Swimming Lessons for Mary Kate

Last summer, Mary Kate loved the pool and we decided that she was old enough to take her first set of swimming lessons.  We signed her up for the Pike class at the YMCA.  This class was made up of beginning swimmers from ages 3-5.  Mary Kate was the youngest in her class of five students.  Their class met monday, wednesday, and friday for two consecutive weeks.  We signed Mary Kate up to take the middle two weeks of June.

When we first told her that she was going to take lessons, she was excited, but that all changed when we got there the first day.  The first day was very cool and rainy and Mary Kate was cold and fussy!  She did not want to sit with her class because she wanted to be wrapped up in a towel to keep warm...I couldn't blame her!  I really thought that her tears had to do mostly with the weather and expected them to go away on Wednesday, but I was wrong.  Wednesday was beautiful and not too hot that it was miserable.  Mary Kate still wanted to sit with me and be wrapped in a towel, even though the weather was not bad.  She would fuss every time it was her turn to swim with her teacher Mr. Robby.

After this lesson, I got her talking and realized that she was afraid of Mr. Robby, because she didn't know him, and more importantly afraid that he would drop her.  David and I both talked to her and tried to reassure her that everything was fine, that I was there, and that Mr. Robby would not let her fall. Even after our talk, Friday was still bad and we even discussed not taking her back for week two, but I really wanted her to get past her fear.  This is what we were dealing with...

Monday was a totally different experience.  Mary Kate did fuss, but only when it was time for her to swim.  When it was her turn, she would get in with Mr. Robby and do what he asked her to do, but would cry the whole time.  As soon as she was out of the water she would stop crying.  Wednesday was like a totally different child was there.  She sat on the side of the pool with her classmates the entire time and didn't cry at all.  Friday was even better.  We were very proud of her by the end of the week.  She came a long way!

This experience seemed to be traumatic for Mary Kate, and that is not what we intended, but in the end she was fine and grew in her swimming abilities.  We plan to try again next summer, as well as continue to work with her on our own.  I think she just might be able to swim on her own next summer!

Beach Trip 2012

With David still in his first year of a new job, and very little days to take off, we decided that a trip to the beach of Labor Day weekend would be doable.  The kids and I loaded up on Thursday afternoon and headed down to pick up David in Palmetto at his office.  We drove from there to Panama City Beach.  The ride went well overall, but we were all glad to get there and get settled down.

The kids loved the beach!  Mary Kate jumped up and down on Friday morning when we first went down to the water saying, "The beach, the ocean!" over and over again.  It was so fun to see them so excited.  They really enjoyed building sand castles with daddy, but mostly loved being in the water.  Mills especially loved going as far out as possible, and even tried to talk to and play with some older boys in the water.  His favorite part was when David took him out pretty far and jumped the waves with him.  Mills kept saying, "Here comes a big one!"

On Friday afternoon, we took the kids to the outdoor mall at PCB called Pier Park.  It was hot and miserable!  We went out on the pier and the kids loved watching the people surf and the men on the pier fish.   They particularly enjoyed looking at some fish one man had caught.  When we were leaving the pier with very fussy children, David and I decided it would be best to head on and eat an early dinner at Boondocks.  This place sits on the bay with a pretty view of the water.  The food is great and the kids ate up their dinner.

The other thing the kids really liked was playing the in the pool.  There is one pool at this complex that is 5 ft and under. This made it easy for me to stand and let Mills jump, while Mary Kate was jumping to and swimming with David.  After we left this pool, the kids would run around in the grassy area and playground right beside the pool.

 Mary Kate and Mills enjoyed "relaxing" in our chairs.  They are too cute!  The chairs ended up here because it was much easier for us to chase them in and out of the water with our chairs in the water.  Plus, it was refreshing too!

 When David was playing in the sand with the kids, at the edge of the water, Mary Kate felt something wash up on her back.  David scooped it up and realized it was a catfish.  The kids thought this was so cool!

 On the our last night there, David wanted to take the kids out to feed the birds.  It took a while for them to realize what we were throwing, but when they did they flocked to us and the kids had a blast feeding them!
                                 
                                     


                                      

                                     

                                     

This was our first trip with just us.  We had a great time and enjoyed being together and building memories that we will always cherish.  I can't wait for next year's trip!!!

