"Ring around the rosie..."

And FYI, according to snopes and wikipedia, this song is not about the bubonic plague!

Ready for school

As you know, we have water days at school this summer. These require a bit more preparation and forethought in getting ready to leave the house, since I need to put sunscreen on, wear my bathing suit, bring a towel, a change of clothes, water shoes, etc. Lucky for me, I have my great backpack, which I love to wear, and which carries a lot of stuff. (Don't I look soooo grown up in this picture?)

And my backpack has Dora on it! Here, can you see her if I just bustamove a little?

No? Ok, wait, can you see her now?

Just me and my tutu

And I do mean that literally...!
I decided yesterday that I wanted to wear just my tutu (and a diaper, of course, although if Mami had let me I probably would have taken that off too).

And I danced around for quite some time like that!

Ma coccinelle

Grandpa and Eleanor went to France and sent me two great t-shirts from there. They're a little big for me, but that doesn't bother me one bit!
Right now, this one is my favorite. It says "coccinelle" on it... that's a word I don't know. I know ladybug, and I know mariquita in Spanish. . . This word must be how the French say it. (Maybe Maleah's mom can make sure I'm right about that!)

But no time to ponder it now, Diego and I are on the go!

Thank you, Grandpa and Eleanor!

Swimming lessons

I'm taking swimming lessons this summer! I have two weeks of class, we meet every evening for half an hour, and yesterday was my first day. We were all a little apprehensive since last time I went swimming I hated it, but I really loved class yesterday and today.
Here's a picture of me and Mami just getting in the pool for the first time. Look how happy we are!

One of the first things they showed us was how to blow bubbles. I don't quite get that, since you have to put your face in the water to blow them the way the teacher was - why would I want to do that?

Then we worked on kicking. Now THAT I'm very good at! (Diego swims and kicks a lot on his TV show, so I was primed for it I guess.) I kept yelling over to Daddy, "Look, Daddy! I'm swimming!"

They had these cool kicking bars we could use to help us, although I seemed to want to stand up straight with it.

Every now and then we had to take a time out to fix the Dora-kini, which likes to ride up.

And then Mami and I smiled at each other a lot because we were having so much fun.

I'm learning so much and having a great time. After class we dry off quickly and I get to put on a special polka dot "jacket" to go home from the pool. Mami says this used to be her jacket, but I say finders keepers...

Nothing like a half hour of swimming to work up a real appetite, yummy dinner!

I can't wait to go back to the pool tomorrow!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there. Here's a message from me:

We had a party at my house today to celebrate. Also, tomorrow is Mami's birthday (and Aunt Melissa's too!), so we had cake!

My aunt Lizzie helped me eat some cake at first,

but then I had to take matters into my own hands (so to speak):

YIPPEEEE, cake is fun! (And squishy!)

Forget what I said about loving my purple bathing suit...

... Because I got a NEW bathing suit this weekend that I love even more! It's a two-piece because that's soooo much easier to change my diapers in than the one-piece. And look - it has Dora on it!

(For the record, Mami didn't even see Dora until we were at the checkout counter. She couldn't figure out why I was so excited about this suit. He he he, I'm tricky!)
Sure, the bottoms fall down every now and then, but what does a girl wear diapers for if not to prevent embarrassing moments in situations such as this one?

I love this bathing suit so much I've worn it for two days in a row - to eat in, to take my naps in, everything. I think I'm going to wear it to Grandma's house tomorrow to play, but Mami says I've got another think coming. Whatever that means.

A little morning reading

Mami gave Daddy this chair for their anniversary (3rd anniversary = leather gift), and he really loves to read in it. I do too! Sometimes I climb up and just sit there, and sometimes I bring my own books. But sometimes I read whatever Daddy's reading. You'll recall that Stephen King is one of my favorites.

A great way to start off a morning, don't you think?

Water Days at my school

Now that it's summertime, we've started having "water days" at my school. We play in kiddie pools in the morning and it's tons of fun. The teachers ask us to come to school ready to swim so they don't have to spend an hour getting everyone ready. I like this, because it means I get to put on my bathing suit, my cover-up and my water shoes (and a swimmy diaper!) first thing in the morning!

Sometimes though, I'm just too anxious for the swimming part and I want to take off my cover-up.

I just love my bathing suit so much that I want to wear it (and only it) all the time!

Water days are great. Mami and Daddy say they don't know how the teachers do it, but we can't be that much work, can we?

