Home Alone With Daddy

Last weekend was my first weekend (and night!) away from Alex. I was celebrating my dear friend’s bachelorette party at the Isle of Palms before she ties the knot in November. So, that meant boys weekend at our house! Well, Friday was boy’s night, then Grandma Lisa joined in the fun Saturday. Tim did a great job of keeping me up-to-date with picture texts throughout the weekend, so I think I’ll do the same thing for you. A picture is worth a thousand words, anyway!

Getting Caught Up is Tough!

September has been a ridiculously busy month! By the end of this weekend, I will have helped throw two baby showers, attended an out-of-town bachelorette party, and played host to family 4 out of the last 5 weekends. Alex and I have attended play dates/events almost every morning, and we try to walk on the beach with Daddy after work a few times a week. That’s not even factoring in the grocery shopping and piles of laundry and dishes. I’m not complaining – we love having visitors and who doesn’t love a good baby shower and girls’ reunion/beach weekend? I’m just giving my excuse for the lack of posts lately. Don’t worry – I plan on devoting Monday’s nap time to catching up on this blog. I have some great posts in mind from the last 2 weeks. Make sure you visit us next week and enjoy yesterday’s beach pictures and video on my other post from today.

Loving Fall Afternoons on the Beach

As the days get shorter, we have found that late afternoon walks on the beach are the perfect end to busy days. We don’t have to slather Alex in sunscreen since the sun is behind the first row of beach houses, Tim and I have a chance to unwind from our busy day, and we all get to enjoy the perks of living 5 minutes from the beach. There is just nothing like watching your beautiful son walk out on the beach and just take it all in – it’s like he’s already learned to appreciate nature and her beauty. He’s off running around like crazy after a minute or two, but I love those first minutes of wonder and amazement.

I was able to capture a great video of Alex playing on the cliff of sand at the water’s edge and playing in the water. He is getting braver and braver every time we go out!

Pickles

Daddy and Alex spent yesterday evening together while I was visiting with a friend. Fortunately, Daddy wore Alex out and we were able to sleep until 9:30 this morning. Unfortunately, Daddy and Alex shared 1/2 a jar of pickles. Anyone who knows me well knows that I H.A.T.E anything pickled or covered with vinegar. So, when I came home and found Alex holding an empty jar of pickles, then watched this video, you know I was bummed! I was hoping Alex would avoid pickles with me! Oh well – enjoy the video – it’s adorable!

No. Longer. Afraid.

The title of this post is the text Tim sent me while playing at the beach on Saturday with Alex and Grandpa Art. I was hosting a baby shower at my house, so the boys went and played on the beach. It was a beautiful day – and a momentous day! Alex finally decided that playing in the water isn’t so bad after all. He sat, crawled, and rolled around in the waves … and loved it! Make sure you watch the video below this adorable picture.

Kindermusik

Alex began his first class and met his first teacher, Ms. Cindy, on Monday. We are attending a Kindermusik class for toddlers that runs for 10 weeks. One of our friends from our MOMS Club is in the class with us, which made Monday a little less scary for me. Alex, on the other hand, was pretty scared! In order to not distract the little people (the class is for 18 months – 3 years) we don’t bring our bags in the classroom (at a church). This means I wasn’t able to take pictures, but that ended up being a very good thing since Alex climbed me like a tree for most of the 45 minute class. I think he was most bothered by the closed door! He knew there were toys in the lobby, I guess. He did calm down from time to time and seemed to enjoy listening to Ms. Cindy sing. Hopefully listening to the songs in the car on our new cd will help get him ready for next week’s class. I’ll keep you updated!

Since I wasn’t able to take pictures during class, I snapped a few at the park where we ran off steam after class. We happened to be right under the flight pattern for the airport, so we saw lots of really close airplanes. Any time Alex hears anything remotely sounding like an airplane, he stops what he is doing to stare at the sky. The poor boy has my lack of coordination – I can’t walk and drink water and he can’t walk and look for airplanes!

Here’s my personal favorite picture of the week:

Fun in the Tub

Alex has always loved bath time. Over the past 2 weeks, he has gotten just plain silly during bath time. He figured out that he can lie down in the tub and “swim” around. A few days later, he started blowing bubbles in the water, which is much better than him sipping the water and laughing about it. It took several tries at recording his silliness, but I finally captured enough video to make a little montage. I hope you enjoy it!

 

So Lucky

I started my day with hugs, kisses, and Gamecock Football (we won!) …

…and ended it with a walk on the beach with my two handsome boys. How much luckier can I get?

Alex’s Growing Vocabulary

I don’t know if Alex was just showing off for his guests this weekend or what, but he sure did talk a lot! We’re used to a lot of jibber-jabber, but the boy ran his mouth all day! It was wonderful!! The best part is – we actually understood a lot of what he was saying. He’ll be speaking in sentences soon. Here are his new words:

~I handed him his cup, he looked at it, and said dump truck while showing me the dump truck on the cup.

~While stacking cars with Aunt Beth, he told her his police car was under his truck.

~After dropping all his cars behind the entertainment center, he said uh-oh dropped it.

~Alex has quite an arm and loved tossing the football around with us, and he said football too!

~Today, he handed me his empty cup and said all gone. He said the same thing to Grandpa Murff about the lizard that had just run off. Here’s a picture of the lizard we had been chasing:

I just love hearing all these words coming out of my sweet boy’s mouth! I’m so proud of him!

Aunt Beth & Uncle Eric Visit

We had a great Labor Day visit from Aunt Beth & Uncle Eric this past weekend. Alex definitely showed them how busy life is with a toddler! He immediately started showing off all his toys and insisted they play with him all weekend.

Playing cars with Aunt Beth & Uncle Eric

No one was allowed to sit still!

Our first adventure was fireworks on the beach – Carolina Beach put on the last show of the summer, and they did an amazing job. Alex sat in my lap, mouth open in awe, and only moved to pull another cracker out of his snack bag. His little heart was beating so fast, but he loved it! On Saturday, the guys went to the driving range, so Alex and I took Aunt Beth to the mall. After shopping and golf, we ate some chicken wings and watched football.

Our truly busy day was Sunday when we rode the ferry over to Southport for yummy seafood. We couldn’t decide where to eat, so we ate lunch at the Yacht Basin Provision Company, walked around, and ate an early dinner at Frying Pan. We were definitely stuffed all weekend!! Aunt Beth & Uncle Eric, thanks for visiting us!