A Glimpse Into The Past

The year was 2006:

That would make most of these nieces 8 or 9

He looks to be about 2 or 3

Pretty sure these roses were the ones that I based my wedding colors off of

Haven't gotten so many roses in succession in my life!
Or since.  Oh well.
Our girls are my roses.

Nothing like living alone in my apartment, enjoying my own space. 

Haven't had that for over 4 years!

Haven't seen that body for awhile. Or that long long hair.

That's how I felt when I discovered this old media card too!  :) 

Fun to look back at the past. 

Now I have to get back to planning  my future!

Our Little Lovey

What in the world is she doing with her mouth so wide open? 

Well it's all in preparation for this:

She likes to give her Mommy kisses. 

Love this little girly.

First Haircut, Already?!

Yes friends that's right.  When you are already born with lots of hair and then your hair starts to grow even in only little spurts, you will eventually need a haircut, even at the young age of 

3 months old.

So much better even if in this picture you can't tell much of a difference. 

Does anyone else save the hair from their kids first haircut? 

I guess I'm pretty sentimental about it.

I've saved an envelope of hair for both of my girls from their first haircuts. 

How Would You Caption This Photo?

                                                                    Okay, here are some choices:

1) Bronwyn: She can fall asleep anywhere.

2) What a naughty mommy I have! 

She's taking my picture instead of putting me to bed!

3) Babies who fall asleep standing up, and the mommies who take their picture

Swimming Lessons

Consider yourselves lucky to have gotten a picture where you can see her "trophy" 

AND 

she's looking up! We have hit the "hard to take pictures of" phase. 

Going into swimming lessons, Aftyn had a few swimming skills:

She liked being in the water

she could go under the water without drowning, so she could hold her breath

she liked putting her ears in the water

Now after swimming lessons, here are her skills:

she can "glide" under the water from one person to another, a short distance

she can use her arms to swim

she kicks a lot more

she LOVES to put her head/face under the water and blow bubbles for what feels/seems like an interminably LONG time  :)

she still REALLY likes being in the water

Reed and I are both really glad we had Aftyn take this class.  I think she was the youngest in her class but in spite of that I couldn't tell.  It was only after asking some of the other parents their kids' ages that I even figured out she was probably the youngest.  The kids all still acted the same behavior wise and they all seemed to pick up on the skills the same way.  

The teacher passed Aftyn from her class, and I was really proud! :) 

Downside to this all is that if we were wanting to continue into the next class, she has to be 3 or test into it.  Oh yeah, and she has to be able to go to the class by herself and kind of stay on task.  But that's not such a big deal for us right now.  We're probably not taking any more swim lessons until next summer, and we'll go from where we are then. We sure are proud of Aftyn and I think she's pretty proud of her swim trophy.  :)

She Likes You

Aftyn has been a pretty "hands off" sister thus far in Bronwyn's life. As in, she doesn't really touch her without someone encouraging her to.  I had/have hopes that this isn't how it will always be and honestly I'm kind of grateful that so far she leaves her alone.  **(Except for that one time Aftyn fed Bronwyn some popcorn, but I'm sure she was just trying to share because of how much SHE loves popcorn. She was just sharing its goodness) **.

So last week when we started swim lessons with Aftyn, I had to begin dropping Bronwyn off with people because Reed was still working.  The first time I left Bronwyn with our neighbors who happen to be good trustworthy friends of ours, Aftyn asked me as we drove to her lessons where Bronwyn was.  The second day she did the same.  Both times when we were heading back home to pick her up, Aftyn seemed genuinely happy to have Bronwyn reunited with all of us.  Yay!

Tonight as I sat on the couch watching Aftyn playing, she scooted her toys over next to Bronwyn who was sitting in her Bumbo knockoff.  (That was a hand-me-down from our sister-in-law to whom we'd like to say again, Thank You! It's a life saver!)  Sorry, back to the story.

Aftyn looked up and noticed Bronwyn, then leaned down so she could see up into her face.  She said, "Hi Baby Bronwyn!", and then said "she likes you", which is something we tell her all the time.

Then she went back to playing right next to Bronwyn's chair with Bronwyn's adoring eyes watching her every move.  What a sweet sweet thing to watch.  The best part was that Aftyn was unaware I was even watching.  She simply acted the way she did because she wanted to. ! ! 

Life With 2 Kids

I admit it.  2 kids can be a lot to handle sometimes.  But that doesn't mean we don't love our girls and enjoy their unique and individual personalities. Here's what they have both been up to.

  Aftyn has been taking swimming lessons for the past week, and this week they will end.  She has enjoyed all the pool time and has shown so much improvement in actually using her hands/arms to swim with and kicking and blowing bubbles and jumping into the pool and holding her breath when she goes under.  She has been excited every day to go swimming, and only yesterday did she not act excited to go to her swim lessons.  But I think she may have a slight cold or something and maybe isn't feeling like herself.  Not sure on that though.
      She is getting so practiced at expressing herself nowadays, sometimes she takes me by surprise with the things she says.  Don't get me wrong, she still tries to whine her way to getting what she wants because, after all, she is still 2.  But she surprises me with her communication skills.  Her current favorite treat is homemade popcorn and insists on standing on a chair watching the popcorn pop out of our popcorn popper.  She is getting really good at sitting still while I do her hair, and she loves to help me do laundry.  We love our  Aftyn so much. 
   Bronwyn is such a little sweetheart.  She loves to smile.  If you tickle her tummy, she smiles.  She loves to be played with, except of course when she's hungry or tired.  She has also recently "found" her scream.  She has decided she hates taking baths.  When she is overly hungry or tired, watch out.  She can scream and scream.  Reed and I are both taken aback every time it happens that she works herself up to an out and out scream because for the most part she's pretty laid back.  She is still growing like a weed and sleeping like a champ at night.  I love it.  She goes to bed at 10 and is waking up at 7 or 8.  Having that much sleep is heavenly. 
      As for me, well, being the woman of projects that I am, I have had to learn to get by on little to no projects in my life.  My girls bow selection at the moment is horrid.  I need/want to make new bows like I need to lose my pregnancy weight.  Badly.  Instead of projects, I focus on having clean clothes, food on the table, a clean-ish house.  And most importantly, a happy me.  Because when I feel happy I pass that along to my kids and my husband.
   Reed is still working as hard as ever for us all, and he has managed to weed the garden several times, keeps our yard looking great and still manages to find time for a whole lot more including lots and lots of family time.  We sure love him for all his hard work, and we are so glad when he comes home at night.  Aftyn gets really excited to see him.  He has enjoyed taking Aftyn to her swim lessons a few times, and seeing all the improvement she has made in her swimming.  He is a good daddy and husband.