Beachin' It

Cole (3.5), Owen (2 in August), Will (1.5)

It was a blast to hang with the Pughs at the beach for a few days! It was fun to compare this year to last year. Will was still sitting in a bumbo last year and this year, all three boys were running around and much more independent.
We arrived at the beach on Friday night late...about 10:00. Will was an excellent car rider this time. We didn't even have to bust out the M&Ms that I had bought for the trip and was fully prepared to let him eat the entire bag if it kept him quiet and me sane. He slept the last hour and a half or so, but when we arrived in the condo, he quickly woke back up and realized there were 2 fun boys about his size who were here too! Pajama party ensued in the den for about an hour and then we began trying to get little man down.The Pack and Play was a no go AGAIN...he has NEVER slept in his pack and play, even as a baby. He HATES it. This time he let us know that he hated it by crying hysterically and jumping out (twice). I didn't even know he could do that. So we tried having him sleep in the bed with us the first night...He does not sleep in the bed with us. The only time he is in bed with us is on Saturday and Sunday mornings for a few minutes after he wakes up to play with us in bed. Therefore, whenever he is in bed with us, he thinks PLAY!! Finally we cranked up the sound machine, turned off all the lights, and with Will in between us, we ignored him. At one point I rolled over to see what he was doing and he had his head laying on John's pillow and was rubbing John's hair. It was incredibly sweet and I wish I had my camera close by to snap his pic. He finally fell asleep at around 2:00 and was up a little before 6am. You can imagine what happy campers John and I were for the first part of the day. But having others around helped us to snap out of our funk and we all headed down to the pool. Will loved the water. My mom bought him a puddle jumper earlier this summer and he has lived in it at the pool ever since. I am so glad that it doesn't bother him. It gives me much more peace of mind since he wants nothing more to be independent in the water.
The place we are staying (Caribe in Orange Beach) is AMAZING. I cannot say enough about how nice it is. My gracious room mother from this past school year let us stay in their unit. It is the perfect getaway for kids. It is on the bay side, which was fine with us, and has 3 pools (complete with water slides) and a lazy river. The pool at our building has those edges where you just walk into the water. This was perfect for the boys. It kept them super entertained to just sit by the edge and play with their water toys. John introduced Will to the water slide on Saturday and this is what he has wanted to do the rest of the weekend. As soon as they fly off, he immediately starts pointing to the stairs to go again!
Going out to dinner at the beach is not really a fun thing to do!! Last year when we came, Will was 5 months old so we could basically keep him in his carseat for the whole time and he was pretty content. This year...Oh my! Saturday night was our fault. We went to Lulu's (Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant the night before Jimmy Buffet was set to play a free concert here at the beach). It was packed. Thankfully there was this huge sand mound for the kids to play in. We were thankful when we saw they were going to have something to do...not so thankful when I spent about 25 minutes cleaning Will off-sand was everywhere!After 2 hours of waiting and having 7 parties still in front of us, we knew we just needed to call it a night. We went through McDonalds drive thru for Will and picked up Shrimp Basket for us and headed back to the condo.
Sunday night we had a much better game plan. We ate at Cosmo's, got there at 5 and had no wait! The boys wore their matching t-shirts and couldn't have been cuter. It was definitely harder this year to get them all to pose.Many thanks to Tara at Smitten & Co. for doing the boys shirts again this year! They turned out so cute. I have ordered several things from there and they always turn out great!!

We headed to Bruster's and then the beach after dinner to just check it out. Dax picked up some tar balls and the ocean definitely had a sheen to it from the oil. Will immediately went for the water (ocean is closed for swimming) so we knew we couldn't come spend the day at the beach for Will to play in the sand because he would just want in the water (Plus, he had enough experience with the sand at Lulu's!!!)
I absolutely love these pictures of Will and John...

Thank you Pughs for another great beach trip! Excited about next year....we will be adding a baby to the bunch-Holly is due with Baby #3 in late December. Logistics of sleeping should get really interesting next year...

The Patient

Will seems to be doing okay. He was overall more fussy today, obviously, but went to sleep fine and I am praying for a speedy recovery!! He completely favors his right arm for picking up anything-balls, books, sippy cups, etc. His left arm just kind of hangs to his side. He will use it occasionally but it quickly goes back to his side.
Kiki stopped by this afternoon to drop off some balloons for Will. He LOVES balloons and this seemed to cheer him up and make his day!
He still has on his little hospital bracelet :(
As far as his 18 month checkup goes, he was perfect as usual :) He weighs 27.5 pounds and is 34.5 inches long. Dr. Israel told me that as far as his height goes, he was the size of an average 2 year 3 month old kid. Isn't that crazy??!! Long and Lean. He was between the 50-75% for weight. He says 5 words: Mama, Dada, ball, duck, and bye bye. He is not really putting words together or saying any other words that we understand, but he "talks" in Will language all day long. He seems to know exactly what he is saying. He can also moo like a cow, roar like a tiger, purr like a cat, hiss like a snake, bark like a dog, and trumpet like an elephant. The animal sounds are way too cute!! Time is flying by way too quickly and I can't believe we will be planning a 2nd birthday party way too soon.
Beach pics coming soon!

Birthday Blues

Yesterday was my birthday and Will's half birthday. I can't believe he is 18 months old. Tuesday got off to a rough start....around 4:45 am Will fell off the bed. He was sleeping in a king sized bed with pillows all around him because he had climbed out of his pack and play twice. He hates that thing! So King Will got the king sized bed to himself, I slept on the floor beside him, and John slept on the couch. He laid around all day yesterday and was whiney so we figured it was a combination of being exhausted from being at the beach since Friday, he could have an ear infection, his head could be hurting from his fall etc. So we just comforted him and laid with him and assumed all would be fine. We went and picked up some birthday donuts...which were a big hit!
He has never had a donut before-he loved it (well mostly the chocolate on top).
As you can see, he just dove right in!

