It's taking me a while to get started.....
I haven't touched this for a while, better late than never I suppose.

School is out for the summer and Natalie is thrilled to be able to stay up a little later than usual. She's quickly fallen into her role as Josh's #1 entertainment source.
I love having her around! She's so grown up already - gets up in the morning, does her chores, and comes up with original activities for the day.
She's taken it upon herself to be Josh's speech tutor for the summer since speech therapy ended last week. She will quiz him on things, and give me a full report on how he is doing: "He's doing well on his t's, but he really needs some work on the s's. We'll keep working on that, because he's getting better." I've asked if she's now planning to be a speech therapist when she grows up, and no - still planning on being a dentist.
It makes my life so much easier that she's happy to help. How was I so lucky to be blessed with kids that get along? I'm so thankful!
This evening she attended her first "Jazz variety" dance class that will last throughout the summer. They should learn some fun things, and she's excited about it.

Josh is excited that Natalie is here every day. It became difficult toward the end of the school year because he would wake up every morning and get mad that Natalie had gone to school.
It's a nice change for him to be the one that has somewhere to go since he attends preschool 3 times a week. He has a favorite teacher, "Miss Ashleigh" who came to visit last night. She is doing her portfolio on Josh and keeps daily notes on his progress. He really likes her and was soooo excited for her to visit so she could see his room, Natalie's room, the hallway, the backyard, the car, etc. I'm happy that he makes friends easily - that will make it much easier for him later on.

We took the kids swimming on Saturday at Rob and Annette's pool, and tackled Josh's fear of water! He's never wanted to go swimming before, despite many times trying and failing. He would freak out even seeing a swim diaper, or trunks. It was a great accomplishment, and I used the "frog in the boiling water" method of getting him used to the idea. We started out putting his feet in, and then he started playing ball with us from the side of the pool. After a while I had him on my shoulders, and started by walking through the water that was shallow so that his feet didn't touch, and gradually moved until it was a bit deeper, and waited for him to approve - after a while he really liked it (except for the splashing) and was riding on my back singing me songs that he's learned in preschool and primary. It was a great day, I'm so proud of him for overcoming his fear. Now we just need to work on animals....

All in all, the summer is off to a good start. My routine is starting to feel a little more normal, and so far, I'm keeping up pretty well. Hopefully things don't get too crazy and summer will be more relaxing than chaotic.