Lowcountry Vacation

At the end of August, we took a trip to Georgia and South Carolina. For both the departure and return flights, we left early. The boys did great and napped on the way there/back...but they were probably thinking, "Mom and Dad, what are you doing to us?" :-)

Boys and their gadets..

Blake did well on his first flight, despite VERY bad diapers on the flight there AND back (I mean, so bad Mommy even had to have a wardrobe change when we landed in Savannah!)

We flew on a three-seater commercial plane, and the lap child/parent are not allowed in the single seat. So, I was with both boys with Brett across the aisle, a little tricky if I was nursing Blake and Jameston needed something...

Once in Savannah, we ate at the Pirate's House, a southern food restaurant with a lot of history (and Pirate accessories)

It houses the oldest, still-standing building in all of Georgia, built in 1753. Pretty neat, and supposedly haunted, room...

We only stayed in Savannah one night, so we visited the Riverwalk for dinner that night. The next morning, we were planning on heading to Hilton Head for some fun in the sun, but the weather had other plans for us. So, we continued to Charleston, where we checked in to our hotel, swam in the pool, and went to a "fancy" dinner that night. The next morning we hit up The Battery:

Jameston had a ball! And he kept calling these "grapes..."

 

That afternoon, we headed to the "BEEEACH!" as Jameston lovingly called it. He was pumped, to say the least, since he does not remember his first visit to a beach (at 9 months old). Blake was pretty ecstatic as well :-)

Taking it all in...

Do all boys love sticks? Or just mine?

We could not keep up with him, he was all over the place!

The following morning we headed to a fishing pier in Mount Pleasant, underneath the bridge leaving Charleston. 

It also had a great playground beneath it

We then headed over to some friends' house for brunch (lunch), then rolled the dice and decided to go on a tour to Fort Sumter, although it was during Jameston's nap time.

Family pic on the ferry

Blake was quite the 'lil tourist

One of the many cannons on the Fort

My guys taking in some US history

Flags on the top of the Fort

Instagram pics:

On our last full day there, we decided to head out to one of the many plantations in the area. We went to Middleton Place, based on a recommendation from a friend who recently visited with her family. It was a rice plantation built in the 18th century

Jameston and me in front of the Reflection Pond

Home to the oldest kept-up gardens in the US

JW LOVED the horses, of course

Taking a break! Felt like we walked every bit of the 110 acres, since it was not conducive for a stroller!

Beautiful place!

What else did we do on vacation?! Eat A LOT. Duh! We went to this place right across from our hotel, thanks to Urbanspoon ratings...

Me and my boys (and Jameston's CHEESY smile)!

I normally don't take pictures of our food, but could not NOT include something since we ate quite a bit of southern food. Shrimp and Grits, a popular dish

The Sweet Tee Glazed Salmon on Risotto-YUM!

We also ate a Dixie Cafe one morning, which was supposedly recently feature on the Food Network and highly recommended to us by a local. It is a dive and connected to a convenient store, but it sure was good! JW was a good sport and stood out front for me...the tomato pie was outta-this-world!

We decided to go back to the beach for our last afternoon/evening:

Wish Blake was looking at the camera :-)

Funny picture!

Again with the sticks...

This boy is a beach boy...could not get enough!

LOVE my boys! And LOVED our vacation!!

Jameston's Jargon

Can't believe our oldest will be THREE in two weeks! Sigh. I wanted to document some Jameston-isms since it's been awhile...

He is a riot and makes us laugh (and keeps us on our toes) all the time! Lately, he favorite thing to do is tell his own stories. He's been having us tell him a story after we read a book before bedtime for some time now. And he starts every story with, "So." And ends most every with, "Is that silly?" while making the funniest of faces.

Speaking of, he also likes to play "Faces" where we show our "happy, sad, mad, tired, etc., faces." He has some over-the-top ones!

He also likes to play favorites, still, after our trip to New Mexico over two months ago! He will ask everyone what their favorite color, animal, and instrument is. Oh, and then proceed to air-play that said instrument!

JW also likes to say, "We haven't {insert almost-three-year-old's favorite pastimes here} in awhile." For instance, "We haven't read this book in awhile." or "We haven't played watched Woody and Buzz in awhile."  

And when he doesn't want to wrap up an activity, he'll say, "We will finish in five minutes." 

He stills says, "Somefin" for something, "Lellow" for yellow (although he can say it) and "Ambiance," for ambulance. Love it!

