Sick in Hilton Head

The first week of April, my mom was on Spring Break from ballet, so her and my dad were in Hilton Head for the week. Lyla and I really did not have much going on that week, so we decided to join them!!

Going to the beach is so much fun and it makes it even more fun when your parents have a place at the beach to go to! We are so thankful to make these fun memories there with Lyla and the rest of our family.

It was not hot yet, which was really nice. We got down there Tuesday night around dinner time since we could not leave until after swim lessons that morning.

Lyla was ready to get on the beach as soon as we got down there! Unfortunately for her, it was time for bed, but I promised her we would see the water first thing in the morning. 

We packed up the wagon and headed out to the beach.

All smiles!

During the off season, dogs are allowed to be on the beach all day, so we did not have to hurry back to bring my parents dog Millie (or "Minney" as Lyla says) back to the condo, which was nice.

Ready to play!

"Let's find a good spot over here!"

Too cute!

And she's off!

Let's build a sand castle.

It was not super warm. I did not even put a bathing suit on. The water was freezing, but that did not slow Lyla down one bit.

Those sunglasses on her head are too much!!

Wanting to help Mimi throw the toy for Millie.

Millie loves the beach more than anyone in my family. She lives for the next time she gets to go. She loves having her toy thrown out in the water and running to get it. She would do this all.day.long.

BRRRR!! Its COLD!

Here are a couple of videos of Lyla at the beach. She loves to jump the waves. This girl never stops moving. One word for her at this age: busy! And I love her every minute!!

Millie waiting for the ball to get thrown...

Still waiting....

I am glad that we got out first thing and Lyla got some time on the beach. After our morning on the beach, it started raining and rained the rest of the time we were there. And little did we know that Lyla had some nasty germs!! My poor little baby. She was so pitiful!! Wednesday she had some rather unpleasant poop....and then that night she threw up!! She has never had the throw-ups before and it was so sad!! So all day Thursday was spent on the couch. She kept saying she was hungry, so I let her have a little bit of toast and some ginger-ale, and it almost immediately came back up. No food for her for the rest of the day! Of course I was worried about her getting dehydrated, but after her morning of throwing up, she was able to keep ice chips down. It was so hard to explain to a two year old, why they could not eat, even though she was hungry.  

Friday we had planned on heading back and she seemed to be feeling much better. No one else got sick. It just turned out to be a 24 hour bug. I guess if you are going to get sick, at least it makes it better to be at the beach :) 

Traveling in style. Her and those sunglasses are too much!

Watching her movie. The only way to travel!

We CANNOT wait to go back to the beach this summer with everyone. I know with her being at this age she is just going to have so much fun.

Second Session Swim Lessons

In my previous post about swim lessons, I mentioned that I made an impulse decision to sign Lyla up for a second round of swim lessons. The instructor told me that we could move her up a level so that she would be with three year olds who were comfortable with the water and already learning their stroke. I felt like that might help Lyla actually learn how to swim, since she would be able to watch the other kids and follow their lead. 

The three other kids in her class were so sweet as were their moms. It has turned out that we live close to the two boys in her class and run in to the quite frequently when we are out, especially at the library story time. It is fun to get to know people who live in our area.

We had one week of swim lessons and then we were headed to the beach for a few days. These lessons were over the course of 5 weeks (one 30 minute lesson per week) and would lead up to leaving for Texas. I figured it was better to stick with the same routine, then waste time trying to find another place for her to take lessons and better than not doing anything before we left, that way the first round of swim lessons would not be a waste. 

It really did make a HUGE difference being in a class where the kids were a little bit older, and they were kicking and doing their arms on their own to the instructor. Lyla definitely became more confident in the water and started understanding the "concept" a little better. She was by no means swimming by the end of the five weeks, but at least she was confident around the water....probably a little too confident. 

They practiced kicking in streamline, rainbow arms, blowing bubbles, jumping in, kicking with the noodle, and going underwater.

Love those pig-tail braids!

The two girls in the class. Lyla and Emily.

Jumping in. Can you say "no fear what so ever of the water"??!!

The two boys in the class. Logan and Michael. You can see Lyla floating on her back in between them.

Blowing bubbles.

Swimming to the teacher.

Streamline.

Practicing big arms, or rainbow arms. Although at that point, Lyla's arms looked more like the "wheels on the bus" movement.

Kick, Kick, Kick.

"Momma! Watch me!!"

Big arms!

Trying to swim.

The kids' favorite part.

Sweet girls.

Jumping over the noodles.

Would I do these swim lessons again? No. Do I think they gave her a basis and a basic understanding of the concept? Yes. So even though I was not overly impressed, it was a chance to get out of the house, give her (and me) a chance to socialize, and gave her even more of a love for the water. Every time we pass the pool where she took lessons she always says "My pool!!" "See Tracy, momma!!". 

