Level 2.
Ty had an exciting day at swim lessons this morning. He was doing really well. He can hold his breath forever, float on his back and his tummy, do the “rocket ship” swim, pick up things off the bottom of the pool, and his kicking is pretty good. The supervisor stopped by his class and asked his teacher, Jara, if anyone was ready to move forward. Jara said he had one that was close. The teacher wanted to see the kids do all of the things required in Level 1. When they got done she said, “Yep, he’s ready for a new challenge.” And she was talking about Ty! Yay!! Whenever anyone moves up to the next level, they get to ring a bell and everyone at the pool claps and cheers. It is really neat – makes the kids feel special. They also get a certificate saying they passed. So proud of my little fish.

Under water.
Meanwhile, in the Babies 1 level, Lily was having a great time. She loves the water. The teacher thought she was showing all of the signs to be ready to put her face in the water, so I let her take Lily. She said the cues – “wait. Ready. Go!” And dipped her into the water. Lily came out a little confused, but then she smiled. :). We did it a couple more times and she didn’t mind a bit. She is only under water for a second or two, so grandmas, don’t stress.

Broadwater.

After stopping at the store to pick up some food for a picnic lunch on the boat, we packed up an esky (cooler), made some sandwiches (finally used a picnic backpack that we got for a wedding present, which worked great!), and loaded up the boat. Lily wasn’t too sure about the life jacket. She kind of hated it at first, but eventually realized that she better get used to it. :). Ty wanted to go fast…unfortunately you have to go slow (6 knots) until you get out of the canals (the red line on the picture above was our route). Lily slept most of the way out. By the time we got to the Broadwater where you can hammer down, Lily was ready to eat, and so were Ty and I. And Ty had to go potty. We have a toilet on the boat, but Jay only wants to use it in an emergency, so Ty had to go wee off the back. It was a little choppy and windy, so he had some serious stage fright, but eventually he took care of business. And when he finished, dad cranked up the stereo and we had a celebration dance party. We floated around a bit, got everyone’s tummies full, and then we let Jay play a bit. Ty loved it when we hit some waves (me, not so much).
We decided we need to ask around, figure out where we can go and safely either dock it or sand it (nervous about this), swim, eat, use a toilet. The first outing was a good confidence builder for both Jay and I. The kids did great. They were worn out when we decided to head for home, and both of them fell asleep (under the shade of the biminy). I got to relax in the front bow for a bit while Jay drove us back up the canals.
We were pretty much incident free, until the boat made an awful noise. Jay threw it into neutral really quickly, and realized we had missed a buoy and needed to be a ways to the right. The water level was only 2 feet. That is not deep enough….I was immediately thinking about what we were going to do if we got stuck on a sandbar. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to jump in the shark infested waters and push it off the sand bar…thankfully we were able to get back on the main channel without getting stuck. Yikes. That was a close one. Hoping we don’t make that mistake again. Rookie mistake. Keep it between the buoys.
Overall it was a great first family outing – so much fun. I can’t wait to take family and friends out!

Air Con.
When we got home, we noticed that the air conditioner wasn’t running. Crud. It was 30 degrees upstairs – that’s hot. We called the property management company and they told us broken air conditioners are not considered an emergency, so they won’t pay extra to send out a repair man on the weekend. Grrrrrr. There is a nice breeze outside, but remember, we don’t have screens. And remember where we live – amongst the poisonous everythings. We are braving it a bit and have the windows and doors open, but as soon as the sun goes down and the lizards come out, everything is getting sealed up tight. Going to be a hot one tonight…

Pool.
To cool off, we put Lily in her playpen (in the shade) and Jay, Ty and I jumped in the pool. We splashed around for about an hour before coming inside to cook dinner. Lily wanted to snuggle so Jay threw some brats on the barbie and I sat on the patio with my sweet sleeping babe.

Signing.
When Jay was feeding Lily rice cereal and zucchini, she ate every last bite, and then she put her hand up to her mouth, then put her fists together in front of her. Jay said he thought she was signing “eat. More.” I think she was. They have been working on it at school. Amazing!! So I gave her some carrots. Happy babe.

G’day mates!