Water Play and "Summer" Time

I'll start with this past weekend. First, we went to Crockett for my cousin, Abby's, graduation from high school and to visit. Then, Saturday, we went to Waco for a visit with Lolli, Pops and crew. Sunday, we came home. Brendan (and us!) had SUCH a great time visiting all the family and playing outside and swimming.

Yesterday, Brendan had his second swim lesson. Overall, he acts pretty unimpressed with the whole thing while we're there. They are 30 minutes for 13 weeks. This week, we got to do the slide and he really liked that, but they only got to do it once. The teacher told us we could dunk them underwater for the first time this week. Like, when they "jump" off the side to us, we could let their face go completely underwater. I decided to go ahead and take the plunge with Brendan because we've had problems with him getting freaked out about his face getting water on it before, so I wanted to know ASAP if he was going to freak out. Luckily, he did great! He acted a little weird about it but never got upset. The teacher said that was awesome. Now, we just have to work on him learning how to kick.

Later yesterday afternoon (after a 2.5 hour nap! Yay!), we took Brendan to the pool for the first time this season. We have a spray park at our pool that is huge - two covered slides, a giant bucket that dumps water out and tons of sprays going on all over the place. It's pretty intense and last year Brendan wanted nothing to do with it. He was completely the opposite this year. We couldn't get him away from it without him crying! He would put his face all in the sprayers and loved going down the slide with us as well. Last year, we always wanted to stay longer at the pool and he was ready to go. This year, I think it will be the other way around :)

Speaking of the pool, have I mentioned how this kid is obsessed with being outside? I think he would spend every waking hour outside if we would let him. Lately, I just prop open the back door and let him come in an out as he pleases. He's not really interested in me playing out there with him (in fact, he's not much interested in me playing with him hardly at all - he really enjoys his independent play), so I just go out periodically to talk to him and get stuff done inside while he's having fun. Our backyard isn't that big and there isn't anywhere he could go in it that he could get hurt.

He has this car and a dump truck that he pushes around. Occasionally, he likes to mow the lawn with his lawn mower :) He likes to bring the trucks into his house, like this:

And then stand there with them for a minute, and turn around and come out.
He also enjoys playing with Shiner except when Shiner tries to get something from Brendan and bites him. Then Brendan runs inside holding his arm up at me, doing a dramatic cry and pointing at Shiner. He's never really hurt and Brendan is a little bit of a drama "king" (cue multiple times of high pitched, shrill screams that often come from the backyard while he's playing), so it's pretty funny.

Last week, Brendan and Tim were playing on the bed and I was trying to take pictures. Tim told Brendan to "look at Mommy and stick out your tongue." This was what resulted:
We did some more playing outside and got some good pictures of him...Oh, he loves rocks as well and often finds little ones to bring to me.
This was actually mid-pout/cry/small tantrum. He was upset at either 1) Shiner or 2) one of his cars not cooperating with going around in the grass. I just got him at a short quiet moment so the picture turned out pretty :)
Being silly inside, for a change
He still has his love affair with trash cans. He finds them everywhere we go. I'm not exaggerating at all here. No matter where we are, he manages to point out a trash can and say "trash" and, if he's not contained somehow, always walks over to them and tries to take them with him or stick his hand in them. It's greattttt.
I am 22-23 weeks pregnant (23 on Thursday). I had a doctor's appointment today and everything still seems to be going really well. Heartbeat was nice and fast. Griffin kicks up a storm lately. I feel him over and over throughout the day. I have gained 12 pounds total. A little more than I wanted to have gained at this point (was hoping to be 10 pounds or less) but I'm still happy with my progress verses where I was with Brendan at this point (which was somewhere around 20 or more pounds gained). I'm still walking about 40 minutes almost daily.

Here's a picture taken last (?) week, with shirt on
And this one was taken last Thursday. I am slumping a little, which I think makes my stomach look more pooched out, but this is pretty accurate.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! We are headed to Destin, FL in one week for a vacation until June 11 with my mom, stepdad, Nanny and Papa. We are very excited and I'm encouraged by how much Brendan loved the pool in hopes he will also love the beach. If I don't post before then, I'll post when we get back!