Beach Week 2010

We went to the Beach the week of Labor Day and had a fantastic (and MUCH needed) family vacation.  It was sunny the entire week - not a drop of rain, which was pretty impressive for a full week in FL during hurricane season.  Still pretty hot during the day, which meant that we didn't get much beach time during the day...Matthew was not liking it, even in his tent...so we spent a lot of time in the pool (thank goodness there was one in our backyard!).  And we watched the sunset from the beach most evenings so Nate still got his sand time.  It was very relaxing - and when we weren't relaxing we were having fun!  Some highlights:

• Julie's family and Grandpa Dale joined us for Labor Day - we cooked out and played in the pool with the kids and went to Seaside for dinner and beach play.  It was a great day.

• We went to the Gulfarium in Ft Walton - something I had not done since my 5th Grade field trip.  Even though the facilities hadn't changed much since I was there last, it was still a fun place to take the kids - actually, I think Michael and I were more impressed than Nate - he chose to spend most of our time there chasing pigeons (see pics below)...not sure why those birds were more impressive than flipping dolphins and sea lions doing handstands??

• While we were in that area, we met up with Julie & fam and Grandpa Dale again at Juana's - somewhere else I had not been in many years.  We had a great dinner together watching a beautiful sunset while the kids played in the sand. 

• One day, my sweet sister offered to watch Matthew while we took Nate out on a boat ride to see dolphins.  Being out on the water with the wind in his hair just made Nate sleepy, so he took a little snooze...but pretty soon after getting out in to the gulf, the action picked up and we spotted dolphin.  We were bound and determined to get in the water and at least try to touch one...after a few attempts to get them to interact, Michael finally found a friendly one who would let him rub his belly.  And then, it was finally my turn and I found a dolphin who wanted to play a little too much!  He came up to me and put my arm in his mouth and didn't want to let go!  He was having fun but I have to admit I got a little nervous when he wouldn't leave me alone!  But it was an amazing experience to play with them in the wild - we had a great time.  Before we headed back in we stopped at a sandbar and found a bounty of sand dollars (you can see how gorgeous the water was - not a speck of seaweed).  Another great day!

I got a little too much "boat" in this pic but I had to act fast!  You can see Michael through the ladder with the dolphin on his back getting his belly rubbed.

It was a great beach week - it actually made me miss home!  But I guess you appreciate it so much more when you aren't there everyday.

I put more pics in the Beach Week Album on the right...enjoy!

5 Months Down...

Oops...I did write a post over a week ago and never actually posted it!  Here it is, a little late....

Well, we are back from our wonderful beach vacation but before I get in to that I wanted to post Matthew's 5 month updates and pics....

Right after I made the last post, he officially became a "roller"...it actually happened while we were packing up to leave last Saturday morning.  I had him lying on a blanket on our bedroom floor while I was getting ready...I turned my back and the next thing I knew he was looking up at me from his elbows!  After that, he has been rolling ever since...and has learned that he can attempt to escape from his smothery brother by rolling away!

While we were on vacation I gave him cereal for the first time.  As I mentioned before, I had been holding out but every time he watched us eat he would literally start smacking his lips and acting like he was chewing and start reaching for our food...so clearly he was ready...and boy was he excited to have that cereal.  He gobbled it up and now he gets excited when he sees me get the bowl and spoon out.  I can't wait to see what he does when I bring out the "real" food...maybe one of my boys will be a good eater??

More 5 month fun:

• He has started laughing more...he is very ticklish and giggles through his post-bath lotion rub down.  Love that sound...
• He has discovered his tongue and if you stick your tongue out at him he sticks his right back out.
• He still finds Nate funny and brightens up when he comes around him...which is so interesting because Nate literally smooshes and pesters him, I would think he wouldn't be too fond of him!  But they still get along great...sometimes Nate joins us during the bedtime routine and reads books with us.
• He is still a perfect little angel!

Here are my teeth!

August Wrap Up

August turned out to be a busy month...and in my running from one thing to the next I keep finding myself without my camera (or leaving it at birthday parties and not having it for a few days...oops!). So here are some highlights:

Matthew

• He sprouted 2 teeth! Two weeks ago I caught a glimpse of two little buds on the bottom and within a day or so they had popped through. It caught me by surprise bc it was earlier than Nate's first tooth but also because he didn't go through all of the build up that Nate did. There wasn't a month of excessive drooling and fussiness beforehand...they just showed up. HOWEVER, now that those have broken through, he has now entered in to the drool-y and fussy stage...not sure why the next one is bothering him more!? Thank goodness for teething tablets...they really seem to work.
• He is trying really hard to roll over...he has done it a couple of times but it still isn't something he is doing regularly. And always from back to front...
• As of Monday, he has moved to a 4 hr schedule - he is drinking between 6.5 - 8 oz 4 times a day now...it is nice. I think I may start cereal soon...I have been holding off but he is clearly ready...he would eat my food if I let him...
  

Nate

• He had his first day of Pre-school on Monday! I think he was excited to be around kids again. I was nervous because I was traveling for work the day of the classroom orientation so he had never been to the school before or met his teacher...but the great thing about him having been in daycare is that he knows the drill. I walked him to his class room on the first day and he met his teacher and then made a bee-line for the toys. I got his stuff situated and then went to say goodbye and he looked at me and said "good-bye mommy" and went back to playing. I was happy he was comfortable right off the bat! First week is down and he told me he had fun every day...he told Haley (the new nanny), as he was going down for a nap today, that "school wore him out"...ha!
  

Sadly....I left my camera at Amanda's birthday party last weekend so I didn't have it on his first day of school (and my backup little camera had dead batteries :( )...it was very sad for me...i did get a cute Flip video so if I can figure out how to post it I will do so...

• He had his first dentist appt and did great. We read a book about Pirates and there is a line about Pirates not brushing and having green teeth so he is always very concerned about his teeth staying white...so he was actually excited when I told him that the dentist was going to 'make his teeth shiny'! He jumped right up in to the chair and let the dentist check out his teeth...he did want to sit in my lap for the actual cleaning though but he sat there with his mouth wide open for the whole thing. Great job buddy! (Thank goodness for the Pediatric Dentistry trend - they make it seem like fun to go to the dentist...video games, tv's on the ceiling, LOTS of toys...Nate didn't want to leave!)

Those were the highlights...we also spent a weekend in Knoxville and NC (in one weekend); had a visit from Grandpa Dale and celebrated Amanda's birthday (in one weekend)...we have just been going non-stop this summer. It looks like things may slow to a nice Autumn pace after this holiday weekend...looking forward to fall!