just keep swimming

As of the moment, Chica's a little waterlogged. She's been in the pool a lot this weekend! She had her first official swim lesson last night. Her teacher says at this age the best thing for her is to get her in the water as often as we can. She's working hard to get Chica to kick her legs as she swims around.

Isn't their pool beautiful??

It cracked me up when she swam around in this.


She looked like a pink buoy bobbing around the pool. (She looks so grown up in this picture!)


Not quite ready for deep sea diving.


Her teacher had all sorts of fun things to play with. Chica turned this snorkel into a weapon at one point. I'm guessing that's not exactly how the teacher intended her to use it...especially since her sweet teacher was victim to the snorkel attack. Should Daniel and I brace ourselves now for all the meetings in the Principal's office?


All done and time to dry off!


With her sweet, forgiving teacher.


Wrinkly proof we got our money's worth. :)

this is a test

*Update*- Mission accomplished! Our blog updates are now linking directly to our Twitter account. So if you have a Twitter account and want all the up to date, late-breaking news on our little family, be sure to follow us! Because really, how in the world could we expect you to wait one minute longer than necessary to find out stuff like this? You're welcome bloggers. :)

Original Post Below:
Pay no attention to the girl behind the curtain. I'm trying to link our RSS feed to our Twitter account.

That's right. In the words of Loyd Christmas, Twitter is a "tractor beam that sucked me right in." Most likely I won't be updating it often, because let's be honest, my life isn't that interesting that I can comment on it multiple times a day. I'm a bigger twit than I am a tweet.

The reason I caved to the Twitter Machine is I'm trying to link it to our blog RSS feed. What's that got to do with you? The ultimate goal is for our blog updates to appear as our tweets. If you are a fellow tweeter and you follow us, our blog updates would go directly to your phone, thus cutting out your need to keep checking our little blog for updates that don't yet exist.

That's about as clear as mud, huh?

I won't know if it's actually working for about another hour. See ya later bloggers!

watch party part II

Last night was the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance, which means two things. One, the number of times I watched this season rounds out at an even four. Two, Chica and I had two chances remaining to take our annual SYTYCD watch party pic.

Here we are last year, cheering Joshua to victory. This year I wanted the blond girl to win. (I'm so bad with names, four episodes doesn't commit it to memory for me.) Sometimes I can't even remember my own daughter's name, hence why I've coined her "Chica." And when "Chica" slips my mind, I resort to "Offspring." :)

Don't we look like a hoot and a half? She wore bibs around the clock back then. It was an attempt to spare myself from washing 15 onsies a day.

A year later, I've found a solution to avoiding laundry altogether. It's called the Jay Bird Method. (I promise she's wearing a diaper! If she wasn't, it would totally undermine my laundry avoidance plan.)

I'm so proud she doesn't underestimate the power of a good shoe. It can make an outfit. Even if that outfit is your birthday suit.

time for bible study

"I have hidden your word in my hair that I might not sin against you."
Psalm 119:11
Chica International Version

guess who came to town?

Auntie Michelle came for a visit! But around these parts she's better known as "An-Shell."


She graciously agreed to keep Chica so Danny and I could attend a youth retreat. Let me tell you, An-Shell doesn't mess around! While Mom & Dad were away, Auntie and Niece stayed busy. On top of graduating from nursing school a few weeks ago, An-Shell knows how to read books...


...and find pets in the backyard. (His name is Manny, after the only Manny we know. He's still alive and Chica insists on going outside to look at him everyday. One of these days we're going to go outside and Manny will have gone to Turtle Heaven. Does anyone own a Mom Manual on disposing of pets? Please, oh please tell me that's a Dad job!)


An-Shell is also the creator of the greatest ride in the world! Chica couldn't get enough. Eventually I had to hide the laundry basket.

Thanks for the ride An-Shell, and the visit!

chica reads a book

Chica Reads a Book: A Pictorial Essay.
(Do pictorial essays even exist or did I just make that up?)

walk on

You know what bloggers? In the hectic swing of summer I think I forgot to blog one of the Chica's biggest milestones. I'm too lazy to go back through the archives to be sure. (Quite the encouragement to keep coming back for more, huh?) :)

While Big Girl hardly leaves me hard up for material, I'd be hard pressed not to mention this one, even if it is a few months late. Around 13 months Chica took her first steps. I'm so thankful Danny and I were together when she did. (And even more thankful for her teachers withholding it from us, if in fact her first steps were actually taken at school. Thank you Miss Terri!)

Up until recently she walked with both hands raised above her head. Think Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. Sometimes I'd sing "If I Were a Rich Man" as she marched around the room. She's still working on the shimmy.


Nowadays her balance is so much better, her arms are less "La kayim" and more "Let me have that!"



Mazel tov on your much improved marching skills Chica. And no, you may not have a Matchmaker.
Love,
Mom