Owen Walks!

The day has come.
Owen, walking at 14.5 months.

Visits

Cousins Jen, Joel, Adah, and Henry, and Aunt Jane & Uncle Harris came all the way down from Boston and Doylestown, respectively, for a playdate! Last time I saw the twins they were just 2 months old, now they're 9 months! Owen loved hanging out with kids his age and Jacob enjoyed being the oldest and showing off all of the things he can do (jump, yell really loud, use the potty, yell really loud, stuff like that).

Cutey cute cute

Then this weekend we took the boys to Annapolis to visit Anne Van. We were hoping to get to ride in her boat but the weather was being unpredictable so instead we walked around, rode on a water taxi, got lunch and then got stuck in the rain without an umbrella for the walk back to the car (oops). It was such a nice day all around, though.

Our beach house

Last week we took a trip up to our beach house on Long Island. Yep. We let Nana and Papa stay with us while we were there and we had a grand old time together. They had all sorts of activities planned for us and we got to spend lots of time with Avery and Heath and their parents too. It was so fun - I think I took over 300 pictures. Knowing that, you should appreciate that I could narrow it down to this relatively small group. Owen ate a few meals of sand (I'll never understand) and Jacob loved going in the ocean with Mike to jump waves.

Hi there, good thing I got that haircut last week.

Nana and Papa's grandkids (and Uncle Dave)

The boys

Hot

Somewhere I heard or read or saw that today was going to be cooler. It was not, I'm sure of it. Regardless, the boys and I went on a nice, long, extremely hot bike adventure, followed by a nice shady picnic.



A few developments on the Owen front. He's about 13.5 months now and this week he started pointing at things. He also quacks like a duck when he sees pictures of ducks ... or giraffes, or dogs, or any animal really. Sometimes when he sees a dog he changes the quack midway to more of a woof, but he gets so happy when he recognizes something, points to it, and then gets a result. It's great. ALSO, I'll try to have pics of the event next week, but we took him to get his first official, professional hair cut this weekend. This time around we decided to bring a LOT of snacks and he was so distracted he didn't even have time to think of crying! It was amazing. He just sat on my lap, eating goldfish, while a man he never met cut his hair and he barely paid the guy any attention. Brilliant.

Go big or go home

My mother turned 70!!

So, Nancy and I and all our boys headed down to Richmond to celebrate. It was so nice, and I wish we'd gotten a picture with the whole group - all of Larry's kids, Brian and Kim, and Aunt Nancy and Jerry were there for a lovely dinner for mom. Of course, the "lovely" part lasted about 10 minutes with Jacob and Owen in attendance. Fortunately, we were seated in our own room, so when Jacob began running around the table in circles and ignoring me completely while I was simultaneously trying to contain Owen's urge to play the "uh oh" game with all his food (unsuccessfully) at least it was just among family... and the poor people who worked there and had to clean up. You may notice there are no pictures from that particular part of this visit. It was great, though. Owen got to meet everybody and I think mom had a fun time ringing in a new decade.

Happy Birthday Mom/Memaw!!!!

I wasn't necessarily surprised at how the dinner went, as I've realized recently Jacob LOVES a good party. Subtle signs include: picking him up from school and of everyone in the class he's the only one still wearing the birthday hat from a classmate's party that morning; he sang Happy Birthday every night of Hanukkah; he pretends one of our chairs is a moon bounce; he frequently requests we play Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" so he can dance (Pointer Sisters' "Jump" is a close second); let's just say don't get him near a pinata; and well, there's that picture of him from Owen's birthday party post where he's in the baby pool with his sunglasses and party hat on, and a bunch of beach balls around him; that picture just sums it up for me. He wasn't always this way as many of you know, but this is him now...

... just a blur.

And finally, if you're still reading this incredibly long post, Jacob had his first dentist appointment today so we decided to make a day of it. We made 6 stops including the dentist and the zoo - may have been a bit much for one day, but here's a pic of Jacob and an elephant.

Fourth of July

Big Boy Bed!

I had to travel for work recently and Lois and Mark came down to help Mike with the boys. I had three goals for them during their visit, 1) Potty train Jacob, 2) Convince Owen to crawl, and 3) Convince Owen to drink out of a sippy cup. Not asking too much, right? Would you believe they (well, Jacob & Owen helped) accomplished all of them?!

Jacob has been teasing us for about a year now with the potty -- we were sure he was going to be an early potty trainee as a result. But it was not to be. However, with the help of stickers, "choc-o-late" chips, and the idea of a big boy bed hanging over his head Jacob is about 99% potty trained - YAY! Except we're not so sure how to handle lengthy car drives or long walks and the like. That sorta makes me appreciate how convenient diapers are. Hmmm. Anyway, we'll figure it out. So, after a week of success we set Jacob up with a big boy (toddler) bed and here was his reaction.