We drove home from the beach. He was an angel and slept most of the time. At home, he was fussy and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. We had his 18 month check up today so I just figured he would get checked out then.
At his check-up, she checked his ribs, arm, collar bone and decided he needed to have an X-ray. So we went across the street to Children's Hospital South where Will got his very first X-ray. It was then determined that he had fractured his clavicle. They sent us to an orthopedic specialist where it was confirmed he had fractured his clavicle and basically told us there is nothing they can really do. His body is programmed to heal something like this himself, it will just take 3-4 weeks. They said he can't go to the playground for 3 weeks and we should try our best to keep him from falling/climbing. If you know Will, you know my next 3 weeks aren't going to be easy...he is ALL BOY and ALL over the place. I took a picture of his first x-ray with my phone but can't figure out how to upload them on here. Please keep Will in your prayers! He winces in pain and cries out when I pick him up and it breaks my heart. The Dr. said he should be feeling pain free in about a week or so....let's hope so!
So yesterday was not exactly what I had in mind for my birthday...but Will comes first! I did receive a new lens for my camera from John and got to play with it a bit at the beach...I will post those pics as soon as I can...caring for my little patient may take up most of my time during the day.

Flashback Friday

Remember this?

We are at it again! We leave this afternoon for our 2nd annual beach trip with my best friend from college, Holly, and her family.

A lot has changed in a year...

This was taken in May 2009I can't wait to see these cute little boys in their matching t-shirts this year!!

McWane Your Brain

I am totally behind on my posts. We went to the McWane Center while Dylan and Sutherlan were here a few weeks ago. It was super fun and had a great floor just for toddlers. While it was pretty expensive ($11 per adult), it was worth it just to have something new to do that was air conditioned!!
This was by far Will's favorite thing there. He climbed in and Pops would spin it and he would go all over the place and crack up laughing!
"Look Mom, Dino bones!!" He loved this too. It was hard to get him out of here and I think Will came home with about half of those rubber pebbles in his shoes!
This was more for the big kids...he doesn't look too amused, does he?
I can't believe it is almost the middle of July!! Where did summer go??!! We are beach bound tomorrow with The Pughs!

Splash Pad on Steroids

A few weeks ago my niece and nephew were in town for a whole week while my brother and sister in law went on vacation! It was so fun having them around and it really, really made me wish they lived here! My parents had fun activities planned for them each day and Will and I joined in when it was something he would enjoy. I told my parents about a splash pad in Gardendale. I had never been but heard it was great. It totally exceeded my expectations, and put the splash pad at the zoo to shame!! To be free, it was awesome!! It was just big enough so that if there are a lot of kids, there is something for each to enjoy. There is also a huge playground right next to it so when kids are tired playing in the water, they can go slide or swing. We took John back to the splash pad last weekend and I didn't realize my camera battery was dead until we got there. Major bummer because Will was totally in his element-He LOVES this splash pad. Others were pointing to him and commenting on how "that kid has no fear. He just sticks his head in and goes for it." We also heard, "See that little boy, why can't you do that." It was so funny! He gave everyone there a good laugh. And it was, as always, precious to see him playing with his daddy. I have to give props to John-there were several dads there fully dressed just reading the newspaper while their kids played. John was the only dad in a swimsuit running around with his child. Here are a few pictures from our first visit to the splash pad!

Will loves having someone hold him under the big buckets of water as they completely drench him!

Anything Dylan did, Will wanted to do!

He loved running through the "car wash" with Sutherlan!
No fear-totally loving it!
My sweet little boy!

July

July is my favorite month out of the whole year. I am off of work, it usually entails a trip to the beach, AND...it is my birthday month! I tease John because he is so hard to buy for. Well, he would love anything Auburn, but I can never get him to tell me a few things he wished he had. I usually end up buying him things I want him to have/things that would be useful to us as a family. I on the other hand can usually rattle off on any given day at least 5 things I would love to have! Here are a few things I am wishing for this birthday...

1. Kavu Bohemian Bag in Wallflower. How cute is this!!?? I have always wanted kind of an expensive purse but know I really don't need one because I like to trade them out. I think this purse is great and very versatile. These days I have a slew of things in my purse...this would stylishly organize all of it. And for $30 on amazon.com what's not to love??!!2. Nikon 50mm fixed lens. This is a very affordable lens and after doing my research they say it is the easiest to fall in love with for a very novice photographer like myself. I have also heard this is a great lens to have for taking pics of kiddos. At a little over $100 it is really reasonably priced for a lens!

3. New tennis shoes-My eyes are set on these Asics which happen to be on sale at zappos! Coincidence? I think not!! I have had my running shoes for 4 years. They have about had it. They have no support anymore.

4. Ipod with connection for my car. I know...welcome to the 21st century, Brooke. I have an Ipod. It is the 1st model that came out I think. It still works perfectly fine, however now that my cd changer in my car is broken and we are not willing to shell out $500 to fix it, I really want to be able to play my itunes in my car. My parents tried to buy me something to allow it to play in my car a few years ago and turns out that the model I have is too old and they don't make the connector thing for it. So this is the main thing I have been hinting at to John...for a while :)

SO here is to wishful thinking! A girl can dream right....especially during her birthday month. Happy July to me!