How we Spend Our Summer Days...

The house is usually a mess and things are not always put together as they should be...

But we spend a lot of time laughing and playing...

And every now and then, I find myself caught up in a moment like this. And I am thankful.

Swimming [and Other] Lessons

Week one of swim lessons with Molly went, well, swimmingly! Until we got to Friday. When I picked her up from school on Friday and told her we were going to swim lessons, she immediately started to cry and protest, repeatedly telling me she did not want to go, and that she just wanted to go home. Prepared that sometimes this happens, even after a good start, to kids her age, I firmly told her we were going to go and encouraged her that everything would be fine. We got to the pool and the protesting continued. When she was sent inside the pool area to find her teacher, she ran back out to me crying and screaming. I had to hand my very unhappy girl over to a lifeguard and confidently walk out of the pool area, leaving her to get through it on her own. And it hurt. It hurt to see her upset, to see her so opposed to an activity that had been fun for her all week long. It hurt to not be able to go in, scoop her up, hug her, comfort her, save her from her fear.

As the class progressed, she went back and forth between crying and laughing. Her teacher was incredibly patient and loving, giving her lots of encouragement, hugs, and high-fives to get her through the 30 minute lesson. At the end of it, she came out smiling, showing me her blue lollipop, and asking if I had seen her go under the water. Of course I had, I had seen every single moment.

Since this happened on a Friday, I thought it would be great that we would have a weekend off from swim and by Monday, she would be ready to try again. Except that the whole weekend, she seemed to have some serious anxiety about returning to the pool. I kept asking her why, but she just kept telling me she did not want to go back.

The next day was the moment of truth. She woke up and happily proclaimed that yes, she did indeed want to go to swim lessons today. I felt myself relax. I mean, she’s 3, so maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe there was no real issue, she just wanted to assert her ability to protest. Whatever it was, I was one relieved momma to know that she was ready and prepared for the water that day.

Later that afternoon, as we got ready to go, she looked at me and said, in a very low, sad voice, “Mommy…I can’t get the earring.” She was referring to the rings that they retrieve from the bottom of the pool. “I can’t get the earring like all my friends did.” And my little girl was sad, discouraged, embarrassed. And my heart broke again.

You see, the two days when she had to retrieve the ring from the bottom, it took her two tries to get it. Was this what was at the core of the hesitation? The fact that she was upset and disappointed with herself for not achieving the task on her first try as her friends had done?
She pushed through it, though, and I am happy to say that at the end of Monday’s class, she grabbed that blue “earring” from the bottom of the pool – all by herself – on her first try. The smile and glow she exuded after that accomplishment is indescribable. The pride and happiness and relief I felt was also indescribable.

She continued with her lessons and finished strong and happy. She even got a chance to go down the waterslide by herself at her last session. We are going to continue maintenance classes through the month of July once each week with the same teacher. I am proud of my “goldfish”.


In life, I know Molly will learn many, many lessons from the experiences she has. I never would have imagined that swim lessons would teach her such lessons as humility, perseverance, and self-assertion. It is important that she learns that not everything she does will be a success right away; that sometimes, it takes practice and patience to achieve a skill. It is important that she learns that she may not always be the best at what she does; that sometimes others will achieve stronger, faster, better than she will. And it is important, most of all, that she learns that all of this is okay. I know she has a lifetime of achievements ahead of her, but it is also a reality that she will have some hurt, some frustration, and some failure along the way. I am proud of her, and hope she realizes that I will always be here to help guide her when she feels discouraged and encourage her when she feels defeated.



Chin up, baby girl, you’re going to do great.

Dad's Day

I am thankful today to celebrate the two most important men in my life: my father and my husband.

Dad - Thank you for the years of unending, never wavering support, advice, and encouragement. Thank you for teaching me to value family above all else and for showing me true, unconditional love.

Bobby - Thank you for proving yourself to be an amazing father to our little girls. I trust you will continue to lead them by strong example and I cherish the relationships I see you building with them every single day.

Happy Father's Day!

Pandamania!

