First day of Pre-school

What Morgan had to say about her first day of pre-school (when asked what she'd like to say about it): "Dad took me to school. I will put something on your (undiscernable) [I think this was "back" because that's where they put their name tags]. Paint. Umm Story. I'm \gonna elp ly0ou. There. Story."

She seemed to enjoy it.

New Territory

Kenna has hit a stage that Morgan never went through. I'll give a history of Morgan and then tell you about where Kenna is.

Morgan learned to crawl at 6 months, but she was never really good at it. She only used it as a way to get to something to pull up to stand and cruise around (walk while holding onto things). A couple of days before she turned 10 months old, I was holding her hands and she was walking to her dad. She let go of my hands and walked the rest of the way to him (about 5 steps). Those were her first un-aided steps. On the day she hit 10 months, she stood up and walked around our entire living room - we stopped counting steps at 47! So, she never passed through that take-a-few-steps-and-fall-down learning to walk stage.


Kenna also learned to crawl around 6 months (although it was later in the sixth month than with Morgan). She is better at that than Morgan was, and she just in the last month has started really cruising around the furniture. In the last couple of days she has begun to actively find something to stand and push around the house (specifically a toy I bought at Goodwill for her months ago because Morgan wore the same toy out by 10 months). Did I mention that Kenna is 10 months now. :) We were actually just as pleased to see the 10 month mark come and go without a walking baby. Last night, she actively tried to walk between us. Morgan felt very important to help her little sister by catching her when she fell on us. Kenna took a few steps with assistance, then took a few steps without before falling down (because she reached too far with her hands).

So, we're on the road to another early walker, but I'm hoping that we've got at least another month or so. I'll post a video of it when I catch it.

Back to the grindstone

Just to make sure everyone is clear. I'm back to work. This doesn't have much of an affect on you all, but it does have a great impact on me. Most seriously I will have a lack of time for much other than work, kissing my kids, helping at the store, and occasionally cleaning the house enough to be presentable.

So, don't expect to hear too much from me in the coming weeks/months.

An actual family weekend

While the store was closed on Sunday and Monday this week, our family actually took a couple of days off. It is likely to be the last days off we get as a family for a while; so, we tried to take full advantage of the time.

We took Mike's parents' pontoon boat out to Cave Run Lake for some boating and some camping. It was great. No worries about work, the store, or anything (aside from a couple of motor problems).

Here are a few highlights:




Kenna and Daddy hanging out playing in the lake.










Michael working his magic after a day of boating, swimming, and setting up camp.













After Morgan realized that Hyena couldn't hold onto the Nalgene bottle to bring it back, she took over the job.





Kenna showing off how much she's grown since her first down river experience. She can easily crawl, stand, and sit in the PFD now. This is one of her and her sister sharing a snack.

In case some of you did not believe me...

Here is a video of Morgan swimming. Granted in this video she is in the kiddie pool, but her face is fully submerged and she is swimming from one side of the pool to the other. She jumps off of the wall at the "big pool" and swims to us to the second lane marker. Usually swims about 6 or 7 seconds before coming up for a breath. Our only problem is getting her to put her face back down and her but back up after getting the breath. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Some people may be wondering how Morgan learned to swim so well at such a young age - specifically when many children are afraid of the water and won't put their faces in. I highly recommend to anyone who wants to help their kids become comfortable in the water that they watch Diaper Dolphins videos. They are produced by the Rob McKay Lifestyle Swim School in Florida. We've pretty much approached swimming instruction following his techniques and tips and have had obvious success with it. Some libraries have the series (2 videos) available for check out. We actually found the first one in the bookstore's bargain bin.

Date Night!

Mike and I actually had a date night! One of the moms in the group that I hang out with decided that we all just need some time off from the kids with our husbands; so, date night was instituted.

Basically there are 4 couples that agree to swap baby sitting services. Last night was the first run of it. The kids had a great time hanging out with one family while all of the parents (exept the lucky couple who kept all of the kids) went out on the town.

From what I hear it mostly consisted of dinner and grocery shopping, but still doing those things without kids is priceless.

Check back for more updates because we're the next host family.