Like I have stated before, this sharing-attention-thing with his little brother rocked his world! So it shouldn't be a shocker that we hear, "Do you see me?" or "Are you watching me do this?" every other day or so :-)

We aren't totally in the clear for bad behavior (kids will be kids, right?!), so any undesirable actions of his are usually met with an immediate, "Oh. I'm sorry." He also copies some of our disciplinary phrases like, "You know better than that," and, "We don't say that word." He does copy some sweet things we say, too. He said one night not long ago, "I'm so proud of you, Daddy."

Two cute stories:

Brett went golfing with his brothers and my dad one Saturday afternoon, and when they got back, Jameston was asking them all about it. Somehwere in their conversation, Brett said, "Uncle Cade even hit a birdie." Jameston replied, "Oh no! What was his name?!" 

One night as I was preparing dinner (after I had vacuumed the playroom), he walked into the kitchen with the vacuum attachment down the back of his shirt. He said, "Look, Mommy. I am a Rizraelite soldier." I think I've said before that his favorite Bible story is (and has been for probably six months) David and Goliath.

Jameston continues to call Blake, "Little Fella," and is such a great big brother, quick to console him if I'm not right there. And, as a speechy, his language skills (he can say hydrogen peroxide), and his imagination never cease to amaze me. I love my silly, sometimes dramatic, little boy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

4-months-old!!

I better post this before he turns five-months-old!

Blake turned 4-months-old while we were away on vacation (post to come). Here he is at four-months and three-days-old :-)

I took him to the pediatrician on Tuesday, and, not surprisingly, he was a laid back little dude, even for the shots.

He continues to be a BIG boy (our backs are feeling it!): 

19 lbs., 5 oz. (97%) and 28 3/4 inches long (>100%)

Wearing size 3-6 months shirts and 6-9 months pants/PJ's

Eating every 3 hours during the day; if he has a bottle, it is 6-7 ounces

He is sleeping better than big brother did at this age, even after we were traveling and off-schedule for six days (phew!). Blake will usually sleep 6-8 hours before he wakes up hungry. I am feeding him once at night now, and I am thinking he'll drop this soon...he takes 2-3 naps a day, and is napping better at daycare (finally!). He is moving toward dropping his middle nap and taking longer naps instead of one long one and two short ones. So, this means both boys probably wont' nap at the same time...that's okay, I love my one-on-one time with each of them, but I also like my "me" time. Blake does make a great house-cleaning helper in the carrier/backpack though  :-)

Big milestones this month are that he has found his feet, as I said in a previous post,

and he is oh, so close to rolling over (back to front)!

And he is a pretty good supported sitter (no pictures) thanks to the boppy and bumbo, which he seems to like sitting in at the dinner table with us :-)

And, like big brother did, he LOVES his jumerpoo!

Blake enjoys tummy time (although it doesn't look like it in the below picture :-) He loves his tummy so much that he sometimes get to nap that way, and he really shows no interest in rolling from tummy to back...

We have turned the corner in the spit-up department (woohoo!), as his belly seems to be leveled out now. Mommy even gets to enjoy dairy foods again, yum!

His newest sounds include "ooh, ahh, buh, guh" and any combination of those, and he likes to SING back to us when we're singing. And he has the best belly laugh (we mostly hear it when he's getting tired)-it is TOO cute! 

He's a pretty good little shopper, too :-) 

His hair is coming in full-force on the top (but thin in the back), albeit a bit lighter now, so he won't be a baldy like his brother was! He continues to drool like a champ and has started blowing lots of bubbles lately!

Unfortunately, he seems to have allergies like his brother and myself (I've had allergy-related hives since Blake's birth, also due to hormones. Ugh!), but I'm hoping they aren't as bad. Poor guy has had watery eyes and a runny nose for a week now, but we can't put him on anything until 6 months.

 Funny things to document about Blake are that he has sweaty feet and pees in the bathtub. Every time.

I posted this on Facebook last week:

Since I'm a lefty, I'm hoping one of our kiddos is, too. Here is Blake showing hand preference for chewing over the last month...only time will tell!

Happy 4-months, Blake E!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blog roll

So, I finally updated our blog header to include our newest addition (four months later)! Um, yeah...things like that tend to become a bigger to-do for me than I want them to be. I want to make it all cutesy and such, but I went with something quick this time around for time's sake. I may try to find some fun design later on, but don't hold your breath. I do, however, need to get a more updated family-of-four portrait of us (I have some, but they are not as good as the ones Shannon took of us when Blake was three-weeks-old)!

I do have many, many posts up my sleeve and in the works. Stay tuned...