Under

The camera has been a blast. The kids love it. Actually I don't know who loves it more Matt or the girls. The camera has come in handy because Lior was refusing to go underwater. Once she saw the pictures of Sydney she wanted her turn.
If she only knew how "far under" she was she would flip out.
Look at that face!

Right now Jordan is happy on top of the water. She needs to get comfortable in the water again
Sydney is a fish. She loves swimming under the water!
Look at that face!
That smile is just contagious.

Last sunday

Last Sunday we took the girls back to the infamous "vacation house" for a swim. This time their cousins were there to help entertain and entertain they did. Apparently, since the last time we all swam together, Eitan and Adina discovered how to jump from the edge of the spa into an inner tube floating in the pool below.

They spent a good hour showing my very impressionable three year olds this dynamite new trick.
Sydney liked the look of the stunt and spent a good fifteen minutes trying to master it, climb out of the pool, onto the edge of the spa, wait for the ring to be placed properly, and jump. Repeat. She made it a few times but most of the time she missed or hooked her leg onto the tube and grabbed onto it as hard as she could. Every time she came up her smile was bigger and brighter than the time before. She is quite the daredevil, our little Sydney!
Lior was not as interested in the new trick but enjoyed the day by the pool with her cousins. Jordan is becoming more and more comfortable in the water. Now we have to teach her to lift her head out of the water to take breathes while she is swimming and she will be a pro. Akiva is always very content watching the kids play as long as he has his feet to play with.

Our trip to the "vacation house"

Danny and Tanya have moved to Florida. They thought they found a house and moved in and then the house was sold. They have a years lease so they have a place to live but the people who bought the house really want to live there and asked Dan and Tanya to move. It is not as bad as it sounds as the people have two other homes, one more beautiful than the next for them to move into. The house they chose does not have a pool in the backyard, it is less than fifty feet away and is shared by the community. Good enough for us because it is better than what we have.
So while Uncle Danny and Aunt Tanya have this fantastic "vacation" house with a pool and no furniture, we are going to use it as much and as often as possible while they have it. The pool is a lot of fun. The hot tub is the perfect height for the girls to jump off and into the water. Sydney was the first to try it on Sunday and her sisters followed right after her. I thought Matt was going to go into shock when I told the girls they could jump off. "Today it's the hot tub, then it's the avocado tree and the next thing you know it's the roof" Apparently I opened Pandora's box. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of Jordan doing it on Sunday and today she refused without her "Daddy".



It looks like the girls do not need their father to throw them up in the air anymore, they can jump off the hot tub all by themselves. Maybe it is a good thing they are moving!

A first

Akiva rolled over today. I put him down for some tummy time in his crib and came back to find him face up and smiling. On Sunday he went into the pool for the first time. I do not know if he liked it but the girls were very excited to have him join us. I had told Sydney on Friday night that Akiva was going to go swimming with us and she told anyone who would listen to her that her baby was going in the pool. My baby is growing up too fast!

Day four

Day four and the kids are swimming. If I were more organized and knew what I was doing with the computer you would be looking at video right now. If I were to ask Matt to help me tonight he might not be that nice to me since he has to clean the kitchen and take a shower. I will post videos of the girls jumping into the pool and swimming. Amazing!

Day three

Day three was almost a complete washout because of the rain but we decided to take a chance that it would clear up. I am very glad that we did because the girls did an amazing job today.
Jordan jumped in the pooland swam to the wall.

Lior jumped in the pool and swam with her face in the water to the pool without crying.

Sydney jumped in the pool even though she did not want to do it and then had a great time because the hard part was over.
My little fish was a big screamer today but she got over it once she realized that jumping in the pool was a lot of fun.

Swimming day two

Two days down and three to go. Sydney is a fish. There are no other words to describe her, she sticks her head in the water and dives right in. Today she worked on kicking her feet straighter and getting a larger reach with her arms. She is fast! Tomorrow she is going to learn how to jump in and how to breath while she is swimming. I am going to practice breathing while she is swimming because I tend to hold my breath every time she goes under.
Lior did much better today. There was less panic and more control. She was definitely swimming. She needs to practice kicking her feet and keeping her mouth closed while she is under water.
Jordan is stubborn. She is still refusing to kick. "I don't want to kick", that is what I heard several times today. Because I am a Speech Pathologist I also noticed how clear her /k/ sound was when she said "kick", a first! She has always substituted that sound with the /t/, a common developmental error. Swimming is a cure all, if anyone else finds this out I will be out of a job. The instructor told me that as soon as Jordan starts to kick her feet while she is swimming she will be set. I hope she kicks those feet in the pool tomorrow. I know she knows how because she kicks us when she wants us to move, when we are changing her diaper, and when she does not want to be in her car seat.
My homework tonight is to get those girls kicking and charging the camera battery.

Swimming day one

Today was the first day of swimming lessons for all three girls. They are very brave! The big girls decided that Jordan was going first. Nothing like throwing the poor kid to the wolves! Poor Jordan cried for the first fifteen minutes at least but managed to swim under water a little, kick her feet a little, and monkey crawl along the wall to get out. Not bad for the first day. She actually made the instructor laugh several times. She was telling Jordan to kick her feet while she was under water and when she came out from under the water she told her to kick again, Jordan looked at her and said "I don't want to!" Needless to say she wound up doing it but she did not want to.
When Jordan was first in the water the girls were pleading with me, begging me, with big puppy dog eyes "Mommy, I don't want to do it", "Please mommy no" Big tears were falling out of Lior's eyes, she was really scared. I started to feel guilty and then they found Miss Nancy's toys and all of a sudden they wanted nothing to do with me. They spent Jordan's thirty minute lesson playing with the toys and cheering on Jordan. Sydney was putting her face in the water, kicking her feet and having a great time. When Jordan's lesson was over Sydney was eager to start swimming and she was amazing. By the end of her lesson she was swimming across the pool while kicking her feet, monkey crawling along the wall and starting to use her arms to swim all with a huge smile.
Towards the end of Sydney's lesson Lior started to clean up the toys in hope that she would not have to go swimming. She was sadly mistaken. Poor Lior was really scared and panicking. Miss Nancy said that Lior was the only one of the girls who had fear of the water. They are working through it and by the end of the lesson Lior was no longer screaming and was keeping her mouth closed when she went under water. She was also able to put her eyes under while she was swimming to the wall. She monkey crawled along the wall. She continued to cry but she was not as panicked by the end. I hope she has an easier time tomorrow although no one is looking forward to the lessons.
Maybe they will look forward to playing with Liel in the pool after their lesson?

Adult supervision needed

This is why Matt needs supervision:

Example one- Sydney


Example two- Jordan
Example three- Lior


Example four- No'am

Need I say more? No wonder Tanya wants to go to Barnes & Noble the next time we take the kids in our swimming pool.