Brynn's walking and talking skills

Poor Brynn....being a 3rd child means I have other things to blog about (like swim meets and t-ball games) and I completely forget to blog about really, really important things like first words and first steps.

So I'm backtracking a little here. Although Brynn isn't really saying much, she does say "Daddy", "Mama", "WOW!", and "Hi!". And she been trying to say "Doggy". She's been imitating a lot of sounds like "Uh oh" (except she just says "oh") and animal noises like "moo" and "quack". Other than those, I can't make out much of what she says, but she has been quite talkative recently.

As for walking....she's now officially a walking machine and uses it as her primary mode of transportation. She took a handful of steps before her first birthday, but was not at all interested in walking. On May 31, she started in the toddler room at school and she suddenly had all of the desire to learn to walk (because I guess it's that or crawl on concrete during outside time with shorts on, which doesn't seem very fun). So anyway, throughout the month of June, she has been perfecting her walking skills. She's better than she seems in this video. I think she was distracted. But anyway, will give you an idea.

Carpet Poopit

That was Ethan's word yesterday...Carpet Poopit. As in "Dad, there's a bug on your Carpet Poopit!" No? Doesn't make it easier to decipher?

Ok...it's Ethan's term for "Barbeque Pit". Ha! That's a pretty good one.

In other news, Blogger FINALLY let me upload the video of Blythe's backstroke in the post about Blythe's first swim meet.

A Day on Claytor Lake

Saturday we headed out for our annual Claytor Lake visit. I say "annual" like it's some ritual, but basically we've just rented a boat once a summer for the last 4 years. This year we rented a pontoon boat with the Freel's for the whole Saturday.

We couldn't have asked for a better day. When we got there, we dealt with a few raindrops just as we were parking the car. They went away and even most of the clouds went away and we spent a lot of time tubing and swimming and tubing some more and swimming some more. And eating. Brynn spent a lot of time eating Cheetos. She also did a bit of sleeping. And a very small amount of swimming. I don't think she liked not being able to see the bottom.

Ethan spent zero time tubing and some time swimming. He loved just riding in the boat and driving the boat and even just pretending to drive the boat.

Blythe was a tubing machine. There were times we thought there was no way she would hang on...surely she was about to fall off...but nope - she stayed on at all times. Guess it's pretty hard to knock a 40 pound kid off of a tube.

We also cruised the lake quite a bit and checked out some of the really awesome docks people had (some with boathouses, bathrooms, slides, diving boards, kitchens, beaches, and seating for at least 20).

When we finally tired of the lake, we started to head back. Along the way we finally were able to see the clouds coming near us. Storm coming! Quick! Darn those no-wake zones that make you go like 4 miles per hour. We knew it was coming, so we started packing up all of our stuff. As soon as we got to the dock, we unloaded quick. Not even 30 seconds after I got the kids off the boat did it start raining. We ran out to the car and managed to get in before the real downpour started. It was dumping and blowing like crazy. I cannot even imagine what it would have been like if we were still on the boat when that happened. But phew! Turned out to be a GREAT day!

Blythe's first swim meet

Blythe had her first ever swim meet last night.

It was so fun to experience her very first swim meet since she had no idea really what was going on. I made sure not to really volunteer for anything so I could make sure Blythe was in the right place at the right time and I actually had time to explain everything to her.

Here's how the meets here work for 6 & unders: 5 total meets and 1 Championship meet. Events at each meet:

Meet 1 - 25 free, 25 back, 4x25 free relay

Meet 2 - 25 back, 25 breast, 50 free

Meet 3 - 25 free, 25 fly, 25 back, 4x25 free relay

Meet 4 - 25 back, 25 breast, 50 free

Meet 5 - 25 free, 25 fly, 25 back, 4x25 free relay

Yes, my friends, 6 & unders have to swim 50 free and 25 fly. A little ambitious if you ask me. But they don't have to swim all of the events if they don't want to. So anyway, last night was 25 free, 25 back, and the relay.

