Today I started my week by traumatizing Lily - but it’s in her best interests. We started swim lessons today with Morgan Swim School. She did fairly well, considering everything. She cried for about 20 minutes of the 30 minute lesson, which they said was normal. However, by the time I came back to pick her up, she was doing some guided swimming underwater and was letting her instructor pull her on her back around the pool. She was also very excited and intrigued by her new red goggles . . . so we tried to focus on that as opposed to the trauma of being left alone in a swimming pool with a complete stranger.

We had a great weekend with Uncle Sal, Aunt Paula and Auntie Ana. Lily enjoyed all of the attention and Arden decided to sit up this weekend for the first time and show off her skill to the family. We think she’ll be crawling soon - she is trying very hard to propel herself and she will succeed shortly. Yesterday we started the day off at the park and then headed to the pool after the afternoon naps. It was a quiet and mellow 4th, but much needed after all the days of activities - including nearly smoking the house out while Uncle Sal and Aunt Ana made chiles rellenos. We have quite the sensitive smoke detectors and Ana was scorching the skin on the outside of the chiles. It was pretty hilarious. The “Najera Tacos” were a big hit once we got Chef Sal to stop obsessing about the need to put radishes on everyone’s tacos . . . he’s a trip.

Sara has made a monster out of me. An organizing monster, that is. Once I saw how nice our office and the playroom looked, I decided to organize the master bathroom. That wasn’t enough. Last night I worked on my closet for close to 2 1/2 hours messing around with everything, donating clothes, throwing out old shoes, and organizing by skirt, shirt, color and season. I’m a maniac. The linen closet is next . . . I highly recommend her services to anyone in Richmond. Or anyone in the US who can afford to pay her travel expenses. She rocks.