Saturday, July 31, 2010

What Will Daniel Be When He Grows Up?

Well, we have a few ideas!

Negotiator – At bedtime when I give him a 2 minute warning, he looks up innocently and says “5 minutes Mommy”.

Comedian – Troy started a joke with Daniel whenever he would ask where we were going (which was often about a year ago) so Troy would say “Summers” or “Summersville”.  Fast forward to last week on our beach getaway and Troy asks Daniel “Where’s your hat?”  In all seriousness Daniel looks at Troy and says “It’s in Summersville.”

Swimmer Extraordinaire – You’ve seen the photos!

Professional Boogie Boarder – Again, you’ve seen the photos!

Drama Teacher or Play Director - “Mommy you be Lady, I’ll be Diesel, and Daddy can be Diesel 10".  When I say do this, you do it, and when I do this, you do that.”  Really, those exact words.  I’m not sure what ‘this’ or ‘that’ is, but we go along anyway!

Songwriter – Daniel can make up some serious songs.  They don’t make a lot of sense, but they generally have a tune.  And somehow they work.

Carpenter – I mean look at that concentration!summer - mari pool 004

Your guess is as good as mine!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Help Out a Friend!

Go check out Melissa and Nathan's exciting news about adopting a second child, this time from right here in the USA! They are hosting their second Great Big Giveaway with some great prizes! $5.00 gets you one chance and $10.00 gets you three chances! Help bring a child home to a wonderful family and possibly win a great prize. Go ahead and congratulate them on their new journey while you are there!!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Weekend Beach Holiday!

This past weekend we were able to enjoy a quick trip to the beach!  We packed up some food, lots of sand toys, boogie boards, and ourselves and headed out early Friday morning.

Friday afternoon we decided we really needed to go fishing.  We spent about 4 hours fishing – Daniel was a trooper and loved it!  He especially liked touching the fish.  I actually felt sorry for the poor flounder we caught because Daniel was especially enamored of it and kept squishing it between his fingers because he liked the way it felt!  Don’t worry – it survived and we released it!

Saturday we headed to Virginia Beach and hit the waves.  It was pretty rough out there, but we braved it anyway.  Daniel who couldn’t stop talking about playing in the sand, never really played in the sand at all once he got the first wave!  He just kept charging back into the water!!  He rode the boogie board forwards, backwards, sitting up forwards, sitting up backwards, on his back lying down, you name it!  And he giggled and giggled and giggled.  He had several people around us giggling too!!  We even let him get nailed once or twice by a big wave (with close supervision AND we were right in front of a lifeguard stand).  He came up the first time after “rolling” to shore sputtering and looking at his arms and then he just shrugged it off and ran back in for more!

Afterwards we found a nice playground along the boardwalk and played a bit, the headed home.

You can see the aftermath of a day at the beach, some play time and a blue snow cone!  We had a great weekend!!                                   beach trip 7-10 001 beach trip 7-10 006 beach trip 7-10 007 beach trip 7-10 010 beach trip 7-10 011 beach trip 7-10 015beach trip 7-10 016  beach trip 7-10 043 beach trip 7-10 044 beach trip 7-10 045 beach trip 7-10 048 beach trip 7-10 052 beach trip 7-10 053 beach trip 7-10 058 beach trip 7-10 059 beach trip 7-10 062beach trip 7-10 065

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Final Swim Lessons Verdict and Birthday Party Fun!

Well, these days, I'm so far behind that I'm going to do two posts in one. I'm even typing this post in one place and uploading the photos in another place! Summer is definitely here!!

Swim lessons were WONDERFUL!! Daniel thoroughly enjoyed it and so did I. We got there about 20 minutes early each day so Daniel could swim a little in the pool first. And let me tell you...he is a fish!! He loves to be under the water, as in all the time. He'll come up long enough for air and go right back under. Sometimes he stays under so long I start to panick, but then his head pops up. He can even do flat rolls under water without blinking. I can't do the rolls without getting water up my nose!

The next to last class the instructor approached me and said that Daniel really needed to move up a class even though he was barely 4. The next class starts at ages 5 and up. When I questioned her, she said she had already spoken to the instructor and he agreed to take Daniel on, so we start again in the new class at the end of July!! I'm looking forward to it! BTW, only one other girl got moved up and she 6 years old. The other two children (a 6 and a 4 and 1/2 year old) were not moved forward. I'm so proud of my fish!

The last day of class they got to jump off the diving board!! They started on the small one, then progresssed to the medium board. Daniel did great. The instructor let him go way under the water and only pushed him partway to the side of the pool before letting him go. And no I'm not exaggerating - Troy, myself, Daniel's Grandma and his Aunt Cassandra were all there to witness the historic event and cheer him on!!

In other news, last Sunday we had Daniel's official birthday party. We had family only and had a great time. We chose a pirate theme and cooked out lots of great food. Daniel gots lots of great presents including a "responsibility chart" (which by the way works great - thanks Aunt Cathy, Uncle Joe and Eli), a pirate ships that really shoots cannons (I've been shot at a thousand times by Daniel AND by Troy - thanks Granny and Grandpa and Ian), a Glow Station (which keeps Daniel shut up in the bathroom for half an hour at a time (a BIG thanks to Grandma!! :)), two sets of PJs which we desparetly needed (thanks Aunt Cassandra and soon to be Uncle Brett), a new Thomas motorized toothbrush and Toy Story Flossers (which Daniel wanted to take to bed with him (thanks Aunt Amber, Unlce Stephen, Parker and Ava), among a few other great things! Thanks to everyone!!