Swimming without Mommy

Today was Suri's first class in the Gliders at Aqua Safe and she did AWESOME and swam the whole 1/2 hour without MOMMY! I came prepared to get in the pool, not knowing if Suri would be okay in the water with Ms Jennifer once she realized I wasn't there but fortunately I was able to stay dry today and take some pictures!!!  Suri jumped in the water and gave me a thumbs up through the glass... gulp.... she's really growing up.... and fast!

Suri has been swimming since June and has already advanced to swimming without a parent! Wow!!  The other little girl in her class is 3 years old. Way to go Suri Rose!! Mommy is SO very proud of you. You absolutely LOVE to swim and it is so fun to watch you do something you enjoy doing.  You are getting to be quite the little fish indeed!

Most of the photos are hazy because I was taking them from behind the glass... I snuck inside the pool area to take a couple of them when Suri wasn't looking!

Suri and Ms. Jennifer

floating on her back unassisted!

Suri and I spent the rest of the afternoon taking down the fall decorations and putting up the Christmas decor!  I must say, things can get mighty interesting when you have a toddler helping you!  We decorated a little, and then went on a bike ride, decorated a little more than played with play dough... needless to say, Im sitting here at 9:30 pm, looking at all I still have to do!  Oh well, Suri seemed to have fun today and I definitely want her to enjoy preparing for the holidays and not dread it (like her Mommy used to...).

Suri was thrilled that she has her very own PINK Christmas tree. She pretty much decorated it herself (hence the cluster of ornaments on the bottom row!). She even helped decorate Mommy's tree and we survived with only one broken ornament... (not to mention it was one that was from 1985.... sigh...).

Thankfully, despite the 80 degree weather outside today, It's beginning to feel a bit more like Christmas!!

putting her ornaments on her tree

Such concentration...

I almost forgot to mention, Suri's Elf arrived today!!  I had spent the morning talking to Suri about the Elf and told her he would be coming soon. Sure enough, when she woke up from her nap, there he was!  Sitting on the shelf!  She was so funny, I was laying next to her as she awoke from her nap. She stretched, and yawned, and flipped and flopped as she woke up. Once she was awake, she said "MOMMY!!"  Her eyes like saucers as she pointed to the shelf.....  " There he is... the ELF"!!!  She was memorized and somewhat uncertain that a little man was sitting on the shelf that hasn't been there before!!!  It is absolutely priceless to watch her imagination unfold today... I can see she is somewhat hesitant about the Elf and on the other hand, she is so excited. The Elf brought her a lolli pop when he came so he made friends with her instantly.
She visited the Elf frequently throughout the day, making sure he was still there.
I've talked to her about picking out a name for him but she is still somewhat young to understand what that means... I asked her what we should name him and she declared " Dr. Pope"!!  I definitely laughed out loud! Dr. Pope will be thrilled that Suri was thinking of him!  Suri then proceed to say " Maxy Max" is what she wanted to name him... I finally caught onto her theme of names... they were all people she knew and loved!  Very sweet Suri.  She did randomly say the name "Pete" (the only Pete we know is her friend Arya's Daddy!) and I asked her if that was what she wanted to name him and she then said "nope".  Pretty soon she  said "noodle"  but that didn't stick either.  So needless to say, her Elf remains nameless as I want HER to be the one that decides on his final name without any coaxing....  Maybe he will get a name this year or maybe next year, but for now, he is identified as the "Elf" and to a 2 year old, that is good enough, wink wink!!