Summer fun

This girl LOVES swimming!

Some friends of ours that lived close by had a pool that they let us use until they moved. Abi absolutely loves water and swimming! She's an adorable fish!

She can't find her duck...

This was hilarious! Abi threw her duck and like happens sometimes with toddlers, the duck went the opposite direction of where she meant to throw and it fell behind her landing on the tube. She spun a few circles trying to find it and couldn't so she finally gave up and headed back to the water. :) Haha!

This unheated hot tub makes a great kiddie pool

This pool is amazing! The hot tub is raised above the pool so that the warm water falls into the pool so they're kind of connected. The hot tub heater wasn't actually turned on but that made it a perfect place for Abi to play around. She could not have been happier.

This girl has no fear of water or heights

It seems that lately, the scariest part of parenting for me is large bodies of water. And by large I mean any pool of water that may seem fun to climb into, like reflecting pools at temples, fountains at city parks and fancy buildings (which are all over NYC), pools, rivers that run through the parks here, baptismal fonts, etc. All of those are super attractive to Abi and also a tragedy waiting to happen. That's why we've been swimming so much. I'm trying to teach her to survive-swim but also trying to give her a healthy sense of fear of water by letting her struggle a bit. It's not really working. She still loves the water, can't swim at all, and hasn't minded the "drowning" exercises yet. What to do with her?

Does anyone else see what I see?

Ok, this picture is something I took just to put on this blog. I had a really difficult time enjoying the swim this particular day because our friends had the pool vacuum going while we were there and obviously it's not dangerous, but it just moves itself around the base of the pool and cleans the floor/filters the water. I guess. But to me, it seemed alive and quite frankly, from a distance and in my peripheral vision, it looks like a shark. I know it's stupid, but I have an irrational fear of sharks and a healthy imagination and have always had to work hard NOT to think about sharks when I swim - even in pools. This probably is one of those things that comes from my being raised in Kansas. I am totally accustomed to tornadoes ( which freak my NM family out) but I am freaked out by sharks which coastal people are probably accustomed to and would laugh at me. Go ahead. This vacuum did not leave my sight and I did not get close to it. When it moved itself to the shallow end where Abi and I were, I just got out and let it do it's thing until it went away. Honestly, I had some serious anxiety issues with this thing.

The coolest tree swing ever!

I love this swing! I want this in my backyard someday...

She is actually happy...

Abi thought it was pretty cool, too! She just doesn't smile or pose for pictures.

Every backyard needs a swing like this!

But you need a tall tree like this... and a really tall ladder

Abi likes defined, somewhat enclosed spaces

One day, I walked in the living room to check on Abi and found her here. Funny girl. She does like having close spaces like when she puts blankets on her head...

Makeshift water table

I want to get Abi outside more so I made her a water table with a storage tub. It functioned. :)

Or tub, whichever

After this, Abi wears swimming diapers to play in the water table.

One of my top ten homemade meals!

This was one of the most AMAZING meals I've ever made! It was so easy too! This is a pork chop with seasonings, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and collard greens with bacon. It's not fancy in the least but it looked like it came from a restaurant and tasted like it too! I had to take a picture. Sometimes life just works.

"Hello!"

Abi loves her phone!

Shania Twain concert at Madison Square Gardens - fun stuff!

I went to NYC to watch Shania Twain with a couple friends and had a blast! I really appreciate being invited. Thanks, Rilee!