The best is yet...

This past week we had to say goodbye to some good friends. Over the course of a few years and "small world" circumstances we met Will and Sarah and ended up sharing many fun times including welcoming two adorable little girls into the world.

Now at the age where the girls can finally play together it was even more sad to see them all move away. 

They are headed to Texas where the new Dr. & Mrs. (& Miss) will surely have some grand new adventures...everything is bigger in Texas you know!

Who knows where the next six months will take US, but we're counting on keeping the world "small" enough to stay in touch! 1 hour ...14 hours...what's the difference??

Just Keep Swimming...

Over the course of the last few months, a little girl we know has developed a love for the water beyond the bathtub!

She was big enough to "swim" last year, but this year's abilities prove it to be SO much more fun!

We started off the summer with Lydia...then she left us for France. 

But now that Daddy knows how much fun it is to take a break from work to go swimming...it's a weekly activity.

Samantha is also quite the attention-getter. She forces people to acknowledge her sometimes.  Her loud "HI!" and wave warrants a response and usually a smile.  She is also very fond of waving at the lifeguards...especially the boys. But don't worry, her Daddy is already working on his evil stare!  But, when he isn't warding off the enemy, he's enjoying finally being able to play with our underwater camera case!

It's lots of fun! Thanks to my Dad, we will have a lot of documented water memories from this year. Enjoy the video below!

Out with a BANG!

The other morning the house decided to rebel against us. Before all normal hours of waking, the cabinets decided to jump off the wall and crash onto the floor. David and I sprung out of bed faster than we've probably ever moved in our lives to find this:

Almost everything that could break, broke.  While I occupied Samantha on the porch David did the major clean up. Then we spent the rest of the day making some improvements, and I must admit, they are pretty nice. Samantha is helping you see the scale of the work we did below.

Did you notice all the new counter space? Isn't it beautiful?

 The David was motivated to eliminate other possibilities of things falling on us and did this!

Yes! Hanging pots and pans. A must!  Did I mention the new counter space?

 :o)

Every "Tail" Has a Beginning

It's pretty hot in Atlanta in the afternoons already this summer. One afternoon, after walking home from the park dragging a panting dog and pushing a sweaty little girl in a stroller we came inside to enjoy the air conditioning...  but sometimes it helps to get your hair off your neck. Thus, Samantha's first pony tail!

Poor Duncan could have used about 50 little pony tails...

Being Brief

 Much has happened since I posted about my Mom going swimming...

The BRIEF summary, Maria had a baby and so did I.

Samantha Jane Swafford is now 14 months old and quite the character.

Her cousin Lydia Dunlap is 19 months old, and very much a character as well.

David continues to work on his PhD with the finish date of DECEMBER 2013, and for the summer we are living in Rocky and Maria's house in Atlanta while they live in Metz, France.

Hopefully I will post a little this summer about things we do!

Swim Therapy

Swimming!  One of the things Mom used to love to do as a kid.  In preparation for today I have been asking her if she'd like to go swimming sometime and each time she seemed pretty interested.  So after we made plans I was confident that it would be a successful adventure.

David was kind enough to stay home from work today to help me out and I think he enjoyed the break too.  The weather was great at 10am, and the water was 80 degrees...if not warmer.  

As expected Mom mentioned being too cold when getting deeper and deeper in the water, but once she was all the way in she was fine.  I was expecting her to be nervous and just ask to get out of the water, but instead she did a lot of laughing and seemed to really enjoy herself.

Her walking was the same in the water...no improvement.  We tried to get her to float, or to kick her feet out behind herself, or try to "stand" "on her knees so that the water would come up over her shoulders so she wouldn't have to stand all the way up...she attempted each, but we didn't have much success.

All in all, it was pretty fun.  Mom enjoyed sitting outside the pool in the nice weather after we swam too.  We'll be doing this again!

Wii Therapy

There is all kinds of therapy you can do when you really think about it.  David thought of this one.

We played the Wii with Mom after her hip injury, but playing with a brain injury brings a whole new dynamic to the game.  We played Big Brain Academy which I really thought she wasn't ready for...BUT she did pretty well.  One of her best areas was math, and that was a big surprise from this art teacher.

From her point of view: