Spectacular Saturday!!!

AK and I had the most wonderful day together today!!!

First off, we slept til 7am... perfect start to a perfect day! AK watched the movie she picked out at the store yesterday while I snoozed for another half hour. Then we got up and hit the ground running!!! AK had some juice, yogurt and a bit of toast/cheese for breakfast. We headed out to gymnastics, which was amazing. AK, for the first time in memory, actually followed the obstacle courses rather than just doing her own thing. I was very impressed. I haven't been with her for a while as Jess and Ben have taken her the past few weeks for me, and I have to say some of AK's skills are greatly improving. She is doing so well on the balance beam and uses airplane arms for balance. She climbs like an old pro and is pretty good about waiting for her turn to do something. She also did a really good job of jumping on the big trampoline and with all her forward and backward rolls. She was pretty pumped to chase some bubbles and get her stamps on her hands, feet and tummy at the end of class. Cindy had both Molly and Jake there with her and I took Jake for a few minutes. AK was showing off for him! She kept swinging back and forth on the rings, several times in a row! Matthew, the new big brother, was also there with his nanny, and he sure had a LOT of energy to burn off!!! Poor Lanie could hardly keep up with him.

We then headed over to Cindy and Brent's for pancakes and bacon! AK didn't eat a whole lot but we did buy a cupcake from the older gymnasts who were raising money... AK was hilarious with this cupcake. She licked the icing and said "Mommy, I licked it!". Then "Mommy, I licked it AGAIN!". She ate most of the icing and pretty much none of the actual cupcake. Needless to say, AK didn't really eat much of the pancake breakfast. It was yummy though. After breakfast we headed to the pool for a swim. AK and Molly both did really well with their water wings. Cindy noticed how well AK kicks her legs and how much it propels her through the water. Neither of the girls is keen to jump in the pool or get their faces wet. Must be a girl thing?

We headed home for a nap, well for AK anyway, I watched a movie. She slept for over two hours. She was in a sweet happy mood when she woke up (actually I don't think she's ever grumpy when she wakes!) and we played outside for a bit, mostly with bubbles. We also played with some puzzles... AK is starting to really get into puzzles. She doesn't always get the piece in the spot but she knows where it goes and she can tell me what things are too. I think AK may have even somewhat counted to ten in Spanish today... I don't know past five in Spanish so I'm not sure plus it didn't sound exactly like what Katie did last night. Dora is useful for that!!!

We then got organized and headed to the beach with Hunter, Jess, Ben and Jess' grandma. The beach we went to had a long dock and you could see the water between the slats. AK walked very carefully and was more comfortable holding my hand. I guess because she could see the water, she was a bit uncomfortable. She wouldn't jump in the water, but she did swim out to the ladder on the dock, climbed up the ladder, and ran back down the dock to the water's edge to swim out again. When we put her shorts back on at the beach, (twice!) we put both legs in the same hole. Lots of giggles, AK thought that was pretty funny!

She was so excited to go see Hunter that she had her shoes on long before it was time to go. She loves that kid :) she actually fussed when we left the beach and was quite pleased to see him pull up here (we all came back here to change) and then was quite pleased once again to see him pull up at the Doghouse where we went for supper. She is not doing so well with good-byes with friends these days. She doesn't want the fun times to end!

The Doghouse was a lot of fun. There are a couple of play structures for the kids, and a surf park and skateboard park to watch as well. It's pretty family-friendly. We had a nice supper too. AK ate some fries and not much else. She drank all her chocolate milk and then complained about her tummy so I asked if her shorts were too tight. She said yes, so I loosened them, but when she ran to play with Hunter, the shorts fell down :) giggles all around. I was telling Jess' grandma how much AK enjoys Jess and Ben, and to prove my point, I asked AK who she liked better - Mommy or Jess and Ben. Her answer? "Jess and Ben!". Ha! It is really lovely how much she enjoys other people though. She makes so many people smile.

As you can guess, the little miss went straight to bed after supper - what a busy day - gym, swim, beach, playground!!! If that doesn't tire a kid out, nothing will. I hope she'll want a bath in the morning as she's still a bit sandy and definitely salty. I told AK tonight that she is the best daughter ever... and she truly is xo