The Top 10 Things I am Most Grateful for in the last 6 Weeks

1. Living near my mom this time (she has helped A LOT with everything, thanks Mom!)
2. Taking care of a baby is way easier the second time, I have some idea of what to do this time.
3. My wonderful sister Ana let me hire her to clean my house every week, so I don't have to make the decision between a nap and cleaning the toilets.
4. The Dinner A'Fare, this really cool place that lets you come in to make a bunch of dinners at once and then you have lots of ready made, wholesome meals in the freezer (beats Stouffer's!)
5. Clara genuinely likes Ian, I haven't heard anything resembling "send him back" from her. She is really helpful too.
6. I am embarrassed to say that the TV has been great. Between horrible morning sickness, the third trimester exhaustion, and new baby exhaustion Clara has spent some quality time with the TV. (We are cutting that back a lot now that things are a little more normal)
7. Clara's preschool and swimming lessons because they have provided some quality experiences for Clara in an otherwise monotonous existence.
8. My sister-in-law Jamie lent me her papasan swing and it's the only thing that Ian would sleep in at night for the first several weeks of his life. (now he is fine in his pack n' play in our room, hurray, I was getting tired of carting the swing into our room every night)
9. Adam has been super supportive. He is really great about picking up whatever I have needed from the store and really helps a lot with Clara and Ian.
10. I am so lucky that Ian is such a happy, healthy, pleasant little guy!

Ian's Favorite Sleeping Position

It's Summer Time

Because it is summer here, and keep in mind we do live in Florida (remember that means it's hot!) you can expect to be seeing a lot of pictures containing water. And because we plan to spend a lot of time in the water mentioned above, we thought it prudent that Clara have swimming lessons. She has actually been in swimming lessons for two weeks now. In fact, those lessons have been my only excursion with both my kids so far! Since the private lessons are only about 20-30 minutes long I felt I could handle such a short jaunt- kind of a warm up for other, more intimidating activities-- like the grocery store!

The lessons are going well. Clara has not yet refused to get ready, but she has expressed displeasure when she goes under the water. She does get more comfortable with the idea progressively as we have more lessons. I love how they do these lessons, because her teacher is helping her to learn to swim to the side of the pool, that will be really good if she ever happens to fall in , she'll be familiar with getting herself to the side.

Her big incentive for lessons is a lollipop at the end, she never turns those down!