Swim Videos

A couple quick videos from swim class since I finally brought the camera.... in the first one he is swimming about 9 feet from a little bench in the water to the wall, then he gets out by himself. In the second, they are teaching him to flip over on his back and float in the middle of swimming. My hope is he learns to do this on his own if he is ever needs t0. Enjoy!!

Time to Par-tay like a 3 yr old!!!

We had a fun Saturday making our way to two different 3 year old birthday parties that were scheduled at the same time! There was a bad storm going on when we arrived at our first birthday party so I forgot our camera in the car while running from the car to the house. But Vince had a blast at party #1. If you ask him what he did, he says, "eat cake"! And he wasn't kidding... the second they brought the cake out, he ran to it, and stuck his finger in it to taste the icing. Bad manners! You would think his mom would have taught him better... lol... but we did get mad of course but he still got to eat a piece.


We had to cut that party a little short after cake and presents to dash 20 miles to another party. We were just in time to hit the pinata. Well, Vince was, I sat and watched! After the pinata was... more cake! But I managed to stuff a hotdog in Vince's mouth before he got to eat cake #2.


Next was some fun activities... a potato sack race where David helped Vince be a great hopper... (but I got a good picture out of it)...

Then there was musical hula hoops, like musical chairs but you have to jump in the hula hoop when the music stops. Vince got the hang of it real quick.

Then he had fun just playing with the hoop!!

All in all it was a fun fun day. I can't believe our baby will be 3 soon too!!!

Vince - still the fish

Today at swim class, I was a good mom and made sure to bring my camera and video camera to try and capture Vince's progress. But I wasn't a great mom because I didn't think to check either for batteries :(. The video camera had no batteries... BUT, I did have a few minutes of battery to take some pictures before the camera went out too...

Vince is 33 months old next week. Today I realized he's been in swim classes about half his life... 16 months! It's the little extracurricular activity that's been a constant for us and doubles as learning a safety skill. Check out the First swim post I ever posted about his swim classes in January 2009, he was one year old...

Recently, Vince's teacher has been concentrating on letting him swim and then roll over on his back and float as well as jumping in and turning to grab on to the wall. Two things I would really love for him to learn. Here are some pictures of those activities.

Next class maybe I'll remember a charged video camera so I can finally post a video of him actually swimming!!

It's a girl!

I’ve been m.i.a. from this blog lately. Sometimes I look at some of my friends blogs, see they haven’t updated it either, then don’t feel so bad :)

A lot has happened recently. I am almost 4 months pregnant and we just found out Vince is going to have a little sister! I think he half way gets what’s going on. He knows there is a baby in my belly. At first he used to tell me there was one in his belly too, but I think he’s over that. Sometimes he wants to get in my belly and join the baby… he takes a head-dive to my belly and lifts my shirt before I can stop him.

Now that we know we are having a little girl, we are so excited to buy girlie things! We visited Baby’s R Us last night and it was so fun to see David excited over pink things. Everything is just so darn cute. I’ll admit, having a boy would have been a whole lot cheaper… we wouldn’t have to buy anything but disposable items…and we would of course been happy with a boy, two little boys running around, becoming best friends, sounded like a delight… but we wanted a girl and are blessed that we get to learn what the other sex is like really soon.

I feel a little bad I haven’t documented this pregnancy like I did Vince’s so I’m going to throw in posts here and there that are just about how this pregnancy is going along so I can have them for her.

I have no idea how to take care of a baby girl, but we’ll learn. Heck, when Vince was born I didn’t even know how to take care of a baby. At least we have some experience now. I know it will be hard being a working mom with 2 little ones, but I know it will make us all the more happy sharing our lives with one more soul. Right now we get a kick out of watching Vince grow up each and everyday… he says and does the darndest things while looking cute in the process… he gives us so much joy and I just can’t wait to have that joy times two. See you soon little mama.

Phone picture time!

Once again, it's time for me to post pictures from my phone. I've said before, but I love phone pictures because I always have my phone with me and I'm able to capture things I normally wouldn't with a camera.

