Lately

I am SO procrastinating doing all the things I should be doing right now, but I wanted to blog instead.  First off, we got a camera!  My wonderful generous parents got a fancy new DSLR and (no, they didn't give us that, haha) they let us have their old camera.  Hooray!  My mom told my dad that if he wanted to see pictures of his grandkids, they better let us use it.  So thank you parents. :)  We are indeed grateful.

Last week we went to Florida to visit my sister Wendy who just moved to Sarasota 3.5 weeks ago (she'd been there all of 2 weeks when we showed up!)  My parents also came so it was lots of fun!  I will blog about that later with pictures my mom sent me since I didn't take any on the trip.

But for now, I just wanted to put up a few pictures I took today.  First off, we got our first ripe tomato!  I think Eli was the most excited of all.  He kept saying that he wants to "eat it not cut up, like a plum".  So I gave him the first one, and sure enough, he ate the whole thing, just like a plum. :)  And I think he loved every bite.  We have several more that are just about ready.  They're small, but they are home-grown and vine-ripened!  Woohoo!

Next up, swimming lessons!  We started swim lessons this week and it's been nice to have somewhere to go.  They are every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a half hour, so we've already been 3 times!  Eli had been getting a lot more comfortable in the water, so I thought he would do fine, but the first lesson he literally screamed the entire time.  I felt so bad!  One thing good about a small town though, is that there were only about 7 kids there for 3 lifeguards, so he has his own personal swim teacher.  She took him the whole time and just tried to get him to calm down with her holding him (which he didn't) and she was a total saint.  She told me at the end, "Oh, I've had worse.  You should hear some of those little girls scream!"

I had a long talk with him after we got into the car and he had totally calmed down by then and just said very matter-of-fact, "I'll be happy next time".  And, sure enough, Wednesday was a completely opposite experience.  He grinned through the whole thing and never screamed once!  He's a little on the stubborn side (no idea where he gets that from!) so once he makes up his mind one way or another, he sticks to it.  Luckily, his mind has been made up to like swim lessons since then and he does almost everything the teacher asks. :)

And Connor has been surprisingly wonderful through the lessons.  I thought I would be constantly fighting him out of the pool, but he's been great!  Here he is just sitting like a big kid eating his raisins. :)  We usually all go swimming after Eli's done.  It's been a great activity!

(FYI: His legs look unusually long in this picture.  No, he has not grown that much.  It's just a weird angle).

 Go Eli!  Love his face.  This is the usual - grin, and one eye closed. :)

 Working the arms...

 That's the latest!  I'm excited to take more pictures now...