Kilmarnock

As a child, I spent a fair bit of time with my Grandmother and Uncle in the summers.  For me, it was a completely different life.  I grew up in the country, on 17 acres, a good ways from neighbors and stores.  It was a great place to grow up, but the grass is always greener, right?  So I'd go to Richmond for a few weeks each summer and get a taste of the suburbs.  Paved bike trails, pools you could walk to, restaurants and stores close by.  Kids in every direction.  It was so amazing to me - so very different from my small town life.  Uncle Harold also owned a house on the water, so sometimes we'd go there too.  We'd catch crabs and take boat rides to the "beach."  We'd wake up to a peaceful view of the water and sea gulls making lovely music.  Most of the "rules" of day to day life went out the window.  And oh the nights spent staying up so very late in bed with Grandma.  They were the very best.  She'd make up stories to tell me and we'd just gab and gab.  It was heaven.

My kids probably won't really understand small town life.  They won't get to milk cows or wander through corn fields looking for a creek to play in.  They won't run around outside unaccompanied until it gets dark.  They also won't ever live that suburban life (...or at least that's not part of the plan, though we reserve the right to change the plans, of course) really.  But I really, really hope they will get to spend a lot of time in Kilmarnock, catching crabs, forgoing baths, taking boat rides, and soaking up all that is so very different about life there.  Fortunately for us, Uncle Harold still owns that house and invited us to come spend some time there a few weeks ago.  It was wonderful and surreal.  Watching my kids fall in love with it, just like I did, really was amazing for me.

We went for a boat ride...which I thought might be too scary for Jack, but he loved it!

Max could barely keep his eyes open.  He was so very tired and the motion of the boat almost rocked him to sleep.

We caught lots of crabs and ate a plenty too!  There is nothing quite like eating a crab that has only been out of the water a few minutes.  So very sweet and just amazing.  I ate and ate and ate...

And Jack thought catching them was the greatest thing ever! When we picked him up from school on Friday to head out of town, he came running across the playground screaming "We're going to catch crabs, we're going to catch crabs!!"  He was a little excited...

This is where Max's "naked" phase began.  He just loved wandering around without his clothes on...and being tied up like a present!  Pretty much anything makes him happy in Gramps' lap.

We also celebrated Granny's birthday!  

I know I say it every time, but isn't she beautiful?  I'd tell you how old she is but you'd never believe me...and she might never forgive me!  Love you Granny!

We sat on the screened in porch and ate and drank and watched the rain for a long time.  Even in the rain, it's a glorious place to be.

On Sunday morning, before we headed out, we checked the crab pots one last time.  

And Jack even got brave enough to touch one!  And he talked about this for days...

Thanks to Uncle Harold and Judy for a wonderful weekend.  We look forward to many more...

4th of July

We love our new neighborhood but nothing beats our old one on the 4th of July!  They have the cutest little kids' parade, so we packed up our bikes and headed back across the river!  We knew they'd be ok with it!  This was Max's first time being in the parade and it was an adventure!

They were both all smiles at the starting line.

 But then things got serious for Jack.  He was focused.

 Max...was not.  He found the scenery much more exciting than the trike riding.

 And eventually, he just stopped.

He had the greatest cheerleaders ever...

But that wasn't enough to convince him.  He had to be carried for a bit!

 And then he walked across the finish line!  Pretty sure he was the last one, but in typical Max fashion, he didn't care a bit!

 It was fun and made for a few good laughs!

 That evening we had a little cookout at Grams and Gramps', complete with ice cream yummies...

and lots of smiles...Happy 4th!

23 months old

It looks like I stopped these monthly posts with Jack when he turned 2.  So I guess we'll do the same thing for Max.  It's really helpful to me to record what happened, and things happen so fast in those first 2 years.  But it's always hard to separate the monthly updates from the regular fun posts, so I kind of look forward to just posting about the other stuff.  However, this confirms my suspicions that my kids are getting old and we're really close to leaving baby-land...and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that.  Part of me is so excited for life to be a little easier and for us all to be more mobile and not so tied to schedules and such.  But the other part of me is so sad.  My baby, is about to be a big boy.  Oh me.  Sometimes life just goes way too fast.