25 free - she did great! Got 5th place (out of about 8) and her time was 46.28 (it's meters)

25 back - DQ She did so great and swam the WHOLE thing on her back and then turned over at the very end. It was about 55 seconds I think.

relay - she was on an 8 & under relay, so was definitely the slowest, but did okay. I think she was quite tired by then.

In this league, adults can swim too. I only have to compete against 30-39 year olds (which there aren't many of), but swim in heats with 15 & up. I was in heat 1 on both events since I had no time. Due to lack of much competition, I won both events - 50m free (31.33) and 50m back (37.28). Pretty stellar, huh?

Blythe was pretty excited this morning at practice to get her ribbons. She got a green one (5th place) and a purple one (participant...DQ). She said hers were better than mine because she got different colors and I only got blue.

Anyway, here's a video clip of the 25 backstroke. The 25 free was her better event, but the video didn't turn out so great.

The end of t-ball season

After pre-school graduation last week, Blythe and Ethan had their last t-ball game. I will kind of miss sitting amoung the gnats and the blazing sun while entertaining Brynn non-stop throughout the game. No, actually I will not miss it. But the kids really did improve throughout the season and seemed to have a pretty good time. I highly doubt Blythe will ever play t-ball or softball on a team ever again. For now, we've moved on to swim team, where the meets last 4 hours instead of a 45 minute t-ball game. Which is perfectly fine with me.

Gommy, Poppa, and Laura stayed for the last t-ball game and then the league picnic. The picnic turned out great because it was actually cloudy for a couple of hours and was not nearly as crowded as last year. They had the dunk tanks, the bounce houses, a firetruck spraying water, snow cones, cotton candy, and of course, trophies!

We also hit up the pool a couple of times over the weekend. Fun times! Here's some pics from the weekend:

Blythe's pre-school graduation

On Thursday Blythe had her pre-school graduation. Sniff sniff. She's growing up so fast. She asked us if we were coming to her pre-school graduation and then if we would come to her next one when she goes to college. We told her of course and that we'd be at every one in between too.

Their class had been practicing for the last few weeks and apparently dress rehearsal took an hour and 45 minutes, so the teachers were kind of freaking out that it would be a flop, but it was really really great.

Gommy, Poppa, and Laura came up to see Blythe at her graduation and we got Ethan out of his class so he could watch (he calls it her gradulations).

The teacher's mom made this awesome cake:

And they had nice decorations of art work the kids had made and pictures of them in their caps and gowns and baby pictures and posters.

I was really impressed by the amount of work they put into it to make it so special for the kids.

It last about 30-40 min and had a bunch of singing, some poems, a few readings by the kids on what they are looking forward to in kindergarten (Blythe said she's looking forward to playing Play-Doh and doing centers), and a distribution of their diplomas.

I'm so proud of my little girl, the graduate (and her BFF Ashley).

Spaghetti Face

Notice the handprints on her forehead. Because eating spaghetti with your hands just isn't quite as fun without a game of peek-a-boo.

And so it begins....

Swim Team!

Memorial Day weekend

Grams and Peep came to visit us for Memorial Day weekend. It was a good weekend to visit since the weather was nice and our outdoor pool opened! Yay! First up on the agenda was t-ball game on Saturday morning. Just like when Gommy was here, Ethan cried at first and said he didn't want to play and I used the same speech again on him..."Peep came all the way here just to watch you play. If you don't play, he will be so so sad." Worked again.

We didn't make it to the pool on Saturday and instead spent time riding bikes (yes, actually Blythe wanted to get right back on her bike after her accident the night before), driving the jeep around the neighborhood, and napping. We headed out at about 5pm for Salem, VA to go to a Salem Red Sox (minor league baseball) game. I had never been before and Braden hadn't been in years. It was super fun! And the stadium is so nice! We even had front and second row tickets. The Red Sox didn't do very well, but the kids were there to watch the mascots, eat junk, and play anyway.

Ok, I cropped that down from this picture. What the heck is that guy behind Braden doing???

After Brynn passed her fidgety stage, she entered her chill mode.

Then she entered her "I don't want to be here anymore" mode and we had to leave after 6 innings.

Sunday the guys played golf and the rest of us hit up the pool (the guys joined later). Ah the pool....how I love thee. Good weekend!