Outdoor Summer Fun

Hello again!  We have been having some great fun outside lately.  We've had great weather this Spring, but the last two weeks have been pretty hot.  Enjoy the pictures!

I can stand unassisted long enough for Mommy to get a picture of it!!

I can stand; I can squat, and I can stand again!!  But I will not take a step!  (Actually, she took her very first steps ever the evening these pictures were taken - two tiny steps forward before she fell on her bottom).  These were taken Monday, June 11 - one week before her 15 month birthday.

Showing off her standing skills at the pool!  She was still very reluctant to take actual steps.

The bigger girls started their summer off with two weeks of swimming lessons.  I simply do not have the time to take them to the Y for months and months while they gradually learn to swim, so I asked around for an instructor who would do a minimally-traumatizing swimming boot camp.  I found a nice lady who gave us private lessons at our neighborhood pool.  The kids did not love it; there was a good bit of crying involved over that two weeks.  I kept reminding them of how proud of themselves they would be after it was all over and how much fun they would have over the summer.  I was right!!  They're both swimming (very short distances, and can't be left alone for sure), but they love going under the water and swimming to the wall.  I think with some more practice, they'll be good to go.

Christa - all smiles since no one is making her go under water at this moment.

Daddy and Elizabeth.

The girls and I have been playing in our driveway in the evenings when Daddy is at work.  Our driveway has a decent slope to it that ends with a brick wall (or a set of rock stairs going to the back yard).  Elizabeth has become quite able and confident in her borrowed walker!  She flies down the hill, "running," letting the walker carry her all the way down.  Between her and Abby Kate whizzing down the driveway in her Flinstone car, it's a challenge to keep them both from crashing into the wall.

There she goes!

No fear at all - just loving it.

Have a great night!