Thanks Mags!

Joel with the girlies. Marie's wearing a new dress purchased in China by my dear friend Maggie Hoppe during her many world travels. Maggie is currently a resident of Singapore. Isn't it cute? Renee is wearing the matching shoes. We haven't purchased the girls any matching outfits, but Marie enjoys it when they wear their matching socks from Aunt Carissa - and now the shoes from Miss Hoppe.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the playlist to listen to the video. Marie jabbers when she can't think of the answer to a question. Sometimes she'll jabber for a few minutes and then answer when she finally thinks of it. Kind of funny.

Here are a few of Marie swimming at Lucy's neighborhood pool this past weekend. It was really fun because she got to use her armbands and could swim in the deep all by herself (with a parent close, of course). At our pool they don't allow anything inflatable (including armbands), so she is kind of limited to the toddler pool unless we're holding her. We are really enjoying our YMCA membership, though. I'll have to take some photos next time we go. They have a really neat little fountain play area for the kids. There's a water tunnel they can run through and all different types of sprays for different ages.

Fun!

Renee observing.



The girls are really starting to play together well. We were at Lucy's house the other day, and could hear them fighting about something over the intercom. I ran upstairs to break up the fight, but by the time I got up there, they had worked it out themselves and were discussing who would get what. And Lucy was giving her a tour of her room. They didn't know that I was watching them, and it was just really nice to know that they can play all by themselves and I don't need to be a "helicopter parent" all of the time. Although I still need to work on not hovering so much.

I was too lazy to change Renee into her swimsuit and get both of us all wet, so we observed Joel playing with the girls.



Here they are in the deep water, doing great.