Summertime for Karina

A happy day at the swimming pool

With summer in full swing Karina has been very active and as a result been honing her gross motor skills. She finished her two week swimming class with a whimper...almost literally. She had been doing great but had bit of a set back after she slipped in the water at Wind Lake. Although it didn't seem to phase her that day...she got a little water in her face and was scared that she would fall into the water, but after a few tears she went right back to playing with Jenna and Luke...she was quite fearful at swimming on Monday. She kept coming out of the pool to "see" me...saying she was cold. She refused to go to swimming with Aunt Beth on Tuesday, but went with me on Wednesday...coming out of the pool only a couple of times. By Friday she was starting to look like she wasn't scared anymore, but that was the last class for two weeks. Since then we went to the pool one afternoon and she seemed to have a lot of fun playing with the other kids in the toddler pool, so hopefully she'll have more fun when classes start up again in two weeks.

Having a blast at the pool

At Gymboree, Karina has been going to School Skills, basically a pre-preschool class, where she is dropped off for two hours with a couple of teachers and a handful of other kids. She loves this class so much and she really feels comfortable with the kids, teachers and environment. One day, I came to pick her up and she yelled, "Look Mommy, I can hang!" And there she was hanging from the overhead bars, having apparently learned it from the other kids! She was so proud of herself!

Backbend

Dancing

Climbing
...and also displaying her sippy cup (which she still prefers over the "big girl" cups)

I recently figured out that we can access certain movies from our Netflix account for instant viewing on the TV, and the only one that we had in our queue appropriate for a toddler (somewhat) was WALL-E. Well, long story short, Karina absolutely loved it and the funniest trigger is now associated with it. It just so happened that the first day she watched WALL-E was the first day Karina liked macaroni and cheese (she's tried it a dozen times before but never enjoyed it.) That day, I made it from scratch, but since then she's gotten Annie's "bunny" mac 'n cheese...shaped like bunnies...and liked those, too. Now, however whenever I suggest she might like macaroni and cheese to eat, Karina always yells, "Bunny noodles and WALL-E!" Just like there must always be a Nuk in her mouth while holding Uh-Uh (the bunny blanket), she seems to feel that she cannot eat bunny noodles without WALL-E!

Karina and "her Tommy"

Karina continues to "love" her Tommy, (she always asks strangers if they "...want to see my Tommy?") although the manner in which she expresses this love is sometimes of questionably loving quality. Observe the following progression below:

Karina playing the xylophone

Karina playing Tommy's feet

Karina playing Tommy's head!
(Tommy this is proof for you when you get older and Karina tries to deny she ever took advantage of your compromised state as an infant!)

Karina enjoying a homemade popsicle...thanks to Gammy and Grampa's gift of popsicle holders

Karina and Tommy
(Karina's face was painted to look like a cat, but the paint had begun to wear off)