We went swimming at the Splash Park today.
It was fun, eventually. I’ve been trying for almost a week to
get Lex to go, but he kept saying “no thank you. I’ll tell you
when I want to go.” So yesterday morning he announced that he
was ready go to! Unfortunately, for him, I had playdate plans
for the day and swimming was not an option. So this morning he
said it would be ok to go, so we did.

The experience started out a bit rocky. The check-in desk
was crowded and we had to wait awhile. At one point Eve started
to walk away and I asked Lex to take her hand and bring her
back over to me. Two seconds later I’m filling out a form,
she’s screaming, and Lex is dragging her, by the mitten
attached to her jacket, across the floor, flat on her back.
Meanwhile a bus with 30+ kids unloads and everyone clamors for
the pool. Then we finally get to the locker room and I get Eve
and I changed and Lex decides he does not want to swim. No way,
no how. So we went out to the pool with me and Eve in bathing
suits and Lex in his PJs (footy ones even!). He got comfortable
on a bench where he could see me and I could see him and I took
Eve over to the Splash Park pool. This place is really cool!
The Splash Park pool is 1ft deep all the way around and has a
huge playground-like structure in the middle with a twisty
slide, fountains, and lots of things to do. I dipped Eve’s feet
in to the nice warm water and she wailed!! “Go home now, just
want to play at home now!” Sigh. So we went back to the bench
with Lex and I started wondering if they offered refunds for
the day pass (I had just paid $17 for this experience!)

So we sat and watched for awhile, which is
really what I think he needed. Between the sounds of the water
fountains, the kids screaming, the bright colors and warm air,
I think he had a pretty strong case of sensory overload. Eve
too, I’m sure, but I think her main problem was that it was nap
time and I was asking her to play hard instead. So we sat and
watched. Lex kept telling me that he wanted to watch me and Eve
play in the water, and I kept saying Eve did not want to play.
After awhile he decided to put on his bathing suit and show Eve
how to play in the water :) He came up with this idea on his
own. We got him dressed and made our way back into the pool. He
LOVED it! She cried a bit, but I slowly eased her in by sitting
on the edge, then in just a bit, etc. I told her could splash
and kick and make a big mess… just what I always tell her not
to do in the bathtub :)

After awhile
they were both in and having a blast. I was happy that I didn’t
waste $17! I could go on and on with details of their silly
antics, but I think I’ll stop now. They are supposed to post
the swim lesson schedule the first week of March and are
planning to start lessons on the 16th. I hope, hope, hope I can
get something that works for us, timing wise.

Rose came to visit with Bone this weekend.
Always a good time. The kids are so funny because they get so
excited and want to play with him, but he’s still pretty nippy
so the kids mostly just run around him and throw toys and dog
biscuits at him. I think they probably exhaust the poor dog!
After a day or two he’s ready to get back to Rosy’s quiet house
:) Can’t say I blame him!!

Lex and Bone playing on the
stairs.

This picture cracks me up! They torture Bone by
getting as close to him as the can, but not close enough that
he can get them. I think they were all having fun
here.

As you’ve probably noticed, we moved the
blog to our datdec servers. The old URL
(littlelex.blogspot.com) should continue to redirect to the new
site, but do what you can to update your bookmarks and whatever
for our new URL (familyblog.datdec.com).
I had to change the template to use “Classic” style, which
means “old!” and therefore I can’t use some of the fancy
widgets that I had before. Sooo…. it will do for now but I
may keep looking into a better solution. The URL won’t change
again anyway :)

Here’s a funny image to test
the new setup.

He’s taken to eating his snacks out of big
plastic party bowls. Obviously we don’t fill them all the way
up! This is a unique picture because he so rarely smiles for
the camera these days. He was very happy and his smile makes me
smile :)

We went to a little Valentine’s Day party
playdate today. Here are two pictures that crack me up! They
are both so pretty in the first one (sorry for the quality, it
came out really dark and I adjusted it brigher) and so silly in
the second. Like it was planned or something. Silly
girls!!

Here is a quick silly video of Eve. She
likes to pull on this hat and bounce around the house in a
horsey-riding fashion saying “donka, donka, donka.” I have no
idea what any of it means, but I’ve been trying to capture it
on video. You can see it for a brief second at the beginning of
the video and a little bit again towards the end. In between
it’s pure Eve silliness.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0nCwilLagM]

Eve knows her right from left (no idea how she
learned that, perhaps Lex taught her), and lots of colors and
she can count to 12 and recognizes some of the numbers, she
knows the ABC song and recognizes most of the letters. She
knows most of her body parts, lots of songs, makes up her own
songs, and plays very silly games. She can even hold a crayon
properly and draw circles that mostly resemble circles. :) The
girl is smart!! She also hasn’t had a PT accident in many days
and we’ve even ventured out with no diaper the past three days!
Yesterday and the day before were playdates so I was brave,
figuring that if she had an accident in the car (thick towel in
the car seat!) I could change her and clean her up at the
friend’s house. Of course all of the houses had potty seats
and, of course, she refuses to use a potty seat, insisting on
using the toilet and only the toilet. I can’t really complain
about that. Tonight we did some errands, picked up Alan, and
visited a super cool new aquatic center (swimming pool, water
slides!, fitness center, etc.) She used the bathroom at one
store and then again when we got home. I asked her about a
thousand times and we went to the bathroom at every store, just
in case, but she was fine. The past few days she has also been
waking up from naps with a dry diaper, so I’m contemplating
trying naps with underwear. We’ll see how that goes!

And mom, yes, the hair is growing in. Not
exactly long, flowing locks, but it’s getting there. We did
haircuts last weekend for Alan and Lex (I botched Lex’s hair!!)
and Eve got mad because I wouldn’t give her a haircut too. Lex
said, “Eve, you don’t have any hair!” :)

The girl has been in underwear for three
days without accident!! (diapers for nap and night, of course)
Yesterday and today she even started telling me when she has to
go. And today all the poop went in the toilet too!!! (TMI?
Welcome to potty training!!) She kept getting mad at me today
because I wouldn’t let her put on different underwear each time
we were in the bathroom. Previously, when she was having
accidents, we changed her underwear frequently, but not lately!
Amazing!