Beach Trip

We have recently returned from a glorious week-long vacation in Ocean City, many thanks to a generous friend who lends us her beach house. The weather was gorgeous for most of the week, although we did have one afternoon of heavy thunderstorms and a day or two of extreme heat. We did all the great beachy stuff. We played in the sand, the waves, and the pool, and at the playground. The kids rode on rides (and upon me mentioning Mr. Rogers when I saw him on TV, Alexander asked if Mr. Rogers was the ruler of the Jolly Rogers amusement park). They played at least three rounds of miniature golf with Justin, got cheesy souvenir tee-shirts, and ate ice cream on the boardwalk. We let them eat donuts for breakfast and watch movies to fall asleep, all cuddled up on the pull-out couch while Kai hogged the bedroom (due to our fear of waking him!). Kai diligently sought out trash in every venue and determinedly deposited it in its rightful place. We got our first five-person family photo taken at Old Time Photos. We even had dinner with an old friend and her daughter who happened to be vacationing (and competing in dance competitions) the same week as us. There were, of course, a few annoying moments as there will be whenever you have a 6-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 1-year-old anywhere, but we're still pretty sure this was our best vacation ever! YAY, BEACH!

Old Time Photo 2011

This is our first ever five-person family photo. Aren't we sinister little gangsters?

National Museum of Natural History

A couple of weekends ago we decided to take a trip to DC to visit the National Museum of Natural History. The kids (and I) were not particularly fond of the Metro ride (and at one point the doors shut unexpectedly with me and the big boys on the train while Justin and Kai were left on the platform and the boys freaked out a little), but once we were there, we had plenty of fun. We saw dinosaur bones, human bones, sea creatures, and more! We spent a lot of time in the Discovery Room, where the kids were able to try on clothes from different parts of the world, play with toys from other countries, use puppets, explore a tree's rings, and more.

Kai's Fifteen Month Well Visit

Kai recently was seen for his 15-month well visit. He's a smart, healthy, developmentally perfect little boy by all accounts. He is now about 33 inches tall (95th percentile) and 24 pounds, 4 ounces (48th percentile). When he was seen for his one-year well visit it was noted that he had gained very little weight between six months and one-year, and had dropped from the 99th percentile for weight down to the 48th percentile. We weren't particularly worried, and needn't have been. He remains now in the 48th percentile, so he seems to have found his groove there. Kai now speaks about 20 recognizable words (including some animal sounds, "up," "mine," and "trash") and signs about 5 (including "bath," "more," and "all done.) He's a little entertainer and a shameless flirt.

Summer Vacation Weeks 3 through 6

We've been busy! Fun busy!

We've gone to the beach (#1), to the National Museum of Natural History (#11), painted faces (#18), had a dance party (#20), started work on homemade pinatas (#34), played in the sprinkler (#37), and had a water gun fight (#41).

Alexander also finished up his swim lessons, doing very well but with not quite enough confidence to pass. I think, however, that he has already made improvements since finishing and may still be ready for Level Three next summer. We'll see how the rest of this summer goes.

Jack also took a week of preschool level swimming lessons and did very well. He passed, but because he won't meet the age requirement for Level One by next summer, he will repeat the preschool level again next year.

We're looking forward to this coming week when Justin will be home for some staycation fun!

Kai's "stupid human trick"

This was all I could get on camera, but Kai also know what ducks and monkeys say. My little genius! (He's my son. I think all my sons are geniuses. This is no reflection of what an average 14 month old is capable of.)