Swim Lessons

Today was day one of swim lessons for the boys. I decided it was time to address Zachary's fear of water and Evan's LACK of fear. Seriously... Evan has no healthy respect for the water.

My sister was nice enough to come with us and help out; and thank goodness she did. It was totally fun, but boy, was it a challenge!!

First of all, when I registered the boys, the lady at the Y said that since Evan is not three (he'll be three in 13 days...) he had to be in the "Parent and Baby/Toddler" class. The other problem is that Zachary is in a beginning swim class and is so afraid of water, I knew that if he saw me in the water "playing" with Evan, things would not go well.


The boys were SUPER excited about the lessons. As soon as Zachary sat down by the water, he had a change of heart. It took a lot of coaxing by the teacher and myself, but he finally got in. And even though he was in, he wanted me near him... I'm sure the swim instructor LOVED that...

Evan, on the other hand, wanted NOTHING to do with me!! While the rest of our baby/toddler class were singing songs and splashing in the water, Evan kept wiggling from my grasp asking to swim. He kept saying, "Mommy, I just want to swim by myself!!"

He was blowing bubbles, kicking his legs and when he saw Zachary's class jump in the water, he wanted nothing more than to do the same!

This is me and Evan... you will notice I have my hand out to keep Evan from jumping in the pool during "song time."
By the end of class, Zachary was in the pool, having a good time, and was even jumping into the pool! Hopefully, this is just the first step... er... jump!

When the class was done, one of the instructors observing the others pulled me aside and said that she'd do her best to get Evan into Zachary's class because she said he was definitely too interested in swimming for his current class. Thank goodness! I think having his little brother in his class will really help Zachary. I just hope that Evan listens to the teacher! We'll see what Wednesday holds for us!!

Somebody Needs a New Suit

Ladies and gentlemen; the last suit Marcus bought... four years ago. Now has room for Marcus and a few close friends!!!

We DID buy him some new suits last weekend. Way to go, Sweetheart!

Update for Grandpa Hall

Hey out there, Grandpa! Here is the latest picture of my garden after I weeded it today! We still have onions, peppers, tomatoes, corn, green beans and watermelon!

And for everybody else; as I was retrieving the garden picture, I ran across this one of Kali and Evan from a couple of weeks back (before his hair cut). Those two are such buddies!! ... When he's not trying to annoy the living daylights out of her!

My Strange Little Man

Last week, a fly buzzed right next to Zachary's ear and woke him up. He was hysterical and inconsolable for quite a while. The boy does NOT like living bugs, and this fly scared him to death!

He asked me to wrap his blankie around his head so that the bug wouldn't invade his "ear space." Every night since then, he has asked me to do the same thing. He says that he's not afraid of the bugs anymore, he just likes having the blankie around his head. ...I'm not sure I believe him, but he sure looks cute when I check up on him at night!

Just Because

That is one mad mama!
The boys have been asking to see their Grandpa DeArmond repeatedly this week. Dad and I decided to surprise them, and picked them up from daycare today for dinner at the Frozen Custard followed by some play time at the Columbian Park & Zoo.

These kids are only about a week old!
Ride 'em caterpillar!
Mama wallaby with a baby in her pouch
He can move the world...
Coaxing the tortoise in for the night
Run, boys, run!!!
While we were there, Zachary ran into one of his buddies from St. James. The boys haven't seen each other since school let out, and they had a GREAT time! I loved watching it.... I don't often get to see Zachary interact with other children he's not related to. We live so far away from town, that I've felt that play-dates and such were pretty prohibitive. Perhaps I need to make more of an effort!

Jackson & Zachary
(Jackson is a year older than Zach, but still a really tall kiddo!)

Evan, Jackson & Zachary
Got the boys home, bathed and in bed by about 9:30... two hours past their bedtime. We will probably pay for it tomorrow, but the time together was SO WORTH IT!

Thanks for the outing, Grandpa D!

Ginormous Zoo Fun

Zachary has a marble-filled "Good Job Jar" that we use as a reward for good behavior. When he gets through the whole jar, he chooses a special "treat" with the family. This time around, he picked the Indy Zoo. What a great choice! We didn't tell him when we were going, and this morning we decided we would head out and give the boy his reward! I took a ridiculous amount of pictures while we were there! Enjoy!

Brothers in the Waters building
Watching the sea lions
Dolphin Dome
The dolphins were super playful this time!
A beautiful day to be at the zoo!!
I spy with my little eye
There are my boys!
These meerkats cracked me up!!
Waitin' for the train
Nope... not excited at all
And now, for some of the wildlife that are not MY wildlife...











Some of the areas are closed for renovation, but the carousel was still there for the boys to enjoy. I just love the grins on their faces...!



One of the highlights of the day was the splash park in the zoo. They probably would have spent all day and fried to a crisp if we had let them!







A couple of the new additions to the zoo were pretty exciting... We got to see the new bats...


...And the new tiger enclosure is so much better than the old one. You can get up close and personal with the big cats.

Love times like these! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!