Swimming and Sandbox weekend

Andrei had another busy weekend but he had a blast and as a result didn't really do any "toddler testing" which meant both Stef and I had a great weekend as well. Saturday was non-stop action as he had his second swimming lesson and then went to his first children's birthday party.

I attended the swimming lesson this week to take some pictures and as usual Andrei was the water king. All the other kids were either crying or clinging to their parents (again this is for the under 2 crowd to learn not to be afraid of water so their reaction is pretty normal), however Andrei has so much fun that he can't be contained. You can see him here running away from Stef to go play all around the pool.



He is just so unbelievably adventurous in the water that he was the only kid to go down the water slide by himself. All the other kids, even the ones who liked the water, went down with their parents. But Andrei would have non of that and pushed Stef away so he could go it alone.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, I took a few and this was actually the best of the bunch.



After the action in the pool we hurried off to the birthday party for our friend Cristina's son. He's four and it was a wonderful party. They had it at a bowling alley and it was really fun. All the kids just loved it. They actually have these little rails that come up so the kids can't possibly throw a gutter ball. So needless to say the kids thought this whole bowling thing was really cool.

Andrei was of course one of the youngest kids there but he had a great time as well. Cristina and Todd adopted their son from Russia too and in fact, they where the inspiration for our decision to get going. We actually "pulled the trigger" on moving forward with adoption after seeing their wonderful son at his 2nd birthday party.

Anyway, here's a shot of Andrei trying to pick up the spare.



On Sunday, we finished his sandbox and it was naturally a bit hit. With the weather so nice now in the Bay Area, I suspect the sandbox is going to be a daily routine. A couple of notes, Ryan mentioned that it's vital to have a cover otherwise cats (or other animals) in the neighborhood might use it as well (yuck!). I also have a beach umbrella out there to make sure the whole thing is shaded.