Summer fun!

Where did June go? We have been so busy! Trenton and Madelynn have both been in swimming lessons, dance and gymnastics. I thought my kids were too young for me to be a taxi Mom, but I guess not. Kaydence is such a good baby- she tolerates all the running around so well. She's sleeping on my chest as I'm typing this!
Trenton, in swimming lessons, is an experience, to say the least! His teacher is so good with him, but he is a challenge! Usually we don't allow him out of the vehicle at the pool without his life jacket because of all the trouble he can get into, but during swimming lessons he goes without. His teacher says he's under the water more than he's above it. He has made a lot of progress since last year, though. This year when he dives into the deep end all by himself he can doggy paddle to the side. Not well enough that I'm going to let the life jacket stay in the car, but hey we are making progress! Today he had a pretty impressive feat- he swam the length of the pool by himself! Yeah Trenton! Swim team next year??? Last Friday we spent 4 hours at the pool and by the end of our playtime Kaydence and I were pretty tired. Trenton, however, was not! He was swimming around in the deep end and wouldn't get out. We do the "count to 3" technique and my "3" threat was that I was going in after him. I was fully dressed and bluffing. He called my bluff and shot me with a water gun, stuck his tongue out at me and swam the other way. At that, I was furious and wasn't going to let him win so I dove in the pool to get him. He was totally surprised- his eyes about popped out of his head. Of course, I looked totally ridiculous walking out of the pool soaking wet in my clothes, but I won, so I had a sense of satisfaction. Plus, I really think Trenton had a new respect for his Mom that wasn't too proud to play his games. He laughed at me- thought I looked silly since my wet shorts had a little trouble staying over my butt! He can do things that are just infuriating, but then he does things like tell me I look like Tinkerbell. I gotta love that blind love!

Madelynn has also been busy with swimming. Last year she was afraid to get in the big pool by herself and this year she likes to swim in her pink floatie to the deep end. She passed her swimming lessons with flying colors! She's also taking dance classes from Linda's Dance Academy in town. She loves it, but her Dad has some issues with the "Shake your booty" move. Poor girls, they don't stand a chance- he's so protective of them. Madelynn is every bit a 3 year old- I'm looking forward to her 4th birthday in August! She has incessant whining about pretty much everything. She'll ask a question over and over without taking a breath or allowing me time to answer. Just about when I think she's going to send me to the crazy house she says "I love you so much, Mommy! Thank you for taking me swimming (or wherever we just went)". Makes all the whining much less annoying!

Kaydence is doing great, she's down to getting up 1 time a night most nights. Night before last she laughed for the very first time at about 2:45 a.m. It was the cutest darn thing I ever saw! She's a petite little thing- weighing in at 8 pounds 13 ounces at 6 weeks, but she's adorable.

One more thing... We bought an iPad for Trenton to use this summer. We use the Prologuque2Go app (spelling?) for speech generation. There are so many apps for special education it is unbelievable! So far, he loves it. There is a hurdle with me figuring out how to program it, though. However, it is cheaper than the Dynavox V ($8,000) and will hopefully help Trenton to become more independent and get into less trouble when he's able to communicate more freely. I'll update his progress when he gets some more practice with it.