Growing Up

Last week was a BIG week for both of our children.  On Tuesday, Carly attempted her swimming test at our YMCA.  It was after her lesson and wasn't really in our plan.  She had finished her lesson and a boy who will turn 6 in a few months had made plans to take the test after class.  This boy actually sat out for the 5 minutes of class so that he would be rested for the test.  I thought it would be good for Carly to watch him take the test and cheer him on during it.  I also knew she could complete the swim and floating portion of the test if she put her mind to it.  She watched him take the test and get his yellow swim necklace and immediately wanted to try it.  Unfortunately, she was not successful.  She turned for the wall with 2 feet left in the swim (swimming a foot towards the wall, so really falling just a foot short).  We made plans for her to test again on Thursday.  Well, she passed with flying colors after her lesson and now has a yellow necklace.  This necklace allows her to swim without me in the water where she can touch (so not very deep) and allows her to go on the 2 large water slides.  Unfortunately, she isn't quite tall enough to climb to the top of the slides.  So the reality, it gives her nothing except for a HUGE sense of pride.

Thursday was also a big day for David.  He moved up from the nursery at the gym to the toddler room. This move is due to the amount of walking he is doing now.  Apparently, he was walking all around the nursery and checking on all of the other babies and beginning to climb.  Due to space David was actually moved to the 2 year old room this day.  When I picked him up he was sitting around a rectangular table while the other kids were coloring.  He wasn't coloring, but was watching them closely.  When I came to the door and called his name, he looked up at me, banged the table, and went back to watching these other children.  I actually needed to walk into the room and get him.  (Typically he moves as quickly as he can in my direction.)

Last Thursday was filled with 2 big milestones for our growing children.

And We Are Done!

David Jr and I have ended our breastfeeding relationship.  Last Monday (July 1) he nursed for his very last night... at his afternoon nap.  We were starting the weaning process, but then an eye doctor's appointment ran long and David Jr was more pushy than I wanted before his afternoon nap... so I thought this is the end.  Dave and I pushed through with this idea and on Tuesday evening I broke down and enjoyed cheese on my sandwich and salad at dinner.  Later in the evening I enjoyed a WONDERFUL peanut butter cup (a year in the making).

The past week has been tough.  I've been slightly uncomfortable.  David has been fussier at nap and bed times.  There are many times when I thought, "I wish I hadn't eaten cheese and could just nurse these tears away."  I am glad that I did go ahead and eat a few un-forbidden foods to help me not change my course on weaning him.

I am sure we still have a few bumps in the road in this process, but David is weaned and going down decently now for his nap and bed times.  I went 12 months without dairy and around 11 months without egg, peanut butter, and crab and am really enjoying reintroducing my body to some of my favorite foods.

David Jr is WALKING!!

David has been taking a few (1-5 steps) occasionally now for about a month.  Yesterday, I took Carly and David to a local splash pad.  David crawled around and then would stand up in an area to play with friends.  While watching David I started to think he was finally interested in walking.  (At his 1 year well visit the pediatrician felt that David has the muscle tone to walk but wasn't interested in doing it.)  Last night David began walking from point to point more and then continued again today.  He isn't ready to hold our hand and walk out to the car, but he did spend more time tonight walking than crawling.

We are Back!

Our family is back on the water!!  This morning Dave went for a 33 mile group ride while the kids and I hung out, made pancakes, and cleaned the kitchen.  Dave returned home shortly after David went down for what I thought was his morning nap.  It turned into a 2.5 hour nap and allowed our family to have a FABULOUS afternoon.  During the nap we made lunch, gathered our items for the boat, and got as ready as we could.  As soon as David (finally) woke up, we all sun screened up and made our way down to the water.

Carly and David both seemed a lot more comfortable on the boat today.  David was very interested in standing on the seat, holding a grab bar/rail, and looking out at everything going by (both when we were in the no wake zones and cruising.  Carly wasn't quite as clingy during our ride and even sat up in the co-captain's seat for our ride home.

After our first anchoring we caught sight of some friends and decided to try and join them.  So up came the anchor and we motored towards them.  This turned out wonderfully!  They had planned to meet up with more of our friends and built in babysitters.  There were 4 rising high school freshman girls on the boats we met up within about 10 minutes of Carly first getting into the water.  It was GREAT!  We kept a very close eye on Carly (we didn't expect them to watch her), but she had constant entertainment and company.  She was very interested in showing off for these girls (and the other "kids" that continued to join our raft up) and spend majority of the time jumping off of the boats or swimming.

David did not spend quite as much time in the water, but he did have two extended lengths of time floating around in his life jacket and holding onto a noodle.  He was also very happy standing on the back bench jumping around and watching everything.  Which was great with me - it meant he was out of the sun and under our canopy for most of the day.

Dave and I decided it was time for us to pull out when another boat did since our kids were still happy and not in full melt down mode - we knew we were on borrowed time and our luck would soon run out.  We called Carly back to our boat and explained we were about to leave, to which she responded with, "No thank you!"  This got a loud laugh from the other parents and she thankfully did leave without any fuss or tantrum!!

Our 4+ hours out on the boat were GLORIOUS today!

Welcome Summer

While summer hasn't officially started - our family had its first real taste of summer on the lake today.  During the kids' afternoon naps Dave ran out to ready the boat.  By 4pm we were making our way down to the water.  After a short ride we were anchored and ready to swim.  Carly and Dave jumped in first and made 2 laps around the boat.  She then turned into a jumping machine.  She would jump off the boat to a noodle, swim to the ladder, and repeat (of course with her life jacket on).  David was loaded up into his float and floated through the water until he became more interested in drinking the lake water.  My favorite part however was the boat ride home.   I was able to sit up in the bow holding David in my arms and Carly sitting across from me holding on to the bars.  She even did a "woo-hoo" at a wave.  I am very, very excited for what the rest of the summer has to offer.

"We're going to...

... Raleigh to see my daddy compete in a half Ironman this weekend!" ~ Carly

This sentence has been coming out of Carly's mouth ALL week.  She has told everyone we have come in contact with this week.  She has played "Ironman" all week.  Saturday was filled with her registering  for her race and then running around the house.  She was able to show off her biking and swimming in the evening to her Grandma, who traveled into town for Dave's race.

Sunday morning, we woke up and set off to Raleigh to see Dave complete his half Ironman.  (Which Carly informed me was not a triathlon, but an Ironman.)  We were fortunate enough to have timed things just right and watched him run around mile 4 at Meredith College and then saw him at the finish line.  Carly was on cloud nine for the entire event.  Her daddy kissed her at mile 4 and everyone commented on her signs.  We had 3 with us - 1) Left, Right, Repeat  2) Run, Daddy, Run  3) Pain is Temporary, Internet Results Last Forever

After the race we got both cars loaded up and Carly asked repetitively if Dave could ride in the car with us.  After dinner she finally got her wish and he told us all about his day during our ride home.  We have all enjoyed hearing all about his race and seeing all the fun things he got from the event.

Tooth Alert

Around May 4th we went on full tooth alert.  We could see David's top two teeth through his gums, but they hadn't broken through.  I mentioned this to the kids' dentist during Carly's visit, and she felt like the bottom left tooth would be the first to debut.  Well our first tooth debuted today and it was the top left tooth!  Just one day shy of being 13 months!!

**Update - the right upper tooth popped through the very next day (May 26th)