Comb over

When Liam was a baby he was fairly bald.  It was (and still is) the trend to put tiny mohawks on little boys.  Eric was super eager to put Liam's few wisps of hair in a mohawk, but no matter how he tried he couldn't gather enough hair to complete the look. As luck would have it, Ansley was born with a double crown.  You remember that kid from elementary school who always had hair that looked like a perpetual cowlick?  Double crown.  And not only does Ansley have a double crown, her hair has also grown way faster on the top than on the sides.  Like a reverse mullet. 

I can sometimes tame her hair with a bow, but more often than not I am just apt to leave it alone.  But it surprises me how many people think that I style her hair in a mohawk...on PURPOSE.  Egad! She is a little girl!  So this is not a fashion statement (thanks lady at Sprouts who asked me yesterday, "Um, did you know that your little girl has a mohawk?").  Duh.  I try to tell myself that in time the length will force her hair down and that, even better, she will have lots of body.  But for right now, I am just going to embrace this little hair phase. 

Total attitude.

This is shortly after her evening bath.  This is how her hair dries y'all.  No joke.

Destin

We just returned from a wonderful seven days in Destin, FL.  Ryan and Jolyn rented a house for the entire family to celebrate several big events including the wedding anniversaries of both Eric's parents and Jolyn's parents, as well as Becky's birthday.  We have literally been looking forward to this trip for almost an entire year!  A few years ago, Jolyn and I went on a girls trip to Florida and fell in love with Destin.  So she knew that this would be the perfect place to return for a fun family vacation.  And we couldn't have had a better time! 

This was our first time to take a trip somewhere other than visiting family, so we were kind of anxious to see how the kids would do.  Overall, the flights coming and going went really well. We decided to rent some baby equipment while we were there so that we wouldn't have to lug around as much furniture and it was worth every penny.  We were also excited to see how Liam would do with the ocean, especially since he is such a fish in the water.  The first day that we arrived, he ran out into the ocean with his clothes still on, and completely face planted in the water, while a wave pulled him under.  He was hysterical! He wanted to go inside immediately and stay as far away as he could from the water!  

The next day he warmed up to the water a little bit, but still preferred to play in the sand.  Ansley also seemed to hate the water. Wonderful.  Day two into the trip and neither of our kids wanted to be anywhere near the ocean! 

Eric and I had to do plenty of trading off on this trip in terms of beach time.  Ansley still naps twice a day and couldn't seem to bear anymore than one hour a day of actually being in the sand.  We slightly solved the problem about a day in when we decided to make our own splash pool for her out of sand. 

Liam had a great time spending time with Sam and Holly.  He is in such awe of them and loved tagging along after them.  One of the rooms at the beach house also had several sets of bunk beds so Liam was able to sleep with them and have "sleep overs" every night (complete with flashlights and pillow forts). 

One of the evenings that we were there we went out to dinner for Becky's birthday.  We ate great seafood, awesome chocolate almond raspberry cake, and great wine. 

A little hugfest with Holly

Ansley loves a good straw.

With all the grandparents on hand, Eric and I even got to eat some of our meal while it was still hot!  A little treat for parents with kids!

Sam, Holly, Linda and John

Holly is such a little mother!  She wanted to feed Ansley her bottle and Ansley was all too happy to sit with her big cousin.

Getting used to the sand and the dozens of sand toys the grandparents bought.  Although I had to have several talks with her about not putting entire fist fulls of the sand in her mouth.

Sam building sand castles.  Liam following behind to destroy them.

Splash pool for two.

Splash pool for five.

We loved the gorgeous sunsets and on a few occasions we could see dolphins from the deck of the house.

 

 

Wearing Daddy's sunglasses.

One of the days we were in town, Eric took Liam to the Gulfarium to see the animals while I stayed home and had a little quiet time with Ansley.

Watching the otter show

Penguins.  Always penguins.

Conversing with the seal.

Talented dolphins

One of the special treats we had while we were in Destin was to take family photographs with a local photographer.  Becky arranged to have a gal take our pictures, but the evening we were supposed to go, the photographer got in a car accident.  Fortunately she was alright and was able to reschedule for a few nights later.  We are excited to see what the final pictures look like.  It is just a miracle that our white clothes stayed white for two separate nights! 

Grandma and Ansley

Ansley spent lots of time going from person to person while we waited for pictures.  Here she is having a special moment with her Grandpa.

Daddy and Liam waiting their turn for pictures.

We had the best weather, but killer biting mosquitoes that attacked us the night of the photo shoot.  Still, it was a lot of fun!

Our house was called "Son of a Beach."  This is the view from the beach to the back porch. The three story house had a great layout for so many people.

I loved the sweet little birds on the beach.

Ansley's splash pool evolves to include castles.

Chillin' with Dad

These were the best sunglasses for Ansley.  They wrapped around her head so that she couldn't take them off.

