Sure enough, Liberty asked to go swimming the next day. This time Hadley enjoyed it after about 5 minutes of getting used to the cold water. The best part was, I put the pool under the porch in the shade, so I didn't have to worry about sunscreen. I have a feeling Liberty is going to ask to go swimming often now!
Liberty gets very excited when we tell her it’s Monday night, which means “Whole Family Meeting,” aka, Family Home Evening. Of course, the bulk of her excitement is for the ice cream that we traditionally have at the end. She does get pretty excited about getting the manual out for the lesson though. Sometimes during the week she’ll find it and ask if we can have Whole Family Meeting. So, occasionally, we’ll have FHE 3 times a week, only the additional 2 times are condensed versions. Usually, our routine is a lesson from the nursery manual – often accompanied by something for her to color, family prayer, and singing several primary songs while I play the piano. We sing a couple that coordinate with the lesson, and then let Liberty pick a few of her favorite primary songs. She often asks to play a game that was part of the lesson one time, and she thinks we need to do it after every lesson. The particular lesson was about obedience, so it suggested playing a game where Liberty stands up in front of us, while we give her directions, such as, “jump up and down, turn around, make a happy face, act silly, etc.” She loves it, and asks to play it often. The best part is when we tell her to make different faces, like, "sad," or "excited," or our favorite, "surprised," and she excitedly yells, "Surprise!" The game is pretty entertaining for us, to be honest. And, to wrap it all up, we usually have ice cream afterwards. We did that a couple of times, so now, Liberty would be very disappointed if we didn’t.
Tonight, we had an extra special “Whole Family Meeting,” and we got out the inflatable pool and let the girls swim. Our electric pump wasn’t charged, so we used a bicycle pump to inflate it. As you can imagine, it took us awhile to blow it up! Especially since Liberty and Hadley were playing inside the pool the entire time we were trying to inflate it. We finally got it inflated and took it outside, and let Liberty at it with the hose. She had a total blast! Hadley on the other hand, thought it was too cold, and preferred watching Liberty and laughing at her while she played in the pool. We put Liberty’s slide into the pool, which Liberty loved even more. I wonder if Liberty will ask to get the pool out again next time we have FHE. We will see!
Hadley's infamous clenching of her fists and tensing up of her entire body when she gets mad.
All happy now, as long as she's not in the water.
(Playing at Grandma & Papa's house 7/26/09)
I try to write down the things Liberty does/says, and I have a little list that I need to document:
A few weeks ago we were in the dressing room in Old Navy. Liberty was holding onto one of those metal bars with one hand and sliding her feet apart from each other. She said (something to the effect of), “Mom, look at my trick!” I responded, “Wow, you’re doing the splits!” She immediately replied, “No, I’m doing the slips!” I tried teaching her they were called the splits but she insisted her trick was called the slips. Definitely cuter that way! Plus, it makes more sense.
The other day I was giving Liberty choices for breakfast, and she chose a bagel, and said, “And I want scream cheese on top.”
A few days ago Liberty was playing another one of her made-up games with Hadley, and repeatedly chanted and sang “I shopped hurray because I winned!” And, when Hadley was the winner she shouted, “You shopped hurray because you winned!” She is a riot!
If I could only have a recorder on that girl 24/7 (minus her occasional feisty times) to capture the things she says (sings) and does...
Oh, and she calls me, "Mom-pump." ... on a regular basis ... and even when she's creative playing with princesses, dolls, and animals, she refers to the moms as "mom-pump." I have no idea what it means or where she came up with it. It used to be "mom-punk," and revolved into "mom-pump."
Last night was my 10-year high school reunion. I can't believe it has been 10 years! It was held at Rockin' R Ranch. We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone! It felt like we were still in high school, just most people were married and had kids. It was so fun seeing everyone and reminiscing about the good ol' days. I had quite a few laughs! Unfortunately, I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked.
Crystal invited us to go with her up to her dad's cabin in Show Low. Crystal, Hillary, and I, and all of our kids (plus some) made the trip. The cabin was super nice and perfect for the group of us. The weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed a lot of outside time - just what we needed! After the trip, Liberty reported that her favorite parts were eating popsicles, going on treasure hunts, and playing on the "swing." We did a lot of relaxing, and even played a few games when we had some down time. The kids definitely kept us busy, but they had a great time playing together, and got along really well. Thanks, Crystal, hopefully we can do it again!
These three played together so well!
Liberty, Hudson, and Emery sharing pretzels
Hadley spent most of her time crawling around and eating everything she could get her hands on.
