Amaya Visits Sioux Falls

On Sunday, the 22nd, we took a sidetrip to Sioux Falls to visit some friends.

Here Amaya is so excited to be going to meet her new little friends.
Here is Reagan, pretty in pink.
Little Jack thinking, "I wish that lady would stop taking pictures of me."
Joe the Bubble King. Amaya was quite impressed as you can see.
Jack "Hercules" Jacobson, showing his super-toddler strength.
Amaya's turn on the little car. We learned she likes to drive in reverse.

Amaya Visits Dakota Dunes

We traveled to South Dakota on June 19th for a long weekend visiting family and friends. This was Amaya's tenth flight, and thankfully she did great. Especially considering she's no longer a baby like last time we flew. She's now a very active toddler. She enjoyed to process getting to the gate and even seemed to enjoy the flight, despite not having that much room to do her favorite pasttime...roam. She passed the time by eating (there's a surprise, smile, smile), looking out the window, and playing, then eating again. We arrived in Omaha with no complications and Amaya slept during the drive to Dakota Dunes. Yeah! Upon arriving, she had to get reacquainted with Meggie Mitchell (golden retriever). Amaya didn't warm up to her as quickly as last time. But once the warming up period was over, they were fast friends. Amaya enjoyed seeing Grandma Kim and Grandpa John again, and quickly made herself at home. She took it upon herself to roam and explore. A whole new environment to check out...that's Christmas to a 15 month-old. The rest of the weekend was filled with seeing family and friends, swimming and playing outside. We were outside about 90-95% of our waking hours. We had luckily picked the perfect weekend to visit SD. The usual humidity left for the weekend and returned a couple days after we left. Amaya loved that! She just loves being outside. Scott and his buddies had perfect weather for their annual Dakota Dunes golf invitational, so that was nice. Although that way they couldn't blame their scores on the weather. Bummer. So, here are "a few pics" from our weekend at "The Dunes."

Amaya says, "Oh my goodness, they have bubbles here, too. This is going to be awesome!"
Amaya roamed and roamed outside carrying the bubbles everywhere she went.
"Hmm, there's no water in this pool. It's filled with plants instead. Interesting."
Amaya and cousins Jena and Lauren. Cousin Brycen wasn't interested in getting in the picture with the girls."Flower girls"
Amaya and Jena
Amaya's first golf cart ride. Usually the brave one, she clung to Grandma as if her life depended on it. And with daddy driving, it probably did. Smile, smile.
Grandma Kim and Amaya in daisy land.
Hey, there's the photographer and her husband.
Amaya in a rare moment sitting in the grass. She was "roaming" 99% of the time we were in the backyard.

Look at this grass mommy. It's different than our grass.
Picking Grandma's flowers.
What a good girl. She just picked one. A conservationist already.
Amaya roaming with her walking stick...
she must be planning a long journey.

The sun has set. Time for Amaya to contemplate her golf game for the next day.
Visiting the swans. Scott had to hold Amaya back because she wanted to join them in the pond.
What a peaceful and tranquil little spot!
The life of a swan isn't so bad!

That's all the pics I am posting from our time at the dunes. I was once again a bad photographer, not getting pics of the boys on their golf outing or pics with Amaya and Brycen, aunt Amy, uncle Brian, Meggie, Grandma Marilyn or Grandpa John. Although that's really not entirely my fault. Amaya is as much to blame because she is so busy roaming most the time it's hard to get her to stop and visit people long enough for a photo. I'll try harder next time. I will be posting pics from our sidetrip to Sioux Falls and our "side vacation" to the Omaha airport next. Stay tuned.

First Things First- Amaya's Swimming Videos (as promised)

Above are the video clips of Amaya's swimming lessons that I promised to post. The first 4 are from "winter clothes day", the last 2 are from graduation day. Happy viewing.

Swimming Video Clips

I wanted to post a few video clips of Amaya's swimming, but it takes forever to upload a short little clip to blogspot. So.... I ran out of time. I will post them next time I get on to blog. Later everyone.

LA,
BLM

Amaya's New Little Friend

Amaya went to visit her new little friend Brooklyn last week. Here Amaya is checking out precious little Brooklyn. She just stared for the longest time. I bet she was thinking something like, "she looks so real compared to my baby doll."

Finally, after lots of observation, it looked like Amaya was going to try touching little Brooklyn. But...she just held her hand near Brooklyn's head for the longest time. It was so funny. It's like she wasn't quite sure if she should, or if she was allowed, to touch her. It's like she was debating, should I or shouldn't I, should I or shouldn't I?
She put her hand down and looked at Brooklyn's mommy Mae as if to ask permission. We all told her she can touch the baby, gently.
So Amaya did, but...
then the baby moved. Amaya was like whoa, she's moving. She whipped her hand back.
It was quite cute and funny. Brooklyn and Amaya's first interaction. So precious. Soon they'll be playing dolls together and running around playing football at playgroup gatherings.
Amaya has a look that says "was she suppose to move, did I do something wrong."
Welcome to the world, little Brooklyn!

Love always,
Your pal Amaya

Amaya the Swimmer

Amaya graduated from her ISR swimming classes last Friday. Here she is on graduation day showing off her skills.

Amaya floating. She can get herself into a floating position after vertical placement submerged under the water, a simulated pool edge fall, after a "flip-over", after swimming face down, and fully clothed.

Amaya resting mid-lesson. This is Becki, her instructor.

Amaya swimming to the stairs. They teach them to swim-float-swim, which means to swim with their face down, roll onto their back when they need to breath and rest, then roll back over and swim face down some more, repeating the sequence until they reach shore, the stairs, the pool wall, etc. So far, since Amaya is quite young still, she's just tackled the distance seen above (between the instructor and the stairs). The instructor always stays, at most, arm length distance away, so the kids are very safe during lessons. So, don't worry out there. These instructors are highly trained and aren't your usual swim instructors. I highly recommend this program to all of you with youngsters out there. Check out the website at www.infantswim.com.
Here the instructor is lifting up on Amaya's swimsuit ruffle to encourage her to flip back over and swim the rest of the way to the stairs. Sometimes a verbal prompt works, but sometimes she needs a little more encouragement to finish. They can float like that for long periods of time, so I guess she just wants to lay back and relax sometimes. Smile, smile.
She made it to the stairs. Yeah!
Amaya resting after her last lesson of the year. She sure worked hard these past 5 weeks, but it has paid off.

No "Fraidy Cat" Here

I stole these pics from Grandma Cindy's camera. These were taken while Scott and I were in Acapulco. I couldn't resist sharing. Our little girl is definitely not a "fraidy cat." She has no fear. One might think she'd be afraid of this creature, but nope, not Amaya. Instead she was enthralled and curious. As you can see, she even dropped her pink hibiscus flower upon discovering this delightful new friend. Which says a lot because Amaya is obsessed with hibiscus flowers.