Our final beach day at Frangista Beach

On our final night we drove to nearby Seaside.  For those of you who haven't been, it is where they filmed the Truman Show.  They have great restaurants and shopping and it is just a really charming little town.  I often lament that Liam doesn't take naps anymore. But he was so tired out from playing hard at the beach that he fell asleep on the way to the restaurant.  I had to carry him in sleeping (no easy feat given his size and my size). 

After Eric carried him around for another 30 minutes, we finally put him in his chair and he STILL wouldn't wake up! Go figure.

Group shot at the Great Southern Cafe.  Sooooooo yummy!

A rare sight.

 We gorged ourselves our last night on wine, fantastic Gouda cheese grits and shrimp and then stopped by the Donut Hole on our way home.  The Donut Hole is known for their amazing key lime pie and it did not disappoint.  We definitely ate, drank and relaxed the entire trip.

Ansley fells asleep on Grandma at the airport.

And once again, Liam fell asleep on the plane! Two naps in two days! When he woke up in Dallas, he was so upset that his cries could be heard throughout the plane.  Equal parts pain for not being able to go back to the beach, and sleeping through the flight which he had looked forward to for so long.

We had the best time and are so glad that we had the opportunity to spend such a wonderful week with our family!

First Day of School

As you can see, Liam was not particularly excited about his first day back at school after being home with me for the entire summer.  In the weeks leading up to his start date, I began talking about how much fun he was going to have with all his new friends and his new teacher.  But he kept protesting that he wanted to stay home with me and Ansley.  However, despite his trepidation, he did not shed one tear when I dropped him off at the "hug zone" at school.  Parents are not really encouraged to come into the classroom for a long goodbye.  They prefer a brief goodbye at the approved zone to lessen the child's anxiety. 

When it was time to pick him up from school, I arrived early to spy on him.  He was playing with a little blonde girl and they were taking turns whispering to each other during story time. So cute! But I have a feeling that he is going to be a handful when it comes to girls as he gets older! I will definitely feel a wide range of emotions when the time comes for Liam to go to elementary school one day. 

9 Months

I am a little behind (no surprise there) in putting up Ansley's nine month stats.  She did great at her well child visit even though she got several shots.  She weighed in at 18.2 pounds and is in the 50th percentile for weight and head size.  She is actually in the 75th percentile for height, a surprise for her little mama.

She has been doing a great job starting new foods despite her lack of teeth.  I know one day she will wake up with a pearly white, but for now I love that little gummy smile! She especially loves banana and mac and cheese.  I have a feeling that I won't have to fight her to get her to eat new foods the way that I do with Liam.  If anything, she becomes really upset if I don't give her whatever I am eating at the time.

She mostly sleeps through the night except when she is not feeling well.  She still takes two naps a day, but her morning nap is shorter than her afternoon nap.  While she has been crawling for months, she has also recently starting doing a consistent downward dog and has been pulling up on furniture for a few weeks now.  She is not quite "cruising" the furniture yet, but I am a feeling that it will only be a matter of time.  She also locks her legs when I try to sit her down as if she wants to walk.  Ansley also has a major radar for the things that she shouldn't get into (the dogs water bowl, the window blinds, mommy's purse, etc.).  We spend a good deal of our day redirecting her.

I can't believe that she is getting so big and she is such a joy to her mommy and daddy!

The dog days of summer

I recently posted that overnight our pool had all but been rendered useless.  A glorified water feature for another fall and winter. Mother Nature has made me a liar.  We had almost two weeks where I would wake up in the morning and the air was almost...dare I say...crisp?  While I lamented the end of our afternoons burning Liam's energy in the pool, I was ready to embrace the cooler weather of fall.  But it was all a cruel joke. We have once again been joined by our triple digit friends. However, despite that fact that it remains sweltering daytime and night, the pool remains slightly frigid.  Once you enter in and swim for a few minutes your internal temperature goes up.  But try explaining that to an unwilling 3 year old.  

So we have been finding other ways to occupy our afternoons.  Play dates, a recently discovered free splash park only a few miles from us, and the reunion of frozen yogurt places which seem to dot the landscape here. Liam's new passions including building blanket forts, trying to take whatever toy his sister is currently chewing and chasing the dogs with toys.  My new passions include rebuilding destroyed forts, breaking up fights over toys, saving dogs, and having a glass of wine once it is deemed late enough in the day to be respectable. Let the good times roll.  Hope your Labor Day weekend is filled with joy, rest and peace!

My kids sure do love to look at themselves in the mirror.  Surely they will grow out of that right?

Ansley's first interactive experience at the park.  She has recently learned the joy of the baby swings.

Other baby talents include screaming at the top of her lungs in what I believe are her attempts to sing.

Taking an afternoon walk to pass the time.  Liam keeps his distance from me so as to not ruin his street cred.

We finally broke out our old friend the Cozy Coupe.  Ansley kept her hands on the 10 and 2 the whole time.

So sad that I didn't discover this until last week.

Ansley loved it as much as Liam did and was absolutely fearless when approaching the fountains.

Cooling off and testing the absorbency of her Kirkland Brand diapers.  Bravo again Costco.