Puddles

Yesterday our neighbors watered their lawn while Kelsie, Sophia, and Sophia's cousin Eli were all out playing. The water created some wonderful puddles on the side of the road and the kids couldn't resist taking advantage of them. Even Heather got in on the action!

Kelsie Learning to Pedal a Tricycle

Yesterday Kelsie decided to try to learn to pedal Sophia's tricycle. She was actually doing a pretty good job, but she hasn't figured out how much pressure she needs to get it going on her own yet so Mike had to push her while she pedalled. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me at first, so I only got a small video of her and Mike working on it. I am excited that she finally decided to try it. We borrowed a tricycle from our friends a couple of months ago and she has shown no interest up until last night. Hopefully that was just the beginning!

I think she would have gone little further, but she discovered the puddles!

Father's Day

Father's day was a great day! My parents came over and we went to eat at Saltgrass Steakhouse then came back to our house to open presents and visit. We all had a lot of fun and Kelsie was enjoying showing off for grandma and grandpa as usual, which makes for some good entertainment. Her big thing that day was dancing to the music her keyboard plays. Kelsie loves to dance and run around to the music!

Kelsie was all excited too, because Mike and I found her a Cars carpet. As soon as she came in she saw it and got really excited and she thanked us about 100 times! Kelsie LOVES the movie Cars and we talk about it everyday, so we couldn't resist the cute carpet. It has roadways and landmarks from the movie. She keeps pointing to everything and saying who lives where and she knows who we are missing, so we will definitely be getting her some more Cars characters for Christmas! :)

Arrr Matey

On Saturday we took Kelsie to the mall to eat some lunch and look around a bit before naptime. It turns out they had a 9 ft lego pirate setup where the fountain usually is and she loved it. She just kept saying "Arrr Matey" and moving her arm the way you see pirates do it was adorable!

Swim Lessons

Unfortunately our last two sessions of swim lessons have been rough. Kelsie always enjoys the very first thing they do which is to swim using the "barbells", but after that she wants nothing to do with the lessons at all. I have tried encouragement, bribery, and today I even sat out in the pool during the lesson and none of it is working. Our next step is to just work with her more and more between lessons in hopes that she will get used to it all. I hate seeing her struggle, but I do think it is very important to follow through with the lessons for safety reasons as well as getting her used to doing things outside of her comfort zone. I am hoping that eventually she will enjoy the lessons again like she did the first couple, but I don't know how long that will take. :(

Kelsie's Ponytail

Kelsie has been very resistant to having things in her hair until recently. She actually let me put her hair up instead of fighting me the whole time. It isn't perfect, because she was still a little squirmy but it looks so cute!

Kelsie Exercising

This is video of Kelsie trying to exercise with me!! Too Cute!

Swim Lessons

The first half of today's swim lessons went perfectly. Both Sophia and Kelsie really were listening and doing what Mr. Sam asked of them and neither shed a tear. However, Kelsie started to get a little frustrated toward the second half of the lesson. They were working on getting her head into the water a lot and she was not happy about it. She didn't mind too much the first couple of times, but after that she started fussing and crying saying she didn't want to do the lesson anymore. She did finish the lesson after some convincing from me, but she wasn't too happy about it. I think she was just pushed outside her comfort zone a little too much this time.

She floated on her back, she did her row rows, she did her kicks, she kinda of did her supermans, and then having her head under the water too. She did really well, but as I said I think she was pushed a little harder than she was used to and didn't respond well to it. It must not have upset her too much though, because after a break while Sohpia's cousin did his lesson she was up for getting back into the pool for a little while. I am sure she will start to build a tolerance for her head getting wet, but right now it is a lot for her to take in. She doesn't even like having her head wet in the bath tub yet, so she is tolerating it better than I would have thought she would! Hopefully she will keep doing better and better the more lessons she does.

Our Weekend

Kelsie and I decided to spend the weekend at grandma and grandpa's since Mike was supposed to have to work 3rd shift to support the mission. It turns out he did have to work on Friday, but that the mission has been delayed due to a valve leak they discovered during the launch preparations. Mike decided to come and join us in Kingwood late Saturday after he had a chance to recover a little from the late shift.

We had a lot of fun! Kelsie and I went swimming Saturday morning and she was so happy to show off what she had learned in swim lessons to her grandma and grandpa. She used my mom's swim noodles like she does the barbells in her swim lesson. She also blew bubbles, did her row rows, and kicked for them. They were so proud of her and I was too. She was doing great! She needed very little help while she was using the swim noodles and she kept going for quite a while when she had them. I was happy to see her having fun in the water.

The rest of Saturday we just all kind of hung out and had a lazy day. It was nice to have a day without an agenda or pressure to go, go, go. It seems days like that are few and far between. Kelsie's favorite part was making pizza for dinner. She got to play with the extra dough and the flour on the counter. She made a huge mess, but it was worth it to see her having such a good time!






Sunday my brother and his wife came over to celebrate father's day early with my dad since Kait (my brother's wife) has to work on father's day. My mom fixed her delicious spaghetti and meatballs for lunch and we all had a great time visiting. My mom and I worked on sewing my skirt and every time we thought we were done we realized there were a few more steps to go. We are getting close to finishing, but we aren't quite there yet.

Overall it was a nice and quite weekend. It was a nice break before the mission starts again on Wednesday. That is of course assuming they are able to get the shuttle up. Apparently there is only one launch attempt on Wednesday, so I am not very hopeful that it will actually go. We will see though. I could be wrong. I hope it does go, because otherwise they will have to go in July and that might mess up our planned trip to San Antonio. To top it all off there is yet another mission scheduled for August, so I would hate for them to be that close together. Ah, but that is how the space business works it seems unfortunatly.

