Swimming hole fun times

Jumping or diving into the 12 foot wide hole of Jacob's well makes this swimming hole a bit different.  The limestone wall has 3 tiers, here is Z jumping from the ~3ft shelf. He chose not to join me from top (10ft) shelf, sensible lad.  The water is cool and refreshing as the artesian spring spills forth fresh aquifer water from 120 meters down.  Most of this is sloping down progressively deeper chambers, but the "bottom" of the surface section is around 18 meters. At first Z didn't want to jump but by the time we left I could hardly tear him away.  Now to figure out the next stop on our water hole tour of Tejas.

crawling update

So far today Miriam has been into the cat food thrice, chased linus twice and gone for my cowboy boots once.

crawling .... .... .... the end is nigh!

So Miriam is no long immobile, not that she couldn't get around, it was just very brownian motion in style. Since starting daycare she has been making moves to go forward instead of the backward cycle that makes her so mad. Mostly because it generally has her ending up under a couch. After just one day with five other pre-toddlers she made a full forward cycle, hand, hand, knee, knee. Unfortunately she got excited and then went backward 3 feet resulting in couch and tears. By wednesday night she was managing to get 2 forward cycles strung together. She even looked like she was going to go further, but instead would sort of fall into a sitting position and admire her progress. This morning, Miriam got her crawl on! She moved about 3 feet in the direction she wanted to go. WIN for her. Baby safing and constant vigilance for us!

skill aquired

Miriam has been working on the flat on belly to sitting up transition for the last few weeks. She has finally mastered it. Now she moves around the living room by rolling, sitting up assessing and then moving into precrawl before collapsing and starting over. For the precrawl she has just start to put a hand forward and then lunge forward, she does not yet seem to have figured out the knee movement but it is only a matter of time.

size comparision

6y10mo and 7.5mo; getting bigger all the time. Zachary has gotten skinny over the summer, probably all the swimming and running around. He also grew about 4 inches I think. So he went from toddler pudge to a lean and skinny boy shape. Miriam is getting bigger too, she is now 22lb and constantly throwing her weight around.

first day of first grade

Yesterday, Zachary went back to school. In the morning, I woke him up and he jumped out of bed with a large grin and lots of hugs. He put on his big boy hat and helped bring the school morning routine back like the summer hadn't happened. He was delightful; dressing himself, eating breakfast, and clearing the dishes. He decided on the way to school that he didn't need me to walk him to his classroom, so off he went at drop off.
Later, when I picked him up from his after school program, he was still chipper! He chatted all the way home and some. Telling us about his lessons and teachers, games and worksheets, new classmates and old friends. Lets hope the rest of first grade is this exciting and wonderful for him.

All tuckered out

The kids asleep in the car coming back down out of the mountains after an amazing week with the family at Pinecrest Lake.

Miriam stands

Eventually she topples over slowly and fairly gracefully onto the precisely placed pillow to her right.