28 weeks old: baby graduation, swim lessons, and the letter B

Eloise graduated from our new moms group last Friday. This is her with the other July 4th baby, Metta. A group of us with babies 6-8 months bonded and formed a community outside of the group, so we decided to all graduate together. We got together and had a craft play date to make all of our babies graduation caps. Lots of tears were shed as the mothers reflected on learnings from the first six months and expressed gratitude for our "tribe." They really are a great group of women and I'm just lucky I happened to join that group at the right time. We have a play date scheduled this week at our house during the same time the group met to keep it going. Here are some adorable photos from the graduation:

Eloise, Amalee, and Adelaide

Graham, Eloise, Amalee, Adelaide, Theo, and Viv

Moms and babies

Hurrah!!

A couple days after graduation, Eloise had her first swim lesson at the Matt Dishman indoor pool near our house. She's in the Angelfish class for babies 6-18 months to "work on water adjustment and safety skills." She loved it! There were lots of smiles and squeals of delight. We sang some songs lifted our babies in and out of the water, worked on "reach and grab" skills with a floating toy on their bellies, a little time floating on their backs, poured water on their heads, and then ended the class with a couple turns down the water slide (just at the bottom). Here are some adorable photos of Eloise during her lesson, courtesy of Evan:

Just got in the water

All smiles!

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall!

Future water ballerina?

This week Eloise added a new consonant to her vocabulary: the letter B. I was making breakfast when i first heard it and was able to capture the moment ion video: