Our Summer Vacation ...

It's been a very busy, fun-filled summer for big girl and little girl. Madeleine completed her first set of swimming lessons and has graduated to the next level, which we hope to start in the Fall. She's mastered sticking her head under water, retrieving objects in shallow water, blowing bubbles and floating on her front without support.

Josephine has also been learning new skills. She is VERY close to being able to sit up and, according to her teachers at day care, she is concentrating very hard on mastering it soon. She also has stepped up her "talking" and has mastered tracking her mother across a crowded room.



As mentioned above, Josie has started day care, which means everyone is now back to work or at school. It has been a tough transition for some -- though Josie has adapted amazingly fast to hanging out with the other babies. Her friend Gabe, one of Madeleine's friends' little brother, is in the same class and likely shown her the ropes. All in all, I think we are all getting used to the new routine.




Meanwhile, we had some nice visits from friends and family over the last couple of months. As mentioned in a previous post, Aunt Amy and family returned for several weeks from Australia before heading on to Jamaica. We got to spend some qualilty time with them, which was great. A lot of swimming and eating. We did manage to take Spencer and Shelby to a Nationals game against the San Francisco Giants -- a game the Nats won in the bottom of the ninth. Spencer seemed to really get into it and was even given a batting practice ball from a generous fan before the start of the game! By the end of it all, he knew all of the players on the team and probbaly could tell you each player's on-base percentage and what song they like to hear through the PA each time they come to bat.

Another great visit was from Oma and Golfing Papa, who came for a long weekend. They should write a book on how to be perfect houseguests as they brought us a bunch of food, didn't ask us for anything and then even took us out for dinner -- twice! (Actually, we are very lucky in that both sets of out-of-town grandfolks are such easy-going people -- thanks!) I know Madeleine and Josephine had a great time hanging out with their grandparents. Madeleine even got to golf a little with Golfing Papa, while Josie enjoyed "Animal Planet" with Oma back at home.

That's it for now. We'll try and update this blog more often now that we are back into the swing of things.