Floating Lessons.

As people have pointed out to me, these aren't really swim lessons. Sean Patrick is not learning the Australian crawl, or the breast stroke. So we'll call them "Float Lessons".

This is the second week, of float lessons with Sean Patrick. Nicole signed us up a few weeks ago at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, the same place the 1984 Olympics were held. It's a nice pool and the instructors, excuse me, musical leaders (more on this in a minute) are a little distant and not unfriendly, but I don't think either of them know Sean Patrick's or my name. That's fine I guess, there's probably about 25 kids in the class, and 1/2 hour isn't really enough time to come visit each child and still run a class.

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10:10AM, Sean Patrick and I, donning our finest swim wear, hop in the pool for 1/2 an hour with the instructors/musical leaders. I call the musical leaders because for the most part, they just lead us in different songs that involve movement and splashing in the water. The morning always starts with "Pop Goes the Weasel" and ends with "The Hokey Pokey". In between there are other songs and some exercises designed to start a certain amount of muscle memory for swimming. After all Sean Patrick is only 7 months old, can't really talk or walk, so asking him to swim now might be a stretch. F.Y.I. - the moment he can walk good, I'm strapping ice skates to his feet.

Here's some photos and videos of us splish splashing about.Here we are first entering the water. You can see the hand rail that leads down a nice sloping ramp so you can ease the kid into the water. No jumping in required.Along with kicking exercises and "doggy kitty" which is supposed to teach them the arm strokes. We have a couple of exercises that involve using the wall. The first is called, "Tap, One, Two, Three, Turn"




I'm not sure of the purpose of this exercise, except maybe to teach them to grab the wall when they get close. Nothing has really been explained to us, we just sort of go with the flow (in more ways then one).

The second exercise involving the wall is called, "Humpty Dumpty"

This one is easy to figure out. It's all about getting the kid to like jumping into the water and trusting that you'll catch them. Of course, Sean Patrick is a little hesitant and often finds it more fun to slap the asphalt rather than fall into my arms. As the weeks go on, I think he's getting better...
There's also free time where you can grab a "noodle" and a rubber ducky and splash about and do your own thing. This is also the time when the instructor/musical leaders come and check to see what the kid can do. One of them will come over to you and ask the child to swim to them. In Sean Patrick's case, it's more of a handing off from me to them and then back.

Through out most of the proceedings, Sean Patrick appears to be very unimpressed. He has a very good poker face and about the only time there's any emotion from him, it's when he's in the arms of the instructor/musical leader and he wants to come back to me.One final smile for the camera, and we're out of the pool and toweling off.Again, not terribly impressed.

...

Random bath cuteness

Nothing monumental today, just a super cute baby taking a bath:



SP is now sitting up on the big boy side of tub instead of laying down on the baby side. He doesn't want anything to do with laying down in the bath, he just wants to splash and play with the bubbles. Sigh, how quickly they grow!

Sleepy Times w/Daddy

This is what I found at 7:30am when I noticed Dan had not come back to bed after checking on the Sean Patrick around 5am. SP had woken up and was a little upset so Dan went to check on him. It looks like SP rocked Daddy to sleep! So cute.

Spinach (Popeye Puree)

Here's what Sean Patrick thinks of spinach:



The kid LOVES it!



Here's a video of his first few bites:




Our happy spinach-loving boy showing off some "see food":

Brunch, Biscuits and Bandanas

We went to brunch with Auntie Cat this morning at one our favorite neighborhood restaurants (Dish in La Canada), it was Sean Patrick's first meal "out."

While we waited for Auntie Cat to arrive, SP helped Daddy make his breakfast selection:

And then he played for a while...we got several patrons visit our table to let us know how cute SP is (duh!):

Time for baby to eat...he had Mommy's homemade pear puree and organic baby oatmeal - he loved it and finished all of it.

With Auntie Cat:

Playing around some more before we left:

When we got home, Daddy thought it would be funny to wrap a bandana around his head to go with SP's Run DMC t-shirt:

This was followed by SP showing off his *almost" crawling skills:

Snack time! Mmm...teething biscuit, SP really liked it:

Pool Party, Part I

Sean Patrick attended his first pool party today and he had a blast! It was a going-away-bbq for the Hain Family (Sam, Tia and Max) as they are moving to Northern California hosted by host & hostess w/the mostess: Sherry & Matt. Sherry & Matt have an amazing fresh water pool in their backyard in Burbank that SP was lucky enough to try as his first dip.

SP & I had ventured to Target the day before to try to find some sort of pool float for him. We succeeded with a cool float that came with a sun canopy...ooohhh, fancy pants!

We headed over to the party with our potluck brownies and pool float in hand. SP was already in his swim gear with sunscreen applied, ready to go. Daddy and SP were the first ones in the pool not long after we arrived. Dan started SP slowly, just sitting and hanging out first:

Then Uncle Shawn helped get SP into his floating contraption:

Annnnd, he's in! Time to goof off with Daddy while Daddy's frosty beverage also floats around the pool for easy access. Note: we had to use the water-friendly Winnie-the-Pooh to support SPs back...the opening to the float was a little big but with Pooh there, it was perfect.

He likes it! He likes it!

Oh, but he was playing it cool when cutie Maddy got in the pool:

And it worked, she came right over...

She liked his ride so SP let her take it for a spin:

While Maddy was in his float, SP splashed around:

We tried to get a group shot w/SP, Maddy and Max but this is the best we could do:

Time to dry off and get some kisses from Mommy:

After swimming, SP had a bottle but was not tired so he played a bit. Oh no, not a drum stick!

SP borrows Maddy's shades and shows her his drum skills:

Some video of the fresh-water-pool fun:

They ended the pool fun with some splashing around:

Green Beans and Gift from Grandma/Grandpa

Today was an exciting day. Not only did Sean Patrick try green beans for the first time (he liked them!), he also got a special delivery from Grandma & Grandpa P.

Yum!

Wowee...a cool new musical learning desk. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa P! You can see above that the dog and cat must investigate the shipping box, they are soooo helpful.

Here's a long video of SP receiving his new toy. It's not super exciting but I promised Grandma that I would tape this moment and put it up on the blog :)

7-month birthday photos

Cutest. Kid. Ever.

Sean Patrick loves his shape sorter toy. He especially loves to dump all the shapes out of the tub. He hasn't figured out how to get the shapes through the sorter yet but it doesn't stop his fun.



He also loves his rings, here is SP showing his favorite ring (it's also a rattle).

Here's SP's favorite toy right now...his Mickey Mouse rattle. It goes everywhere with us and gets sanitizied nearly every night.

Getting friendly with the cat...well, he actually just wants to hit the cat. We're working on "gentle..."

Both the dog and SP are skeptical about each other.

Mother's Day 2009

We had a lovely Mother's Day! It was filled with surprises...

I found this in the living in the morning:


...with this taped to it:

(we had been at the hardware store the day before where I insisted we get a fly swatter since when we have a fly in the house, I need to find a magazine or something to swat it)

So after a good laugh, Dan had me close my eyes while he brought out my real gift and when I opened my eyes I saw a huge Kiehl's box:



Kiehl's is a nice brand of hair, face and body products. I love Kiehl's however it's on the pricey side so I rarely get any. Dan & Sean Patrick treated me to a wide variety of Kiehl's products for Mother's Day:

But this is the real gift...look at this sweet kid, I'm really lucky!

Random cuteness pic...we put SP in his "office" with the mouse ears he got in January and they actually fit now :) I love how the strap cuts into his chubby cheeks...