lessons

The past two weeks have been full of lessons...
Last week Briley went down the road to a horse camp. She had a ball! I was amazed at what she learned...how to groom her horse, lead it with a rope, ride alone around the ring, safety issues like tips on not getting kicked, and more. She was so proud of herself and so was I. I got a big laugh out of her kicking her horse trying to get it to go faster. Her poor horse that is trained to handle "inexperienced" riders had to put up with my daughter kicking the stew out of him to go faster. I wonder what she'd have done if that horse had just taken off running? It won't be long before we get her a horse of her own to put out back. I'm not sure how we will replace her first horse "Dusty Teacup" but we will certainly do our best to find her a great one to ride and take care of.


This week Braxton started swim lessons - which by the way I never thought I'd pay for. We taught Briley to swim at 2.5 years and Joey and I are good swimmers - why shouldn't we be able to teach all our kids. Well, Braxton just wasn't going to have it. He truly needed to learn from someone else. He needed the perfect instructor - tough yet trustworthy. And honestly - I wasn't tough enough. Tip to all parents...I believe 4 years old is too old to start swimming lessons. I think age 3 would have been much better. It seems we had developed some pretty strong fears of going under the water. Braxton tried so hard to talk his instructor, Mrs Sally, out of making him go under and swim. He even went into full fledged hysterics! I am not kidding, he let out the blood curdling screams that make your skin crawl. But, as you can tell by the pics, Mrs Sally won. Braxton now swims under water. Tomorrow we will practice again diving for rings and jumping from the side. It's hard to believe that 3 days ago we wore swimmies. Yeah!

And, my last bit of news... Barron got mad enough at the toys placed in front of him tonite-just outside his reach- to DRAG himself to them. But, It wasn't without a good show of his temper. This dude has got some fire in him. To be so passive at times - he can sure get stewed up. Let's just say I am not pushing the "Let's get mobile" issue. I am not quite ready for that stage yet. I am perfectly content in the "He's sitting right where I left him"stage. But it is fun to watch him grow and change and learn. I can't keep him my little baby forever even though I'd love it! I remember wanting Briley to crawl or Braxton to walk - This time around I'm not pushy. Just enjoying it all! I have found they grow up entirely too fast!