Duke put his first two words together this morning.

I was putting him down for his nap, and he was looking at the big alphabet picture hanging on the wall in his room as he always does. He was pointing to animals and saying, "Co-Co! Co-Co!" like he always does. And like I always do, I told him that's right, those are co-co's and that's his picture that he can look at while he goes to sleep.

And then he did something new. He pointed to the picture and said, "Dat!" and then pointed to himself and said, "Mah." It was very clearly, "That, mine." Smart boy.

my 3 favorite Bobe pix from vacation

He's always good for a smile when he's having a lot of fun.

 

Pulling out the rowboat by himself. Caleb LOVED the boat! He had such a great time in it, and I realized he really is getting older and growing up.

Caleb being silly one night. He asked me to take a photo of him and this is what he did--pretending to be surprised by the photo. We took several, and he checked them out on the camera until he got what he was trying for.

my three favorite duke pix from vacation

Hah! I'll scratch that right off the bat. I have WAY more than three favorite Duke pix and couldn't narrow it down.

Snuggling with Daddy (and being tickled) on a chilly morning on the beach.

 He's such a beautiful, baby!

 I always want to remember the sweet little curls on the back of his head.

Checking out the nature center at Chincoteague--he was still a bit more comfortable at times on his hands and knees than walking.

 Mr. Chubb

What I refer to as his John Wayne look. Hard to see his eyebrows here, but it's all in the slanted eyebrows.

Lounging on the low window sill, wearing the outfit all 4 kids have worn. Don't overlook the chubby ankles and toes.

my three favorite maddie pix from vacation

When I took this pic and looked at the camera, my first thought was, oh my goodness, she looks like me! But beyond that, I like this pic because of the hat, the hair, the expression, it's just all Madeleine.

Busy at work/play. This year I kept thinking about how there won't be many more years of Maddie playing on the beach. Soon she'll be sitting, chatting with adults, laying out, watching the littles. I really enjoyed watching her play this year.

The evenings were especially fun. We ran down pretty much every night at sunset. It was gorgeous! The babies were in bed, Maddie and Caleb would scurry about, Braden was often fishing.

I just cheated and posted a fourth pic. Couldn't decide between the two.

my 3 favorite maisie pix from vacation

Maisie's hair had been braided and been through sand and water and bath and sleep, and I finally took it out and...poodle hair!

This picture captures Maisie at the beach. She LOVED LOVED LOVED the beach. She LOVED being outside every single day. She is an outdoors child, a nature lover, for sure!

This picture of Maisie being swung by FaFa is the best! That's Maisie, our thrill-seeker. Loves being thrown, swung, and hung upside down.

Vacation! Let's begin...

We spent the last two weeks of August on Virginia's Eastern Shore. It was so quiet and peaceful there, and everyone was very friendly. Definitely small town Americana. A great place to truly get away from everything.

 

We stayed in a house right on the bay.  You just walked out the back and down to the beach. So nice! We could just come and go as we pleased, and so could Maddie and Caleb. We really do love staying right on the beach, makes such a difference! So helpful with little kids and naps and potty breaks and so on.

 The bay was different for us, as we're used to the ocean, but it was perfect for this year with two little toddlers.

There were no waves to knock kids down, at low tide the kids could wade far out and be just fine knee deep--just made for a very relaxing time for Braden and me. We could sit on the beach and the kids could play.

 Being on the bay side meant some different nature to explore. Maddie and Caleb had lots of fun with that!

 They each brought home a small assortment of sea shells.

They had buckets of critters throughout the whole time...a few died along the way, sadly. Like the time they refilled the salt water with hose water.

Ooops. They learned about salt water and fresh water. Lots of hermit crabs to catch, keep and let go.

 At low tide, there was especially a lot to explore.

 One day Caleb and Nonna walked way down the beach at low tide and came across hundreds and hundreds of tiny fiddler crabs scurrying all across a small beach inlet. Quite the site!

peaches, peach pie, and other stuff

We had a bit of a rough week arriving home from vacation and starting school, as I mentioned before. Within about a week's time, two toilets went kaput and had to be replaced, the dishwasher leaked on the kitchen floor and had to be replaced, we began school, the kids all got sick with a 36/48 hr virus, one after the other, Caleb broke his leg, and Duke broke my blender by getting into a cabinet whose lock had broken and pulling out the blender and smash--glass all over the floor. The irony was that I was right beside him doing something on the counter above him, but he was so quick.

