Well Rested!

I promised some footage of swimming lessons, so here you have it! This is actually a whole lot better than last week. It's amazing what a good nap and having some rest will do for her motor skills, attention and listening ears!! Specifically, there's a lot less head movement under the water this week and her arms are actually coming out of the water. Anyway, we're making progress going into her 5th consecutive week of lessons 4 days a week, leading into a session off because we'll be traveling. Aside from swimming lessons, we met up with my friend Shalese and her little guy Daniel at a play place called Amaya Papaya this morning. It was fun but Nora struggled because the kids that were there were between 11 months and 2 for the most part - in other words, too old for Lincoln, too young for Nora. We had to have quite a few asides about how to be patient with little ones and the importance of not just saying no and grabbing back...oh heavens, she has no idea what she's in for in just a matter of months. Let the refereeing begin!

Another Year Older

We can pretend I'm a year wiser too! Hehe! Today was a lovely day, got to sleep in a bit, watch some Fuller House, Kyle took Nora to today's, long awaited opening day match for the Orlando City Lions. We won't talk about when they left and what happened in the seconds afterwards. I did a little Facetiming and hanging out with Lincoln and then when they got home we had some Lemoncello cream torte from "The Cheesy Factory" and Kyle made a tasty dinner! All and all I can't complain about the start to another year!

Another Piece of Adventure

After yoga this morning, Kyle returned from his 2 day stint in Ohio for work. After nap time we stopped at the Columbia outlet store and then added in a bit of Nora's birthday adventure by having dinner at Sweet Tomatoes courtesy of Lady & Grumps. Nora ate like I've very rarely seen her eat before - she wore her eating pants or something because she went to TOWN tonight! Quick aside, I must admit, I'm a pretty big fan of the iPhone live picture thing on Kyle's phone - it really does add another little element to pictures.

4 Months!!

Look who is 4 months old today!!! Growing and growing and growing! Lincoln is a fun little guy, full of super happy smiles and pretty much up for anything. As long as he's fed on time, changed when he needs it and given time to nap on his own he's a happy camper! I don't want to jinx anything, but this kiddo, similar to Nora, enjoys sleeping, and if you couldn't tell by looking at him he enjoys eating also! Lincoln is getting better and stronger at sitting, starting to be able to balance a little on his own, he loves looking at and watching himself in the mirror, is always watching Nora and is starting to take a little more interest in Cortland. He LOVES to socialize and get his fair share of attention and will gladly chit chat for long periods of time and has discovered new volumes and sounds he can make this month. He's getting better at holding his bottle and grabs everything to put in his mouth and is threatening everyday to start rolling - he can pivot 360˚ around his head though, haha! Oh, and like his big sis, he loves to be naked! Another big favorite is reading - whether bedtime stories in Nora's room or 1:1 reading with us, he is really interested in books. More fun to come this month and official 4 month stats will come next week!

In other news, we got all packed up and hit the road with Jessica, Maya, & Cort to go to the off leash dog beach at Fort DeSoto State Park buuuut after a series of bad choices, loud outbursts and general not so niceness coming from the backseat we were forced to abort our mission and return home. After a nap that has been needed ALL week Nora awakened a much happier person and we were able to plant this year's bin veggie garden and even fit in some light table play after dinner.

Lincoln Noodle Soup

Had a fun outing to the Dollar Store this morning and gathered some new materials for activities! Lincoln dove right into playing in his pool full of noodles, grabbing and mouthing of course. The coolest part - watching him learn to use other parts of his body to get the noodles up to his hands. Cool how it all starts to click at this age. Nora woke up from her nap and immediately took to the noodle pool too. We made it to swimming lessons this afternoon, there is still some work to be done as Nora tends to do a lot more shimmying than swimming under the water - I'll try to get a video of the awesomness next week! Adventure day tomorrow!!
Happy Birthday Grandma Green!

Playing Fetch

So, apparently, when the front door isn't latched all the way, and the wind blows, the door opens. So much about Cort's behaviors this morning were explained when I realized that the front door had most likely been open for hours this morning while we were out on the back porch. Cort wasn't winded and hot from just laying in the sun in Lincoln's room...nope, galavanting the neighborhood, at a high rate of speed, then coming back to home base to check in! Seriously, he's such a homing pigeon, he ran away and then came back multiple times to check in just often enough not to raise suspicions, cool off, get a drink and then would go back out again. When I realized what was happening and that Cort was out and about, I rounded up the kiddos, piled them into the stroller and off we went with a leash in hand to find our four legged free-roaming friend. Nora's best question of the process "so do we not have a dog anymore?" Maybe Nora, maybe! But, find him we did, down the street a ways sniffing around in someone's front yard. Once he finally decided to come we took him home and he hung out around the front door more than usual, most likely in hopes of it popping open again. In other news, after a quick trip out this morning, we said goodbye to Katie and sent her back to chilly Ohio. It turns out that Nora didn't make it to swimming lessons today due to a particularly ornery over-tired nap war, but hopefully we'll have a smoother day tomorrow.

Starting Off Spring

Welcome March and Spring!!! What a gorgeous day for Lincoln's forst trip to the beach! One of Katie's last things to check off while she's in Florida was a trip to the beach. I'm pretty sure she had initially planned on a solo trip, but we love adventures with Katie, so along we tagged! Let me tell you, preparing to beach and spend the whole day out of the house with two kiddos is no small process! But, thanks to the ability to park on the beach at New Smyrna our day was super easy and enjoyable! We pulled on to the sand and piled out of the car around 11:15/11:30 and got in plenty of sun, sand, surf & snacks (and Lincoln snuck in a little sea side stroller snooze) all before we had to leave at 2:45ish to make it to swimming lessons. Despite a nap on the way back, Nora played herself exhausted and was a bit of a zombie at swimming this afternoon, was on the verge of falling asleep on her seat at Sweet Tomatoes during dinner and wasn't the most pleasant little person by bedtime tonight! One plus to her exhaustion is that she stays in bed at night! I think tomorrow we'll owe Mr. Garrett and the rest of the world a well rested, refreshed little fish.