Going on a "nature walk"

Last weekend we went on a nature walk. (I don't think I knew what a nature walk was before, but I do now, and I want to go on more! I keep telling people, "Bye bye! I'm going on a nature walk!")
The first thing we did was put on our sunscreen and our hats, because the sun is really strong here.

Then we were off. Most of the time, all Mami and Daddy saw was the back of me, I was running ahead of them the whole time. I was so excited, there was so much to see!

I had to explore every little corner, tree, stick and bridge.

It's very important, though, to stay hydrated during these nature walks. (If anyone could teach me how to drink out of a bottle without putting my mouth around the entire bottle, I'm sure my parents would appreciate it!)

And a few goldfish are essential to any nature walk as well.

After all that running and walking and exploring in the sun, I got tired. (I ran/walked a mile by myself though, if you can believe that!) Lucky for me, I had a horse named "Mami" who was willing to give me a ride.

And even better, I could lie down and nap on Mami's head at the very end of the walk!

But even though I got really tired, it was a great nature walk. I hope we get to go again soon!

I'm a counting fiend!

I'm a multilingual counter! At dinner tonight I showed Mami and Daddy how I can count my blueberries in English and Spanish, and rumor has it I'm learning to count in Hebrew at school too. (We have no evidence of that language, but here are a couple of examples of my other skills.)
Note that by 'counting' I mean reciting the numbers. I don't actually mean counting a particular number of objects or anything... Please, give me some time to learn all these things!

[So, OK, I get a little tripped up at the whole fifteen~sixteen~forxteen thing, I'm working on it. And with Humpty Dumpty apparently needing a diaper change, well, it's hard to concentrate...]

FORE!

Last week when Mami and Daddy went away to St. Augustine, they stayed in a hotel at the World Golf Village. They're not big golfers, although Daddy does play every now and then. But my Grandpa loves golf, so they got me a little golf set for myself so I could learn to play. That way, next time Grandpa comes to see me, maybe we can play together! (Hint hint, Grandpa!)
Here's a picture of my first lesson with Daddy. He taught me that I can't kick the ball, and that I should use both hands on my "pudder". (Is that like pudding? I like pudding!)

I managed to hit the ball every now and then, some times with more success than others.

Hmmm, I think I'll take a mulligan on this one...

There! That's a better spot.

I'm going to keep practicing until I get better. It's all in your attitude, I think ... Be the ball, Resli ...

Max's birthday party

Yesterday was my friend Max's 3rd birthday party. (Some of you will recall that I also went to his first birthday party, as well as his second. My, how time flies...)
This year, Max had his party at O2B Kids, which is basically a huge indoor playground. Mami and Daddy said it was "overwhelming", but I'm not sure what they meant, there were just tons of fun things to do. The first thing we did was explore this ball pit. I was a little hesitant at first...

But then I got really into it.

Until all the big 3-yr-old boys came in to play too, then I got scared and had to climb out.

After that we went to the Music Room, where they wanted us to play musical chairs. I don't know if you've ever tried to play musical chairs with 10 3-yr-old boys, one 2-yr-old girl, and an 18-month-old boy (my friend David), but it's a bit of a challenge, to be sure. Max's mommy and I were the only ones even trying to play, everyone else was just goofing around.

So we gave up and played the piano for a while.

Then we did the hokey pokey - now THAT'S something I can do really well! I was on stage showing off for all those boys.

Our next adventure was the Art Room, where we all got to draw on a big huge card for Max. My masterpiece was small, but a valuable contribution to the overall product, I'm sure.

Our last stop of the morning was the Trampoline Room. They had this big trampoline that you could jump up and down on. And if you had Daddy to help you, you could jump way up and out...

... and land in this big pit of soft mushy blocks. I look a little dazed in this picture, but I really enjoyed the jumping and flying parts. It was just really hard to get out of the blocks once you were in them. Even Mami got stuck in there when she tried to help me out.

Finally, it was lunch time. We had pizza and lemonade and then birthday cake! Daddy helped me eat and drink out of my big girl cup.

Then we had to leave. It was my nap time, even though the older kids probably stayed longer to open presents and stuff.
After my nap, I was allowed to open my gift bag from the party, which had a balloon and a toy whistle... and a lollipop! For my first lollipop ever (as far as we know), I knew exactly what to do with it. Mmmmm...

We hope you had a great birthday party, Max! I sure had fun, thanks again for inviting me!