One fish Two fish...Three fish!

We had a visit from "Baby Elly" and Aunt Ria today, and the kids showed off splendidly for their aunt and little cousin. Elly loved the pool, took 2 dips, and was as sweet and smiley as ever. Another fish in the making! We didn't get any pool photos, but here's one from before the swim of the 3 cousins together - finally! Another goodbye :( but so grateful that we have modern technology to share photos, videos, and stories...

The kids have thrown themselves into swimming this month. Oscar continues to do fantastically well, essentially independent in the 3 ft pool (with an extremely watchful eye and a lifeguard on duty). He loves to go underwater and get things on the bottom of the pool. He jumps into the pool on his own, even doing cannonballs like his big cousin Sam in Buffalo. His cautious nature comes through when he gets tired and agrees to putting his swimmies on after a little while. Livi, forever determined not to be left behind by her big brother, spent the first half of the session yesterday and today putting her face in the water and swimming to me or the ladder with her swimmies on. She'd count "one, two, wee" before putting her head in the water and swimming over. The second half of the time she took off her swimmies and would swim over to me (head underwater) about a foot away from the steps, and then swim back. She was so proud of herself and told me she was getting "boo!" ("big"). She has a tendency to forget to hold her breath and swallowed a ton of water, but it didnt deter her at all. We plan to be frequent visitors of the consulate pool this summer!