Swimming Lessons, Round 2

We enrolled Lauren in her second round of swimming lessons (she took her first round this time last spring when she was around a year old). If possible she loves it even more this year than she did last year. She looks forward to visiting the turtle (below) and then cries when she has to leave the turtle. There are long, tearful goodbyes. "Bye turtle..." (sob, sob) "see you later, turtle" (panicked breathing as she looks over her shoulder and waves goodbye).

We just have a few lessons left, and I think we'll all miss them, but we're looking forward to some serious pool time this summer.

She is the most amazing kicker you've ever seen. I know I'm partial, but seriously, the best kicker in the class. Hands down. Flutter, of course. Which is good because she'll be a backstroker or freestyler all the way, it's a no-brainer.

Look how happy she is. And look how happy Sean is. He told me it's his favorite hour of the week. What a dad.

Even though this photo is terrible I had to include it. At the end of each class they get to take a trip down the slide. Lauren loves it, and always requests another turn, but if I had to judge from only her face I would say she finds it terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

Easter 2011

Chalk Easter up as one of those holidays that is infinitely more fun to celebrate when you have a kid. I don't think we did anything special last year, Lauren was probably too young to be into it, but this year was different. She had an Easter egg hunt at school and then it was on. All she could talk about was "I find eggs!" So on Easter Sunday we gave her a small Easter basket, then while she and Aunt Arie took a nap (take note: Aunt Arie is the nap whisperer) Sean and I filled eggs and hid them, and as soon as she woke up we had an Easter egg hunt. Also on the agenda: dyeing Easter eggs.

The Easter Bunny brought Lauren an Elmo DVD. He's very hip like that.

Things started out well: look at her wield that egg retriever!

But let's be honest, even Aunt Arie doesn't know how to use that thing and she's 30. So Lauren went straight to retrieving eggs from dye with her hands.

And then panicked because she hates to have messy hands. I, much like my mom and Aunt Jane, cared more about the shot than helping my poor helpless daughter.

Some of the finished product.

Don't let her tentative face fool you, she knew exactly what she was doing.

We had great weather, and a great Easter egg hunter. She announced to everyone she saw for several days "I find eggs!" I'm already excited for Easter next year.