May 27 - Rain, Rain, Go Away

Happy Wednesday! Once again, we are experiencing rain storms in north central Florida. I normally love the rain..but not when it interferes with our swim lessons! On Friday, we braved the rain yet again and Julia was one of two babies that showed up. She was a little chilly (me too!) but still had a great time. She LOVES putting her face in the water and sliding off the side of the pool (I sit her on the edge and she just kind of slides/dives right in). It was storming again last night and lessons were cancelled, so hopefully the weather will hold tomorrow and Friday.

Otherwise, we had a fabulous weekend. On Saturday, we went shopping with Jill and Julia and Sunday we all went to the Natural History Musuem (at the University of Florida) then did a little more shopping. Monday we had a fun filled day playing at home and then hosted a bbq for friends that evening. J.D. grilled burgers, dogs, corn and made potatoes while I contributed chips, dip, fresh watermelon and brownies. It was all delicious!

In other news, this is Julia's last week with the Tiny Gator class at Baby Gator. She moves to her new class (Caterpillars) full-time on Monday. She is doing half-days this week with Caterpillars and LOVES it. In fact, yesterday she played outside for a good portion of the day and only took a grand total of 2 30min naps. She was very tired last night to say the least. The little munchkin fell asleep before 7pm and didn't get up until around 7:30am. She was worn out!

May 22 - Swim Photos

Here are some swim photos from class last night..notice Julia and I are wearing matching swim suits! Julia LOVES polka dots/spots of any kind! She loves the water!Snuggled in daddy's arms in her favorite penguin towel
Jill & Julia warming up after class today. How cute is that duck towel?

May 22 - Fun Week

Julia has had a great week! I had to work last Saturday so she went on another adventure to the Butterfly Exhibit with J.D. They both had a great time! On Sunday, we had a playdate with Jill and Julia and the girls had fun going through my diaper bag. They found an apple (I always have some snacks for both baby and mommy) and JEK dug right in-she looked so adorable, I had to snap a photo!

Swimming lessons were cancelled on Tuesday due to bad weather, but we had a class yesterday and the girls had fun. The water was chilly but after a few minutes, we all got used to it. Our make up class is tonight and let's hope the weather holds! It seems like it has been raining non-stop all week, which is very unusual for Florida. We usually get thunderstoms in the afternoon for an hour or so and then it clears up..not this week!

May 15 - Little Fish

I'm thrilled to report that Julia LOVES swimming lessons!! Our first class was Tuesday at the YMCA. A very nice high school student named Becky is our teacher and there are 8 babies total in class (including our neighbor Julia) ranging from 6 months to 2 1/2. Tuesday was overcast and cool by Florida standards for May (75) but anyone who has even been to a Y knows the water is really heated...so no worries! All the babies took to the water pretty well...although I'd have to say Julia was the most active baby there (not that I'm biased..). She was not clinging to me by any means, she put her face in the water, was kicking and moving her arms around. She also enjoyed splashing me in the face and had a fabulous time when I threw her up in the air (future diver maybe??). When class ended, I wrapped her up in her towel and placed her on the pool deck so I could get my towel and the little stinker tried to crawl back to the pool!!

Yesterday was our second class and once again we didn't have great weather. There was a decent storm that passed through and we ended up doing half the class on land (safety lesson) and half in the pool. During the pool section it started raining (cold rain) but it didn't seem to bother the bean. I was definitely cold..she was having a grand ole time. I even dunked her for the first time and she did fab. No crying or even coughing, she's a natural in the water!


And for those of you wondering..yes, I'm rocking a hot pink bikini. Jill and I were wondering if we would be the only moms wearing bikinis but there was another mom also wearing one. Hey...we look good, so why not?!

May 12 - K.C. & The Bean

Happy belated Mother's Day! I hope all you mom's out there had a fabulous weekend. Before I talk about my first official Mother's Day, I would like to thank Grandma Yamo for coming up last week and watching the bean for us. I had mandatory training for work and couldn't take time off (school was closed for teacher training). Grandma Yamo had a great time playing with Julia, crawling around the house, playing peek-a-boo and singing. Julia worked on her clapping, waving and standing. She can now pull up on almost anything, walk along things and stand with one hand touching something. She has tried to stand using no hands and falls over...but I think she'll be able to do it soon. All in all, they both had a great week!!

So...back to Mother's Day. Julia made me (with the help of her teachers) a beautiful floral gift using one of her baby shoes, I love it! She also made me a card. Daddy surprised me with a hair appointment and nice dinner in Tampa (we traveled down for my girlfriend's 30th b-day party on Saturday). It was great seeing Grandma Yamo, Uncles Chad and Greg, Aunt Nicole and some of our friends.

Jules also made a new friend this weekend: K.C. the "Killer Cat". He is approx. 17 years old and the friendliest cat I've ever encountered (he lets Amelia lick him and seems to love all living things...human, canine, feline or otherwise..especially if you have food...he begs more than the dogs!). Julia took instant liking to him and followed him around the house, pulling his tail and trying to pet him. It was adorable!

May 4 - Daddy's Other Baby

Wow, can you believe it is May already? My baby brother just turned 27 (happy belated b-day Bryan)...he's definitely not much of a 'baby' anymore! Here in good 'ole Gainesville, we had a nice weekend. Friday night Jill babysat while J.D. and I went out to dinner (alone for the 2nd time since Julia was born). We were a little nervous about finding a place since it was graduation weekend but found a restaurant nearby and had a great time. On Saturday, the bean and I hung out with Jill and Julia. The girls were so cute together! Now that they are both mobile (Julia is walking, Jules is crawling) they are all over the place and can follow each other around. It is precious! Saturday night we went to a graduation shindig for our neighbor Hannah (where I ate the best grilled chicken of my life), who just finished her doctorate in Audiology-congrats!

In other news, daycare is closed for half of this week (teacher work days) so Grandma Yamo is in town to watch the bean (thanks Grandma!). It is the first time she has seen the bean since she started crawling and she is loving it! Julia spent a lot of time outside yesterday while Grandma and Daddy worked on the garden and we all took a trip to the park in the afternoon. Once again, Julia loved the swings, watching the big kids and being outside.

However, out of all the fun stuff we did over the weekend, the craziest was when J.D. let the bean play with his other baby, the iphone. Since the bean loves to dance (not sure if I've mentioned that before, but when she hears music she gets super excited, moves her arms up and down and if she is standing does a little bootie shake) J.D. put on some tunes and let Jules play with the phone..it lasted all of 15 sec until she tried to eat it!

How cute does she look with those pigtails??!!