Gwen's Birthday Party

So, today was Gwen's big birthday pool party. All her cousins (well on my side of the family) came and went swimming with her in our condo's pool. Gwen had been excited about going swimming with her cousins since our last swimming party at the beginning of the summer. All summer she kept saying to me "I go swimming today with Noah and Sam and Mason." Sometimes she'd substitute Jami, Kim, or Heidi in there but usually it was Noah, Sam, and Mason for some reason. I'd tell her "no, not today. We'll all go swimming on your birthday."

Well, that dream finally came true for her and she really didn't want it to end. After spending 3 hours in the pool with a little lunch break in there she still didn't want to get out - not even to open her presents. I finally got her to get out by reminding her that we were going to light candles and sing Happy Birthday to her.

It was so fun to watch how much she's grown over the summer with her confidence in the pool. She jumps into the deep end and swims with her face under the water. She can get herself to anywhere in the pool even over the rope separating the shallow from the deep ends. She rarely spends time in the baby pool unless she's practicing using her goggles or "diving" under the water to pick up the diving rings. One of her favorite things to do is to hold her breath under water and wave to me while I swim below or beside her. She also thinks that she can "almost" touch the bottom of the pool at the 9 foot end. I can't wait for next summer. We'll definitely get her into a swimming class toward the end of the winter or in spring to prepare for pool season. Hopefully we can keep our little fish nice and happy. I love that she loves the water so much. She's absolutely the best swimmer out of all her cousins - who wouldn't be with at least an hour of practice 4 or 5 days a week all summer long?

Gwen loved her birthday party so much that I couldn't get her to take her usual post swimming nap today. She just wanted to play with her new toys. Unfortunately, Emily didn't want to take her nap either. About once a week, Emily goes through nap refusal. She just looks at her bed and starts to scream, and boy do I mean SCREAM. She has the most piercing screech in the world. Today, after all the usual tricks of nursing her and even taking her on a car ride, as soon as I laid her in her bed her little eyes popped open and she would scream. I finally had to just pat her on the tummy and tell her she'd be okay and walk out of the room and close the door. It took about 5-10 minutes of her screaming before she fell asleep. I feel sorry to do that to my neighbors, but they have a 18 month-old and probably understand. It's easy to get caught up in the not wanting them to scream and hard to remember that no baby ever died from crying or screaming.

Thanks to the doctor's I work with for letting me use their Internet access while we've been slow the last couple evenings. I only wish I had brought my camera to upload my pictures. I think that will be my before church project for tomorrow. That or clean the bathrooms. Hmmm, which sounds funner to you?