I'll try to be somewhat chronological, from the most recent this morning. This is a first, Vince climbed onto the counter... all because he wanted a cup of milk (don't know how he planned on getting the milk from the fridge after). He's always grabbed chairs/step stools to reach items on the counter, but this is the first time he has succeeded in getting on it!

Vince is starting another swim class that goes through January 2011! This is the 9th straight month that he has been in swim classes and it's important to us that he knows about the water because we have a pool. It's a big committment on our part, but I'm so glad he's graduated to a "super water babies" class and I no longer have to get in! He's doing amazing. He can swim 8 to 10 feet and uses both his arms and legs well. We are now working on him trying to lift his head to get breaths. He can also pick something off the bottom of the pool (if we help push him down), and he pushes off the bottom of the pool with his legs to pop up and get a breath. We've also been working on him getting out of the pool alone by using his elbows/tummy/knees which is why I think he was successful in getting on top of the counter.

Random picture... at Buffalo Wild Wings on a Wednesday night where kids meals are 99 cents! I just so happened to get a kids meal that night too. Talk about a cheap meal!

Next, we celebrated my sister's step-son's birthday a couple weeks ago... notice how Vince doesn't take his eyes off the cake!

And here's Mr. Woody and his Buzz Lightyear. We went to see Toy Story 3 at the movies and followed it up later that day by watching Toy Story 1, then the next day Toy Story 2... A little out of order but it doesn't matter... we all enjoyed it! Can you believe I hadn't seen any of those movies before??

And we went to the see Toy Story 3 with our friends Abby and Ethan. Here Ethan and Vince are acting silly sitting in a basket together!

And one more random photo... look closely... can you see who's that cute little girl on Vince's shirt?? It's me it's me! That was my shirt when I was in preschool. I love that I have it and Vince can now wear it for PJs!!

That's it for now! I'll try to get some good phone pics for the next phone pic post!!

Circus

We had a great time taking Vince to the Circus recently! It's the Greatest Show on Earth!!

Not only did we see a fantastic show, we took a train there. Vince absolutely loved it, although I don't think he understod at first that we were inside the train... he kept wanting to get on others that we passed and would act excited when he would hear the train whistle. Eventually he did get it and almost everyday since he asks if we can go back and ride the train. Sometimes he says he wants to ride it to the circus.

In reality, it was a fantastic show, but I think David and I appreciated the majesty of it more than Vince. They had great magic tricks and illusions that we couldn't figure out. We were entertained from beginning to end.

As for Vince, he was much more interested in anything having to do with animals (the people not so much). He loved watching the elephants, tigers, & dogs. They did some awesome tricks. Vince did make me laugh though when he asked when the cows were coming out. I was very impressed by the elephants, who could do so many tricks as well as stand on their heads!!

And after the circus, the fun wasn't over, as we had to ride the train back home. That definietly won't be our last train ride on the TRE... I think one day we'll just ride it all day long...

My Lefty

Recently, my dad shared a video with me about the Top 10 Most Powerful Lefties in the world. It was very interesting.

When Vince was 15 months old, I blogged that I thought Vince was left handed since that’s how he ate and wrote.

Over a year later I as he begins to draw more, I can definitely confirm it, he’s a lefty! He’s starting to draw people, with hands and legs coming out of their heads :), really good for a 2.5 yr old!! Here he’s helping grandpa paint the house & helping my mom frost a cake, both with his left!!

In the lefty video, I was amazed to see who was left handed, current leaders like Barak Obama, David Cameron (PM of the UK) and Felipe Calderon (President of Mexico). Four out of the last 5 Presidents were lefties, including Bush and Clinton (Regan was ambidextrous). Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are also lefties, not a good association, but they must be smart to be where they are. Other noteworthy lefties in today’s society, Oprah, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates. And lefties from the past include Albert Einstein, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso, and Alexander the Great.

Vince is extremely smart and amazes us everyday at different things he has picked up. It’s interesting that he’s a lefty and I wonder how much this plays into his “smarts”. But as I told my family, I’ll take credit for his intelligence since being a lefty is genetic. David argues with me on that one, but if he gets it from both of us, it’s a win win!!