Molly spent last week participating in her first Vacation Bible School experience at St. Peter's. She was part of the Pandamania curriculum, and in her class (The Lotus Blossoms) she had the company of her good friend, Lacey.

The week was great; she came home every day talking about how much fun she had and singing and cheering (literally) about how God made her and how we should thank God for all He does. On the last day of the week, the parents were invited to watch the children sing and dance to the songs of the week. Molly had a great time dancing and singing along throughout the entire show. Unfortunatley, due to the seating, I could not get many pictures of her actually dancing, but here are a few from her last day at VBS.

Ella's First Playdate

I have been fortunate enough to become part of a small group of moms in the Houston area who all have babies close in age to Ella. I have met with the mommas twice already for mom's night out, but we finally had a chance to get a few of our kiddos together. We went to a Music and Movement class at A Bunch of Fun Playcenter. While it was, admittedly, slightly advanced for their age, they had fun listening to the music and chewing on - I mean, shaking their maracas!

Here is a picture of Ella with her new friends, Arianna and Ellie.

Smiles and Laughter

The smile of my baby girl just melts my heart; and to be honest, my heart melts a lot these days. I am not sure if it's been happening while she's at daycare or if she's just so much happier now that momma is home with her for the summer (of course, I believe the latter!), but she is so smiley these days and I am loving it!!

I often hear what a serious baby she is, because she very much wears a serious face most of the time. Being home with her now and getting to see her light up, play, and have fun is awesome. I am so blessed to get this time with her while school's out for summer!

More Swimming!

I have a feeling we will be spending a LOT of time in the pool this summer. Today, after swim class, I took Molly to swim with her friends Alex, Juli, and Sara. The girls had a blast!

Swim Lessons

This week, we started swim lessons for Molly. She absolutely LOVES being in the water and swimming, and since she is completely fearless, we thought it would be a good idea to get her some basic independent swimming skills. She is enrolled in class at Houston Swim Club and will go every day for two weeks as a starting point in a class for "guppies". She has the company of two of her friends, Lacey and Addison, who signed up with us. And, to our surprise, the fourth student in her class is another little girl who used to go to daycare with Molly, Alison. So the girls all know one another, which makes it much less intimidating to each of them. So far, there have been NO tears from any of our little guppies!

The skills that the class is aiming to teach are basic breath control, back floating, kicking, and basic water safety. Here are some pictures from our first three days of class. Mind you, the quality is pretty bad since we sit behind a one-way mirror and I am having to take the pictures through the glass.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

And here is a video from today as well. If you watch closely, you will see that Molly retrieves a blue ring from the bottom of the pool. It takes her two tries, but she gets it!

Playtime

5 Months Old

Ella Bella,

Today, you are 5 months old. I cannot believe that much time has elapsed since you came into our lives. You have grown to be a smiley, cuddly, loving baby. You adore your big sister and love to laugh at her while she plays with you. You still love your swing and also enjoy jumping and playing in your jumperoo.

You are finally starting to get the hang of eating cereal. Soon, we will rock your culinary world with things like peas and carrots and bananas and apples. I can't wait to see you experience all of these new tastes for the first time, and am so glad to be home with you for the summer as you do.

You roll over all the time from back to belly. Then you get mad about the fact that you are on your belly. Silly baby girl, you just need to figure out how to roll back the other way. Until you do, though, we will be here to flip you back over when you want. Sometimes when we go check on you at night, you are sleeping soundly on your tummy. You seem to care not that the experts discourage this behavior. C'est la vie, little bug.

Oh, and your newest skill is sitting independently. You have just started to really do this, and are getting better and stronger day by day. We are so proud of you and happy to have you as part of our family.

Fun in the Sun!

This past weekend, we got to spend some time at the pool. Saturday, Ella had her first swim experience, to which she was completely disinterested.
But she sure looked the part!



She followed it up on Sunday with her second swim experience, which yielded one of the best naps of her life.

Sitting Up!

It's not consistent just yet, but Ella is starting to sit on her own a little bit at a time. This weekend we managed to snap a few quick pics of her in action!