My little graduate

Isla had her first graduation today: swimming lessons! She (and Sean) passed with flying colours. She can go fully under water for 5 seconds, dive under water, jump into the water, kick her legs, float on her back and roll over. Pretty impressive for an almost eight month old!


We decided not to sign up for summer classes as we likely won't be around much, and will probably just do lessons in Bolton come September. Brampton lessons were fab, and highly recommended, but it is a bit of a trek for the little one. Wednesday night bedtimes have been routinely horrendous. Isla's normal bedtime is 7pm... that means ASLEEP at 7pm. By the time we get home from lessons and have a bath (must clean off the chlorine/salt water), it is closer to 7:30 or so. Either she is so tired from a) swimming and b) it being way past her bedtime, or she ended up sleeping on the car ride home (like tonight as I was on my own and unable to continuously poke her while driving), that she is a mix of over-tired and wired. Going to lessons that are literally 30 seconds from our house will be much less chaotic!


Here is a pic of Isla and Daddy... she came such a long way during the lessons and I just LOVE how much she enjoys it. I smile the entire 30 minutes :)

DIY Fabric Tutu

So I am a bit of a Pinterest addict. I absolutely love all of the cute ideas, especially the DIY category. It always gets me thinking, "I can totally make that"... and then I don't do it. Well, this morning, I came across a pin showing how to make a scrap fabric tutu. Easy enough and looks absolutely adorable! 


I went down to our basement and grabbed the box of fabric that I had purchased months ago for DIY baby shoes (which I also saw on Pinterest) that I never actually got around to making. I had to be honest with myself, I would never get around to making them... too much work... but this tutu, I could do! 


I cut the fabric into long strips and threw it all into a pile- I didn't want to have a pattern to my skirt, so I wanted to be able to just grab a piece of fabric and put it on. 

To make the waistband, I just used elastic which I grabbed from the dollar store. I busted out the trusty sewing machine to make sure it would stay put. Keep in mind that the elastic totally stretched as I made this... definitely should have cut it on the smaller side!


Next, I stretched my loop of elastic over one of my kitchen chairs in order to have a good working space. This made it super easy to attach the fabric with a simple loop. 

This was a super easy tutu to make. I mixed in some tulle and pink ribbon along the way to jazz it up a little bit. I had two trusty helpers... although Isla helped a lot more by going down for a nap shortly after I began!

And once it was all finished...  tada!!

I am super impressed with how it turned out. I will post pics of my little niece wearing it once I give it to her. I think she will absolutely love to twirl in this!


I can't finish my post without posting one more pic of my cutie. She will be eight months in 2 weeks, and is developing such an amazing personality. She cracks me up on a daily basis. We really are blessed to have such an incredible being in our lives. 

Month 7

Isla turned seven months old yesterday! That means that we are now closer to her being one, than we are to when she was born. Time sure does fly!

Isla seems to have mastered the army crawl. She is surprisingly quick if there is something across the room that she is interested in. I used to have my mom "skype sit" her for a minute or two so I could run to the washroom or get her a bottle ready. This involved Isla lying on the carpet and my mom singing to her. Worked out very well :) Now, Isla realizes that this is her time to escape and she shuffles away from my mom as soon as I'm gone. hehe. Silly little girl. 


She is also getting really good at eating on her own. She loves to pick up fruit and puffs- and is quite good at actually getting them into her mouth. We are working on peas, and she is pretty cute when she is that focused in her high chair. 


Over the last little bit, Sean and I have definitely remarked about how "energetic" Isla is. There is no doubt that she is an active little baby. We will definitely need to channel that energy into sports and activities when she is a bit older! 


As for activities, Isla is still swimming once a week in Brampton. She is such a little fish now, and has the greatest time. I am looking forward to the summer when she can enjoy the lake and little baby pools. We will definitely make it a habit of going to a public pool at least once a week so that she continues to be comfortable and enjoy the water. 


It is getting towards the end of June, and I am super excited for our first summer as a family. Sean got onto the volunteer fire department in Bolton, so many of his weekends until mid-July will be taken up by training. The beauty of being teachers, is that we are off- so it doesn't really matter. We will likely be spending lots of time between here, North Bay and Wyevale. Sean's parents live just up the road from Georgian Bay and the beach is beautiful. Hello sandy diaper! 


Last week we finally got some air conditioning installed. As our second floor is essentially a converted attic, it gets incredibly warm up there. I felt pretty bad expecting Isla to sleep in that heat, and it was only going to get worse as the summer began. They still need to finish up some of the duct work- so at the moment we just have holes in the ceilings and floors, but the air itself is going and is pretty decent. It is supposed to feel like 41 today (flashback to days in Qatar), so I am thankful that this is in!


Here is a cute pic that I just had to share. It may be one of my absolute favourites. I am a lucky girl :)