More Swimming and a Little Boxing!

We have certainly been enjoying our summer! Grandpa gave the Castor boys and old blow up pool he had since they were not able to open their big pool due to some work that needed to be done on it. He offered another to us, but Kevin wouldn't dare allow us to ruin his precious grass with a pool, so for now we swim at Grandma and Grandpa's or Auntie's. About a week ago my doctor told me I needed to stop work and "rest" for three hours twice a day due to being so swollen. Yeah right! So, my family has been wonderful with trying to help with Henry in the morning so I can rest during his nap. We spent one day at Auntie's and the kids had a blast in the freezing cold water. We have also found some rather large pillow boxing gloves to be a big hit with Henry and Kevin. We have had the gloves for a while (not sure why) and I recently took them out of the attic. This makes for hours of fun in the evening when Kevin comes home from work.

All the boys

Reed with his big boy haircut!

Round 1 Fight!!! (yes this is what he yells as soon as the gloves are on!)

Henry's new "smile." This is what you get if you ask him to smile, not bad!

While swimming with Grandpa Henry discovered the buttons that make bubbles in the hot tub, you know how he loves his buttons!

Henry was able to convince Grandpa to take him swimming while Kevin worked on his car and I sat in the shade...it really didn't take much convincing!

Swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's

First off I have to apologize for not having finished blogging about our fun long weekend we had July 4th. Unfortunately I lost my camera and therefore the pics that went with the weekend. We have a new camera now so I'll try to recapture some of those moments. Henry has been doing extremely well swimming this year. We started the season off with a "puddle jumper" float (the green float Cole is wearing) and have graduated to only swimmies and have learned that he can also handle Luke's swim belt. Henry shows no fear in the water and wants very much to be independent. He's not quite as brave as his cousins, running and jumping in the water, but he does very well. Henry has spent much time swimming with Aunt Kerri who is a former lifeguard and swimming teacher, and he has definitely shown some improvements! (check out his "straight" kicking legs in some of the pics). We are so grateful to Grandma and Grandpa who not only open their pool to us but to Henry's cousins as well, we have all enjoyed it very much, and I think they enjoy having all the kids around as well!

Reed is completely fearless, and would swim on his own if only he had the coordination to do so! How cute is he!

Henry and Cole (Cole's wearing the some float that Henry started with, he can now do the swimmies as well, we love to trade floating devices!)

Henry showing off his skills!

Henry in Luke's swim belt getting Cole!

Long Weekend Day One...Lupazoo!

I am lucky enough to have a four day weekend for the holiday and so I planned a lot of fun things to do with Henry. I want to do as many fun summer things with him now that I can before I have the baby, so we started Friday. Friday, Henry and I went to the Lupazoo which is in Ludlow, MA, about 2 minutes from Kevin's job. So, it was the perfect opportunity to also have lunch with Kevin and for Henry to check out all of the machines at Kev's work. (I really wish I brought my camera into Kevin's work because he was definitely rocking some ear plugs and safety goggles and "working" the machines...oh well, use your imagination, he was cute!) Anyway, the zoo was great and Henry was a trooper despite being a little under the weather, he walked the whole zoo, except the end when I had to carry him (really thought that would put me into labor, no such luck!) He really enjoyed the animals and was mighty upset when he would talk to the animals and they would not respond.


Checking out the monkeys.

My little "girl."

This was by far the favorite of the trip, a baby deer. The deer was following Henry up and down the fence and trying to smell him. When I told Henry the deer was smelling him, he in turn "smelled" the deer.

There was also a little playground, that we of course had to test out.

There were also many statues of animals that he wanted to "ride."

Of course we couldn't leave without riding the "trolley" that went around in a circle. He waved to all his fans the whole time. I think this was a nice break for his tired legs.

My Pumpkin Head...I love this kid! We had a great time, stay tuned for our fun activities from the rest of the weekend!