Olivia, the Little Fish

We joined the neighborhood pool this summer and have been making the most of it. Annie's lessons have improved her swimming, though she still has trouble breathing without sinking. Olivia hasn't taken any lessons because, well, what can you really teach a 2-1/2 year old that they will remember? It turns out that she didn't need lessons, since she is a fish. She is very adventurous, but can't get her head out of the water by herself. She likes jumping off the side of the pool and the diving board. She also enjoys retrieving dive toys from the bottom, as evidenced by this video. Enjoy!

Annie's First Book of Cleaning

Here is Annie's first book. She came up with the idea to write the book on her own. She dictated the story and drew most of the illustrations. She has already hinted at another instructional book to come, but hasn't started it yet. Hope you like it. (I really didn't know I looked so mean while mowing the lawn... I'll have to work on that.)

A future writer?

Annie is getting to be more and more expressive in her speech. I love hearing her describe things. Here are a few examples....

The other day we were at a party for our friend Alexis's 1st Birthday! They have 2 cats, who occasionally go outside....2 cats who don't like to be bothered by little girls who love cats. So Annie spent some time chasing one cat around and I guess she was surprised that the cat doesn't stay in the back yard like our Bailey does. So she ran up and said, "Excuse me, but that cat just went into the front yard and scampered under the truck" Love that word, scampered...this might be the first time I've used it myself. Annie also decided to compose a birthday card for Alexis, complete with pencil drawn flowers. It went along these lines -

Dear Alexis,
Will there be cupcakes at your party? I think you should talk it over between yourselves, it might be a good idea. I hear it is your birthday and you will be one. Happy Birthday!

So thoughtful! My only disappointment in her letter is that she didn't sign off with her usual by-line,"Goodbye, Ribbit!"

Then yesterday, Tim and the girls decided to run up the street to the playground at the corner of our neighborhood. I mean "run" literally. It's about 4 blocks and apparently they ran most of the way, with occasional stops to smell the flowers and such. Just steps before they got to the school, Annie tripped and skinned her knee. They decided the pain was too much to play through and came back home. Annie related the story to me thusly..."I was running so fast that I stummbled on some rocks and hurt my knee. When we decided to come home Olivia just burst into tears at the thought of not playing on the playground." I'm not sure I've described any crying by saying burst into tears. I wonder if she will keep up with this use of totally awesome phrases. It really makes stories from 4 year olds much more entertaining.

She has also self published a book entitled "First Book of Cleaning". It has about 4 chapters with advice on cleaning as well as illustrations to go along. I think the illustrations are my favorite. Every person that she drew has extend-o-matic arms. That would be great if you could clean up without actually bending over to pick something up. I'll have to scan the book in and a post it sometime. I'm sure it will be a best seller someday.