I was definitely worried going in to the summer with the pool in the backyard and her "no fear" mentality. We go over the rules a lot about the swimming pool, like the fact that she cannot go out there by herself. We also have the doors out to the pool locked with a key and the key is not where she can reach it (or where she even knows it is). We also have the round handles that she cannot turn yet. I know that won't last but for now makes it even safer. The gate to the pool is also locked. Once again, Lyla has surprised me and is doing AMAZING in the pool. As of today (we are at the beach) she is swimming by her self and doing great at it! I am SO impressed by her. I cannot wait to see how much more she is doing by the end of the summer!!

Friends

I know I have said it before, but I feel like the Lord has really blessed this season of my life with some really good friends. Not only for Lyla, but for me. As Katherine, the person. 

And you know what? This is a season of life where I need friends. I cannot imagine being on the journey of being a mommy without good friends. Friends who care. Friends I can talk to. Friends who pray for me.

Two weekends before Easter, we celebrated one of those friend's little girl. Hannah Vaccaro turned THREE! And I am only using her last name because there are two Hannahs in Lyla's life. And they are both in the same circle of friends. And they both turned three within a week of each other. It was so fun getting to celebrate them. I have pictures from Hannah Vaccaro's pinkalicious party, but for some reason my camera never made it out of my bag at Hannah McKelvey's princess party. For that I am very sad because all of our princesses were dressed up like princesses (and the boys like princes) and it was great fun. Hannah McKelvey's party was the weekend before Easter.

Lots of cute PINK food!

Enjoying her treats!

The two Hannahs and Heather.

Sweet Hannah McKelvey checking things out.

Will and Lyla still enjoying their food.

Cupcake time! And yes, she only ate the icing.

Hannah did not want us singing Happy Birthday to her, so we didn't. And you know what? Those cupcakes still tasted great!

The Birthday girl!

Enjoying her day!!

And her cake!!

The two Hannahs, such sweet friends!

Matt wants in on the action.

Sweet Katherine in her pink!

We had such a great time at both birthday parties and are so thankful for these sweet little friendships! I love how much they love each other and how well they all get along! And I just have to remember how much of a little performer Lyla is. Heather had a little karaoke machine for Hannah's princess birthday and of course it was playing all the great Disney songs. Heather had even made this little dance floor for the kids out in the garage to dance on. It was so cute....kicking myself that I did not take pictures. Anyway, the music came on and guess who was the first to grab the microphone, start singing and dance on the dance floor?? Yup, my child. She loves that kind of stuff. Definitely as far from my personality as you can get, but not her!! She LOVES it! Guess where she gets that from?? And yes, Hannah McKelvey does not mind the spotlight every once in awhile, so she did let us sing happy birthday to her and she got to blow out the candles on her amazing princess cake. Literally shaped like a princess. 

Another friend we don't get to brag on quite as often (and I think that's because I never have my camera out) is sweet Eva. Lyla and Eva have known each other since birth, since Eva's birth. I am not even sure how to describe their relationship.

The funniest is Bryan (Eva's dad) coming up from the basement during one of our play dates. He walked into the room where Eva and Lyla were both in tears, screaming and asked "This is a play date??". 

They have a hard relationship.   

They fight. They hit. They yell. They take each other's toys. They cry.

But they love each other. They are real. They are learning to work it out.

They hug. They kiss. They are excited to see one another.

They are like us. Sinful people in need of forgiveness constantly. And you know what? Each one willingly offers that forgiveness. every.single.time. Such an awesome visual for me. Cause probably if I had a friend, who every time we got together, it was that hard, we would not be friends.

But these girls are always excited to see the other. Courtney and I do not force this relationship on them just cause we want to hang out. No, our relationship has been hard too. Probably the hardest I have even dealt with head on. I always tend to head the other way when a relationship like this gets hard, but for some reason Courtney and I have battled through it as well. For the first time in my life. And man it's hard. But is has been SO good. It has been so beautiful. I have grown so much through it and my heart is being worked on in ways that need to be worked on. I am so thankful for our relationship. It is such an awesome visual for my two year old daughter.

I am so thankful that my daughter is learning to battle through tough situations at SUCH an early age. That way hopefully, prayerfully she will have much better relationships skills than I have by my age. 

I was able to help Courtney out the last Friday in April so that she could go do something fun. I had Eva and baby Levi at my house for the morning. The girls were angels. Seriously. They did not fight once. They must have known I was nervous to have two two year olds (that fight) and an infant. They were such a delight. And Levi took a nap. It was great. So I remembered my camera and how I never take these girls pictures together, probably because I am too busy refereeing during the play date to even think about snapping a picture of two little girls in tears. Hahaha. 

Sweet Eva and her baby stroller. She loves play play-doh when she comes to Lyla's house.

She's got it all!

Playing nicely, going for "walks" with their babies.

Sweet girls....

...who really do love each other.