Splish Splash!

These two kiddos LOVE the pool. Virginia refuses to wear any kind of flotation device which doesn’t make for a very relaxing time at the pool but thankfully they are both happy to stay in the shallow where they can stand.

Swim Lessons

William took swim lessons last week. They were just 45 minutes for one week. He is not swimming on his own yet but he did amazing!  I was extremely surprised that he only was a little nervous the first day. After that he was actually excited to go and went right in, listened, and participated. For anyone who knows my little shy guy this is HUGE!

The pool opened last weekend and so far he is doing great. He is very comfortable in the water and  I feel sure he will be swimming on his own by the end of the summer.

Boo boos…

Ryan was gone for an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon in that short time William got a horrible scrape on his leg and Virginia got a black eye and a bloody mouth. Well really I think that she has rug burn on her eye, nose, and mouth. You can’t really see it in the picture but it looks pretty bad. She wants so badly to be a big girl and so I let her eat a snack at the kids table on the porch. She usually does fine but on Sunday she rolled face forward out of the chair onto the rug. I didn’t see what she hit her face on so it could have been the chair but I think she probably rubbed it on the rug. The swelling on her eyelid was down today and you can just see a big scab. She has a couple little spots on her nose and above her mouth. Pretty pitiful looking but thankfully she didn’t scream long and there wasn’t much blood, just a little around her front tooth.

William 3 years and almost 2 months

I am so excited about our summer. We have nothing but a beach trip planned and I couldn’t be more excited about it. William LOVES crafts these days. We spend a good bit of time painting and playing with stickers and markers. I have been collecting all sorts of fun things at the dollar store for us to create with.

We are also LOVING our backyard. We spend most of our day outside on the porch or in the yard. I am trying my best to encourage more imaginative play (like pirates or dress up like cowboys) but he isn’t real into it that yet. He loves having friends over or going to friends’ houses. He is really more comfortable with other people when we are at home. We are playing more and more with our neighbors. There are a lot of little boys and they are going to have the best time growing up together. Right now William plays best with just one friend but he is happy to play and be around everyone. He just tends to do his own thing if there is a larger group.

William LOVEs to help out in the yard. He is great at picking weeds and blowing off the driveway. I just hope he continues to enjoy those activities for years to come!

He is still napping great. He goes to bed great and at some point in the night usually ends up in our bed. I stopped stressing over it. He won’t do it forever and one day I will want nothing more than to snuggle with my little buddy and he will have better things to do. So for now I just let it go. He does seem to have bad dreams some nights. For about a week he had night terrors which I read is different from a bad dream. At about 10:00 he would sit up in his bed crying. I would just go in and lay him back down and rub his back for a minute. He never even woke up. When he has a bad dream he will wake up and want to come in our room and that is typically later in the night like 3am. He is also now starting to be scared of thunderstorms. They have never bothered him before and he is okay with them if he is with you. If there is a storm at bedtime or when he is trying to go down for nap we just wait it out and he goes down fine when it is over. Bedtimes have been a little later (like 7:30 instead of 7 ) since we have been playing outside with friends late in the day. I am starting to see it have an impact on his attitude so I need to be more careful about that. Sleep and food have a lot to do with both William and Virginia’s attitude.

Eating is not much different. He has added a few items to his very selective menu…peanut butter sandwich, popsicle, and frozen yogurt (he thinks its ice cream). He is also really into cinnamon rolls right now. He pretty much survives on blueberry waffles, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt, buddy fruit, orange juice, and chocolate milk (which is just white milk with one tiny squirt of chocolate in it).  We have not been cooking as much since Virginia has been on the move but I’m hoping to get back into that with them this summer. We have been spending some time in the play kitchen. It’s amazing how much more fun it can be when you add a little water. They both had so much fun pouring and stirring.

This week William has been in swim lessons and he is doing so great! I’m sure the swimming part is going great but I am just so amazed that he is so excited about going and today he just walked right on in without me! I get to watch tomorrow and I can’t wait to see what he will do. I honestly don’t expect him to be swimming but just the fact that he is not clinging to my leg and crying totally amazes me. I’m sure my mom has horror stories of taking me to swim lessons. I have this memory of being in a bathroom at UAB with some lady and screaming my head off and another memory of a private swim lesson a friend’s pool where the lady just dunked my head under. I was not a fan.

School’s out for Summer!

Our last day of school photo shoot went about as well as the first day photo shoot did (found here).

William’s sweet teachers this year, Ms. DeAnna and Ms. Michele

I hate I didn’t get a picture of Virginia with Ms. Courtney and Ms. LeAnna. She had such a great year and loved them both so much. Our summer is off to a great start. William is in swim lessons this week and has done great. I will get some pictures this week and hopefully even a video of him swimming!

No shirt, no problem

Clothing seems to be optional around here lately.

Celebrate Good times!

A few weeks ago we gathered together to celebrate an amazing soon-to-be-mama and one of my besties, Brooke, and her sure-to-be precious baby girl Mary Ellis! The shower was beautiful and Brooke was glowing. I cannot wait to hold that sweet baby girl in my arms when she arrives this summer!

Backtracking…

Just a few photos to share from last week. William was sick for a full week with strep throat. It was his first time to really be sick (like longer than just a 24 hour thing). He was pitiful for about 4 days and then it took a few days to get over being spoiled while he was sick. Thankfully by mid week he was feeling much better and we got outside some to play.

Ryan had been dying to get to the lake so we made our first trip this year for a weekend down at the lake with Ryan’s parents. The weather was beautiful.

Nothing new here, Virginia does NOT like the life jacket. William didn’t either until last summer. So just like I did with William, we will stay off the boat this summer and hope that next summer she will like it more For this ride no one wanted to listen to her scream so I took it off and she found a phone and sat quietly until we got home.

William loved driving the boat with Mac

We played with bubbles…

Played in the pool on the deck…

Fished…A LOT! Funny story, William’s fishing rod has a plastic fish on it and he will fish for hours, literally. Ryan finally caught a real fish and he was not at all impressed and did not want to go anywhere near it.

Finger painted…

and celebrated Mini Mac’s birthday!