I have been taking the children regularly to our nice, warm pool (35 degrees celsius) and it is really paying off. Frunty enjoys going completely under water with his goggles around and swims well with his water wings. We bought a pair for Pit too and although nervous at floating with them on alone, he now laughs after the initial scream. By the end of our swim on Jan. 25th, he was floating calmly. Pit forgets to close his mouth sometimes and swallows a bit of water but that is all part of the experience. On Thurs. I put him between the side of the pool and a little wall within the pool and told him to swim towards one side or the other. Both times, he made it over and hung on so I can say that Pit swam for the first time with water wings on, on the 25th!!!!!!!! Good job!

Afterwards the three of us take a nice shower together in the child-friendly shower stall and the kids love me spraying their toes, knees, tummies etc. with the shower head. Even though they are tiny, they have bellies that stick out. Frunty has an inny and Pit an outty (bellybuttons) and they love me to spray them with the shower head too.

I was going to sign Frunty up for swimming lessons but he is progressing well on his own without pressure and does each stage when he feels comfortable to do it. I think I want him to continue along that path for now and have a feeling that one day he'll just start swimming on his own without the lessons.

Another note, we got a babysitter last night, the live-in nanny of Frunt's school chum, Inkeri, from Finland. Pit ran to the door as we were leaving to kiss me and then took off with a squeal of delight. Because the kids see her everyday at school when she picks Inkeri up, I think they must feel like they already know her. Daddy and I went out for a lovely dinner near where we went with Aunt J when she was in town, near her Conrad hotel, and for dessert afterwards at another place near Sport City. Dinner was lovely, especially with red sticker (non-fumeur) on door. Dessert wasn't great but something funny happened. We were in a red sticker resto and a woman lit up and the waiter came over and took the cigarette from her and threw it out the front door of the resto. I am happy I have lived to see the day when it is no-smoking in Europe. Awesome.

Time to play a jeu de societe with the kids and Daddy. We are so happy to have him home after a week in Monaco.