Baby Tay's First Ever Swim Lessons

Taylor and Mommy have lots of fun together during Mommy N Me lessons. Taylor can hold her breath and kick one leg. She's learning fast, but has a low tolerance level....probably because lessons are right before lunch- and nap-time. She cries a lot less than Nevaeh did during her Mommy N Me classes last year, though. For that I am thankful. Mondays and Wednesdays are very busy and tiring! But also very fun and rewarding to see little girls learning to swim.

Mommy teaching Tay how to kick!

Smiles and waves for her fans!

Mommy and BTay.

In the pool.

Nevaeh's Swim Lessons

Nevaeh's Swim Lessons! Year #2, First Private Lessons! We are so excited to see Nevaeh getting better and better with each swim lesson. She is still hesitant to jump in on her own, but she is learning to kick, kick, kick and swim to the wall and pull herself up. The first week she was upset and wary, but now she is all smiles and actually seems to be having a fun time. I'll get some more pictures of more recent lessons soon. Here are some pics from her first few lessons.

Playing with Friends

Nevaeh and Taylor love to have their friends come play with them in their new backyard! Here are some pics of them with two of their very best friends, Cole and Silas. Sand, water, and sun- what could be better for little ones?

Nevaeh is in charge of the hose, even though Silas had it first.

Taylor bouncing in her exersaucer, watching the big kids play.

Silas and Cole are very cautious around a girl with water!

Watering the dirt.

Osh Kosh B'Gosh!!!

Oh my gosh! Little girls look soooo adorable in Osh Kosh B'Gosh overalls...and even cuter when they are sisters in (almost) matching overalls. Here are some of my favorites taken just because they were acting so sweet with each other.

How fast my little girls are growing up! Nevaeh has been looking like a 4-year old for a long time....but now even Taylor looks more like a little girl than a baby.

Happy Mother's Day

There are many reasons why I love being a mother. These pictures show one reason: Every night before I go to bed, I get to go peek in on my girls sleeping, and how peaceful, content, and comfy they look.

Strawberries

So this morning Nevaeh revealed that there is some of her Mommy in her afterall! Last night Nevaeh and I went to the first Farmer's Market of the year. Taylor was already down for the night so Daddy stayed home with her. We came home with yummy looking strawberries, blueberries, and cherries. If you know me, you know that I eat fruit like other people eat candy or cookies or chocolate, so I was thrilled!

This morning I asked Nevaeh to help me with the strawberries. As I took the tops off and sliced them, I had Nevaeh put them in a dish. Well, for every ONE piece of strawberry that made it into the dish, 3 or 4 more ended up in her mouth. Finally I had to tell her to stop eating them and put them into the bowl. Instead she replied, "Just one more last one, Mommy." So, I accepted that....until every strawberry she picked up after that was preceded by "Just one more last one!" as she stuffed them into her mouth. This is not working, I realized. So I asked her to hop down and find something to play with. She said, "I am not full yet!" and continued eating. I asked her again to stop eating them and her response was to ask me if I wanted one, so I took a bite from the piece of strawberry in her red, juicy fingers. Apparently that gave her permission to continue eating. As long as Mommy ate some, Nevaeh could eat some.

Pretty soon, Mommy and Nevaeh were snacking away....and now we need to go buy more to have enough for Mother's Day dessert tonight. :-)

Cheerios

Taylor is getting to be such a good eater. I was just telling Kaleb how funny it is that there is such a difference in how we parent Taylor versus how we parented Nevaeh at this age. What came up most recently is how well Taylor is able to pick things up and eat them - one of her favorites being Cheerios, as you can probably tell...

Just today we had a picnic at the park with MaMa and Taylor was picking up turkey, cheese, and Gerber Puffs like a pro. When Nevaeh was this age we kept her strictly on Puffs and her formula and baby food, and made sure to feed it all to her ourselves. This is still apparent now when she asks Pop Pop "Will you feed me?" when we go over to their house for a meal. No, this isn't just becaue Pop Pop is a sucker; she requests her Mommy and Daddy's assistance too. Last night we had beans and cornbread and we both fed some to Nevaeh, while Taylor sat, quite content, in her high chair and shovelled the food in herself. Maybe splitting time between the two of them has cured a little bit of our over-attentiveness to our babies. Now we just have to get Nevaeh out of the habit...