Maybe the last swim of the season

This was probably our last swim of the season as they are predicting cooler weather coming tomorrow and then the water should cool down. Tanek had a good time swimming and jumping off the edge of the pool. He has come a long way this summer and by next summer I expect he will really be swimming well.

Pre-school exercise

I got this idea from Heather and Emily. It was a little challenging at first. We first tried regular tweezers and getting them to close on the fuzzy ball was a challenge. We then tried tweezers that have handles like scissors and that worked better since he had just mastered cutting out with scissors.
He would work on this for awhile and say "Nana" this is so hard. But he kept doing it until he got it. He really liked the other tweezers best and got all the fuzzy balls in the right bowls.

I love seeing how he will stick with something until he masters it. Then he is so excited that he learned it.

This is a happy little fellow. He actually does like doing this. He has gotton pretty good at managing those tweezers.

Last days of summer?

Today we went swimming. The pool water is still very warm, but not sure just how long it will last. Didn't want to miss a good opportunity to enjoy another fun day of swimming.
Tanek loves to go under the water and come up and catch the side. He can stand on his tippy toes and the water in the shallow end comes up to his chin.

He has really come a long way this summer and is swimming. Not that you would trust him out there by himself, but he is swimming. He loves to jump off the edge and swim to you. He has no fear of the water. He loves it. Next summer he will probably be swimming laps in the pool.

Tanek and his papa in the pool. If you can read the temp on the thermometor out here I think it is 90 degrees, actually it is about 95, The end of September? Good ol Florida summers.

Celebrating the birthday girl!

Last night we had a nice evening with our friends Austin & Tina, and Don & Doris to celebrate Doris's birthday. One thing we do like to do is celebrate birthdays. We like to eat and play phase 10. And we LIKE the women to win. And we usually do. Last night was the same. The women rule. We had a great time. Tina makes the best deserts and we always enjoy them. Don looking over Doris shoulder while she opens her gifts.

Doris is not the easiest person to buy for because she really doesn't need anything, but she loves things for the yard. So, wind chimes, bird feeders etc. are always a good choice.

Showing off her new wind chimes.

Here she is with her new finch feeder. We must get ready for our little birds when they come.

We had a great time. Next birthday coming up is Gary's. Always a good reason to go eat somewhere.

A day of fun??

Today Tanek wanted to paint. Now I have to admit, this type of activity is not my favorite thing to do. But he wanted to paint, and so he did. #1 I hate the mess. #2 He HATES his hands to be dirty. So he actually did have fun....until he got paint on his hands and then he was through. But he did have some fun and got to express his creativity.

It really isn't that big of a mess, its just that it does get all over. I was sitting there eating cheese dip and chips while watching him paint. I think I may have had some paint in my dip. But, after all it is water paints so what could that hurt?

He is so cute and was having so much fun, that I really didn't mind. But he really doesn't like his hands dirty.

He did have fun though and we will do it again.....sometime!

We went to making cookies after he painted. He loves dipping the cookies in sprinkles. And it is ok if the sprinkles get all over his fingers because you can eat that. So he had a great time dipping the cookies in the sprinkles.

He dipped everyone of them all by himself and really got it down pat. They turned out very good and they were very good.

Showing off his cookies.

And it is ok that my fingers have sprinkles coloring on them.

The most fun is after the cookies are all decorated what is left over in the bowl he gets to eat.

Sprinkles are kinda like glitter. You can get it all over and they will be around for awhile....except that we have two dogs that don't mind eating off the floor.

It is very fun to have a brightly colored tongue and mouth.

And the rule is you don't leave ANY sprinkles in the dish. You get them out anyway you can. Meme Anita had stopped by and was enjoying watching him have so much fun.

Very satisfied with his cookies. And they were yummy

One of Tanek's favorite things to do is work with his shapes. He will sit for a long time playing with them. When he first started on them he wanted to work on this one which is the last and hardest one to do. I helped him with it a couple times and now he does it all by himself. This works with lots of different shapes and sizes and they are several ways you can arrange them to make them work. It really does help with the hand-eye coordination. When he is working on these he is either listening and singing along to his Russian CD or the State Capitols CD. He will do at least 10 or more of these cards a day, and it is something he ask to do which is great. I don't think he even realizes how much it is teaching him, it is just fun for him.

So today was a good day filled with a lot of variety. We even had a little confrontation near the end of the day when he refused to pick up his toys. (usually he does it without even being ask ) but today he thought, no he wasn't going to do it. So, I asked him if I needed to get the paddle and he said Yes. I did, he wasn't happy about it but he finally picked up his toys with the help of his papa who didn't want to see his little grand-son unhappy.

Learning to Use Scissors

We started a couple days ago to learn to use scissors. After a couple days of cutting up good paper I decided it would be best to let him cut up old bills. Then I wouldn't have so much to shred and wouldn't be wasting good paper. This little guy has really caught on to cutting up paper and loves to cut up everything in sight. However, when he got to one of the electric bills he recognized the logo on it and said "this is where my daddy works and I have to take this to him". He would NOT cut it up. I tried to explain to him that it was ok, but he wouldn't cut it up because his daddy worked there.

He didn't much want to cut up my Disney credit card bill either because it had the Disney logo on it, but he finally did. I am surprised at how quickly he learned to use scissors and cut on his own.
I can cut out a lot of my shredding now and let him practice. Also while he was cutting he was listening to and singing along with his Russian music tape. The funny thing about it is they sing
"Ol Suzana" in Russian. Southern Russian fits him very good, because he definitely has a big southern accent.

You can see that he takes his work very seriously. We are having fun doing pre-school work together and I am learning how much fun and how quick a three year old is.

Getting Ready for Fall!

This afternoon Tanek and I put up some fall decorations outside. He was very helpful helping me hammer in the nails to put up the colored leaves. Of course he wanted to do it by himself but finally agreed to help Nana.
We also put some out on the backporch that is all nice and clean today. We put our pumpkins out in the house too. So we are all ready for fall now. If only it would hurry up and feel like fall.

It is nice to have someone helping me. We are really looking forward to starting our Christmas decorations and that will be quite soon.