Woolsey Family Chronicles

As the cool spring mornings give way to warm summer days we have busier schedules and a happier mom. Right now I am sitting at a swim meet at 7am in tent city with my friends and Ava’s friends and we are getting ready to race. Ava has already informed all of her friends that she has come with her swim cap and she is going to win. She wanted to know if everyone was happy for her that she was going to win. Oy, I have my hands full with her. I just love the swim team and so does Ava. I sit around the pool on a nice morning and wait to be notified when Ava swims for exactly 1 minute and 18 seconds that it takes her to get across the pool to her self-proclaimed winning finish and then I head back to the tent to relax and read magazines or write my blog as I am doing today. Ava is a social butterfly and she makes some new friends and then she goes around introducing her new friend to her older friends . . . “Bella do you know Delaney?”

On the baby front, Elsa, Violet and Preston are 16 months old today and Elsa and Preston are FINALLY walking as their main mode of transportation. Elsa is saying new words and trying new things each day. The cutest word Elsie says is Sage; just the way it comes out of her mouth is so sweet. Our Elsie has really emerged as the ring leader of the pack which I didn’t predict in the beginning. Based on Violet’s strong and funny personality, I figured she would be the ring leader. Instead, Violet is more of an observer while Elsa is a doer, taking toys from others as she pleases and figuring out naughty things to do before everyone else. For example, we had to go to Home Depot on our date night and buy a large piece of wood and three ridiculous looking clamps to hold the piece of wood onto our gate at the top of the stairs. Months ago Elsa figured out how to slither her tiny body under the gate like a snake and climb up and down the stairs as she pleased. Then Violet copied her and I had two tiny creatures playing on the stairs and risking a big tumble.

Our little Violet still isn’t walking but she is still standing up by herself and trying to take some steps. She is either lacking the confidence due to her turned in feet or she truly has a problem with her legs or her feet. We continue to watch her closely and try to help her when she needs it but she still holds the title as the fastest crawler west of the Mississippi I am sure.
I signed the babies up for a place called My Gym. It is a cool indoor play/gymnastics class that is structured and created specifically for 14-22 month old kids. I was impressed with the teachers, the facilities and my kids who jumped right in there and utilized all the activities and tried the gymnastics. Elsa immediately latched on to the instructor at My Gym who is a man and followed him around the whole class pleading with him to pick her up and carry her around. She is such a lush. Meanwhile Violet is attached to me like a parasite lately. I am Violet’s partner, I bring Laura and she is with Preston and Elsa finds herself a man and forces him to be her partner. It works out great. I figured my Violet with her intense stranger danger may resist the teachers taking her and trying to make her do somersaults and hang on the parallel bars, but instead I could tell that she found it exhilarating. Ava gets to do so many fun activities in her life that I wanted to do something for the babies that would be good for their physical and social development.

While the babies do fight with each other a lot throughout the day, they also play nicely with each other and give each other a lot of love. Yesterday we took the babies to Costco, which we like to do. We put Elsa in her own cart because she is the disturber afterall, and Preston and Violet get to sit in the same cart together. While we pushed the cart up and down aisles, Violet and Preston leaned their heads in together and wrapped their little arms around each other giving love. Elsa gives a lot of love in between her thievery of toys. I also saw Violet and Elsa working together to play with a toy which was interesting. Violet would place a coin in the pig’s back but wouldn’t push it far enough down to make the fun noise and hear it crash to the bottom, so Elsa came in and precisely placed her pointer finger down the hole to push Violet’s coin down. It was a nice example of teamwork.

Ava leaves on her big road trip with Gigi and Gramps this week which will be fun. Ava gets to see things that even I have never seen such as Yosemite and Lake Arrowhead. She also gets to go to Disneyland. It is very nice of Gigi and Gramps to take Ava along on their vacation and Ava will love every second of it. We will miss her but she will be so well taken care of and having such a great time. You know, Ava needs to be kept busy all the time or we all go crazy! She still asks me two to three times a day, “mommy, who is coming today? And where are we going today?” She is concerned that her social calendar will not be filled to her satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Chris has been training with the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society’s Team in Training to run a marathon in October. He has also been eating very well and has lost 20 pounds in two months which has made him feel great. Chris is training with Bob Kott and Ed Smith for Team Trevor (www.trevorkott.com) and they will be doing some great fundraising activities to make money for the cause. Chris has been so dedicated to this marathon and this cause that he gets up at 5am some mornings to run his miles. I am proud of him for committing to this big run and for the wonderful cause. I will be sending out Chris’s fundraising letter for Team in Training in the next couple of days.

Ava-ism for today:
Ava was riding in the car with Gramps and Ava said “I love your combertivle Gramps.” Gramps quickly corrected Ava's pronunciation of "convertible". But Ava held strong and insisted that you pronounce it "combertivle". Gramps asked Ava how she knows it is "combertivle" and not "convertible" and Ava said, "because my daddy told me that is how you say it and he is really smart because he can touch the ceiling."

Hope all those dad's had a great Father's Day.

Until next time, the mothership is signing off.