"I Can Do It!" "I Will!"

Here is little fish #2. Not to be outdone by his older brother... Damon is becoming quite the swimmer himself!

There were some tears the first couple of days, but he pushed through. Dominic's coach doesn't take kids until they are 3, but she recommended Coach Jamie to us and we've loved her.

Dame's favorite thing to do is blow bubbles into the rings.

He had to be convinced a little (a whole lot) to jump off the diving board the first day...

His cute little class...can you tell who is the most excited?

"Swimming" from Coach Jamie to Coach Curtis...

So proud of himself! I love it.

Here he is showing off his stuff!

Starting to get brave...

...braver still...

So after getting water up his nose a few times... Damon lost his "brave" and started repeating (ad nauseum) "I done want nuh go und-uh!" We went through 3 lessons this way. Lots of tears.

But one day, Coach Jamie decided to have him dive for rings...since he loves the rings so much. He was so scared and was fighting her and thrashing around, so she just pushed him down to the bottom of the pool and helped him bring up a ring. Wow! I expected him to come up bawling but he came up smiling and so, so excited. I just want to remember what he kept repeating... it was so cute and he was so proud of himself and felt so big.

"I can do it!"

"I will!"

"I will!"

"I not cryin' und-uh the wat-uh!"

"I will!"

"I can do it!"

"I will!"

He repeated all of these things after every.single.turn. for the rest of the lesson.

It was so darn cute. All of us watching were laughing.

Voila! Confidence restored. :)

And guess who loves to jump off the diving board all by his big self now?

Here's a little video for fun...

No Nap? No Problemo.

This is what happens when we miss naptime...

Pure Exhaustion.

Actually, it worked out perfectly...

...because Damon is not much of a fan of watching Dom have all the fun at gymnastics while he has to play with boring mega-blocks (that the other kids won't share with him anyway)... and so my time is most often spent with a tantruming 2-year-old and a fussy newborn.

But not this day. :) Maybe we'll skip naptime every Tuesday, eh?

I had so much freedom, I was even able to take pictures of my awesome (and improving) little gymnast!

springboard.

crab walks.

straddle press.

high kicks??

tuck press.

tuck jumps.

backward jumps.

lunge.

handstand attempt. :)

handstand.

bars.

handstand.

Coach Krista. We like her.And we LOVE gymnastics! (and no naps.)

Sweetest Boy

We like him.

3 weeks old.

First Haircut: BEFORE...

AFTER...

4 weeks old.

He's such an amazing sleeper. He has really only ever woken up once at night.

I know that may change, but I'll take it for now!

He is grinning big grins now and "talking" to us all the time.

5 weeks old.

Really, where does the time go!?

I can't believe he is already 6 weeks old now.

I don't like it... not even a little bit.

But I like him.
Lots.