Swim Video

This is Luke after two weeks of swimming lessons at the Club. If we let him, he would swim from me to the steps and then back again, literally ALL day long. On Friday, we were in the pool for over 3 hours that morning and an hour in the afternoon. I can't believe how far he's come!

Silly Dance!

Luke has rediscovered his Mickey Mouse piano that he got at Christmas time. It plays a series of songs, but his favorite (and by favorite, I mean that we get the pleasure of hearing it over and over and over again) is the 10 little indians song. At least we get the see his new silly dance that goes with it!

"I'm so proud of you!"

Luke was coloring in the kitchen when I overheard the following conversation between him and his Bear Bear:

"Hey Bear Bear, you wanna color?"
Oh, you want the blue one.
OK!
Aw Bear bear, you colorin'!
I'm so proud of you!"

I thought I would die from his cuteness. It made me smile and reminded me once again how much he mirrors what we do and say to him! In case it isn't obvious, I love this kid!

Swim Lessons!

A busy start to our summer: Luke started swim lessons AND his summer session of Mother's Day Out on June 1st. MDO is from 9-1 and we got the latest swim lesson we could at 12pm. The swim lessons are from 12:00 to 12:30pm for two straight weeks. Therefore, for these first two weeks of school, we have been picking him up early from school in order to get him to swim lessons. Because of my crazy work schedule and Luke's MDO, it has been a joint effort (a combo of Me, Mom, and Jeremy) to get him to his lessons. Of course, he has been a little trooper and takes in all in stride. The first few sessions, he cried the entire time saying "I want my mommy, I want my mommy." All of the coaches have been great and have made Luke stick with it. Although he was unhappy those few sessions, he still managed to do what they said---it was just a little under duress. Flash foward to Monday and he is like a different kid. Although there were a FEW wimpers at the beginning, there is NO MORE CRYING. What a sigh of relief! It was actually fun watching him yesterday instead of wondering if I could stand "torturing" my kid a second longer! He has learned SO much and the coaches continue to be so patient with him--even on his worst days :)

They use these swim noodles to let them practice kicking! I love the fact the lessons are one on one, so he can go at his own pace!


Luke LOVES to blow bubbles!


They have practiced kicking, blowing bubbles, holding their breath, pushing off the side of the pool, swimming to the side of the pool. The only thing Luke is not doing yet is jumping off the side of the pool, but we've got a few more days! Here's hoping for another wonderful swim lesson this afternoon!

More weekend fun....

On Saturday, we got up and headed downtown for the 2nd annual Gumbo cook off fund raiser for the Red Cross that Aunt Liz organized. It was tons of fun but H-O-T! Luke loved the chicken and sausage gumbo that Uncle Kyle cooked! They had a jumpy castle where Luke and Connor spent most of their time and Michelle and I spent most of our time getting our prizes from the raffle tent. As soon as we walked in we each bought some raffle tickets (I got 6 and she got 24). Out of the 24 prizes, we ended up getting 4 of them! Jeremy and I won a $30 gift certificate to Pollman's bakers and a $300 six person catered meal! Mark and Michelle won a sheet cake from Butter Cream Dreams and a neck and back massage! It was pretty awesome.



To get out the heat for a minute, we walked down to Three George's for some ice cream, but since Luke doesn't really care for ice cream, jelly beans did the trick!


After the cook off, it was back to Mimi and Docs for more pool time and sprinkler time.


We ended Sat. night with a cookout at home. Good food. Good times!


Sunday we packed up our AWESOME mini-van and headed to the beach. We decided to go to pensacola, fl in hopes that the beaches would be tar ball free! We ate at a place called Flounders which was on the bay side. It was a beautiful day and they had some great seafood. Luke and Connor loved playing on the play ground which was just a few tables down from us.


We had both boys in the way back on the way down and they did great, however, by the end of the day they had the infamous "He's touching my seat" sibling spat, so we had to separate them. Wow, maybe we aren't ready for two!


The beaches were BEAUTIFUL! Not a tar ball in sight! It was a little windy, but the water was clear and totally swimmable. Luke like the wave ok, but loved the sand. Mark and Michelle were amazed at the sea shells. They said they don't have shells like that at the beaches.


Luke and Connor had such a great time playing together all weekend. They were best buds. It was so cute watching them interact and actually play. Luke was so wound up, he didn't even nap during the days. (Thankfully, he is back on schedule and taking a nice long nap this afternoon!)


On our way back we saw the "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign and had to get a dozen doughnuts for the Russell's. The big boys had just as much fun as the little boys!


We had such a good visit with our friends and will have to plan a visit up north soon!

Yankees visit Mobile!!!

The Russell's came to visit us this past weekend and we had a blast! It was great to see them and get to catch up! We were next wall neighbors for the first year we were living in NY. We borrowed Pat's car, but after about an hour of driving around like this.... we decided to rent a mini-van!


Connor, who will be 3 in August, and Luke became fast friends and whatever one was doing the other HAD to do. Here they are playing "drums" with straws at the Dew Drop.


After they settled in, it was time for a swim in Mimi and Doc's pool!


Getting a good shot of this group was pretty much impossible, but you get the idea. It was a gorgeous night out on the patio at the Club and we got to introduce the Northerners to fried crab claws! Yum!

Super Busy!

We have been super busy getting ready for our good friends from NY to visit this weekend. We can't WAIT to see them! At least I got a a picture in this post...