A Very Brady Sleepover

Unfortunately, my nephew Brooks, who is just 5 weeks old is in the hospital with pneumonia in both of his lungs. He was put in the hospital last night and already seems to be doing much better. It's amazing how resiliant those little kiddos are. On the bright side of things, since Benjy and Jenny were tied up at the hospital, we got some quality time with Brady. Zayda was super excited that Brady got to come over for a sleep over. I think Aunt Erin might have to get the little guy some fish of his own though. He loves Zayda's fish tank. He and Zayda discovered that when the fish are hungry, if they put their little fingers at the edge of the water that the fish will nibble at their fingers. Now, as an adult, there is nothing exciting about having a fish nibble on your finger - expecially when you have almost lost one from a previous animal - but I guess when you are 5 and 3 yrs old that can be pretty funny. I also don't think I have ever seen a kid so excited about eating waffles! I think it had almost as much excitement as Christmas morning with the shrieking of WAFFLES, WAFFLES, COME ON ZAYDA LET'S GO EAT WAFFLES!!! He was perfect and we had so much fun with him. It is so cute to see Zayda and Brady together. They absolutely love one another and I love to just watch them interact. Garrett just follows them around and mimicks everything they do and then just laughs at himself. I think he my have my little brother's sense of humor. What a great trait to have. Hopefully, Brooks will be better in no time but until then, we'll keep having brady sleepovers!!

A True Hotshot

Zayda started back to gymnastics this past fall after being out of it for about a year. She seems to have a natural talent for this sport and she absolutely loves it. Her teacher is Miss Jacque and she seems to have taken a special liking to Zayda. After the last session, Miss Jacque approached me and said that she would like to move Zayda up into a class called the Hotshots. This is a by invitation only class. So, we discussed it with Zayda and she has been really excited about it. She is by far the smallest one in the class by atleast a whole head. She is the youngest and most inexperienced and let me tell you, she holds her own. There are a lot of things that she can't quite do yet but she gives it her all and it is amazing how far she has come in just a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see her after she has been in this class for awhile. She is truly our Hotshot!

Hospital Day

Today, Zayda had hospital day at school. I volunteered to help out and it was a blast. I was very impressed and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. They had all different kinds of stations set up for the kids to go to. They saw a cast put on and saw pictures of x-rays. They learned about stitches. They had a station set up to learn about car seats and which car seat they should be in. My station was set up like an ER and I was the triage nurse. They came to our room and were admitted with a real hospital bracelet. (I'm not sure if I will be able to ever get Zayda to take hers off or not.) Then they came to me and I did their vital signs and their height and weight. Zayda thought it was really cool that her mommy was there. Then they went over to see the doctor which was Dr. Cindy Williams whom I work alot with at the hospital. She gave each one of them a quick physical and talked about how their organs worked. There was a first-aid station and several other stations that talked about keeping their bodies healthy. It was really a neat program.

Swim Lessons

Garrett started swim lessons on Monday. Overall, he really enjoyed them. He really wanted the security of having me hold on to him but he did seem to like the water. It is a basic "get used to the water class." I don't think he'll be swimming on his own by the end of the class but we spend so much time down at the lake in the summer that I wanted him to atleast be comfortable in the water. We sang songs and did different motions with them in the water. He even put his face in the water and tried to blow bubbles. I do have to say that compaired to his sister at this age, he was a breeze to do lessons with. Zayda would splash like crazy and none of the other kids wanted to be close to her because she would get them all wet. She is still a water bug and told me that if anything happened to Garrett in the water that she could help him and pull him up. She watched his class very intently and actually did very well for not being able to swim herself. One of my friend's and fellow playgrouper also is taking swim lessons with her son Jack. Jack and Garrett have become very close so I think it will be good for them to see each other in the water and will hopefully watch each other and learn from each other.

A Breath of Fresh Air

As most of you know, we love to be outside!! We spend the majority of our days, other than winter, outside. This little taste of spring was a much needed breath of fresh air. It also provided a tiny glimpse of what my little 18mos. old may be getting into this spring. Between scaling the climbing wall, trying to play with dog poop, chasing him around on his motorized John Deere Tractor (which he loves to drive but cannot steer), wanting to play with the grill, trying to turn on the hose and jumping off of the slide, I have a feeling mommy will continue her weight loss on the Garrett summer play plan. We really did have a great time being able to spend some time outside. Keith even got into the spirit and fired up the grill. I just don't think that God should tempt us with weather like this and then put snow back in the forecast. What was he thinking? Oh well, that's why we live in good ol' Indiana right?! Hopefully, the cold weather will kill the rest of these yucky germs that seem to be hounding the Johnson household lately.