Swim lessons and more....

The summer might be coming to an end in many parts of the country, but here in AZ it’s still a scorcher. The kids can swim probably another month, so that is one of the reasons we have started swim lessons this week for Reese and Niko. They can’t go to the same class because of the age difference, and of course, that would just make it too easy on the chauffeur to only have to drive once a week to swim lesson as opposed to the two separate classes we’ll be attending. The classes are only 30 minutes, once a week with 3 other toddlers in their group. It goes on a monthly basis, but what I hear from so many moms is that it actually continues for years. I guess they keep graduating and learning different techniques and move up to different classes, and most of all, find it fun learning to be great swimmers. Reese’s class was today. She did really well. No crying leaving me to go in the pool, and while the instructor was with the other girl, Reese waited patiently on the side. Just very basics for now, but she did swim under water with no floaties for a few feet. Niko starts on Saturday.

In other news, R & N are still wonderful, happy kids. We’ve gotten lucky! We are not doing occupational therapy for their fine/gross motor skills and to work on their muscle development seeing as they didn’t evaluate too far from norm. The Pump it Up bouncy place near our home has done wonders for many of those areas. After only one visit, both R & N began to climb and jump more proficiently and pulled themselves up the bouncy, steep ladders with much greater ease. We’re also working at home with them on building blocks, buckles, zippers, buttons, etc... They have both proven to be quick learners. We hope that will still be the case with language. That is coming a bit slower, but it is coming. Reese knows many words now, just not sentences nor does she pronounce the words very well. She does understand much of what we are saying to her, though. Niko still has a very small vocabulary, but we still manage to communicate just fine. We are still going to do a speech therapy assessment, just still working on a place and how much of it insurance will cover.

We look forward to the many first experiences we have with them coming up. We both can’t wait to take them to the ocean and see what they think of all the sand and waves. It would also be great to go to the zoo again with them. While in Moscow we took them and they seemed to really enjoy that. Also, some of you have probably wondered how bedtime is going since the first two weeks for Reese were somewhat “stressful”. For the last 2 and a half weeks she has been allowed to watch a “learning” type cartoon from 7:30-8:00, and when it’s over the credits roll up and NOW she even asks to turn off the TV and then quietly without a peep goes to bed. We’re secretly thinking the bedtime meltdown stage is over, but a small part of us just can't believe it's happening so nicely every night, and somewhat nervous of a meltdown to rear it's ugly head... :-)

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