Kaya's Swim Lessons at West Chester

For the second year in a row, Kaya is taking the intense lessons at West Chester university.  This year she is learning how to take arm strokes and kick while on her belly, and then roll over and swim on her back.  It's really a great program!  Getting her there has been a little dramatic.  It went something like this..
Day 1: lots of whining about going, crying, and having to be torn from Nanae when it was time to go in.  Mommy hid outside with Brandon.  The funny thing was that JJ was the teacher who got to lead her down to her class.  JJ was a great teacher last year in Nanae's pool, but the poor kid always gets the blame from Kaya for being the first person to teach her how to swim this way.  She had a phobia about swimming for so long - anyway it is ironic that of the 20 or so teachers that are leading the kids down, she gets JJ.  Too funny!!!
Day 2: More screaming, big fit in the locker room to get her in her suit, which gets stretched out during the process.  the process being that both Mommy and Nanae have to physically stuff her into the suit while she trying to Karate kick us.  Meanwhile, Brandon looks on from his stroller wearing his best (and much practiced "what the %#>! is wrong with my big sister" expression.
Day 3:.  Less whining and more cooperation.  Still many tears.
Day 4:  Less whining, less tears.
Day 5.  NO WHINING.  Calm kid.  very odd.
Day 6.  Kaya informs us that she "likes swim lessons now".  Has H8ll frozen over?  Kaya has been talking about how she likes her teacher and her classmates, who are named John and Chris. They all like to burp at each other from what I can see.   Also Momo came to watch today.
Day 7: Kaya states that she wants to sign up for another 10 lesson session.  Pretty sure I have mixed up kids somehow.  Momo and Papa came to watch today.   They started practicing jumping in from the side of the pool.
Day 8: Still happy to go, no whining, no drama.  I have almost stopped dreading this routine!!
Day 9:  Kaya is ready to be done with lessons, but is taking big arm strokes now.  She also jumped off the driving board!!! I have it on video.  I am so proud of this kid.

Day 10: swim lessons ended well! She loved Devon as a teacher and was proud to be done.

Bright Horizons and Ms. Elizabeth and Infant 1

Kaya loves, loves, loves Ms. Elizabeth, who was her preschool teacher from January though the beginning of April.   Then Ms. Elizabeth moved into the infant room to be Brandon's teacher!  Every single day, Kaya has to go and hug her hello in the morning, and goodbye in the afternoon (and sometimes she gets to hug her at other points throughout the day too!).  She just loves her so much.  Kaya is very behaved when visiting the infant room and loves to play with the baby toys and to crawl through their tunnel.  She gets so excited to see Ms. Elizabeth when she gets to the door that she gets up on her tiptoes and does this crazy little dance, and then shakes and acts like a status (with this crazy smile included). 

Brandon is doing great in school!  The first few weeks in the infant room he would get a head bump every day because he was always pulling up on something, or trying to rip something off the wall, and he wasn't very stable with standing yet.   he has falled from pulling up on the mini book shelves, he has falled after crawling on top of the drum, and he has tried to climb up on one shelf, then onto another shelf, in order to get at a radio.  He's so crazy.  We call him the Bruiser now.   I was joking that I should get a stamp for signing my name since I have had to sign so many of his incident reports.  After a few weeks that stopped and now he is very very stable! he started to take his first steps at the end of May and is taking even more now in June.



We also got a very funny school picture taken of Brandon where he looks like this giant baby growing out of a flower patch! It doesn't look like him at all, but it is hysterical.

Swim lessons and the diving board

Kaya jumps off the diving board about 40 seconds into this movie.  :)

Brandon the climber

Brandon has started using toys to climb up on other things - so a few toys have been retired!  and he has been trying to swing from the oven and can get his feet above the glass! what a crazy boy.  I immediately purchased yet another baby gate from amazon.

Hershey Park Trip

Kaya has had an awesome month!  On Saturday Jun 9, we went to Hershey Park with Momo and Papa.  Kaya got to ride her first roller coaster that went upside down with Papa, and later with Mommy.  She rode the Super Duper Looper and loved it!  Papa bought her an "I survived the super duper looper tshirt" to document the experience.  She also loved riding this spinny ride called the falcon.  Mommy and Papa thought it was scary, Daddy thought it was ok, but Kaya insists this is her favorite ride ever!  Kaya also was able to ride the Trailblazer, the Whip, the Kissing tower with Mommy and Brandon, and so many other rides at Hershey.  And then she got to eat cotton candy at the end of the night.  What a great park!  She also went home to spend the night with Momo and Papa.  What a great day.   Good thing we have season passes this year.
Brandon seemed to enjoy Hershey too, although he was stuck in the stroller most of the day and was very patient!  he did like trying to eat the grass near the trailblazer when Mommy took him there for a little break.  Poor guy didn't get to ride anything but the kissing tower, but next year he'll be ready for more!

Brandon is 9 months!

Big Sister Helpfulness

One of the nice things about having a kid 4 years older, is that the big kid can help feed the little kid! Too bad she won't help with diapers.

I also love this picture of them on opposite sides of the door. Pretty sure Kaya is pretending to be either a mean dragon or a mean dog. Not sure why the dragon and/or dog can't be nice for a change.