To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week was a good week. I need to write about these moments so I can remember them later. At the beginning of the week, we had our first meeting about Kate attending her local neighbourhood school. It went WAY better than I ever imagined!

It is so cool to watch both of our kids excel in their own way. Swimming lessons is something that brings us so much joy. Kate is now in the preschool swimming lessons. She swims in her ring so she can have some independence and learn some new skills without Mom, Dad or Grandpa being there! This week showed large improvement. Kate wore the life jacket really well. She did some assisted jumping into the pool. AND she followed one step instructions and swam for a toy…all by herself! She did this over 5 times! Her teacher would throw the toy and ask Kate to swim to it. Kate swam in her ring toward the toy each time. It is so cool to see her succeed like this! Just awesome! It’s great proof that she’s so capable of learning. She’s really showing us that she understands what we are saying.

Meanwhile, Jamie is doing well in his lessons. He’s the smallest kid in his swim class, but that never stops him. He jumped off the swim block today. He also used a pole to get himself down to the bottom of the pool. It’s always a fun night, but this time it was extra special as both kids tried their best and exceeded their expectations.

At the end of the week, Kate and I spent the afternoon cruising the mall. She walked the entire way holding my hand, side by side, fom Old Navy to Bath and Body Works. We stopped at lots of windows. Kate loves the ones with loads of colour and lights! People would smile at her as they walked by because she can’t help but make people smile! If someone would walk by and not notice her, she would giggle and cackle at them until they would see her smiling up at them. I’ve never seen one kid make so many people happy. It was such a typical thing to do with your daughter. I thought I’d miss out on moments like these, but that’s not the case with Kate. She’s an awesome little shopper. I loved every moment.

Finally, Kate is working really hard at standing up on her own. She’s constantly popping into the bear crawl position. She’ll look at you upside down while doing her super flexible version of downward dog. Tonight she did it with only one hand as support and she figured out she needs to pull her body up to stand. So satisfying…there were those who said she couldn’t motor plan! As if! She’s a rock star.