the Indianapolis 500 Festival Rookie Run. Go Abby! We were so proud of her. She ran with a friend whose Mom is in my Mom's group with me. The girls were toward the back of their heat. The four year olds ran a "U" shape on part of a city block downtown. The girls didn't know to turn back so they stopped at the bottom of the "U". Luckily, someone got them going again, so they pulled up the rear of the heat. Great job!

Shocker

While on vacation, Abby shared a room with our friend/helper Jaimie. Abby became the soundtrack of Jaimie's vacation, I think. Within hours of us arriving at our villa/condo, Jaimie informed me that Abby was singing in the bathroom. Just little songs to herself. I'm so used to it that I don't even pay attention anymore, but she sings A LOT.

Yesterday we were talking about vacation and her sharing a room and she shared that she liked sharing a room with Jaimie because then she had someone to talk to in her room. But she did say that she always talked first (probably because Jaimie couldn't get a word in edgewise).

She then followed that with, "I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, to talk."

Shocker.

(Can you tell she's mine?)

Beautiful Topiaries

I can't imagine not being impressed with the beautiful topiaries and gardens that Epcot offers. It feels very different from the other parks because of it. We even were lucky enough to be there during their Flower and Garden Festival, so there were a few extra things to see. They had a whole area dedicated to TinkerBell and Pixie Hollow. Aren't they amazing? I wonder if they could come do my garden?

Spuds

While at Disney World, we splurged on some Mr. Potato Head parts. They had a bazillion to choose from. You could fill the box (the first picture) as full as you could possible make it for $20, OR each individual piece was $2.50. While that is expensive, so far it has been worth every penny because it has been played with a ton in the 2 days since we've been home (though I must admit that Lily likes the box best). Here are some of our creations...

Little Green Army Guys

While at Hollywood Studios, we got lucky enough to witness Toy-Story-inspired Little Green Army Guys training recruits. They were hilarious. We got Abby in on it which proved to be even more fun.

I should explain this next photo. The kids were asked to pose in a traditional Army Guy pose and the Army Guy on the end was being silly and laid on his stomach. All of the kids imitated him. Abby didn't because she thought they were doing the wrong thing (which according to the "Corporal" they were, but it was part of the skit). This left her as the ONLY one standing. I guess we don't have to worry about peer pressure with this one!

Living it up

Most of you have already seen some of the cute, traditional pictures of our Disney World vacation on Facebook, so here are some new ones...

I learned that taking a baby to Disney World, particularly when it is averaging 90 degrees isn't the best idea, even with help. Some of the issues we dealt with, we couldn't have predicted. I had no idea how much the heat would bother Lily. She would get a little tired and rub her eyes with her fist and arm, which in term would rub sunscreen into her eye. Imagine the vicious cycle that creates. We also had trouble with anything (rides, shows) that was dark. Fun times.

That said,

Here she is enjoying Epcot:

...and enjoying Hollywood Studios:

Can't you tell she had fun?!