Swim Lessons

Today's swim lesson went great for Kelsie! Sophia still cried through the first 1/2 to 3/4 of the lesson, but it didn't distract Kelsie at all. She did everything Mr. Sam asked of her albeit still a little reluctantly depending on the task. She blew bubbles in the water, did supermans in the water (basically gliding in the water with her arms and legs outstretched), jumped in the water, blew bubbles while reaching for the rings Mr. Sam has, did row rows in the water (the arm movements), and kicked in the water. She even did the row, rows and kicked in the water at the same time! I am so proud that she did so well. I do have to admit though that it was probably because I didn't let her watch TV all morning and I told her that she couldn't watch any TV until after nap time unless she listened to Mr. Sam and did what she asked. I don't feel too bad, because she actually seemed to enjoy herself most of the time. It was only the bubble blowing and the jumping in that she seemed to resist a little. Unfortunately I forgot my camera today, so I didn't get to take pictures. I was just so proud watching her do everything so well. I hope the next lesson is more like today that the last one!

Kelsie's First Knock Knock Joke

Swim Lesson

Today's swim lesson did not go as well as the first. Kelsie immediately started crying when Mr. Sam tried to get her to do anything and Sophia started crying soon after. Luckily he was scheduled to teach Sophia's cousin after their lesson, so we just let him go first. The girls still didn't want to participate, but we were able to at least get them back in the water after Eli was done. Mr. Sam swooped Kelsie up and got her to do a few things despite her reluctance. She kicked with the noodles, she reached under the shallow water for rings and submarines, and he got her to let him help her "jump" into the water (Basically he set her up on the side and lifted her up and into the water). The whole time Mr. Sam had to talk to her about the flowers and colors all around to distract her so she wouldn't cry, but he didn't give up and I have to give him major credit for that. With two 3 yr olds crying it was definitely chaotic, but he was determined not to give up! I am hopeful that Wednesday goes better than today, but we shall see.

Travis's Birthday!

Today was our little cousin Travis's 2nd birthday. It was at their neighborhood pool and it turned out to be a perfect day for it. We all had a great time! Kelsie took her time slowly working into the water. At first she only wanted to get her feet wet, then she started crawling in the water, and finally she started getting her whole body in the water. It was a perfect pool for the little ones, because it was only a little over a foot deep and it had water squirting up in various areas and even a frog water slide that was kid sized.

Some family came in from San Antonio and Kelsie seemed happy to see them. Unfortunately we didn't get to visit with them too much, but it was nice seeing everyone having such a good time! We hope to go visit San Antonio sometime this summer, but we are still trying to work out the right time. There are more missions this summer than usual, so we have fewer weekends we can make it work this year.

Of course Kelsie's favorite part was when they brought out the cupcakes. She always gets so excited and can hardly wait until the singing is over, so she can get cake!! After cake she was ready to go. She was done and she had enough of all the activity.

Grammy came home with us, and while Kelsie was happy she was there all she really wanted to do was watch TV. That is her activity of choice when she is overwhelmed. She was ready to just veg for the evening and that is pretty much what she did. Mike grilled some burgers and bratwurst for the adults and Kelsie had a hot dog. It was a great end to a wonderful Sunday filled with family and fun!

Swim Lessons

Yesterday was our first swim lesson with Mr. Sam and Sophia. I wasn't really sure what to expect and was nervous that Kelsie would not do anything, but I was surprised at how confident Mr. Sam was with the girls. When they were resistant he would just swoop them up and get them to do what he asked. I really think his confidence made the girls do more than Heather and I would have thought. Kelsie did things I have never been able to get her to even try. She blew bubbles in the water, she kicked her feet with two noodles underneath each arm, she let him tilt her backward in the water a little, and he even had them dunk their heads under the water. I was amazed! My goal for the end of summer was for Kelsie to get her head under the water, so for that to happen in the first lesson was unbelievable to me. Kelsie was definitely resistant to all of it, but didn't fight too much once Mr. Sam had her in her arms. She didn't cry at all that I saw and I was watching the entire time.

Kelsie was done about 25 minutes into the 30 minute lesson and she got out of the pool, but I think that it is great that she lasted almost the entire time. I hope all of the lessons go so well. I have no idea what I should set as my goals now since she did so much so soon. I guess I will just have to wait and see what Mr. Sam is capable of getting her to do! :)

Chuck E. Cheese x 2!

Kelsie absolutely loves Chuck E. Cheese. This week she got to go twice! The first time this week was on Sunday. She and Daddy went after dinner to give Mommy some time to work on a new sewing project. Kelsie had some tokens and tickets left over from a previous visit. She has a few games that she really likes. One of them is a Sponge Bob game where the token goes down a chute and has to land completely inside a rectangle to get tickets. If not, it only gives 1 ticket. There were some that were close, and I would say "ah man" whenever that would happen. But Kelsie would always say, "It's OK Daddy. We still got a ticket." She had good time playing the games and winning the tickets. She picked a couple of mini lollipops, a couple of little puzzles, and some stickers as her prizes. Afterwards, we went to PetsMart right next door, which is one of her other favorite places.

The second time she got to go was Tuesday. This time it was Kelsie, Daddy, and Grammy while Mommy went to an exercise class. We had dinner there this time because we think the pizza is good, and Kelsie seems to like it as well. She played her usual games and even did a picture sketching booth with Daddy. This time, she picked a couple of mini lollipops, some stickers, and a tic-tac-toe game. She had a really good time with Grammy there. We went to PetsMart this time as well. It was a great end to a fun day.