We are enjoying a simple vacation to Miami with a little spoiling. Daddy didn’t get to come on the trip, so the girls are getting to enjoy all of the fun. Julia was just introduced to pool and loved it. It was fun to watch a little one who has no fears of the world when in safe arms.

Emily has been really cautious in the water. She wants to be held by an adult while she is in the water, even though she was wearing the floaties. Yesterday she allowed Uncle Doug to jump into the water while holding her. She loved the ‘safe’ fun. Today when we went out we introduced the circle float, Emily found that floating on her own was actually fun. She would kick her feet to move around the pool and even ventured into the deep end. She did so well. I was pleased that she was enjoying her freedom and the pool.

Tomorrow will bring little cousins. It will be busy and fun. Hopefully Julia will enjoy the extra arms to hold her and Emily will want to imitate the boldness of the big kids in the water.

Emily is introducing Julia to one of her toys. Julia is really impressed and watched it spin for a short while. Then she decided that it needed the taste test. Emily didn’t quite understand why Julia was taking away her toy. It was sweet of her to share her toy. Emily is pretty sensitive to Julia’s need for a toy in her hands at all times. This is really taxing for her Mommy when Emily is sick and Julia and her toys are off limits to Emily.

Emily is wearing a shirt with Sebastian the Ibis on it, a gift from Papa. Sebastian is the official mascot of the University of Miami. We have taught Emily to call this shirt Ibis. Some days she will call it Sebastian, but most of the time Ibis. I’m afraid that we taught her to say Sebastian before we taught her to say Smokey. That makes me a bad fan! We will fix this first thing tomorrow when she wakes up.

Before anyone thinks that we have neglected our school, we will point out that baby Emily met Smokey personally. I’m sure she remembers the introduction.

Emily has a new-to-her playhouse on our back porch. It has been at Grammy’s house for a couple of weeks, but Emily was so excited to bring it home. We have had several meals outside; so that, she could get some additional playtime. We left half of the roof off of the house to allow additional light in. Every time we leave our house now, Emily runs around to check on her little house. It is really cute!

We spent one warm summer morning at the Splat Pad with a friend and her kids. I ended up with a lot of action photos of Emily because she was very busy and not interested in looking at the camera. And not to many of Julia because she was attachedto me for much of the play time.

This park has a playground right next to the water area so that the kids can move freely between the two areas safely. Emily chose to play in the playground and not get wet for quite a while. And even after she got wet, she really enjoyed the playground area best this day. She was little ‘Miss Outgoing’ and hung out with some big girls who were great to include Emily in their play. Emily warmed up to the slide slowly as usual, but while holding Mommy’s hand she decided that it was OK. Her wet suit made her very fast down the slide.

Julia hung out with me most of the time. We tried the bumbo next to some squirting water so that she could explore it on her own. Almost immediately, a little boy came to play and inadvertently splashed Julia with water, which she didn’t like. I got her settled and Emily came to check on her. She was very sweet to talk to her and even pet her on the head. The funny thing was that Emily decided that she wanted to put her foot in the water and used Julia’s head to steady herself. The pulling of Julia’s hair was the last straw of Julia’s patience with sitting by the water and she wanted nothing less than to be held. I don’t really blame her, I wouldn’t like my hair being pulled and water splashed in my face either.

This was by far my favorite park and splat pad we have visited for a playdate. The location was good for meeting for a playdate, the size of the park was great for small kids, and the water made it easy to cool off and a lot of fun!

We attempted to attend a Tennessee Smokies ballgame last week to celebrate Father’s Day with Granddaddy. We got to the field between storms and the game never got started. We waited a while for another storm to pass before we made our way out to the car. While we waited we were delighted by a visit from Slugger and Diamond, the mascots. So far Emily has been excited to meet large furry mascots, with parent in tow. She was delighted to meet these two!