Keeping Busy, kind of

Summer is officially here- there's not a high less than 94 in our 10-day forecast, and we're all keeping busy.

(swim cap = serious swimmer)

Landon began swim lessons on Monday. We've been taking him to the pool on the weekends and were glad to find that he loves the water. Claire and I lounge on the sidelines while daddy and Landon practice his jumping and kicking and water power moves.

Up until Monday, Landon had been eagerly anticipating his lessons- asking us every day if it was time yet and telling us how he was going to learn to swim "all by myself!" And then the lesson started and he realized it did not involve water slides or fountains or jumping in the water and being caught by daddy.

No, it turns out that swim lessons means he has to put his face in the water and fall in the pool and turn around and get out BY HIMSELF. He was displeased. While he was working with the instructor (a fantastic teacher who used to work for JP with the swim school) he kept shooting us evil looks, and JP and I entertained ourselves by translating those looks into words. Words an innocent little boy like Landon doesn't know yet, but ones I'm sure he'd be using if he did.

But he was fine and water safety is a very important thing for him to learn. Lesson #2 was today and he completely lost it as soon as we arrived at the pool. Luckily, I don't really have a problem with hearing my kid cry as long as I know the reason and know it's worth the tears. Not drowning if he falls into one of the many pools we will be around all summer is worth it, and really, he was fine. By the time he was done and we dropped him off at daycare he was all smiles as he ran up to his teacher and told her all about his lesson and how cried but then he blew bubbles and got to use the squirt gun.

(not really relevant, but there's something I just love about this picture)

JP has been staying busy teaching lots of swim lessons, doing lots of his own swimming, and working part-time for a local consulting firm. It's a job he got thanks to the connections he made while trying to start up the swim school, so it's nice to see something come out of that besides "life experience." He's just getting started, but it seems like it could be a great fit for him and our family. Basically the company works with high tech start-ups; people with fantastic technical ideas and inventions but very little business knowledge. So JP gets to work in his beloved entrepreneurial world of marketing and business development strategy without having to supply his own ideas or capital, which means I don't have to shoot any ideas down! Plus he's working on a per-project basis so he can control his schedule and continue teaching the swim lessons he loves so much (and continue with daycare pick-up/drop-off, etc. when I go back to work).

I have been busy not leaving the couch and letting Claire sleep on my shoulder or hunched over in a little ball on my chest. It's her favorite place and I'm pretty happy to let her hang out there as much as she likes. I did take a break from being a baby lounge chair to go shopping yesterday for postpartum clothes. I blogged about it at All Kinds of Pretty, but basically I got tired of wearing the same black maternity skirt paired with different maternity tanks. It annoys me to spend money on clothes I (hopefully) won't be wearing for all that long, but after trying on a properly fitting pair of capris and a top I knew it was worth it. It makes me look like I just dropped 10 more pounds and I can retire that black skirt I never liked anyway. It really is true what Stacy and Clinton say, dress for the body you have now. Two pairs of capris, a gauzy skirt, and a few tops later and I have my summer wardrobe for the next however many weeks.

(Claire says no more pictures)

And lastly, Claire has been busy being delightful. Her newborny newness remains enchanting to everyone, including her besotted big brother, and she still sleeps better than Landon did until he was about 11 months old. She spends increasingly more time awake and just enjoys gazing around the room and waving her arms in the air. She rarely cries, preferring instead to squawk when she needs something. We had newborn portraits taken at our house when she was a week old and I just got a sneak peek at some of the pictures- I can't wait to see the rest and share them with you!