Life's a Beach....

Okay...."Life's a pool!" and the girls are taking full advantage of it. The bathing suits have never gotten so much use and this is the first year that I've bought more than one tube of sunscreen. (They used to last for years at a stretch.) Louie's lessons are over but we keep refreshing her skills in the water...which she's not too fond of.  Kicky is becoming quite the little swimmer at almost four years old.  She begs not to wear her lifejacket so she can show off her water tredding skills, but may only do so if we are right there to watch her! (Not to worry, grandparents!) And the big girls are busy snorkeling and having under water tea parties and breath-holding contests. The best part of all is having friends and family over to join us. It's always a lot more fun for the kids and this means that mom doesn't have to be in the water 24/7. It sure beats the production of going to mediocre beaches of CT. (Rocks are being hurled by Californians who think I'm a snob.) I just can't help it. The "cool pool" is where I'm stayin!

Weekend in Chatham - July '08

We just got back from a beautiful four day weekend in Chatham, which now makes five years of tradition - thanks to the generosity of C&PL and family for allowing us to stay in their beautiful home once again. The seven cousins had a ball together. Highlights included rowing on the little boat through the bay, mommy and daddy's anniversary dinner out at Pisces in Chatham, (thank you nice babysitters), lobster and steamers from Nickerson's our last night, praying the rosary down on the dock as the sun set and the carousel ride in Hyannis on our way home. Low points were....the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory (boring), smashing yet a second glass end table on the patio (first one was broken last summer) and being too tired to make it through even one movie after the kids got to bed! The weather was spectacular - sunny, warm and no humidity! These weekends always remind us of Papa. He would have been so happy just watching all his grandkids running around. We know you're watching from above Papa!

Our Littlest Swimmer

Nickname Update #3:  AJHC was once "Muffin Top" then "Shmoo McGoo". Now she's moving on to bigger and better nicknames like "Louie". (Long story) Anyway, Louie is learning to swim.  Not for fun and not because she shows potential for the Olympics.  She's learning survival techniques developed for infants and toddlers that can save her life if she ever fell into our pool.  Hopefully, this will never happen.

She is in her fourth week of instruction now, each class lasting only 10 minutes. She works one on one with a special instructor who is conditioning her to orient herself in the water and to get into a restful, floating position in which she could remain for several minutes if necessary. This is an incredible resource (ISR) which was introduced to us last year. Louie is doing well, though she's not fond of it by any means. But she is much calmer now than during the first week and she knows full well what she's "in for" as soon as we pull into the parking lot every morning. I can tell she's a little anxious, but as a parent, I'm far more anxious lying in bed at night, praying that we will have another "safe" summer.