Happy Anniversary, Back-to-School Shopping for Libby, Outdoor Fun

We're just under a month away from beginning school, but Libby's fall schedule is starting to take shape with gymnastics, school and swim lessons (every two or three weeks). She's progressed so much this summer that I don't want to her lose what she's learned during the year. Plus, she's been asking when her next lesson with Mrs. Mechelle will be! She got to do some swim practice again today at the pool with me. She's really in to challenging herself and I'm really proud.

It's such a bummer that she doesn't need a new backpack or much in the way of school supplies this year! But I picked up some new outfits at lunch on Monday... which I realized that I probably need to exchange for the next size up since they fit just about perfectly right now. Gah.

I had another good doctor's appointment on Tuesday while mom took care of B, which was nice. It was the glucose test, so I didn't want her to have to wait that long. She'll get to go with me again next time since I'm on a two-week schedule now. (I can't believe that portion is already here along with the third trimester!) Tonight as we were putting her to bed, she climbed up and was loving on me and then said, "I want to love on the baby and give it a kiss!" She proceeded to do so with my tummy. Other than that, most of her questions are about how big the baby will be when he/she first arrives. She also still has no name suggestions.

Yesterday, we went to the "big playground" and the temperatures were just lovely. It was overcast with a breeze and it was almost like an early fall day. Who would have imagined in July in Georgia?! She had a great time climbing, sliding, spinning, etc. Some dumb bigger boy tried to tell her that she was "too little" to climb up one apparatus. I wanted to slug him because, despite my encouragement, she did not make it to the top - and she conquered that particular thing months ago. It's not one she's done a lot of times, but ugh. I was proud of how well she held her own on things though even when a TON of kids arrived from a daycare all the the same time.

She's in pink.

It turns out that we could have cut that visit a bit short though, because she had nearly an equal amount of fun at the shoe store. I noticed that after this last growth spurt, Libby's feet have actually grown a bit and her toes were right at the end of her tennis shoes. SO... we got to get some new ones for the new school year. She went up a whole size - to 6.5! She wasn't real keen on trying on tennis shoes, but preferred some fancier sandals, etc. But after several attempts, we found a pair of Nike's that she likes. (And then I found a new pair for myself, as my outdoor ones are soon to hit their expiration date and it was buy one, get one free.) She had a great time entertaining herself, one of the employees and several other customers, too.

She also got to pull out the tricycle last evening before dinner since it wasn't raining. We only went around the top of the driveway though, because she wasn't all that excited about putting her feet on the pedals. She did it some, but preferred to just scoot around using her feet on the pavement. (I can't completely blame her...) She also took some time to practice on her skates!

Work has been rather busy for me this week, but she's been pretty patient. And due to her new make-believe stuff, that has kept her occupied, too. And boy has she enjoyed keeping on her pj's for as long as possible!

We had a lovely anniversary on Tuesday with a family outing to Outback, where we had a gift certificate. Score. I'm looking forward to a massage on Saturday afternoon and the "project" I mentioned in the blog in June was part of our anniversary gift. I printed the first year of the blog, through Libby's first birthday, into a book as a surprise for Michael and our family! He was truly surprised. Now... I need to get to work on the second year, preferably before "Maeby" joins us, but we'll see. I'm pretty tired by the evening these days. And Tuesday night, I had to work after we put Libby to bed! But Happy Eight Years, Michael!

In Libby's "just pretend" world, she's having a special ball with Daddy in the evenings between dinner and bath time. She puts him to bed, they go to Home Depot, they go bowling (sometimes even with other people), "throws him breakfast," etc. It's quite a production! And we've made countless birthday cakes for Spot in the last few weeks, as well.