Kylah can swim!!

After being highly recommended by the Stuck's, we enrolled Kylah in survival swim lessons. Ms Rita runs the 1 week program at her home pool with the help of her 3 children, and has earned the nickname "the Swim Nazi". Thankfully I had Melody's support through this - she warned me ahead of time that Kylah would cry during the first few days of the class, and that she'd probably throw a tantrum before even getting in the car to drive there. She was right! In fact, had Melody not been there with me, I probably would've cried right along with her! On day 1 Ms. Rita worked with Kylah in the shallow end - dunking her (and every kid) in the water repeatedly until she stopped crying. Then she worked with her on keeping her head down in the water, eyes open looking at the pool floor, and kicking her legs.

By day 2, this is what she was doing already!! (See video. For some of these kids, it's their 2nd or 3rd session, and some are also a little older than Kylah. For being 2, we were SO excited for her!)

Days 3 and 4 went really well too. Kylah cried as we put on her swim suit in each morning, saying "I don't want to go yet Mommy!!" She would calm down on the car ride there, and then do really well during the session. By day 4 she was jumping in the pool by herself and swimming to the stairs over and over again. She was so proud of herself for jumping in all by herself - she told everyone! (See video, Kylah is in the blue suit with white polka dots)

On Friday, day 5, Kylah was tossed in the pool and swam across all by herself! She could use a little work on technique yet - but keep in mind she's only 2 years old and this was the first swim class she's ever had - let alone it only being the 5th day of it! We've since practiced in our neighbors pool and will continue to do so the rest of the summer. We're so proud of her - she worked hard and is so proud of herself too now! (See video below)

If anyone reading this is interested in sending your young children there, please let me know! I highly recommend Ms. Rita's class now, just as Melody does. And I will definitely be sending Kylah back for a refresher course with her next summer too!

Just a couple of cute pictures

You'd never know it today, but it's summer, our favorite time of year! Kylah, being the outdoorsy person she is, has spent every sunny day playing outside and has developed quite the tan - even through SPF 50. Here are just a few pictures I couldn't resist posting from one sunny day in June:

And another, totally unrelated one, just because it's cute :) We put her to bed the other night and pulled her door partially closed. I was in the kitchen and could hear Kylah up and walking around in her room. I grabbed Craig and we peaked in, to find that she had collected all of her stuffed animals laying on the floor. She had to cuddle with them all before she could fall asleep - especially the dogs!