Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Swim lessons for Will

Since Will is now three, he started swim lessons this summer.  William has always liked the water, but has been pretty nervous to get in water over his head.  He loves to splash around in the shallow pool, but if you try to take him in the deeper water, he clings to you like a barnacle.  He has watched Eliana take swim lessons for two years now, so I though he would be excited to finally get to do some too.  He was excited, right up until he had to get into the water past the steps leading into the pool!  The first day of lessons, he had lots of fun splashing with the Miss Nick, his teacher, on the steps, blowing bubbles, pretending to be a crocodile, and "deep sea diving" for fish.  But then he had to go off the steps into the water up to his chest and he cried like someone was trying to kill him.  It was terrible!  I don't think I have ever heard him scream like that.  It made me tear up a little, but I knew he was totally safe and needed to get in the water with the teacher and rest of the class.  Miss Nick was the most amazing teacher.  She really catered to his needs and let him cling to her to feel comfortable while slowing getting him to do more and more in the water without realizing it.  She would have him sing his ABC's and start moving his arms, and the next thing you knew, he would be floating in the water on his own without even realizing it.  By the end of the class, Will was swimming the length of the pool in his puddle jumper and even jumping into the deep end of the pool all by himself!  I couldn't hardly believe it.  In fact, on the last day of lessons, Will was jumping into the 3 foot deep water without his puddle jumper (right to the instructor) and doggie paddling to the steps.  I was so proud of him!  Now he will swim all over the pool as long as he has his puddle jumper on. 
All ready for swim lessons

Best picture ever!

This is huge! Do you see him kicking his legs and swimming in water over his head?  He has a death grip on Miss Nick, but he's out there swimming!

And even more amazing, he jumped into the deep end wearing his puddle jumper and swam all the way back to the other side of the pool.  I might have cried a little bit this time too.  But those were happy tears because I was so proud of him!

You see him swimming on his own?!
What huge progress Will made this summer!  I know how hard this was for him, and I am so impressed with all that he did.

Eliana took swim lessons too, and she is now able to swim across the pool without a floatie.  It's not pretty - her forward crawl quickly turns into doggie paddling, but she can do it!  She also worked on back stroke and diving under water for rings.  She loves wearing her goggles and searching the pool under water. 

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

William's 3rd Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday to my big boy William!  He turned 3 last month and we celebrated with a little party.  Funny story - Eliana recently had her first sleepover with her best friend Adele.  Five seems a little young to me for a sleep over, but these girls are so close that they seem almost more like sisters than just friends.  After the sleepover, William said that he wanted to have a sleepover too.  I asked who he wanted to come to his party.  Cousin Claire? No, he said.  Your friend Paolo? No, he said.  Your friend Hannah? No, he said.  "I know, I will invite a cricket and a friendly spider!" said Will.  This describes him to a T.  He loves animals of all types.  H pretty much asks daily if we can go to the zoo.  And his favorite game is to pretend to be different animals.  Some of his more recent choices are armadillo, gorilla, frog, panda, mandrill, and baboon.  Monkeys or apes tend to be his animal of choice, and he loves to crawl around on all fours on his fists.  He is such a funny kid.

Three year old stats: He weighed 33lbs (64th percentile) and was 37.75 in tall (58th percentile).  His favorite colors are green or blue.  He loves The Land Before Time, playing with dinosaurs and small animal toys, especially his tiny panda from the zoo, and reading books (especially ones about animals). His favorite food group is dairy including milk, yogurt, and cheese.  That is basically his entire diet.  At his three year checkup, the pediatrician asked if he liked vegetables.  I laughed.  Nope, those hardly pass through his lips.  She had a picture of the rainbow made up of different vegetables, and made Will check it out.  She had him pick different things that he could eat from each color.  Since that time, we have talked about eating the "colors of the rainbow" a lot.  I will tell him to take a bite of his broccoli, and he will ask, "Is this a part of the rainbow?"  Yes, Will, it is, so eat it!  Then he will take a tiny nibble and be so proud of himself.  He is just learning how to ride a bike with training wheels.  He loves the swing, never seems to tire of being pushed in it, and is learning how to pump his legs.  He especially loves underdogs on the swing.  He also is a big jokester.  Also at his 3 year old check up, he had his vision checked.  One eye at a time, he had to identify little pictures of houses and squares or apples and hearts.  He readily identified them with the first eye.  Then I could tell he was getting bored with the game.  With the second eye, he gave a sly look at the pictures, had his classic pause, and then said something absurd like "banana!" I knew he knew what the shapes were and I was quite certain that he could see them just fine with the second eye.  But he's not a people pleaser like Eliana, who loves to excel at tests or answering people's questions. He just wants to be goofy.  That kid is a trouble maker and we will definitely have our hands full when he starts school.  After joking around for several minutes, he was able to correctly name all the shapes quickly, confirming that he was just being silly.  Classic example of our Silly Willy.

On his birthday, first Grandma Bond visited and they spent some special time together.  I know the two of them have a very special relationship, and William loves the individualized attention that she gives to him, especially when they play dinosaurs together. She gave him a Paw Patrol plane.


Then we had a small party with the Flanigan family.  My brother, sister-in-law, and niece Claire came as well as my parents. The weather was perfect (part of having a July birthday) so we spent much of our time outside playing.  My parents bought the kids a little swing set.  Although it arrived on William's birthday, they made sure that the kids knew it was for everyone, not just Will.  My dad and brother spent much of the party building the swing set.
Laney enjoyed her first beer

Will requested a dinosaur cake.

Happy Birthday!


Will and Claire got their own little table.

Playing outside the next day.

Enjoying our new little swing set!  Laney is so excited about her baby swing.

Will is pretty happy too (photo credit: Eliana)
I can't believe how grown up our little boy is getting.  He amazes me every day with his imagination.  He loves his sisters even though he also likes to tackle them both and sit on them.  He gives sweet kisses and hugs, and tells the best jokes.  We are truly blessed to have Sweet William as part of our family.  Happy Birthday Will!

Friday, August 4, 2017

Zoo time

We took a trip to the zoo to meet the new baby polar bears.  Last year the Columbus Zoo had one baby polar bear.  This year they had three!  When we first went to the polar bear exhibit, we found out baby polar bears take morning naps too! 

So we did a little more exploring and had lunch.  After lunch we saw the twin baby bears!  They were swimming with their momma, and we went underground to watch from the underwater viewing area.  It was really neat to see the polar bears swim above us! 

After the polar bears, we spent very little time actually looking at animals.  We climbed on a lot of statues, visited the petting zoo (I guess we did see a lot of goats!), and visited the water play area.  Oh well, that's why we have a membership.  We can visit one animal at time and then just goof off.

Always a favorite - the giant moose statue

The first polar bear that we saw for the day.

Then we went to the petting zoo.  Laney's first chance to pet a goat!  She didn't like it very much.

These two are old pros at goat petting.  The immediately grabbed their brushes and got to grooming.

This little boy is so sweet.

The newest play area at the zoo is this ocean themed splash playground.  They love climbing on all these animals!