This month Max decided that he didn't like to wear clothes.  Ever.  That doesn't mean he got away with it all the time, don't worry...but if he was at home, he was only in a diaper, for sure.  The minute he walks in the door, he starts fussing to get his clothes off.  I have no idea why.  Our house is not hot.  At all.  No one else walks around naked.  I don't know.  What I do know, is Max marches to the beat of his own drum, for sure.  No part of this picture is staged.  He puts the hat on, he carries a ball EVERYWHERE and he insisted on taking his clothes off.  And the paci is often in.

In related news, he has also started potty training and he's doing really well.  He will go every time you put him on the potty.  And in fact, he likes to do this thing where he'll pee a bit and stop and then say more, and pee a bit more.  It goes on for a long while...but he gets such a kick out of it!  This whole potty training thing was initiated by his teacher.  I will admit the first time she mentioned it, a few months ago, I really thought she was crazy.  She was so sure he was just about ready and I was so sure no boy would ever learn before 3.  But sure enough, she was right.  He even asks to go sometimes and he asks for a dry diaper every 3 minutes it seems, even when it's not really wet or dirty.  So he's certainly aware of what's going on.  

The brotherly love continues.  Sure, there are moments where they scream at one another and fight over toys, but Jack's doing really well with handling it most of the time and Max is always over whatever it is in a few seconds.  So far, so good.  Jack can be so sweet with him - I often am amazed.  Max LOVES Diego.  Jack's kind of over it.  And they get to take turns picking what to watch and Max does not understand or like it when it's not his turn.  Sweet Jack will often choose Diego when it's his turn, just for Max.  And he's so good at making sure Max has what he needs and teaching him lots of great things.  We couldn't ask for any more on that front.  

Max's eating definitely dropped off this month, but I think that's normal. He's still pretty adventurous but just didn't eat as much as he used to.  I think he's starting to enter the "I'm too busy to eat phase" where playing is much more important than food.  

He also started to want fewer snuggles at bedtime but wanted me to hold him during the day a lot.  More than snuggles, I think he just wanted a better/different view on life.  

He's talking more and more, but still not great.  You still have to know him to understand him for the most part.  He communicates his needs just fine and seems light years ahead in other areas, like coordination, so I'm not concerned but sometimes wish he had the words to tell me a little more about what's going on in that mind of his.  It'll come though.  

He's kind of obsessed with the alphabet...oddly...and he's working on his colors, slowly but surely.  He thinks most things are blue.  He started to sing a little bit this month - no words, just kind of hums the tune.  

He definitely knows how to throw a tantrum like the best of the 2 year olds.  But so far, they haven't lasted long.   When he wants to, he follows directions really well.  But he definitely likes to see how far he can push me at times.  We have been working on time outs and he's much more receptive to that than Jack was, but I'm still not sure he really gets the concept.  

He loves books and will look at the same ones over and over and over.  HIs faves this month were "Dear Zoo," "Goodnight Virginia," "Goodnight Atlanta" and one from the library about colors.

I love that sweet smile so much Max Oliver...thanks so much for sharing it with us!

Father's Day

Father's Day!  Remember that?  I know, it was a while ago... We'd planned to all be together in Kilmarnock on Father's Day catching crabs but we had to postpone that due to renovation delays.  That was all well and good except that I had a sweet little red-head who had been counting down the days until he could catch crabs!  So after a quick email to Gramps that read something like "eeeek, where can we pretend to catch crabs this weekend to prevent Jack from losing his mind over the plans changing?" we decided that we would try fishing instead!  Gramps is a fly-fisherman but in a pinch, can do some regular fishing too!  So off we went, back to the lake in the old neighborhood, worms and poles in hand...(and for the record, Jack has turned into such a big kid that while he was disappointed that we weren't going to get to catch crabs that weekend, he was over it in a flash, and excited to get to try fishing instead!  I LOVE 4 year olds! :)!).

Gramps can do it all...fish, hold Max AND baby...

The question is inevitable...and the answer is no...we didn't catch a thing.  But we sure tried and we had a lot of fun doing it!

Kenny spent his afternoon with the boys doing what they all love to do the most...play outside.  This isn't anything special - they do this a lot, but as a mother, there's nothing sweeter than watching your husband delight in playing with his kids.  They played some "flootball" as Jack calls it and just enjoyed life...

Thanks to my Dad (Daddy-O!) and Kenny for being 2 of the very best dad's one could ever know or even imagine...