funny, not so funny, story

Here's a funny (and not so fun) story from the beach. We had just left the beach to start the long drive home and had not yet been driving an hour. It was a little before 10 in the morning. Braden was sitting next to Maddie in the middle seat, I was in the back with Caleb and my parents were up front driving. Suddenly Braden says, "Whoa!!! Help, I need something! Maddie's throwing up!" While I'm scrambling to grap a burp cloth and wipes, Braden's trying to catch some of the vomit, and Maddie is just sitting there unperturbed and silent. Braden and I started trying to clean up while my dad started looking for the next exit to pull off. After about 2 minutes or so, Maddie said in an innocent, questioning and amazed little voice, "Daddy, what I do? What I do? What happened?!"

Needless to say, we had a long stop where my mom ran to the drugstore to buy disinfectant wipes and spray, Braden stripped the carseat and took it into a restaurant to wash down (no easy task!) and I stripped Maddie and cleaned her off. She was completely fine, just walking and looking around waiting for everyone to come back. As I stood there cleaning Maddie off I began to wonder if this was going to be happening for the whole 14 hour trip home. Furthermore I began to wonder if I would be next, as I had shared my entire breakfast with Maddie! I had visions of everyone sick and being stranded at a hotel for days while we all recovered. :) But, thankfully, that was the only trouble we had coming home (besides the faint hint of vomit in the air that we couldn't quite get rid of). The only reason we can think of for why Maddie got sick was that she had drunk extra milk for breakfast and hadn't eaten much.

But we kept chuckling over the "Daddy, what I do?!" the whole way home.

a week at the beach

Here's a "brief" overview of our week at the beach.

We're on our way!

Caleb didn't stay that happy for long. He got so bored--I kid you not--that he taught himself how to balance his passy and baby spoon on the bottom of his foot.

We stayed the first night with Nana and Grandpap. Here's Maddie with the leopard from Viet Nam. There's a wonderful story behind it that I will have to share one of these days.

Here we are at the beach--Maddie with FaFa.

Yep, this captures it--Caleb did NOT like his hat!

One morning Caleb and Maddie were playing on opposite slides of the slider, following each other on the glass.

Somehow we managed to squeeze in celebrating Grandpap's 80th birthday, Larissa's birthday and Mother's Day for 4 mothers into one weekend! This is Grandpap's birthday.

Maddie making Mother's Day cards.

Grandpap and Caleb.

The newlyweds on the beach.

Poor Caleb had a runny nose much of the time. One morning when he was eating Cheerios, one of them stuck.

Nana and Caleb playing Pat-A-Cake.

Lala and Maddie playing.

Caleb "helping" Daddy set up a beach umbrella.

We took a few trips into Old St. Augustine. Here's Maddie with Uncle Dave and Auntie Jess on one of those trips.

Maddie had this little song that she made up the first day at the beach. "We're going to the beach! Doo do-doo do-doo!"

Running on the beach.

Sitting in the life guard's chair.

Mommy and Maddie running into the ocean!

Uncle Dave building his sand castle.

Ocean birds.

Caleb liked the ocean. Here he is heading straight toward it.

Maddie and Auntie Jess.

This was Maddie's "camera" shell. She was taking pictures with it. "Say cheeeese, Mommy!"

Daddy and Caleb.

Nonna and Maddie in the pool.

Singing Maddie.

Double Date in Old Town.

Walking on the beach in the evening.

And lastly--Like father...

...like son.

painting at the beach

Here's a little sketch I did of Maddie one morning at the beach.

ready to hit the beach!

We are home from our vacation at the beach. I don't have much time now, but I could NOT resist posting this one picture from our vacation--of Maddie of course--she keeps us laughing! This has got to be one of Braden's and my favorite shots from the beach...and perhaps of Maddie ever. We can't help laughing every time we look at it. This is from our first day at the ocean--Maddie's ready to hit the beach!

k-bobe update

It seems Caleb has decided to do a bunch of new things all at once. Within this past week he
-started crawling (finally!)
-began pulling himself up to stand
-said his first words, "bath, blue, cat, circle"
-and gave me kisses for the first time!

He's been a busy boy!

another quote of the night

Last night Maddie woke up crying. Braden went in to see her. Before he could say anything, Maddie bluntly said,
"Sing to me. Sing 'Holy Holy Holy'."
Braden sang.
"Sing 'Holy God'."
Braden sang.
Silence.
Braden left and went back to bed.

maddie's art

Maddie drew this recently at Nonna's house. We asked her to tell us what her picture was about, and she said matter-of-factly, "It's blue marks."

mommy's art

I sat outside in our backyard this morning and painted for the first time in about a year. Lilacs are so pretty.

qotd

Saturday, Braden and I were leaving his parents' house and the kids were staying there. Maddie was in the wagon and Pop-pop was pulling her. He pulled her up to our car as we were getting ready to drive off. We rolled down the window to say 'bye' and Maddie began to excitedly ramble on about playing outside and the wagon and a bunch of other things we could not figure out.

In the wagon Maddie had a purple plastic kids' racketball racket and a tennis ball. Maddie picked up the tennis ball and said,
"Momma, this is my banksball."
"Oh, your baseball."
"No. My BANKSball."
"Ohhh, your BANKSball."
"Yes. THIS (picking up the racket) is my BANKS, and THIS (picking up the ball) is my BALL. See, my banksball!"