I was a little sad today, but in a good way. I realized that Miller had outgrown his bouncy seat and his Bumbo so I put them both on Craigslist to sell. Within hours, I had an email and someone wanted to come and pick them up today. It is easy to list something, but when it comes to actually getting rid of it, it is sometimes difficult. All three of my kids played in that bouncy seat. I remember being so proud when each of them could pull the toy and make it sing. I have such fond memories of it. I guess I just associate the bouncy seat with my kids being babies and it makes me sad to know that they will ever be that small again.

We are done having children and I am okay with that, but it is sad to see that time of my life pass. I love having babies. I love being pregnant. I love the excitement of the first contraction. I even love the pain that comes with child birth because you know at the other end of it there is a beautiful and sweet little baby. I loved it all! But it is time to stop having new babies and enter into the next phase of life with the three beautiful children that we already have. It is time to say goodbye to all of the baby “stuff” that is in our house.

It is interesting that the day I get rid of baby items, Miller begins to eat real food. I made the kids french toast for dinner tonight and Miller ate it right along with them. He loved it. He did a great job picking up the food and getting it into his mouth. It was like he had done it a million times. I was proud Mamma once again. There are many milestones to come in my kids lives. Each of them will be remembered and each time I will be nostalgic when it is the last of the “firsts”.

Faith and Wilson with the baby mouse house

The fun never ends here at the Dressler house!  Today we were out of the house by 8:30, took all 3 kids with me to the chiropractor, and then took Wilson to the dentist at 10:30.  Luckily, no cavities!  Yeah!  After that the kids need to run off some energy so we went to William Davie Park off Rae Road.  We call it “the big playground”.  It is huge and it is fenced in, which is always nice.  We played there for almost two hours.  They have such a great time playing together.  Now that they are older, Faith and Wilson can play for hours at the playground without getting bored or tired.  As long as I bring snacks, and the weather isn’t too hot, we can play all morning long.

When we got home, there was a tiny little surprise waiting for us on the kitchen floor….a baby mouse!  I stepped on it by accident when I walked in the house, and I screamed like a little girl.  I think I am braver with a snake than a tiny little baby mouse.  I finally got the sense to put a tupperware container over it so that it couldn’t get away.  We just sat and watched the little thing and wondered what to do with it.  Amazingly, Wilson was the one that started to cry and say that he didn’t want it to die (which I had been saying would probably happen since it was so small and I had stepped on it).  I have to remind myself that Wilson is only two years old.  He is so tough on the outside that I forget that he is still so sweet and soft on the inside.

We ended up making a little home for the mouse in another tupperware container – complete with paper towel and bread crumbs.  My dad eventually come over to take the mouse “to the woods to be with his friends”.  I think that I will be having nightmares about this one!  The big question at hand is:  Where are all his brothers and sisters?????

Miller's first ice cream cone

For dinner we went to Chic Fil A to meet an old friend of mine, Kristen Maines.  Her sister lives in Mint Hill so we get together whenever she comes to town to visit.  Tonight she had her nephews with her so a dinner date was perfect.  The kids played on the playground while we chatted.  Miller had his first ice cream cone tonight.  As you can see, he loved it!  He kept diving in for more.   Literally, the sweetest baby ever…

Today we went to Boyce Park to meet up with our friends the Berkes and the Bishops.  It has been terribly hot here for over a week, but luckily the rain last night really cooled things off.  Today it was overcast and a perfect day for the playground.  We met everyone at 9:15 this morning and played until almost 1:00 pm.  It was, by far, the longest amount of time we have ever stayed at the playground.  The kids played so wonderfully together that we moms got to chat and enjoy our time together as well.  Rachel Bishop and I wanted to get her son, Payton, together with Wilson.  They are both rough-and-tumble boys and we knew that they would have a great time together, and they did. They carried around sticks all day, played in the dirt, and chased each other around.  I loved seeing Wilson with a friend that he could really play hard with.  At one point, they were sword fighting with their sticks and no one ever complained that they got hurt.  Wilson even learned how to go down the fireman’s pole all by himself.  It is a pretty tall one at Boyce, but he got it after two tries!  So proud.

Faith’s best friend is Emily Berke.  They had not seen each other in a while so I knew that we needed to invite the Berkes.  It doesn’t hurt that her mom, Vicki, is one of my closest friends.  It was cute to see the girls reunited.   They played together the whole time and shared rings and headbands. Too cute.

Faith is now an official swimmer. Tom took Faith and Wilson to the Y pool yesterday. The three of them played in both pools – diving for sticks, jumping into the deeper water, squirting water, and having a blast. Faith started to jump into the four foot pool, touch bottom and then begin to swim towards Tom. She did this over and over again. Finally, Tom asked the life guard what the swim test was like and could Faith take it. She had to swim about 20 feet, float on her front and float on her back. She did it! I couldn’t believe it. She went from not swimming at all to passing the swim test within one week. I guess this is a classic example of how becoming more comfortable, gaining confidence and lots of practice really pays off. Faith went to the pool almost every day this week and it shows. We are all so proud of her. Here is a picture of her with her yellow swim band on (which means that she can swim in the 3.5 ft area by herself).

While Faith was swimming Wilson was practicing too.  He finally got some goggles and began to go under the water as well.  He really likes to find the dive sticks (although he isn’t really diving under the water to get them).  He enjoys going under the mushroom and letting water fall down on him.  I bet he will be swimming by the end of the summer.

Faith and Tom - both proud that Faith is swimming

Today we went to the Siskey YMCA to play at the pool. It was 103 degrees again for the third day in a row. We needed to get outside and have some fun. Tom and Faith were playing and swimming together in water that was up to Faith’s shoulders. She was practicing her swimming and jumping into the pool when she started to swim on her own. She has always been afraid to put her face in the water, but today she did it! After a few times she loved it and did it over and over again. She was so proud of herself, and so was Tom. We had to stay at the pool for another hour so that she could continue to swim and swim. We were all very excited!

Wilson started to put his face in the water as well…not to be out done by his sister. He isn’t swimming yet, but loves to walk through the sprayers and go down the slides. We have a great YMCA with a fantastic pool. There are two areas for kids to play in: a slanted pool with a frog slide and a large 2 foot pool with slides and water sprayers. We were at the pool for 2.5 hours today and had a lot of fun together. Both kids are doing well in the water so far this summer. Neither of them are afraid of getting their faces wet. I am so proud of them both!

The large two foot pool at the Siskey Y.

 

 

Wilson was walking through the water sprayers

Wilson going down the frog slide