I can swim...I can swim...I can ssswwwiiimmmm!!!!

After two months of swimming lessons, I could see that Mommy was getting a little frustrated.  I appeared to have all the tools to swim, just none of the motivation.  I like people.  I like attention.  I do not need much personal space (read between the lines that mommy really really loves her personal space and has been mourning the extreme loss of it for the past few years...I think she's almost looking forward to my tween years in hopes I'll shun her and she'll be allowed to be in a room alone again).  Anyway...the idea of not being attached to another person is simply not appealing to me. 

But, I could see that she was starting to loose patience with the process and even mentioned that if I didn't start trying to swim she would leave me at home while taking Clara Shei to the pool since she was not keen on trying to swim with two toddlers any longer. 

So...I caved.  I just decided this afternoon that I would swim.  And, now I'm a swimming menace.  Be careful all you pool goers out there, I have found a new medium for terrorizing the general public!!

Old and New Friends

We have just returned from a big summer adventure.  Mommy, Clara Shei, our dog Katy and I went on a road trip to South Lake Tahoe to meet up with friends.  Mommy has known these 3 other women for most of her life.  They were childhood friends, high school pals, college roommates, adult support systems and cheerleaders.  Now, they are all grown up and everyone has kids.  So, now all us kids have new friends.  Logan and Emerson are Sharla and Bradi's oldest boys and they have been friends for years.  Flannery is Emerson younger sister and they are Bradi's kids and live in Portland.  Clara Shei and I had already met them at the New Year when we went to visit them for a few days in Portland.  I've been enamoured with Emerson since then.  And...the love affair continues....I think he is just soooo cool.  Luckily, even though Emerson is a lot older he is such a good kid that he works hard to include me even when I am at my most irritating 3 year old self.  Flannie works hard with all the kids and is especially great with the younger kids (Clara Shei and Charlie).  Charlie is the youngest of the pack....she is Timber's only little one and though I didn't spend much time with her mommy tells me she is sassy and independent while still being a really well behaved easy baby.  Timber got lucky...in fact so did Bradi.  Mommy remembers both of these women as girls...they gave their moms a run for their money...how did they get such easy peasy great kidos??  Lastly was my counterpart...Cayden.  Cayden is Sharla's youngest son and he is ALMOST as crazy as me.  I guess there is something about 3 year old little boys....we are a special breed. 

In Tahoe we rented a house for all of us to share...if you lost count that is 4 women over powered by 7 children (and two dogs....Emerson and Flannery's dog Dobbler and our Katy) all in one house.  It was complete pandemonium from the moment we all arrived.

We spent our days hanging out around the cabin, playing games, doing crafts and driving our mom's nuts.  We also spent time on adventures to the lake and on swamp hikes.  My favorite thing to tell people about is our mosquito hike. "We went to see the mosquitoes....and we walked and walked through the mosquitoes and they bit the boy, and then we saw the fish, and then we got back on the mosquito road and we walked and walked and finally we got to the parking lot and you should never go there".  I know....I'm really talking it up huh?  Aren't you just dying to go there??? 

The beach was my FAVORITE part of the event.  I can easily get myself into trouble in small spaces (read....anywhere around the house), but the beach where there is little that I can destroy, is my place.  (of course I still managed to throw a ball into the water which poor Logan had to go and retrieve).  I loved the cool water and the sand. 

Despite all my shenanigans, I loved every second of my time and I loved every single person there.  I'm so glad that mommy has friends like this in her life and I hope that someday I will have this too.  Who knows...maybe all us kids will be life long friends ourselves! 

Where are we going next year guys?  I promise not to drop all the beads on the deck next year ok? 

Yo Ho, a Pirates Life for Me (and a bottle of rum for my mommy)

Today was SO much fun.  We woke up early and mommy and I went to the Y for an early morning swim session.  I'm really getting the hang of it.  Mommy just gets frustrated that I am a lazy kicker.  I mostly want to float like a jelly fish in the water.  Mommy keeps telling me that I have to kick if I want to get anywhere.  She clearly doesn't get it....I don't WANT to go anywhere!

After that...we went home and picked up Clara Shei....also picked up Uncle Gogo (or Topher or Gopherter...so many names for him, so little time) and headed out to the Pirate Festival in Vallejo.  We met up with mommy's friend Monica and her three kids, Greg, Kelly and Paul there and it was so fun.  I keep telling mommy all night how much I liked Kelly.  She was so nice to me!

I was really nervous and spent much of the drive there asking to go home.  I wasn't at all sure how I felt about meeting pirates face to face.  But, mommy wouldn't turn the car around and we just kept heading toward those fiercesome pirates.  After we got into the pirate fair and I met with a few of them....they seemed pretty nice and not really scary (well, mommy sort of thought that they were scary, but I think it was more in the why-are-grown-men-dressing-up-and-acting-like-pirates sort of way).  I did hear her remark that this was the sort of event where a bottle of rum was clearly a requirement. 

In the end, I took a pirate class and learned how to board a ship, clean a ship and walk the plank.  I made a pirate flag, saw a pirate ship battle on the water and explored a pirate ship.  I even got my own pirate eye patch....I said, "aurgh" a lot to other pirates and even went in a bouncy house thing.  To top of our pirate day mommy let us come home, wear our eye patch and watch a movie about pirates before bed!  What a fantastic day!!!  Yo ho to you all!!!

Summer at the Zoo

Today after swim lesson Clara Shei, Mommy and I headed out to the zoo.  I was dying to see the giraffes.  We took  picnic lunch and ate in the grass and then we went on our safari adventure to see crocs, giraffes,pumbas,chimps and otters.  We had such a good time.  Mommy is working hard to help me learn to listen and follow directions lately (something she apparently thinks  need work on). She said I was 70% well behaved today...and I figure I'll take it!

It is so much more fun to go to the zoo now that Shei Shei is more fun and can do more.  Here are some photos of us with the animals today!  What fun!!!!

Moving on!

OK....I will try m best to get back to the last few months and piece together what has happened, but if I do not make the choice to just move forward with this blog...then I'll never post again.  It all started because mommy lost our camera!  It had so many great photos on it, mommy is just kicking herself.  And, she's also really confused about how it happened.  She had it Easter morning, She took pictures of us huntng for eggs and playing with our toys outside.  And, then when she looked for it later in the day it was no where to be found.  But, we hadn't left the house.  So, for a long time Mommy was convinced that the camera would turn up.  We waited, and cleaned, and waited and cleaned and moved furniture and cleaned and cried and waited and yelled and cleaned....well, you get the picture.  The camera never turned up and gone are our Easter photos and our activities leading up to Easter.  Gone are Clara Shei's photos of her visit to the hair salon.  Gone are my swim lesson photos....all gone.  Mommy feels sick.  But....life must move on.  So...starting tomorrow, I will be documenting our life again for anyone out there who cares to see it.

See you tomorrow!