Sonja turned over, Nikolas is taking swim lessons

Two nights ago Sonja woke me up at 5am crying.... I considered letting her cry and go back to sleep because she had already eaten around 1 or 2am so really she needed to be trained to sleep until 7 or 8am, but I gave in, and then I found she had a real reason for crying--she turned over onto her belly! She was also turned 180 degrees on the bed, her head where her feet used to be. We've had her sleeping in the playpen since she outgrew the bassinet, but the playpen mattress is too soft and wobbly for her now and makes it more difficult to move and turn so that wakes her up more. It's time to set up the other crib in the bedroom, which we still keep in the living room as they daytime bed.
Michael now sometimes turns onto his right side for a change.
When Michael wakes up and gets tired of looking around and supporting himself on his forearms, he starts yelling really loudly, calling for attention. As soon as I touch his back, he starts giggling and yelling at the same time, and kicking hard with arms and legs, excited that he'll be picked up. Sonja, on the other hand, is normally on her back and when I approach to get her, she gives me the biggest smile and usually an excited shrill, and starts banging her legs against the mattress the same way Nikolas did when he was her size, and waving her arms. When I pick her up, she immediately pulls her knees up very high and glues herself around my waist like a little koala. If I let go of her, she'd most likely stay attached!

Nikolas has been taking swim lessons with Aagneya, Abbie and another girl from their apartment complex. While the instructor spends a lot of time singing songs with kids in a circle and getting them to dip their faces in the water, Nikolas is completely bored with that stuff and asks me to jump in the water from the edge of the pool instead. He has no fear of water. Dipping his face in the water and blowing bubbles has been his bath-time activity for a while, nothing new there. It's much more fun to climb out of the pool, hold my hands and jump in the water. I let him get completely submerged to see how he'd react: if he'd blow air by himself or hold air or swallow water, so I'd know what we'll need to work on, and surprisingly, he seems to be blowing bubbles through his nose because he hasn't gotten any water in his nose after numerous jumps! I saw some bubbles coming out and they looked like they were coming from his nose. Anyway, I can get him to kick with his legs, but he likes to hold on to me with his arms so we have to work on scooping water with his hands. In the middle of kicking with his legs and moving through the pool he likes to suddenly turn onto his back and dip the back of his head in the water just enough so his face won't get wet.
No matter how cold he gets in the water, he enjoys it so much that he won't come out by himself!
By the time I've finished this blog entry, the lessons have ended. The result: Nikolas is enjoying his newly discovered love for water, especially jumping and splashing in it, and, surprisingly to me, he has memorized the songs that the instructor has been singing at every lesson, which Nikolas kept ignoring every time ('The wheels of the bus' is the one he keeps singing at home now).