Three of Johnny's friends are here with their families. The boys are hanging out together and we have gotten all together twice for dinner. One of the families have a 5 yr old boy and an 11 yr old girl. There is also a family at the pool with an 8 yr old boy, 6 yr old girl and 3 yr old boy. Anna and Sarah have played so well with the kids. It is truly heart warming to see their progress. Anna's, because she is coming out of her parallel play stage and Sarah, because she is becoming so confident in her english that she can initiate play with other children. I am happy for both of them, it is a big step in the right direction.
Sarah has quite the personality and has many of the older people at the pool chatting with her daily. Anna is as cute as a button and is sure to let everyone know tomorrow is her birthday and she will be three years old! Little Ben and Anna have really hit it off. He often invites her to lunch and give her hugs goodbye- what a sweetie!
Sarah's swimming is improving by leaps and bounds. She does much better here with us than in her swimming lessons. We have determined that a female teacher is a must for her and her next session. She can do the arm movements and kicking to the front crawl but has to stop to breathe. She is doing handstands under water and jumping in by herself from a standing position (where it is not over her head). It is a joy to see her accomplish all this in such a short time. She has come so far from the little girl that was stiff as a board in the water and afraid to get her face wet.
Teenage boys are funny. They play like puppies and have this innate need to wrestle! We have had wonderful family time but it is nice for Johnny to see his buddies. The other families have enjoyed our girls and the girls love the extra attention. In fact they love, love, love attention especially our little Sarah. We are still and I think will be working with her on socially appropriate behavior for a long time. She does not do anything that is a huge "oh no"- just little things like climb over the furniture at someone else's house, when we say we are going to leave she dashes away, refuses to wear shoes when shoes are required at the restaurant, pouts at bedtime, loudly talks about people in front of them and still loves to stare. She is also a bargainer beyond belief, we are working on NO meaning exactly that, NO. Honestly to the general public she does great! She is charming, helpful, playful, wonderful sense of humor, good eater, pleasant, caring and everything else that is good! The little 5 yr old boy that was with us had a melt down the first evening. It was good for me to see that- with our youngest birth son being 15, it had been awhile since that was part of my life so it helped me to have more realistic expectations for our girls.
I have loved our evenings out with our friends. It is nice to have a conversation with big people! Because of the environment the kids were able to dance to the music, run on the beach, play catch or just play in the sand before sitting down to eat. We even caught a sunset! There is something about the setting sun that makes we want to get on my knees and thank our dear Lord! It is awe inspiring and breathtakingly beautiful! Only something our creator could have made! Thank you Jesus!!
Pics to follow!
