Today, Zoe Mei turned 5. In so many ways, she is such a big girl. With increasing frequency, Zoe says things that sound so grown-up. It used to be she'd throw out the odd phrasing here or there that struck us as cute or funny, but now it happens so often I have to acknowledge that she just is getting to be a big girl. These days Zoe's interests still include anything related to drawing, she also spends a lot of time sounding out words ("mmmmilk, hey mom, milk starts with M!"), and she loves her gymnastics and swim lessons.  Swimming deserves special attention...we have had Zoe in various group swim classes in the past with decent results. However, she never could get past an aversion to getting her face wet or putting her head under water, so she was kind of stuck with how far she could go. We decided to try a pool closeby that teaches private, 1 on 1 lessons. They're just 15 minutes long, and then they get to play in the pool for 15 minutes after their lesson. So she started out getting stiff as a board when it came time to put her face in; she dipped in up to her lips and called it good. In the week between classes, there was a lot of talk about being afraid to get water up her nose, so I broke down and bought a set of noseplugs. Now, I grew up swimming and teaching swim lessons, and I know a lot of teachers really frown on noseplugs, but as far as we were concerned, it was either get noseplugs or risk her not wanting to get back in the pool. Well, ever since getting those she has slowly built up her confidence in the water, and a week ago she was brave enough to start going all the way under water in our hot tub and getting things off the bottom. In her class Monday, for the first time in her life she swam with her face in the water, arms pulling and legs kicking, for a length of about 5 feet. We are so proud of how she has stuck with it, overcome her fears, and kept being brave every week until she became confident enough to put her face in and swim. A lesson many of us grown-ups could benefit from...

 

In other exciting news, we got an Australian shepherd puppy about 2 weeks ago. His mom was picked up by Animal Control when she was pregnant, and he was born and raised with a foster family outside of Portland. I drove down a couple weeks ago and brought him home, and haven't had a solid night of sleep since then! We got to vote as a family on the name, and it was unanimously agreed to name him Milo. Overall, things are going pretty well; he's pretty well adjusted to our routine and has started to feel right at home around our house and yard. We have challenges with play biting and him harassing the girls and our old husky Betsy, but we're working on it. We've got a trainer coming over tomorrow to help all of us learn some techniques. For those not familiar with the Aussie, they are herding dogs, and while they can be really great family dogs, they have an intense drive to herd which includes nipping at the heels of whatever they're chasing. Today I witnessed Milo finding his inner-herder when he accompanied me out to let the goats out of the barn this morning...although he's no bigger than a cat, he had our youngest goat Maggie tearing around the pasture, bobbing and weaving to stay away from him. Lots of training in our future.