From Halloween to Christmas?

I guess the anticipation of Uncle Andy's arrival is almost like Christmas around here. I suppose it has been a year since any of us last saw him. The kids got up WAY TOO EARLY yesterday and that is the only possible explanation :) Drew was up at 4:05 - FOR THE DAY, and Izzy at 6:30. Not sure what her excuse was, but I think Drew is working on some tough teeth?

The kids and I came downstairs where I proceeded to pull out my best mom skills and pop in a video, give them poptarts and try to sleep on the couch. An hour later with coffee finally in me our day was underway. First up, play-doh. Theme: Carebears. We made teddy bears into Carebears by putting symbols on their stomachs. Both the kids like Carebears and Drew loves to say the line "Carebears, stare!" So that is what we did. Izzy also made a world for them to explore. The size is a bit off, but she did include blue representing water, green for grass, and brown for the woods.


Izzy was feverishly making stomach symbols while I got them in line for an upcoming "stare".

Her world to explore.


As if that weren't enough, we moved onto finger painting. For Drew this was a first. I only have the beginnings of the paintings but they both turned out quite well. Drew found it most fun to dot his chest with paint while Izzy learned the art of painting only half of the paper and then folding it.




and notice the drool dangling from his chin - it's gotta be teeth right?

I am sure with all that playing you can imagine how tired the kids must have been :) Drew fell asleep mid-snack.

He slept from 10-12 and then ran errands with me before we picked up Uncle Andy from the airport.

I told Izzy at 11 she needed to take an actual nap (versus her normal quiet time) and she slept until 3 when Pete woke her. Simple math would tell you that is 4 hours.

After we gave Uncle Andy a quick tour of the house we decided to go swimming.

Pete and Andy ready for the pool, drinks in hand.


After we got to the pool I broke out new goggles for Izzy. She has never worn them before, but has been asking for some. The deal was she could have some after she proved to us she could swim underwater, eyes open, without them. Since she has done it for a few weeks I finally decided she could have some.



I also got Drew the exact same pair. I have learned that whenever possible I need to buy identical items for the kids to prevent arguments. To just buy different colors would not be good enough. I also bought two red noodles that they have yet to see ;)

Miss Fancy Pants showing off her swimming skills to Uncle Andy



The competition is going to be fierce among these two as the art of racing has begun!


And a very exciting sidenote. Izzy learned yesterday to swim underwater all the way from one side to another. I was so proud of her. She got this idea in her head to try and then just kept trying until she was finally able to do it. It really taught her to kick her feet and move her arms to move forward. That girl came up gasping for air ;)

Oh, Izzy also wanted me to mention that "the boy" (some random boy) at the pool taught her how to do freestyle. In fact he did. He worked with her (she wouldn't allow him to actually touch her) and by golly she can kind of pull them up out of the water to swim.

I can say with 100% certainty that our pool dues were monies well spent this summer and that both kids have become so comfortable in the water because we are there 5 days a week! And to think that I was so worried about how I would manage both kids at the pool this summer. Heck, next year I might get to read a magazine :)