The Althof Fish....maybe

I finally did it. I put my own personal fear of water aside, and made the boys take swimming lessons. After a week, I feel that some of us, are a little more brave, until that one fateful day at the pool.
Haden flat out refuses to go under water. I have tried with every ounce of my being to make him do it and I have finally surrendered to the fact that he is just not going to do it. It does not hamper his fun in any way. Brody on the other hand, will happily go under water, put his face in the water and jump off of the side of the pool to his mommy. We all successfully made it through swimming lessons.
Aunt Heather, Uncle Troy, Olivia, myself and the boys decided that we should go and swim Friday evening. It was great. The water was perfect and the pool was not very busy. Haden wanted to stay in the little pool with Olivia for a while, so Brody and I wandered off to the big pool. We started out just floating and enjoying the life. Then we decided to head to some deeper water so not to get hit anymore with the ball that other kids were throwing around. Brody decided that this would be a GREAT time to start jumping off the side of the pool. We were having a great time and were eventually joined by the rest of the crew. Brody was jumping off the side faster than I could get him up there and was loving it. Well....then it happened. I was not ready for him and so did not help him in time. Now, I might add that when Brody jump, that is it he only jumps, straight up and straight down. That is why I help him, so that he will go forward. This particular jump went straight up, straight down...on his bottom. He never made it into the pool. Brody is no wimp. He cuddled up with me until the pain went away. This lasted for maybe a minute or two and then promptly pointed to the wall and said, "do it."
After a while of the boys and Olivia loving the big pool and having a blast, we headed back to the little pool. This is where the real drama hit. I was holding Olivia and the boys were just walking around in the pool when Brody slipped. He just could not get his feet under him. Thank goodness Uncle Troy is quick on his feet. Brody was retrieved and was VERY unhappy. He ended up sitting out of the pool with Aunt Heather and Olivia. Whenever I would ask him if he wanted to swim he would respond very quickly and firmly with NO!


Haden, however, is quite the little fish other than not going under. He played and played and floated, kicked, splashed and swam. I am very proud mama!! He has just really grown a lot this summer and has been willing to try new things!!!




Brody did venture back into the pool, but he never did travel to far away from me. Poor Haden wanted him to play with him, but Brody was a little unsure. But at least he gave it another shot!!

The Cake Baker!

Happy Birthday Olivia!! My niece turned 1 on Friday and so my sister had a big first birthday party for her and my roll was to make her a cake. Heather and I spent weeks looking for the "perfect" cake for Olivia. Because of VBS all week, I was baking cakes in every bit of free time I had. One of those times, happened to be a time when it was just Brody and myself. He enjoyed his time with me and took full advantage of not getting into trouble. He also felt that anything that I did that day was for him, including Olivia's birthday cake. I don't know how he did it, but those short little arms reached up into the middle of the counter and ate the cake that was going to be decorated!!


We did not let a little half eaten cake set us back!!! We forfeited the cake over to the cake tester and started a new one. Heather came over on Friday to help me out with the three tiered, fondant covered masterpiece. I might add, that my sister is NOT a baker! She was helping me make the fondant for the last cake.

Maybe she should not give up her day job! Love Ya SIS!!


In the end, we turned out a pretty good cake. It took some work, but it was fun to make and for a pretty special little girl. I am pretty certain that I will be cleaning powdered sugar from my kitchen for years to come, but it was well worth the mess!

Kaboom!

I knew that with little boys, comes injuries! Well, on Friday, we had, what I call, our first big injury. It could have been worse, but it was still pretty scary. At least for mommy!! On that particular day, the boys and I were cleaning the living room. I had moved the little table that we keep in front of the fire place so that I could do my daily vacuuming. Haden decided that he would spin to see if he could make himself dizzy. Needless to say, he was successful. He fell right into the fireplace and hit his head. As I am telling him that he should not do that, I moved his hand away from his forehead, only to discover a lot of BLOOD!!!! I have been known to not be very good with blood, but I handled it very well. However, not well enough to deal with it on my own. Thank goodness I have a mother that is a nurse. What would I do with out her????


The injuried! This was after the bleeding stopped and I had him cleaned up. But he is starting to look a bit like a unicorn!


Grandma's always make things feel better!

Haden is now back to looking like new, but he did have some black eyes for a while. I do hope that he has learned his lesson, however, something tells me that this is only the beginning of the injuries!