Caitlyn turns TWO

Caitlyn is a true blessing from GOD. She is a bundle of joy and the light of our lives. We love you so much sweet girl. Thanks for making our lives a little brighter. Your sparkling blue eyes and shining spirit are beautiful. Happy second birthday. Love you sister bear !

We took Caitlyn out to Pita Jungle for some hummus, rice and beans- her favorite ... yum. She loved it.

Afterward we went to Swirl It and had yogurt. Caitlyn blew out her two candles- happy birthday sweet girl.

Happy Birthday from Nana, Papa and Emma

opening presents from Uncle Nate over SKYPE

Thanks Nate, we love our pillow pets

Riding our pillow pets

Emma's celebration of life

Emma had her celebration of life at Montessori yesterday.

Since she is a summer birthday she got to do it early. We made a photo collage of photos from birth to (almost 5) and she brought it in the share with the class. She also helped make muffins to take in to share for a treat. Bryan and I got to go and watch her walk around the sun 5 times and share things with her classmates about her life from the time of her birth. At the end, Ms. Laticia checked her arms, legs and brain to make sure that they were all ready to turn 5. It was a wonderful celebration of Miss Emma. I love the way they do it at Montessori. Ms. Laticia said she remembers doing it when she was in Montessori and I have pictures of when I did it. We came home and had Kindergarten paper work in our mail box. WOW, how did this happen so fast. Happy early birthday Emma.

A funny little story- on the way to school on Thursday (the day of Emma's celebration), I was in my workout clothes. Emma said "Mom, you can't wear your jogging outfit to my celebration, you need to look pretty." I said "oh, I am going to go home and get ready, what should I wear?" She replied, "a shirt." I wouldn't want to embarrass her- he he. It was really cute. Oh and I wore pants too. :-)

Week 5- ISR (full clothes)

our little mermaid

This is a clip of Caitlyn's second to the last class. May 20, 2010

She is in full winter clothes with a regular diaper. I just love how automatic it is for her to float up to the surface and rest in her float. What a wonderful 5 weeks it has been. She has not only gained life saving skills but she has also gained confidence. We look forward to fun in the pool this summer. These lessons are designed to be the last resort should something ever happen. A pool fence first, supervision second and ISR third.

We will be back next summer for a brief refresher course. Until then, thank you Angelee for teaching Caitlyn one of the most important skills in life.

Week 5 ISR- Mid week

Once a student has mastered the roll to float and the swim skill (if they are walking), the last week of instruction includes a "survival checklist" or "sequence". The last week is designed to strengthen the child's skills in a "real life like" situation. Once they have demonstrated mastery of the skills, which for Caitlyn was the swim-float-swim, they wear clothes to practice in. They start off the week in swim diapers or swim suites, the following day is PJs, then summer clothes, shoes and a real diaper, winter clothes and then the last day of instruction one of the parents gets in the water to make sure they can continue reinforcing the right target behaviors at home.

Here you will see Miss Caitlyn practicing one of her survival falls into the water. This is one of the many ways that children fall in. PLEASE NOTE that this is after 4.5 weeks of instruction (see the 4 videos prior), the teacher is right there, and Caitlyn is as happy as can be. Caitlyn has demonstrated proficiency to get to this point.

YAY sister- we are so proud of you.

Week 4 ISR

Friday May 14, 2010

Caitlyn is demonstrating a swim-float-swim sequence.

It will be so much fun to see her use these skills in our pool this summer. She can swim-float-swim all over the place.

Week 3 ISR

Miss Caitlyn continues to work on turning to float independently. She is also working on a stronger swim and bigger kicks so she can get around the pool this summer. :)

May 2010

Since Caitlyn turned two she has been going around telling people "I two", as she holds up her thumb, pointer and middle finger. It is too funny. She can't quite get the thumb to stay down. We have also been telling her "Happy Birthday Caitlyn", to which she replies "Happy Birthday Mom" back. LOVE IT.

