Lots of Company

Jillian and Bridget were so excited that Ava, Harper, and Rielee got to come to play.  After playing in the sandbox, Rielee and Jillian headed for the play fort and the rope swing.  Jillian got high pushes from Rielee but Rielee didn't get to go quite that high from Jillian.  Harper followed Jillian and Rielee around and even tried the rope swing.  Ava and Bridget were doing their own things.  Jillian was feeling a little left out until Tierney came and was happy she sat down and did Tinkertoys with her.

Then Jillian and Bridget got to go to Rielee's and swim in her pool.  They had a grand time there using every pool toy.  And Bridget went right in the water even though it was a little cool.  She would swim around and climb the ladder to get out, get a goldfish that Aunt Dianne brought, and get right back in the pool.  She did that numerous times.

Tor joined us in the high chair when we had dinner outside.  He liked sitting up and watching all of us and the dogs.  He is always smiling now and trying to grab everything.

One of the big highlights of the day was when Papa finished putting together the slide tonight.  They went down it forward, backwards, together, and every way they could think of.  Papa just needs to finish reinforcing the bottom and it will be complete. 

Sunshine Fun

Since the girls haven't been here in awhile they had to play in the sandbox and play fort before lunch, which they had outside on the deck.  Then Brock and his friends Kyle and Taite came down to play with the girls.  Jillian wanted to go out front and ride bikes but Bridget wanted to play dolls so Kyle sat down and patiently played and helped Bridget set up the doll's house.  Meanwhile Jillian had the other two to herself.  After awhile Bridget went to ride out front too.  Jillian was in her element instructing the boys to do what she directed.  Here she is having them hold up hoops for her to jump through. 

Later, after their naps, Brock came down to swim with them.  Jillian threw a bucket of water on Brock and he retaliated by dousing her with water which she didn't like.  I told her I didn't have any sympathy for her since she started it.  This went on for quite awhile with Bridget telling both of them that she didn't want any part of water splashing.

Swim Lesson Success!

There's just a couple days left of this session of swim lessons at Briarcliff, and both girls have made some improvements. Bridget is totally unafraid of getting in the pool, and now just swims around on her own (with help from her floaties). She's now part of the regular "floatie class", lining up and diving in and swimming and repeating the process. She gets some assistance from the instructors, usually when they try to steer her in the right direction (Bridget often drifts all over the pool when she's swimming), but the rest of the time she's on her own. Jillian decided to just jump into the pool during some of the activities, which meant her head went underwater. She was kinda OK with it, but she was definitely excited about telling us about it and knowing that she'd get hot chocolate from Starbucks on the way home (her incentive for putting her head underwater).

Torion at 4.5 Months

Here's a little photo of Torion at about 4-1/2 months old. We are finding that he is a very smily little boy, and enjoys having face-to-face talks. This photo was taken on the changing table, where he really enjoys being, maybe because he gets to have lots of conversations with us there. He'll do his best to keep up his side of the conversation, by making lots of "who-who" sounds ... while throwing in a small yell now and then. Occasionally, his sisters will also climb up on the changing table to talk with him, though Tor gets a little wild-eyed (concerned?) when they do that.

Chewing on Anything

Tor is getting pretting good at grabbing, and anything that gets into his hands will end up in his mouth. Most of the time, that would be his hands, but occasionally he gets his hands on something like his rings (like the picture shows) and chews on them relentlessly.

Swim Lessons

It's another round of swim lessons at Briarcliff this summer. It's Jillian's third year, and Bridget's first time.

On the first day, Jillian is in the "no floatie" class with a large number of boys who are pretty much fearless in jumping into the water ... meanwhile, Jillian is still very unsure about putting her head underwater. She is doing very well, though, at swimming on her back. Bridget spent nearly the entire 1-hour session crying and yelling for "Daddy" while the swim instructor held her in the pool. At the end, the head swim teacher said that she'd be fine for the rest of the week. A special treat for Jillian is that her pre-school friend Emma is going to the same session.

On the second day, Jillian was still doing fine without floaties, but still not anywhere near putting her head underwater. Bridget had a short cry-fest at the beginning of class when a swim teacher took her into the pool, but then she was fine and actually kicked and played in the water ... though she was always sure to look for Daddy.

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was quite a day, starting with the Longview Parade at 10 am. Jillian and Bridget were totally into it, standing on the street and waiting for candy to be thrown at them. Jillian dutifully waved at every single float that went by, and was rewarded with a ton of candy. Bridget was a little more wiggly, preferring to run around and occasionally stopping to pick up candy. Bridget was oblivious to the danger of the moving floats, often running out to the middle of the street for a piece of candy while Mommy and Daddy chased after her. Luckily, we were seated next to a couple of boys who, when they picked up candy, would just hand them over to Jillian and Bridget. After awhile, those boys just went ahead and put them straight into the girls' bag. For the entire parade, Torion was asleep in the stroller.

Later that evening, we headed to Woodland to enjoy dinner and fireworks at the Paul house. Both girls got to swim in the pool with Lindsey, then go horse riding with McKenna and Lindsey. Torion spent his time playing on the floor and being held by everyone. The evening concluded with a fireworks show put on by the Paul girls, which Jillian watched out on the driveway. There were some very large and loud fireworks being shot off by the Paul's neighbors, and Bridget wanted nothing to do with them. She ran inside the house and hid out there with Daddy for the rest of the evening.

Long Beach Trip

All of us went for a very long vacation at the Ocean Park cabin last week. It was good for all of us to just relax and spend time together. The weather didn't exactly cooperate the first four days, as it was windy and rainy but still warm. We did manage to get outside and play once in a while, either for quick trips to the beach or little bike rides on the street (Jillian is quite the little bike rider now, being able to start, stop and go just about any speed she wants). Jillian and Bridget got lots of play time in the cabin, while Torion got lots of play time on the floor. The last two days of the trip were very warm and sunny, though, and the kids did lots of digging in the sand and swimming in the little tide pools. Jillian was quite the little worker bee, working hard at building her castle and moat, and then was very excited standing on the castle while the waves came in. Bridget wasn't so excited about the waves, preferring to run away from them, so she spent a lot of time "swimming" in the shallow tide pools. Torion enjoyed watching all the action while being wrapped up snugly.

Triple Decker



 Bridget was brave enough to go down the slip n' slide on top of the pile as she managed to stay higher than the spray.  But the cold water felt good in the heat.  Later Bridget went down by herself if Tierney held her hand.



They dried off in the shade.  Of course, Bridget and Jillian ran around naked for awhile but Jillian put on the towel for the picture.