Puzzles and Water

Lately I've spent a lot of time doing puzzles. Stuey and Nora love puzzles-especially Stuey. I got them their first larger puzzle back in November when I returned from my triathlon in California. I remember the first time the kids were exposed to a larger puzzle, it was quite difficult for them. Now, Stuey can do a puzzle for over an hour-again and again and again. After he finishes a puzzle, he says, "lets do it again, lets do it again" (really fast) and quickly breaks up the puzzle to start it again. The great part is that I really enjoy puzzles. In some ways, its meditative. To see the pieces come together-to be on the floor doing something productive with the kids. And it is challenging...even though its only a little 60 piece puzzle, it takes a few minutes for us to put it together. The puzzle in the photo is a large 24 piece puzzle, which Stuey can put together by himself fairly quickly. I'm all over playing with legos, blocks and puzzles. Good times!

The other thing we've been doing lots of recently is swimming. Nora LOVES swimming. She puts on her little pink goggles and likes going underwater to search for the plastic rings on the bottom of the 3 feet deep kiddie area. There is another young girl the same age in the pool who is extremely confident in the water and just the other day did the breaststroke the entire length of the regular pool! Wow! Nora sees her and has become more driven to do all the things that the other girl does. She says, "mom-I want to go to the deep end and swim like her".

I like taking the kids to the pool for several reasons:
-its an easy hour for me-kids are COMPLETELY thrilled, happy and entertained. And they don't fight there. Yeah!
-Its great exercise for the kiddies. A solid hour of kicking and swimming around is so good for their bodies and minds.Makes them go to sleep easier and sleep longer, too!
-Swimming is a wonderful life sport for Stuey and Nora and I support their love of water. We have a strong kingfishers swim program and a new pool with a great kiddie area---all the makings of water being a great source of fun and exercise for Nora and Stuey!

The house is quiet-everyone is asleep. I just returned from teaching birthing class. Seems like there might be an end to the rain-THANK HEAVENS. Seems like nothing but strong winds and rain lately. I'm not normally one to complain about weather, but this has been a bit of the pits. I'm ready for winter to resume! :)

Zoya