Mills' Two Year Check-Up!

We had a great visit with Joy Bishop at Dr. Miller's office for Mills' two year check-up!  Mills is currently 37.25 inches tall-which is off of the charts for height!  He is 29.2 pounds-which is around the 50th percentile,  which is about where he has been.

The good news is that we took Mills off of his Bethenachol, which is a medicine that helped to keep him from spitting up, and he did well.  He has not spit up at all since around 22 months and there is no need for an endoscopy!  I am super excited about that.

Joy was very impressed with Mills' speech.  She was able to clearly understand him and enjoyed talking to him about animals, trucks, etc that he pointed out to her in the new book she gave him.  

It is neat to see how much of a sponge he is right now and see how much he is learning.  He can count to 10+ and say many of his ABC's. He loves to sing and dance, play with his trucks, and be read to.  I can't believe how much he has grown in the past year.  I am sure next year he will be close to catching Mary Kate in height!

Mills Turns Two!

Where has the time gone?  I just cannot believe that my baby boy is already two!  This year, we decided to have Mills' birthday party after his birthday, so we just spent time as a family on the day of his birthday.  It was a lot of fun!


He woke up to a room filled with balloons, per our annual tradition with both kids, and he loved it!  He called them balls and wanted to throw them around.  When daddy got home, we took the kids out to eat at Amici's for a birthday dinner, followed by some ice cream at Scoops.  Mills loved the ice cream!  When we got home, he got his present from us...a lawnmower.  He loved it and wanted to cut the grass the rest of the evening.

                                 

   

                                                 
Mills' birthday party was a bit of a disaster.  Everything started out great.  The weather looked like it was clearing up and was going to hold out, and I was able to get the garage at mom and dad's decorated for us to do presents and eat. 

                                          

                                          

                                          

  

                                      

    

                                          

I also had set up the slip n' slide and the pool for the kids to play in.  The thought was that we could eat and do presents and then the kids could take their favors, water guns, and play with those and the water toys for the rest of the time.  

We ate quickly and also opened presents and ate cake in an attempt to get to the water stuff.  Unfortunately, the bottom fell out before we finished.  we had to close the garage because of the heavy rain and lightning.  Plan B was to load up and go to game time, which is what we did, but when we got there they were closing...go figure!  So at this point everyone left.  I was very upset about the whole thing, especially when the rain stopped and the clouds started to clear on our way to my parent's house.  When we got there, we let Mary Kate and Mills play in the pool.  They enjoyed it!  Maybe next year will be more successful!    Happy Birthday Lil' Man!  We love you and are very proud of you!!!                 

                                         

Potty Training!

So, after lots of thought and discussion, David and I decided that it was time to potty train Mills.  He had been asking to use the potty, particularly before bath time, for months.  He also loved to strip off his diaper in bed and make a huge mess.

We knew for a while that we were going to use 3 Day Potty Training with him, as we did with Mary Kate, but didn't know exactly when.  On the weekend of June 30th, we drove Mary Kate to meet her Gege and Papa so she could spend a night with them and another with her aunt, uncle, and cousins while David and I attempted to potty train Mills.

He started off the morning great!  He threw away the few diapers we had left and loved his big boy underwear! It took about 1 1/2 hours for all of that milk and juice to hit him and then he started peeing...everywhere!  We were able to get him to the potty to finish up after a few tries and before lunch he pretty much had it.  He would run into the bathroom and pull down his underwear and we would sit him on the potty.  After being frustrated with the potty seat, we decided that sitting him backwards worked best and he liked it better too. He even pooped on the potty the first day!

The next two days he did great with the tee tee portion.  I even ventured out to the Y to exercise on the morning of day 3 because he was doing so well.  He was so proud of himself and loved to point out the cars, trucks, and trains on the various pairs of underwear that he wore.  The pooping portion is still a work in progress.  After that first time he got scared of it, but I figure that he is still you and that he will catch on before too long.

All in all, we are very proud of Mills!  At this point, he is wearing  pull-up (a.k.a. overnight underwear) at nap and nighttime.

As a reward for completing the potty training method, we got him a hat.  He loved it!  Way to go Mills!