Good Evening Everyone,

We have had a very fun and busy week.  Monday we ran back down to camp meeting for the morning meetings, since the girls loved them so much, and then we ran back for the first day of swimming lessons.  We have had swimming lessons everyday this week.  Sharmi started out timid and scared on Monday, to the point that I had to get in with her.  But today she climbed into the pool by herself and held onto the sides.  She has also really learned how to kick.  With Sharmi under one arm and Chantel under the other we kicked and swam all over the pool retreiving toys that we threw. It was a blast!

Tonight we are trying again to get Sharmi to go to bed by herself.  She used all of the tricks to postpone it, including “I forgot to give mommy a hug and a kiss”, “I have a boogy”, and “I need sockies, I am going to get burrr cold.”  However, she got funnier and more clever when Dean was finishing up putting her socks on.  I have asked him to tell you the story since I wasn’t there…  (Dean writes)  In an effort to close all opportunities for excuses to get up again, I reviewed with her that she now had, water, given hugs, gotten rid of all boogies, and new sockies on to keep her warm.   I told her there were three good reasons why she should stay in bed, “#1 Mommy Loves you, #2 Daddy Loves you, and if you want to get your surprise from Mommy you can’t come out again.” She Giggled and laughed and said, “If I don’t get the surprise tomorrow can I have it the next day?”   I told her again, “if you come out again you will not get your surprise tomorrow.”  She giggled again, and I could see a big grin behind the binkie.  She then whispered “Two reasons I can get up,  Mommy loves me, Daddy loves me”.”   I wanted to laugh so bad!   I told her that I did love her very much but we need her to stay in bed and go to sleep.    Wow! What a little negotiator!…. Since that time she did negotiate one more potty break and she appears to have finally fallen asleep.

We are finally going to bed ourselves. Good night to you all.

Cheris