Beach bums

We're back from beautiful Emerald Isle, NC! We had beautiful weather and a great time with family and good friends. We once again had a nice oceanfront duplex and on our side was Grandpa Ed, Uncle Eddie (with his girlfriend Emily joining us at week end), and the 3 of us. The other side had Angela & Jim, the Hamrics, & the Johnsons. Across the street we had the Dunlaps and the Maybaums. We had quite the crowd this year!

Tyler did really well on both the trip down and the trip back. We ended up buying a portable DVD player and pulled it out for emergencies, when books, toys, and singing just wouldn't cut it anymore. When he saw the Backyardigans for first time on the back of Trav's seat, his eyes got large and he looked at me as if to say, "Mom, do you see this? I mean, really, do you see this? You won't believe what's going on on Dad's seat!!!! Why have I never noticed this before??" It was a lifesaver, to say the very least.


We did have a few challenges for the week. Tyler is teething - again & it looks like eye teeth this time - and so he was waking during the night. We shared a room with him, and so when he woke he would see us next to him and want attention. It made for some long nights, but all in all he did very well for a week long vacation away from his own bed. He also started regularly saying "mama", but it is usually attached to a tantrum. And we heard a LOT of "mama mama mama" last week. But the fun and the good times definitely outweighed the bad.

Even though Tyler ran for the water on Day One, it took him the better part of the week to get used to the beach. We bought him a plastic baby pool that we kept down with our chairs and such so that he could shovel sand in there, play with his toys, and splash in that water if he didn't want to go to the ocean. Hands down, that was the best $9 I ever spent. When he got fussy, we'd just give him a ton of shells and he'd have a blast just throwing them with all of his might into the pool. On Friday morning, we got down there and as Tyler was playing, I noticed the eyes of a ghost crab sticking up. I thought the thing was dead, and another of the girls came over and poked it with a toy. It jumped to life and scrambled all over the pool, as we squealed and Tyler watched with wide eyes. We finally got the poor thing into a bucket and set it free on the beach, but boy that was an exciting way to start the last day!

One of Tyler's favorite things to do at the beach was dance. And dance he did. He put on some good shows for everyone. Grandpa brought his iPod, along with his boombox docking station, so he always had music at the house, on the deck, and at the beach. It didn't take Tyler long to really start to get into it and before long, he was asking Grandpa to let him listen to the iPod through the earbuds on the beach, and was asking for music on the boombox! And when he wasn't listening to the iPod, he was jamming to his Elmo "iPod" that came with a book of his (it plays all nursery rhymes, and he carried it almost everywhere). Quite the music lover!

Tyler also learned the fine art of cooler maintenance, as my Dad calls it. This process involves taking the cooler outside to drain the ice from the day before, replenishing the beer/soda/water supplies, and adding new ice to the cooler for the day. Tyler thought this was the best game ever. Whenever someone made their way to a cooler, he ran to help them. His main role was in replenishing the drinks (usually by throwing them in there) and shutting the cooler lid. He was a natural, and we're looking at letting him try out for the Cooler Maintenance Games of 2009. :)

We did make it back to the NC Aquarium this year, and that was a lot of fun. We took Erin & Sara with us (12 and 14 years old), and they were a huge help in keeping Tyler close by. Last year, Tyler was carried around in the Bjorn all day, but this year he was running all through the place looking at fish, turtles, and everything else that he could take in. We heard "fish", one of his new words, come out of his mouth at rapid speed. Just like his mommy, some of Tyler's favorites were the turtles. He would just follow them around the tanks, pointing at them, and trying to touch them. We thought we heard something that sounded a lot like "turtle" while we were there, but can't be too certain. We never heard it again.

But speaking of new words, we got quite a few of them over the week. Fish, ice (from Tyler's new talents in daily cooler maintenance), all done, all gone, no (yeah that one's been fun), juice, cheese, and Eddie (at least we THINK we heard that a few times). He's also still regularly signing the words "please" and "more". Before we left for the beach, he was doing modified signs for both words, which daycare said was normal. But by the time we left, he was signing them correctly! "Please" has been a hard one, only because he doesn't understand why he can't have something if he has clearly signed "please". Sorry, sweetie, just because you said please, you still can't play with those knives. Or "I know you're saying banana and signing "please" but we are all out of bananas!!!" It's tough sometimes. And frustrating all around. But we're really proud of him for using the signs as much as he can!

Overall, we had a wonderful week and it was great to spend so much time with Grandpa, Uncle Eddie, and everyone else. But now we're trying to work our way back into the real world or work and daycare. So far, so good! And speaking of daycare, one last update. Tyler has moved full-time to the toddler room at school now and seems to be adjusting very well. He has already attached himself to one of his teachers, but is having a ton of fun. There are a lot more kids in this room, since the age range is wider (16 - 24 months). So he always has lots of kids to play with and lots to do. They do a lot of interactive stuff with the kids at this age, and it's neat to see him bring those newfound skills home. (And hey, it doesn't hurt that his tuition went down about $15/week with the move!)

This Friday night, Tyler will have his first overnight visit without Mommy & Daddy, as he'll stay with his Gramme & Granddad Snead while Travis & I see comedian Jim Gaffigan here in town. We figured that we needed to test drive some overnight visits before we head to Las Vegas at the end of September, so this will be the first attempt. Wish everyone luck - Gramme & Granddad with Tyler, Tyler with them and without us, and us without Tyler! I don't think Travis & I will know what to do with ourselves!!!! We'll be sure to update next week!

Oh and overdue congratulations to our friends in Lynchburg, Sarah & Steve. Their little girl, Kyra Skye, was born on July 2! Congrats and can't wait to meet her!

This year's crab picture at the Auarium

And last year's - look how he's grown!