THESE IMAGES WERE CAPTURED ON JULY 1, 2008, LAST WEEK.
Natalie posing in her new Gymboree swimsuit! Ebay is so cool. This is from this year's line, but I bought if for a fraction of the cost. I don't know how those sellers do it...if they get them at outlets or what, but I love a great outfit at a bargain price!
She knows all about sunblock! She knows it always required! But I bet you don't get the timer in her hand. I bought a new timer (my old quit) just for swimming. I knew she would love it and not want to come in. Most days that she is here we go swimming. I want to really enjoy the summer because it will over before we know it. Okay...next: the swimmer vest: This is one of swimming aids that I bought last summer. It looks kind of rough because it hang on the pool for a while after summer was over, but it still works. Last year it didn't do so well for Natalie, but this year she seems to be able to handle almost any swimming aid. She has gotten so unafraid of the water. She has come so far in less the 6 wks. We can't believe the difference from "I might die" to "I am jumping in again!"
When the water is a little cool...like most of the time (except for today), she likes to kick he feet in the water before getting in or while we are still applying our sunblock. She has really turned into a water baby again this summer!
Okay, I was actually wanting to post a few random thoughts or rather converstions that Natalie and I have had today. But as you may know I hate to post thought w/o images. So I looked through some files and found these. And I think they are the actual images that I should post according to the order of events with the exception of some images on the other camera (the ones this one came off of) that were taken on Father's Day. Again these are my best images. These were taken with the little camera...though I should use it more again to capture more candid moments more often!
It is so hard to work this summer with Natalie being here and even when she's not. Often this summer, I think I should have been a teacher so that I would always be off work when my kids were out of school...I sure I still could have found photography. After all, I know several teachers who end up retiring into the photography field. But I when Natalie does need to be here, we play when she is away. I work when she is asleep. She stays the night a lot than she did during the past school year because both her parents are working evening jobs. Since it is so late when they get off, it is just easier that way.
Today I got her later than normal because I just waited until after lunch to head that way to get her. By the time I finished running errands, it was almost 4:00 when we got home. I was thinking it would be earlier and that we would swim a while and then she would just get a late nap. By the time we got out there, I forgot all about naptime and didn't remember again. I until I was trying to fix her supper plate. She looked like she was about to fall asleep. Well I was really wanting her to eat first because I was thinking she could go to bed early since she had no nap today. And it happened. She fell asleep in the high chair. Before I had a chance to tell him otherwise, Poppa took her out of the high chair. I had intended to clear the bed and put her in there since it is almost dark and hope that she would still be down for the night. Since it didn't happend that way, after he held her for a while I asked him to just lay her on the coach so that I could finish putting up the clean laundry that was still on the beds (ours and hers) in our room. So as I was finishing up the task at hand, here they come. Natalie is awake. So we done the bedtime routine: brush teeth, put on nightclothes, read books, etc. I left Randy to do this with her so that I could finish doing some work and with intentions of staying up late to do some. But sometime later after I came back in here to the computer, Natalie comes running down the hallway in her usual stomp/run. And it guess it...Poppa was asleep, but she wasn't. So after she has help me get clothes out of the trying, put towels in the dryer and the "papermint moment" that I intend to share with you next, she is back in the bedroom supposedly watching Teletubbies (DVD that she has re-discovered recently). I am feeling quilty because I want to spend as much time w/her as possible when she is here because when I went in there she was entertaining herself with books (a good thing), but that didn't last long because now she is back in here. I think she heard Cari and Alexa. They just came in from a party. So now Cari is heating her up some leftover spaghetti too. After all, she didn't eat supper.
Boy am I getting carried away with the random thought. I guess I am journaling right now more than blogging.
I did want to share to particular moments of the day. The first one is from the pool today. After Cari came in to get ready for her party, we were looking for Randy to come join up. He was a little later getting home than I expected. I had called him told him that we were on our way home and asked him he would be coming home his usual time to go swimming with us. Usually we go right after lunch and she is napping for several hours after that. If he gets to swim with her, it is either or second time or she got her later and it is just a late swim. But since I was late picking her up after running errands, I thought it would hit it just right. But he had gotten delayed, but when we finally saw his truck coming down the turn road we both started getting excited. She and her daddy had a lot of fun playing with Poppa a few days ago. That was when she got very brave in the water and they developed some new "cirucs-style" pool tricks. So...when she said yea! Poppa and I can do some tricks! I said, "yea, Poppa is cool isn't he". (You know since he can do all those tricks w/her.) Her replay, "yeah, but your cute, Mimi.". I love it...she didn't want to leave me out because I can't do trick like Poppa. Now we do have some games we play, but I can't pick her up that high or throw her that far!
Okay, I will save the "papermint" story for my next post since this one has gotten really long! Sorry :(
I tend to write (type) like I talk.
~~Natalie's Mimi~~
This is the end of our Saturday and Flotilla Day.
