A week of progress

Some big changes for the boys!

Niko is now riding his two wheel pedal bike (no training wheels required). He actually did it one day last week but then did not want to get back on again. Then Friday we saw a boy on a Lighting McQueen bike and Niko thought it was so cool. I mentioned that he has a red bike like Lightning and that just excited him. He jumped on his bike and we spent the afternoon pretending we were characters in the movie "Cars". Niko did awesome! He just kept riding and riding for almost an hour. It was so fun to watch. Then on Saturday he got back on and was ready for an adventure. We headed off to check the mail and he was doing great til we started going down a slight hill. He took his feet of the pedals and then he could not slow down and crashed. He was very upset that he crashed but after some reflection time with his daddy got right back on and was ready for more. That night he took another few good crashes, and some of them required a couple minutes to consider, but ultimately none of those crashes slowed him down. We set up some cones and he practiced riding through and around them. He was Mr. Cool about it, which is very much his way, but you could tell that deep inside he was so proud of himself.

Niko riding his pedal bike
if you click on the picture you can see him better

Skylar too had a fun weekend. He has been getting so brave and confident in the pool and today he started swimming to me with his face in the water with his water wings on. I asked if he wanted to take them off and practice with out them. Well he blew me away when we took them off as he swam to me, breath held, with no problems. After that he was unstoppable. He could not get enough of it and was a madman. The joy on that kid's face when he did it was just fantastic. Nothing makes you feel better then seeing your kids challenge themselves and love every moment of it! I could not wipe the smile off my face if I wanted to.

Skylar swimming to the edge and loving it
promise he is not drowning and really is swimming lol

Meanwhile, Pepper is very confident in her water wings, and she jumps in off the stairs and occasionally off the sides (even the high ones) and just finds it fun if she happens to have her face go under water. Her other neat trick is standing on Mommy or Daddy's hands as she rises out of the water. She's very good at it, like a little cheerleader.

Pepper "falling" in the girl is crazy she gets her self around the pool no problem

In other news we have had a fun week trying to keep busy and out of the house (since the inside is being painted). We made play-dough and the kids played with it for almost 4 hours straight. We checked out 3 preschools, went to Zilker park for some fun, got to spend a day with our friend Echo and again play and Zilker and ride the train. Got to have dinner with our friends Tamara and Adam and check out their new house. We played with baking soda and vinegar and watched it fizz. And of course more bike riding and swimming

At Zilker on the fire truck

making baking soda fizz

Our "snow" man after all five colors got mixed together