Old friends

This weekend Devin and I were invited to our friends- the Sylvester's- for some fun in the sun. Devin and Emma have been friends since about 20 months old and you can find many posts with Emma and her awesome family here on my blog. Emma has always had a little "thing" for Devin and we love to watch them as they grow. They remain great friends with a little bit more of flirt coming through. At one point they flipped the boat upside down and were "fooling around" under it. I know it was all innocent but it reminded us that we may not have much longer for their actions to stay innocent! 

We'll Definitely keep an eye on them! :)

Memorial Day Week-end

Happy Memorial Day! We are so thankful to all of those, past and present, who have served our country.

Poor Devin's ears are really giving him a rough go at it lately. He has had fluid in his ears pretty much since November and most recently earaches and hearing loss. (We are awaiting an appointment at Mass Eye and Ear in June.) After a rough Friday night with Devin crying...alot...because of his earache, I headed to the pediatrician with him on Saturday morning. The doc gave him another prescription and with some added Motrin and ear drops he was able to enjoy his week-end. (This kid has a medicine box bigger than mine and Erick's combined!)

Saturday afternoon we went to my cousin's son's 11th birthday. It was at a Rec Center so the kids played basketball and went on the playground outside. Simple, but the kids LOVED it!

Here's Devin and Nadya shooting hoops.
Skya on the slide...she loved this!
Nadya waving hello!
Me and Skya watching the kids play ball.
On Sunday we went to a BBQ at our good friend's Kim and Chris. We had such a nice time with good people and good food. The kids ran around in the backyard- playing and swimming. Such a relaxing, enjoyable afternoon.

We were all surprised when little Lexie wanted Erick to hold her and put her to sleep. It did melt our hearts too!
I love this picture of Devin on the steps to the pool.

On Monday we stayed home to do laundry, relax, and let Devin take his first dip of the year in the pool at our house. Most of that worked out- the fire alarms started blaring mid-morning. I was ready to haul out of here with the kid in one hand and the cat in the other!! We finally figured out that the washing machine engine was dying- causing smoke and that dreadful dead engine smell. I've order our new one, but it won't be here until next Wednesday. There will be a lot of laundry to do by then!!

Here is Devin swimming a lap across the pool with Erick. (Note he is in the 8ft section here.)

We ended the long week-end relaxing with a movie. Ahhhh, only 15 work days left until summer vacation!

Monday Randomness

* On Sunday we went to a birthday party for one of Erick's cousin's daughters. She turned 9 and had a Hello Kitty themed birthday party at a place called AMAZEment. Devin had loads of fun! The first hour of the party was dedicated to swimming. Devin started off in the shallow end with some of the other kids. After an half hour or so he decided he wanted to go in the deep end with the "older kids." In order to go in the deep end, you had to pass a swim test. He marched over to the lifeguard full of Bravdo and asked if he could do the Swim Test. The swim test consisted of swimming length-wise down the pool in the 6ft section without stopping or touching the walls/floor. I knew that in the summer (4 months ago!!) Devin could swim the width of the deep end, but I wasn't sure that he could make that great length required for the "test." Wouldn't you know, Devin swam than length no problem! About half way through he turned his head and said, "Mommy! I'm doing it!" I was so proud of him! I am thrilled that he has not lost any of his swimming skills. Needless to say, Devin spent the rest of the swimming time playing in the deep end. After swimming the kids played in a giant maze climbing structure complete with slides. Then came pizza and cake followed by tokens/games. What a fun place for the kids!

*Devin is officially all registered for Kindergarten. Erick, Devin, and I went to the private, Christian pre-school/kindergarten (that I visited back in the fall) this afternoon. After the 3 of us were shown around by the director and able to meet the Kindergarten teachers/check out the classrooms we gave the deposit and paperwork to hold him a spot for fall. We are very excited and think that this school will be a great match for Devin. He really seemed to like it and mentioned a few times that he is excited for kindergarten and thinks he will like his new school.

*Devin is also signed up for baseball! This April Devin will be playing on an Instructional 4 year Old Team. (He missed the cut-off by 1 day for T-Ball.) My understanding is that Instructional will be very much like T-Ball, but for 4 year olds.

*I am getting a car starter put in on Friday. Oh boy! I can't wait! With temperatures like today -8, feels like -22, I could definitely use a car starter!!

*What do you think Lolly is trying to tell me? She was sitting in my school bag for a long time tonight!
Look at this silly kitty doing her stretches!!

Devin's Swimming

I know I have posted a lot about Devin's swimming lately, but its something I am really excited about. Its something we do daily and he has made so much progress. Here is a little collection of his progress the last week or so.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Amazing

Devin has really taken off with his swimming. Just yesterday he started swimming under water for considerable amounts of time. He also loves to do belly flops!
This video shows us both his under water and above water swimming.

Devin's Newest Feat

Happy Father's Day!

What a wonderful week-end!

There was LOTS of swimming this week-end! Devin went in our pool Friday afternoon, Abuela and Grandpa's pool all afternoon Saturday, and swim lessons on Sunday morning.

It was Devin's final swim lesson Sunday morning and he received a nice progress report from the instructor. The summary of it is that Devin has mastered all but 2 of the skills for his level. The two that Devin has not mastered he was close- 10/15 feet on reach and pull front with bubbles and 3/5 feet on front swim with bubbles. He also received a comment to "pay more attention." Surprised? We're not! Haha! He just loves to goof around when he isn't in the action. He's still young...

We are very proud of Devin's swimming ability! He has really been confident in the pool so far this summer. He is jumping in by himself, swimming around the entire pool unassisted, and wanting to practice without life jacket/floats.

There was lots of food this week-end too. A bbq, Father's Day brunch, movie outing, and cake. Erick requested an Italian Wedding Cake (Sandra Lee recipe) for Father's Day and we have been enjoying it all week-end. So sweet and delicious!

Sunday afternoon we went to see Toy Story 3. Dads were getting in free at Chunky's (with free popcorm to boot!) and Devin is still free there so it only cost us $5.75 in admission! Score! Devin has been waiting to see this movie since he first found out there would be a third. He has been so excited, and honestly so have Erick and I. Its contagious. When your child is so "into" something, you can't help but be excited with him! The movie didn't disappoint either.

We ended the week-end with a little Wii time. After an hour of Wii basketball, table tennis, and sword play it was time for bed...but not before we took a visit to "Melt Down City!" Poor Devin was overtired. He will sleep well tonight!

Brave Enough

Devin just became brave enough to jump in the pool. He is even putting his face into/under water now! Boy, how much they grow in a year's time!

Swimming

Swimming has been Devin's favorite activity this summer, and he is pretty good at it! Poor kid does have to wear a lot of gear to get in the pool though. First he has his molded ear plugs due to his ear tubes, over that he wears a headband to make sure that we don't lose the ear plugs. He also wears his life vest which makes him VERY mobile in the pool! All in all our pool has been a life saver this summer!

Here is a quick video of Devin swimming all the way down to the deep end.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A lot of the time in the pool is spent with our neighbor Lexi. These 2 are so cute together!

Happy Mother's Day and Swimming

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that all of my wonderful Mommy friends and followers had a fantastic day filled with lots of love and relaxation. I know I did!

Hubby got up with Devin so that I could sleep in until 9 am. Then he cooked us a nice breakfast. Yum! After that we worked on presents for the grandmas. We decorated special plates. Devin had a lot of fun with this and it was hard to not let him get carried away with it! I think my mom really liked it! Tonight Erick is cooking me dinner too. It's nice to have a break from cooking and cleaning and to feel appreciated!

We also had Devin's 3 year pictures done yesterday, so we gave those out as well. This is my absolute favorite picture that was taken. I had it printed in 10 x 13 for our frame. (Sorry for the slanted view~it kept getting a glare.) This pic really captures Devin's personality!

If you click on the picture it should enlarge :)


Yesterday Devin started swimming lessons at the Y. He loved it! He is in a beginner class, but he goes in the pool without me. They are teaching the kids, all aged 3 to 5, without any type of bubble or floats. There are 10 kids in the class, split into 2 groups with 2 teachers and 1 life guard. The kids sit on the step in the pool and watch and take turns trying the skills with the teacher. I was impressed with Devin's skills. Maybe not all of his skills, though. He was splashing and fooling around a bit, but I'll be damned when it was his turn that boy could perform the skills just about perfectly! Even the teacher was impressed. He can not wait to go back next Saturday!

Swimming

On Thursday Devin and Erick went swimming in our complex's pool. Devin has really taken to swimming this year. He uses a life jacket, but can pretty much swim on his own other than that. He also LOVES to jump in the pool!