When Dad's Away...

We successfully got Tom to the airport and out on his own. He arrived in Japan on Tuesday evening. He says the hotel they are staying at is beautiful and the food (although not native Japanese cuisine) is pretty good. The dining facilities in the hotel for the US team has had regulars like hamburgers and french fries, pizza, and even sea bass. Tom's spending his time at the track, in the weight room, eating, sleeping, and in the training room. Pretty much just like being at home, but no Kinley to tuck in at night.

Kinley and I went down to Texas when Tom left for Japan (not much in Manhattan for us). We have had a lot of fun with everyone down here. We went to my dad's condo for lunch and a swim on Tuesday. This was pretty momentus for us. Kinely put on big-girl arm floaties for the first time.

She actually did really well. I only had to balance her a little bit. She would occasionally let her feet float up behind her, and she would need help to get them back down, but I was really impressed with her. She also has found the love of jumping into the pool. She stands on the side and basically belly flops into the pool and trusts that I will catch her (I do). We had a great time eating and playing with Opa and GrandLis. We also played a round of Marco, Polo and I forgot how easily little people cheat at this game. We still had a great time!

Thursday was rainy here, so we went to the mall. They have a huge store that just has those big inflatable jumpy toys. There must have been 8 or so in there, and they had a couple for little bity kids. We didn't know, but besides it being rainy, it was also half-price day, so it was packed! We still had a great time. All 5 kids ran and jumped and had a blast!

This is Kinley starting to run down the little slide. Most of the time she would turn around and slide down feet first on her tummy. A couple times she jumped down and even did a few barrel rolls. I only got upset once when a little girl (about 4, I think) tackled Kinley and then held her down until I yelled at her to let Kinely up. Kinley wasn't that upset, but it made me a little mad that the girl's mom wasn't watching her. I guess that's just me being the protective mom.

We have had a great time so far, but we miss Tom soooo much! We are talking to him every day, but its just not the same. Less than 2 weeks until we go over to see him - Yeah!