Downtown Atlanta

The hotel I had in Atlanta had a pretty good view of the downtown so I took many photos with the thought to do some post HDR trickery in Photoshop. It's beyond realistic of course but I like it as an artsy piece.

Preschool Treasures

I must admit that one of my favorite things about Preschool is all of the cute crafts that Parker brings home nearly every day. Some of them are intricate paintings or collages covered in yarn and colored pasta and glitter, while some of them seem more like reckless scribbles and lonely stickers. But they are all treasures to me. His teachers made him an awesome book as an end-of-the-year gift, filled with drawings that he did throughout the year and photos of him on special school days. He was so excited to get this book last week; we brought it home and sat right down on the front lawn and looked through the whole thing together. He told me stories about every drawing and photo, and then did the same thing for Jared that night. It felt so special. I just added this book, along with the rest of his end-of-the-year crafts, to a big plastic box that is full of basically every thing he ever created this year, which I will happily save forever. I hope that he has fun looking back through these treasures some day--I know I will. 

Last Day of School

Parker finished his first year of Preschool! Here he was on September 10, 2010--his first day of school--and June 9, 2011--his last day of school. I am so ridiculously proud of him for all of the growing he has done this year. I love his school, and think it has been such a positive influence on him. I'm thankful that he will be able to attend the same school again next year, his last year of Preschool before he starts Kindergarten--what??!!

Levi is learning to stand

Ok so he's still a long way from walking but this was pretty cool for us to see.

Swim Class

Parker had his first swim class at the YMCA today. I wasn't sure how it would go, since we took a swim class together at the Y when he was about two years old, and it was pretty much a bust. He hasn't been super comfortable in the water in the past, but he's made huge progress in the last nine months or so (especially since our last trip to Lake Powell). It turned out that he did great in his class today--we haven't been giving him enough credit for all of the growing up that he has done this last year! I think preschool has made a huge difference for him. He totally participated in class today, and I'm so excited thinking that he will finally learn how to swim this summer. I've signed him up for two sessions of classes this month, so he'll have a total of eight classes by the end of June. We're also going to get lots of practice in this summer, seeing as how the weather has been beautiful and sunny almost every day so far--no May Gray to speak of, and no June Gloom so far, either! So we'll be doing plenty of swimming in Grammy and Grampy's pool, at the beach, and at Mission Bay. 

Starting Solids

We started introducing Levi to solids a little bit before he turned six months old. I of course started off with rice cereal, and he was less than enthused about it. Figuring that he'd be more excited about sweet, yummy fruits, I moved on to pears...but surprisingly, he didn't squeal with delight and reach eagerly for the spoon after his first taste like I imagined he would! After a few days, and mainly unenthusiastic responses, I moved on to bananas, then sweet potatoes, apples, and carrots. He really hasn't taken to any of them yet; in fact, you'd pretty much have to hold his hands down and pry his mouth open to get any food in there! He has perfected this ninja defense move any time he senses food getting too close to his mouth.

Biker Baby

We finally broke down and bought a new iBert bike seat to replace our old Bell that we used for Parker. We had been planning on trying to wait a few more months to get Levi out on the bike with us, but we miss bike riding so much and the days have been so long and sunny that we just couldn't wait anymore. He is a big, strong baby, and has great head/neck control, and Parker's old helmet fits him just fine. He is also plenty happy to sit on the bike all buckled in to his seat. Jared takes it super easy with him on his bike, riding slow and being extra conscious not to romp over too many bumps. Levi's head really doesn't seem to bob around much at all, so I feel confident that nice gentle rides on sidewalks are fine with him now. We took our first family ride down at the harbor a few evenings ago, with Parker on his own bike with training wheels. He rides plenty fast, in fact sometimes he gets too far away from us and we have to make sure he waits up and is being safe and alert. Levi just sits perfectly still and content in his seat on the front of Jared's bike, holding on and watching the world go by. Can't wait to go for a family ride down along Mission Bay soon--probably this weekend.