This morning Emma was a little extra tired since she stayed up late visiting with Grandma Janis. When I went to get her up for school she said "Mom, I need the wake up rub." The wake up rub is a little rub to wake up her legs, arms, head and feet. It was adorable. When I asked her if it had worked she replied "no." Who wouldn't want to wake up to a massage right- I guess that's what Mom's are for. :-)

Little Cupcakes Birthday Party

We celebrated Emma and Caitlyn's birthday together this year. We had a cupcake party with family and friends. We had Starbucks coffee (for the mama's and daddy's), chick fil a breakfast sandwiches, fruits and treats before we had cupcakes. It was a beautiful day to celebrate our sweet cupcakes.

Emma will turn 5 on July 11, 2010 (we will be in Sandpoint, ID so we celebrated early)

Caitlyn bear turned two May 7, 2010

Sweet sisters

Miss Mathea and Miss Emma

Cupcake coloring

Simon, Jack and Emma frost the cupcakes with shaving cream !!

Happy Birthday to Emma and Caitlyn

Time to decorate cupcakes with lots of sprinkles

bubble fun

Time for presents- thank you to our family and friends for such sweet, thoughtful gifts

party time

A visit from the Meloys

Emma and William first met when Emma was 9 months old and William was 6 months old. They shared many memories early on in life. We were so sad to leave ATL because of the special friendship that William, Emma and their other little friend Hannah shared. So, we were soooo excited when William and his Mommy and Daddy and Aunt came to visit us.

Cupcake fun

A little Caitlyn bear

Three monkeys

Cutie pies - William and Emma

They had so much fun playing together, eating pizza and having cupcakes. Thanks for the special visit Meloys. We can't wait to see you again.

Emma the little fishy

Emma has been working hard on her swim stokes with Miss Megan every Saturday. Here is her back stoke.

Here is her front crawl- she is still working on the whole taking a breath part. (This is kind of how I looked during the second 6 laps of my sprint triathlon last fall). he he. Miss Emma will get better, her ol Mom however may take a little longer. When she gets tired she dog paddles a bit and looks like she wants to get into her ISR float. At least she knows where the safe zone is. :)

Daddy and Emma Day

Emma, Claire, Bryan and Kevin (Claire's Dad) went to the Diamondbacks game last Sunday. The met at ASU and rode the light rail train downtown.

The girls had a blast watching the game, hanging out, eating treats, walking to the top of the stadium, playing in the play area, running the bases, and of course riding the train. What a great day out with Daddy.

Happy 35th Bryan

Little Mermaid Caitlyn Week 2

Caitlyn- week 2

It is amazing what a week will do. Caitlyn began rotating from a swim (face down) position to a float (on her back) independently on Thursday (April 29th). That is a total of 90 minutes of instruction (an hour and a half). This video is from Friday, April 30th, when she continued to practice her float some more. Also, notice she is not crying. YAY. She says a few things here and there but she is getting into the swim grove. She says the most adorable things about her lessons. This week she said "I swim in water."

Of course Bryan and I being the behaviorists that we are have been discussing the behavioral sequence that Angelee uses during lessons. We were discussing the stimulus and the prompts. This is what Angelee had to say about our discussions. Oh, this is such fun stuff. Gotta love Behavior Analysis !!!

From Angelee-

When I have Caitlyn swimming to my hand "target", my hand is the stimulus. However, when I am assiting her in the rotations to her backfloat, I am prompting her. Really, the bottom line is anytime I am touching her, I am stimulating her in some way. It just may be a primary or secondary reinforcer! Yes, when I pick Caitlyn up, I am reinforcing any small approximation of the desired target behavior. So, if I am trying to reduce the number of kicks she has in her float, or trying to get her to keep her head back, I will pick her up the moment there is any small improvement, reinforcing that she was doing the correct thing! It's amazing how children can learn these skills and don't even realize that they are in fact learning! Yes, very fun stuff!

We can't wait to see what next week will bring. Caitlyn is excited to have Nana and Papa here to watch her. :-)