Things I am Thankful For

I am so thankful for a digital camera and rechargeable batteries. When I was a kid I would have been in big trouble if I took 2 dozen pictures on my Mom's camera. I still remember the punishments that followed after we had a flash war with the flash bulbs on dad's expensive camera. I am thankful that it doesn't cost me a small fortune to let Ethan and Libby take pictures like these:

Swim Lessons

So this year we found out about Splash Week at the YMCA (thanks Heidi!). They offer swim classes with an emphasis on water safety to all experience levels. My kids don't swim; at all. I kept meaning to get them into lessons but kept getting distracted. This was just to good to pass up though. Their class only cost $15 per kid for 5 lessons! Woo hoo! And now they can both swim like an Olympian. Okay, not really. But Ethan can now float on his back by himself and Libby is no longer terrified of water where she can't touch the bottom.

The instructors were fabulous and so sweet. Libby was very nervous but they were so patient with her. Ethan was a little more confident so they stayed back and let him try things on his own. We will be doing it again next year.

8 Years of Marriage

On March 23rd Michael and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. By a strange series of events he ended up working that evening. I don't make a big deal out of special occasions so I wished him happy anniversary and he headed off to work. I figured we would go out to dinner at a later date or something. He called me later and told me he had arranged a sitter and wondered what I wanted for dinner.

I ended up meeting him to pick up some Vietnamese food and a floral arrangement. Then he took me to a little place where he had a table covered with white linen, cloth napkins, pretty plates, fake candles, and little chocolate mousse desserts. It was very sweet and romantic. Michael is most definitely the romantic in our relationship.
He bought me eight gerber daisies. I love gerbs. They are just so cheerful and unpretentious. See, he even bought the right kind of flowers. I guess we will shoot for another 40 years or so together.

Mr. Roboto

I guess this is what happens when a six year old gets bored and finds a cardboard box. Ethan played and worked on this thing off and on for a week. It is now enshrined on the top of his bookshelf.

Playing Catch Up

I haven't posted in over a month so I am going to try to get several posts up today. I had a laundry list of excuses for not posting lately. I'm tired - oh so tired. Thankfully this pregnancy hasn't been too bad but it still makes me want to sleep; a lot. Excuse number #2 - Michael got a new computer. This meant I had to wait for him to transfer all the old data to the new computer. This took time. I was perfectly happy with our old computer, but as long as you promise not to tell Michael, I actually really like our new computer. Excuse number #3 - We have been rearranging the living room and setting up my new-to-me (from craigslist) desk. I love my new desk. Excuse #4 - Never mind, I could go on all day.

So for those updates:

- Grace still isn't crawling. She does a strange-looking scoot slide. She tucks one leg up under her and uses her arm to pull her around. It does the trick of getting her where she wants so she is happy. At this point I'm pretty sure she isn't going to crawl since her scoot works for her.

- We found out the gender of our next baby. Sometime in the middle of July we are having a baby boy. That makes us even, two girls and two boys. Seems like a good place to stop. Also I started to get rid of hand-me-downs and realized maybe I should stop saving them. I saved Ethan's baby clothes for SIX years and then had to give away 92% of them because Ethan was born in the middle of December. I saved clothes for six years taking up valuable closet space and ended up having to buy everything all over again. So goes life.

- Michael has put off finishing his last class for almost a year now. He is out of time and so should be finishing it up soon. Then he will be officially graduated.

I think that is all of the big stuff. I'll do some more posts with pictures of the little stuff.