The girls start learning to swim

THURSDAY morning the girls and I had women's Bible study for church.  Emily slept in almost until it was time to go and I thought I would maybe leave her with David but then she woke up so I brought her along.  It worked out because Dave ended up going out for coffee with his friend Jon.  Since most of the kids are out of school right now, our Thursday morning Bible study now has Ella and Chloe baby-sitting while we meet.  It's so much nicer and we were so less distracted!  Ella and Chloe dressed all of the little girls in dress-ups and paraded them around outside.  I told them to make sure to get some pictures and they did!

Sara Cate, Haley, Evelyn, and Lucy

Emy Lu!

Haley LOVED the dress-ups.  Notice she has two headbands on.

Haley had a great time playing while we were there, she was actually pretty mad when it was time to go.  I talked to one of my friends Meg while we were there about what she did for her little girl Sara Cate when she was little with swimming.  Meg always talks about how Haley reminds her exactly of how Sara Cate was when her age and is tiny like Sara Cate was.  Anyways, I wanted to know what they used for her in the pool so I could try the same thing with Haley since she is so small and easily worms her way out of everything we've put on her.  Meg said that Sara Cate did the same thing so they just taught her to swim.  Sara Cate's Birthday is one day before Haley's and the spring that she was Haley's age now (2 years old) she learned to swim.  I couldn't believe it but Meg said they actually learn faster when they are young and they didn't even have to reteach her every year.  Meg also happens to be a certified swim instructor so I had her give me all of her pointers and I'm now seriously thinking of teaching Haley to swim, we'll see.

After Bible study we came home and had lunch with David and then we put the girls down for naps.  The girls must have been pretty tired after their exciting morning because Haley slept three hours and Emily slept over FOUR hours!  She woke up as fresh as a daisy!  I put her in the den with Haley and David who were playing in the kitchen while I made dinner.  We had pork chops and mashed potatoes for dinner and Haley and Emily both ate a bunch of the pork chop, I was super impressed.  Haley kept saying, "I like pork chops!"  After dinner I went and had Bible study with Chloe, Ella, and Amanda at a new cafe in town and David went to the park with the girls.

David said the park was pretty empty so Haley had most of the thing to herself.  It worked out because she kept climbing up the slide the wrong way.  After the park they came home and David gave them baths and then gave them applesauce and pizza for snack and then put them to bed.

TODAY we did not have much on the agenda.  Haley woke up just after seven and came to our bed and slept another hour and a half.  We were out of waffles so I made pancakes for breakfast and Haley and Emy ate a bunch.  I'm not sure how many Haley ate because she just kept taking them off the plate herself.  After breakfast the girls played for a while and then we went to the gym.  David and I ran together and then I took a shower while he did weights.  Haley did not want to go to the gym at first but she ended up going right in and she was happily watching a movie when we picked them up.

After the gym we came home and had lunch and then we put the girls down for naps.  Haley slept about two and a half hours and Emily slept about three.  After naps they played in the den.  We also spent a little bit of time outside watching the contractors.  We are getting our sewage hooked up to city sewer so the contractor came today and worked on the city part of the job.  The city is paying to extend the line in the road to our house and we will pay to connect the house to the road.  Pops and David went to the city and talked to them when Pops was here in April and that really was a genius idea because our contractor just can't believe that the city is offering to pay for anything, he says that NEVER happens.

We decided to have a family date tonight so we went to Chick-fil-A.  We bought a coupon booklet a couple months ago so that is our little excuse to go, we'll take any excuse to go there really.  Haley and Emily both ate pretty well, Haley especially.  Haley also played on the playground there for a while.  She's just gotten big enough to open the door to the playground by herself and that makes it a lot more relaxing for David and I!  After Chick-fil-A we came home and changed into our bathing suits and waited for some people to come by and pick up an end table from the storage unit for $22 which puts our total up to $111!  After they came we packed up in the van and drove to the gym for their Friday night family swim.  We decided to work on some of Haley's swimming techniques.  We worked on teaching Haley to hold her breath under water and kick.  Haley actually did really well, she did not mind going under water for the most part and was kicking really hard.  We were in a resistance pool except we were going with the current so I think that helped too.

In my research to find tips for teaching Haley to swim, I actually found a lot more stuff about teaching babies to swim, babies like Emy.  I tried some of the tips on Emy and she did so good!  She naturally holds her breath under water and naturally kicks and uses her arms.  Everytime she'd go under water she'd come back up with a huge smile on her face, next time we'll have to take some video.  She actually kind of swam from David to me a couple of times.  It's hard to tell if she was actually propelling herself forward on her own though because David pushed her and I'm sure the current helped.  It was only a foot or so between us but she never sunk or anything.  Emy was actually a lot better at swimming than Haley overall.

After our swim time we went straight from the gym to Kroger to pick up a few things.  They are having a huge meat sale and we wanted to pick up some ice cream for dessert.  We made it in and out fairly quickly, although Haley did use the bathroom once.  After Kroger we came home and ate ice cream except Emy had applesauce and then we put the girls to bed.  They went right to sleep, I think they were tired from their swimming!

Haleyism:
On the way home from the park with David yesterday Haley randomly said, "I like chicken!"

Emilyism:
Emily's first tooth popped out of her gums!  It's her lower right tooth.

Climbing at the park

Can you find Haley?

Little monkey

In the swings

Playing kitchen

Haley loves serving up the food

Emily was so happy after her long nap

Emily loves this bear that Aunt Rin got Haley for her 1st Birthday.

I like Haley in this one