Making Daddy Proud: Swimming

I have very fond memories of swimming as a kid.  I'm sure I'm not unusual in this; swimming is a play-time right of passage for many.  But I have a very specific memory from my childhood that epitomizes what it means to be a dad.  I clearly remember my father with his brown swim trunks with yellow piping, diving deep under water as I held my breath and clung to his neck, forcing myself to hang on as long as I could.  I felt like Whale Rider (no offense intended Grandpa Lodwig).  As I've mentioned this memory was a powerful one for me, and so I've been looking forward to giving Anya "daddy whale rides" since she was still in mommy's tummy.
Today at the pool at Mountlake Terrace we finally did it! 
Anya wrapped her little arms around my neck and had me swim to the bottom of the pool.  We decided she could pinch me on the shoulder whenever she wanted up. And so that was what we did.  Probably about  3 or 4 rides to the bottom.  It meant the world to me.

But it wasn't just the daddy rides that were great today.  Today was also the first time that Anya actually swam by herself.  Anya doesn't really take instruction very well (read: at all) so she's been flailing around in the shallows by herself for some time, or bobbing around in a life vest telling mom that she swam when we get home.  But today she put her head underwater, picked her feet up and began kicking and doing the breast stroke (I did manage to get her to learn that one thing today).  And she moved! Very wobbly and very slowly, but it was real unassisted swimming. 

I'm extremely proud of all the strides she's been making in the pool over the last couple of weeks.
Chris

I've created a "favorite photos" photo album

The other day I realized that we had years worth of images on our computer which weren't being backed up . That made me feel pretty insecure, so I've begun the process of putting our favorite photos online. You can see the complied album of our favorite shots here.

Those of you who use Picasa probably know about the face recognition feature. Very cool and creepily accurate at identifying people in your albums. There were 2,336 confirmed Anya sightings in our photos. I guess we like her.
Enjoy!
Chris

Anya Feeds the Reindeer and Mumbles at Santa at Swanson's Nursery

This year mom heard that some of Santa's herd were being housed up as Swanson's Nursery while they rested up for their long Christmas flight. Anya and I headed up there on Christmas Eve before Santa showed up to claim them and yoke them.
Eventually Santa did show up. Santa doesn't scare Anya, but he does make her very bashful.

Chad and Megan Come for Dinner

Anya's biggest crush came over for dinner the other night and dusted off his old pizza tossing skills from back in high school. Anya was very impressed.

Makin’ Daddy Proud

This week has seen a lot of advancements on Anya’s part. 

Amy just informed me that her teacher at Little Gym thinks Anya is too advanced for her class and needs to move up. (The unfortunate symptom being that she is acting out and not listening.) 

She has started answering the phone when Grandma, Andrea, or I call.  She’s also started texting back when I text. It is particularly cool seeing her text “Anya”, “Mom”, “Dad”, and even “volcano” back at me.  (Don’t get too excited, she also sends, “daerajdaejae” more often than not).  Again, a disaster on one level and pretty astounding on another.

Most impressive to me personally is her sudden curiosity about everything. Amy informed me that Anya had “big questions this morning about where life comes from and evolution.”  The other day in the car she asked where the sun came from, and the earth, and the sky?  Where did the bugs come from?  Where did plants come from? 

I answer as simply and accurately as I can and she continues to ask clarifying questions rather than getting instantly annoyed or bored. It’s really exciting for me to have these types of conversations with her.

Monday night her and I worked on a 50 piece floor puzzle of the planets. I gave her hints, encouraged her and talked her through lots of it, but I didn’t help at all. She finished the whole thing and was really proud.  She and I then talked about how asteroids make impact craters on the moon, and how Mercury and Venus are very hot.  Then she READ the names of all the planets (she needed help on Uranus).

It is so cool to see her actually reading and writing and discussing really hard to grasp concepts with me.  Now if only I could convince her that I’m not “ruining her life” by asking her to wash her hands before dinner…

Preschool Progress

Anya's preschool progress notes. Grandparents, click on the picture to enlarge.