August 8, 2008 Start of the 2008 Olympics

Sophia is playing with Brittany Cat. Sophia is trying to stand up or crab walk or maybe trying out for the Olympics.

Today was the start of the Olympics for this year 08/08/08. If you are superstitious, then this is supposed to be a lucky day. For Sophia it was a lucky day as usual. We were back to our usual routine today so that made it a little more predictable as to when our daily eating and sleeping habits would occur.

Pictured here, Sophia is sorting shapes on her push toy.

Here Brittany Cat is petting Sophia on the head and Sophia giggling.

Sophia and I went swimming at Alligator Creek in Civic Park today with our playgroup. We met up with Jen and Carter, Jen and Isiah, Beth and Katie. The children had lots of fun splashing around in the water.

Sophia loves swimming as did her Grandmother Sally Sikes. Sally is no longer around, but Sophia seems to take after her in a love for swimming. Sally didn't learn to swim until she was an adult. Once she had lessons and learned how to swim, you couldn't keep her away from the pool. Sophia seems to naturally have the same affinity for water. She took swimming lessons at the Renaud Spirit Center in O'Fallon, Missouri this Spring and was the best baby in the class at least in our biased opinion.

She learned very quickly how to:

float on her back........

and kick kick kick her legs..............

She blew bubbles..................

and swim with the kick board.........

She also really loved jumping off the side into the pool with our help since she could not stand on her own.

The other favorite of some of her peers was sliding down the slide into the water.

The instructor also had the parents sing the "Wheels on the Bus" while moving the babies in the water.

While at Alligator Creek today, we practiced the skills she had learned in class this past spring. It was a perfect day at the pool with the temperature in the 80's. The water felt a little cool, but not freezing. She walked with my helped around in the shallow two foot area. Then, I sat down in the water with her and she floated on her back. The sun was very bright so she had to squint to see and was not very happy about that. I pulled the brim of her sun hat partially over to shade her eyes from the sun. She just loved splashing the surface of the water with her hands. It is such a pleasure to see her discover cause and effect relationships by patting her hand on the surface of the water and make a ssspppplllllaaaaaasssshhhhhhh.