Beatin the Heat!

Man..I always seem to forget how hot and humid the summers in Florida are..until they roll around again. As much as I'd like to just hide inside the AC, I gotta get out and about and let Leeza burn off some energy! The pool does the trick..and her reward for a good swimming lesson effort is a POPSCICLE!







We also enjoy our weekly Kindermusic class and our gymboree class. I love watching her confidence and coordination grow at these classes. In our newest kindermusic class, we met a little girl who has Leeza's exact same birthday (September 5th) so it was refreshing to see another lil girl her exact same age. She typically is the youngest one in the class (even only by a couple months) but at this age, that is a huge difference. It was refreshing (and honestly, a relief to me) to see this other lil girl run off and do the same things that Leeza does. I was starting to really think that she is gonna be in trouble every minute when she starts preschool! :)



I am still getting up early in the am (6 am for summer-yay!) to get my 5 mile run in...but I've been a HUGE SLACKER on training for my 3 day walk. It's so hot and now that Leeza is potty trained..my days of 2 hour walks with her in the stroller are over. She has to pee toooooo often for us to walk very far. However-I guess she wanted to go for a walk cuz Sean found her with the dog's collar and leash around her neck the other day.....



I am going to start walking with a friend of mine and her team on Saturday's, and then in September, when Leeza goes to preschool 2 mornings a week-I am going to devote those hours to walking. I gotta get it in gear or those 60 miles are going to be PAINFUL ONES!

After having so much fun at the lil water park in Dallas, we decided to check out a FREE splash park that opened in Dunedin. It was SO CUTE and really a lot of fun. Leeza had a blast, and Sean was a real trooper to go with us and help entertain Leeza and her boyfriend Ryan. :)

Coffee Talk with a 22 month old....

What can I say...she cracks us up. :)

What's your name?

Leeza just started to say her name...but if you ask her her name...she says MAMA. :)

Leeza's first trip to the "Big D"

Leeza and my dad "Bobbo"


Leeza made her first trip to "Big D" to visit my parents this past week (July 5-12th). She has met my parents twice, and has also met her cousins, but that was last December, and she'd only been home a couple months, and she was only 15 months old so I don't think she really grasped who anyone was yet. She is quite the social butterfly, but I wasn't sure how she'd react to my huge family as everyone was coming home! She took an instant liking to my Dad, and my brother, and her Uncle Jan (my sister's husband). Seriously, she is not even 2 yet she is already boy crazy???!!




She was fawned over by her cousins, and had a total blast in the pool. My nieces had a speedo life jacket that they used when they were small, and I put that on her in my parents pool. She jumped off the diving board, floated on her back, swam the length of the pool, and felt very comfortable in the water. I'm not sure if that is the best for her learning to swim or not, but she sure had a blast being able to "swim" with the big kids. She had no qualms about jumping off the diving board and going under water. I was really proud of her.






She had her first popsicle out by the pool. It was a sweet life--swimming all morning..having Mimi bring you popsicles by the pool, and being the center of attention of all your cousins who love you. I want to be Leeza when I grow up. :)





We got all the cousins (or, my parents Grandkids) all matching outfits to get their photo's taken out on my parents lawn. It was a pretty hilarious endeavour. Leeza did not feel like cooperating and kept running off. I finally threatened her and told her if she ever wanted to see Elmo again-she better shape up. I guess she could tell I was really mad cuz she decided to straighten up,but then of course, the other kids were over it. However-I still think we got some good pictures, despite everything. They all looked so cute in their blue and white, and it's amazing how much Leeza looks like her cousins!!! The professional ones look better-but here are a few I caught with my camera. :)







My brother's girls, Giulia and Georgia, are the sweetest, most beautiful and loving kids. They adored Leeza-and she adored them (as you can tell!)





Due to the vast age difference of all the grankids, there is a huge arsenal of vehicles available for the kids to drive around the circular drive of my parents house..from scooters, to trikes, to bikes with and without training wheels, and even lil jeeps and mopeds! I'm telling ya...a real kid's paradise. :) Leeza got a ride from Will-my adorable 4 year old nephew. :) She also enjoyed rides on the wagon..a future homecoming queen maybe? LOL







In addition to all the fun things there are to do right in our own backyard, we got out and about some too. We went to Nicole's (my sister's) for dinner one night, to my brother Carlton and his wife Elizabeth's one night, then to some family friends one night who had the most magnificient sand box where all the kids spent a couple hours digging and generally having a blast. :)






















We also ventured out for some "field trips" to the Dallas aquarium, a water park (not a big water park, but one at a local park in Hearst, TX that had a great area for lil ones and big slides for the big kids) and a really killer Science and Children's museum that was the coolest children's museum I think I've ever been to. It entertained the kids of all ages! She also had her first frozen yogurt at I Heart Yogurt and found it to be DELISH!




I loved seeing Leeza in action at the water park. The water was about waist high on her in some parts, and she was running around, and even went down some pretty big and fast slides on her own, and got dunked pretty good. I was always at the bottom to catch her, but I was impressed with how much she loved it and how she was really fearless once she got her bearings. There are a couple "spray parks" here locally that we will defintely try now that I saw how much she loved it!





























Needless to say, all this activity, although super fun, was EXHAUSTING. Leeza feel asleep within 5 minutes of getting in the car-and man,she fell HARD.