Summer - Where Art Thou Going?

I am truly conscious of the fact that the Summer is quickly escaping. So much I want to do and so little time to accomplish it in. We were able to enjoy a weekend up in RI last weekend to celebrate my aunts Lth birthday (Roman numeral used as she doesn't want people to know).

It was nice to see the surprise on her face and the enjoyment she had seeing that we made the trip up. Makenna really enjoyed it, minus the long trip in the car without a DVD player. Plus, we had to stop a few times as we are still in the midst of potty training her. We brought along her potty and I would open up the back of the car and sit her down - for all to see. This girl better not grow up to be an exhibitionist due to my lack of securing privacy for her. It made me remember all the different places I changed her diaper in Europe - out in the open for all to see. I did try and find a little corner of sorts but her butt has seen more of the world, or rather more of the world has seen her butt.

I haven't been really good about keeping track of all the little things Makenna does, cute or otherwise like I had hoped. I can tell you that we are progressing on potty training and we seem to be getting her to pee more on the potty than off. She's even starting to do a little better at pre-school.

Yes...she started pre-school. She started on my birthday (July 27th) and she did really well. We leave her there almost all day. I was going to pick her up shortly after I get out of work but she's napping at that time so I tend to pick her up later. They were/are concerned as she doesn't eat much there. She's seeming to get a little better but she still has her days. They are the ones that really encouraged me/her about the potty training so I figured, yup...it's time to be more consistent. They also take her swimming twice a week and she's in her glory. They told me that they are shocked and amazed about her swimming abilities for her age.

Speaking of which, I am now taking her to swim lessons again. Unfortunately, the class is a little beneath her in my opinion. It's more of a "get used to the water" class with a few things geared to moving their arms. I asked if they would let her go into the older class but they first said she had to be in pre-school (which I said she was,) then they said she had to be three. So we'll suffer through and let Makenna swim circles and jump over the kids as she's doing.

Also on my birthday, I had to give a eulogy for my uncle Jim (my mom's brother) who died unexpectedly the Thursday before. Everyone else close to him were too upset so that kind of left it to me and my brother. I didn't know my uncle all that well, but my brother Jared knew him even less. I appreciate the church and those who helped to pull the funeral together pretty quickly.

There are a couple of cute things that Makenna has said recently. One was after she went pee in her little potty she wanted to "show Jeff & Tara" (her teachers at pre-school) and I told her that we could tell them that she went, but we were not bringing the potty full of pee to them. Then just yesterday she was being "punished" as I told her for not listening. When she got to pre-school she told her teachers, "she's being punished."

Makenna talks about herself in the third person all the time, "she" this or that. Well when we were at her doctor's for an annual check-up, the doctor walked into the office and Makenna goes, "she wants to leave now, she wants to go outside." I could tell the doctor thought that Makenna was talking about me so I clarified that she was talking about herself. He found that quite amusing as she kept saying things like that during the exam. He never heard a child her age talk about themselves in the third person. We still have to go back to get another blood test in a week or so to make sure she's over whatever it was that caused her to have a low blood count a month ago. But thankfully, she's doing much better.

Well I thought I'd end with a few pictures:

This one was taken on June 13th - Makenna's first pony ride:


Here, on the same day, she got to play in a Firetruck and an ambulance

This was later the same day up at the zoo in Syracuse

This was on July 23rd, the Mace family from England came for a visit

These last pictures were taken on August 7th - it was costume day at pre-school so we borrowed the mermaid costume and we found the sun-glasses at a store and Makenna loved them: