Our Spring Vacation 2009
Last week we took a wonderful vacation to Alabama and Florida. It was great to go and it is good to be home.
Serenity got her first teeth on Monday. She was feeling the pain on Sunday night, and Monday morning, there were teeth. :0) She started doing push-ups, on her hands and toes, on Monday last week while we were in Alabama. This week she started using her knee, that was Wednesday. Yesterday she was on both knees rocking back and forth. She has the momentum and can push her self backwards a lunge at a time.
I am not rushing this along, this whole mobility thing. I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Babyhood goes by so fast! She says, "Da da (daddy), Ki ka (kitty kat), Kay (me, I always say, I'll be right back, okay?" after I change her diapers), hi, hey, hello (I think you get those)", and babbles what sounds like sentences I have said from time to time, though, those are very inconsistent and rarely, if ever, repeated. I think it is amazing what a baby can do and how fast they learn! Can you imagine if we stayed on that learning curve our whole lives? Wouldn't we all be geniuses?
Serenity enjoyed the taste of sand so much, I am still changing sandy diapers (she has had at least two baths since we left the beach).
Just before we came home, she was exercising on the floor in her Gramma B's living room, and rolled under a tall chair, which she proceeded to lift off the floor for a moment. My little Bam Bam, that makes two.
Julian had a wonderful vacation.
We stayed in Alabama were he got to play with all of his second cousins from his Great Aunt Kay's family.
He colored eggs for Easter for the first time. I found this Star Wars egg decorating kit and he used it to create eggs he really liked.
We drove to Santa Rosa Beach on Friday and stayed in a beautiful beach house with my friend Vicki and her Son Brian, the little guy I used to nanny. We went to the beach every day we were there, watched the sunset twice and rise once...we tried for twice, but it was overcast one day. We were there a total of three days, but arrived after sunrise the first day, and left before sunset the last day.
Sunrise
Sunset
The little shopping district at Santa Rosa Beach is too cute! Located behind some regular shops, they have a courtyard containing art shacks, we spent most of our time (and too much money) there. Both Serenity and Julian now have cute little name plaques made at a shack called "recycled arts".
They each participated in an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday.
Serenity was not thrilled, even though it was her first hunt.
Did you know that eggs do not do such a great job of getting away on a hunt? Even a baby can catch them!
Julian had his first pony ride (priced quite reasonably).
Yee Ha!
He has been asking to go on a boat ride since we were in Maine when he was almost four. I was finally able to comply with that wish on Easter Sunday. We booked passage on a dolphin cruise in Destin, FL. It was fantastic! We actually saw dolphins, three pods of them! We went on a glass bottomed boat...not so amazing, the glass part. It was six little windows that we not very clean in a cramped, dark basement area of the boat.
With Flash
Without Flash
When I was little, my parents took my siblings and me on a glass bottomed boat that had a huge square of glass in the center of the boat that you could look down at from the second level of the boat and actually see the fish underneath you. It was pretty cool.
All boats are not the same.
What was cool about this boat that we rode on Easter was that Julian was able to take a turn at the wheel. He waited and was the last one to drive. Because he was last, we were headed back and he was able to steer the boat under the bridge, a pretty narrow passageway, and the captain, Captain Bill, made over him as he listened carefully and steered slightly this way and that. It was pretty neat! I got video and pictures. Brian and Vicki were with us, Brian was able to steer the boat also. His turn came right before Julian's. Julian let him go first. I liked that Julian got an instant reward for his patience, in that he was the one who got to do the tricky steering.
Captain Julian
He was amazing on our vacation! Being away from home gave me an opportunity to step back and observe him interacting with others. I got to see things I have missed at home, like how curious he is about things outside of himself, and how good he is about making new friends, no matter what language they speak.
We stopped at a park on our drive home and he made friends with a large group of children who were speaking chinese, I think. At first, he thought he might not be able to play with them because he did not know what language they were speaking (his words), but then, with a little (very little) encouragement, he went over to the kids and made a friend right away. Within minutes, he was playing with the whole group of kids. It was neat to watch.
We had such a wonderful time! The weather was very cooperative for almost our entire trip. We ran into rain on our way back to AL from FL, just three or four hours worth...at night...when I was exhausted. No biggie. Chocolate is my friend!
