Making Progress

You may remember Emily's swim lessons two years ago, which didn't turn out so well. Last year we started her in private lessons with my cousin Colleen, and after the initial few weeks filled with screaming tantrums, she's made some baby steps strokes, mostly just learning how to kick and stroke while still holding onto Colleen. Recently, though, Colleen asked if she could start pushing Emily more to break through her plateau, and I had to hold myself back from shouting, "YES! PLEASE! DO IT!" Well, today, they finally made a teensy breakthrough when Colleen let go of Emily (or, really, when Emily let her let go), all of course while Emily was perfectly safe holding onto the floating barbell by herself.

Soon we're going to start all over again with Kate. Let's just hope our little daredevil catches on sooner!

Staying Afloat

It's another not-a-good-beach-day sort of day, so instead we took the girls to Aunt Suzy's pool for a little this morning. Apparently Kate's whale floatie is not enough; she also needed a ride in the boat with a little help from Emily!

Five Birthdays in One

Only two made the cake -- Grandpop and Aunt Carol -- but we unofficially celebrated the three other August birthdays with a pool party at, where else, Mom-Mom and Poppy's house. It was a perfect day to spend in the pool lounging with a noodle and a glass of wine (if you're Poppy) or getting splashed by five kids (if you're me or Mom-Mom or Grandmom).

Grandmom is always up for some playtime with her great-grandkids. Aidan tried to stay away from all those girls, but Grandmom still managed to snag him.

There's no other way to end a family birthday celebration than with cake, and you can see just how excited those kids were for it. Eh, who am I kidding? Most of us adults were too.

Happy August birthdays to Grandpop, Aunt Carol, Mom-Mom, Aidan...and me!

Waterobics

After breaking my promise (which I generally try to avoid even making in the first place) last weekend, I vowed to finally take the girls back to Aunt Suzy's pool this weekend, rain or shine. Unfortunately, it was more rainy than shiny. Drizzly, actually, but what's a few rain drops when you're swimming in a pool? I like to think it added a little extra flair to some of their creative swimming moves today.

More importantly, though, Emily went underwater with her goggles so many times that I didn't even bother to keep count. Now if we could just convince her to ditch her froggy...

A Spectacular Idea

Today, too annoyed with the heat to deal with the added annoyance of sticky sand at the beach, we spent the better part of the morning wondering how to spend the day other than stuck on the couch watching the Tour de France. We have three young girls to entertain, after all. We lucked out that my Aunt Jill stopped by with a tip she and her family discovered yesterday: the pool at the hotel where I waitressed during college is open to the public, and on top of that, it has a bar and live music. Plus a baby pool, if you're into that sort of thing. Which we are. Apparently the whole place has overgone a major overhaul, to the point where it barely even resembles what I remember from, oh, 10 years ago. (The pretty young waitresses are still there, but long gone are the oversized Hawaiian fish shirts, having since been replaced with form-fitting tank tops. I bet those girls make a lot more than I ever did!)

Anyway. It was a lot of fun.

A most spectacular idea, indeed.

Look Who's Swimming Now

Kate! Now that she has a froggy whale of her own, she gets to swim just like her big sister. She first gave it a try yesterday, at a pool playdate with Emily's friends Ashley and Ben. She was hesitant at first and refused to let go of my hand, but it wasn't long before she was insisting on swimming all by herself. For her part, Emily actually tried swimming without her froggy yesterday, but it was short-lived once she missed the last step and went underwater. Oh, well. Today they were happy little fishies swimming with me and Mom-Mom at her pool. After all, on a week as hot as this one, hanging in the pool is the best way to beat the heat!

Time really flew by, and after a few hours, we finally took a break for popsicles at the table, where we were joined by a praying mantis. By the way, did you know that the threat of a fine for killing a praying mantis is just an urban legend? I've been buying into that one since I was a kid! In any case the girls had fun taking a closer look.

By then, it was getting late in the afternoon, which meant it was past time for Kate's nap. Except neither of the girls wanted to leave, even after Kate started whining about being tired and proceeded to lie down on the blanket.

Mom-Mom offered to let Emily stay so that I could take Kate home. All was going smoothly -- lots of hugs and talk of missing each other -- until I was putting Kate into the car, and she saw Emily walk back into the house with Mom-Mom. The poor girl ended up crying herself to sleep in the car. Thankfully, by the time she woke up from her nap, Mom-Mom had already brought Emmy home, so it was hugs and smiles all over again. Phew.

Swimming Smiles

Emily started taking swim lessons with my cousin Colleen back in early April, and while she has loved swimming on her own with a little help from her froggy, she hasn't been too keen on swimming completely on her own. (In case you forgot, her lessons didn't go so well last year either.) It took a few tries (and some promises of ice cream), but she no longer spends the entire lesson crying. What's more, she actually has a smile on her face!

She still doesn't like to get dunked, but she's now putting her whole face into the water, blowing bubbles, and learning how to kick and use her arms. Needless to say, we're very proud of her -- and so grateful to Colleen.

Back when Emily was crying throughout the lesson, Kate and I had to stay outside so we'd be out of her eyesight to keep her from crying even more, but now that we can stay inside and watch from the pool deck, I think we're all happier because of it. Emily and Kate certainly are.

Keep smiling, Kate. Next year it will be your turn!

What a Group!

Today, in honor of my cousin Brian visiting from California with his wife Katie and their son Liam, and my cousin Mark who, with his wife Bonnie, made their first family appearance with their two-week-old son Kellen, we had a little big family gathering to celebrate. (Everyone was hoping that baby Sloane would get to make her debut this weekend too, but unfortunately that will have to wait until later this summer!) I think we made for a pretty impressive group, don't you? In any case, we've long outnumbered the "grown-ups," and we just seem to be adding more and more babies.

Speaking of babies, the youngest ones (besides newborn baby Kellen) had a lot of fun hanging around the house while the older kids got spoiled with a cruise to the boat beach. It was so cute watching Kate and Liam, and Emily and Kyleigh, and the four of them together. They splashed in the pools...

...ate a few SLEEVES of crackers while testing out the new beach chairs...

...and just had fun being together.

After such a fun day, it's no wonder they needed a rest at the end of it. Even Mimi went to bed early tonight!