Well, the good things that came from all that? We got new toilets. We got a new dishwasher that is QUIET (our other was the noisiest thing on the planet!). And I finally got that Vitamix blender I've been waiting for for years!

All that to say, by Friday of that week (and just prior to the leg break), we all needed a field trip. Yes, only 4 days into school and WE NEEDED A FIELD TRIP! We had to get out of the house. So I called my friend Amanda who also homeschools and we met up at the orchard. It was a beautiful day! We picked apples and then tried to pick peaches, but were in the wrong section of the orchard, or rather I think we walked through every part of the orchard except the part that was apparently loaded with peaches. We gave up and called it a day. Before we left, the kids and I stopped by the barn to just buy some peaches, because we had to have some peaches! We bought a bunch.

On Sunday, the day of the leg break, I made this delicious peach-custard pie. In fact, I left it cooling while we went on our lovely little family walk/bike-ride...that didn't quite end that way. In fact, Maddie, Braden and I quietly ate pie while Caleb slept on the couch and Braden and I talked about whether or not his leg was broken and whether or not to take him to the ER. So much for the lovely early fall family walk and peach pie time I had envisioned! Oh well. Life is far from perfect. The pie was still good, and Caleb's leg is healing nicely. We're grateful for that!

Meeting Annalisa

Shortly after her birth, we took the kids to meet their new cousin Annalisa!

Oldest cousin Madeleine, who now has lots of experience with babies, no?

Proud big cousin Caleb. He's always so careful with little babies. 

Maisie was, well, trying to touch and poke, and Duke was just all over the place, so they didn't make the photos, hah! No wait, there's Duke's head with me. He did enjoy looking at her, though I don't think he quite knew what to make of her.

 

 

And a new uncle once again.

 

We're so happy to have another new addition to our family!

the difference between the first and the fourth kid

The difference between the first kid and the fourth kid is that you teach the first kid where their eyes, nose, mouth, hair, etc are, and you practice with them. The fourth kid? One day he reaches out and touches your nose and says, "Noh!" After a few questions you realize he not only knows "nose" but he knows eyes, teeth, hair, belly, hands and feet.

qotd

Maisie: Mommy, does Duke not haff any teef?
Mommy: Well, he only has two teeth. He still needs a lot more teeth like you have.
Maisie: Do we need to go get him some more teef?

just a normal july day

south carolina trip to visit friends

In the last part of July we took a quick trip down to South Carolina to visit our friends the Rawlings. It was a fairly short trip with a lot of driving, because we stayed with the Rawlings in Greenville, but also visited an old high school friend of Braden's in Lexington and stayed a couple nights in the area Blythewood. And I didn't take any photos, hah!

The trip was just 5 days, and in light of that, and all the travel, we left May-May back with her grandparents. It was definitely the best decision. She had WAY more fun with them, and would have so not enjoyed being in her carseat so much. Duke, on the other hand, is a super traveler like Maddie and was easy-peasy.

All went well for Maisie, except when we got the brilliant idea to facetime her. We all missed her so we wanted to see her and thought she'd like seeing us. Big mistake. She was excited at first, but when she saw Maddie she wanted Maddie to come play with her and she burst into tears. She couldn't process that she could see us but not be with us. About broke my heart! We didn't facetime her again.

But all in all she did great, and we were super happy to be reunited with her when we came home. On the way home, Caleb said, "I just miss Maisie SO MUCH!" And Maddie agreed.

the great escape

Well, it seems we have an escape artist on our hands.

Yesterday morning, Maddie was surprised by Maisie climbing into bed with her.

4:30am this morning: Pitter patter pitter patter. Braden gathered Maisie back to bed.

12:30pm today: Naptime, yes? No. A little someone was running around upstairs.

She's a tiny little thing and silent while she works.

Sigh. I guess it's time for a bed. I just didn't feel like she (I) was ready for that. But I guess we're there!

in july, maisie...

...was dressed up by her brother...

...and by her sister.

One of the perks of having older siblings...you're always dressed for the part!

the rest of duke's second "first birthday"

For Duke's party with my family, we decided on a pool party at Justin & La's new house, which has a lovely pool in the back, and into which they had just moved over the 4th of July weekend. 

The Duke is one...(again!)

And as usual, I experienced a weird kitchen disaster. I made a peach chambord pound cake and intended to top it with Julia Child's fabulous (and easy to make!) Italian Meringue. I made it back in February for a valentine's cake, and for someone who doesn't care for frosting, I absolutely loved this frosting! Well, I was whipping it in the mixer, and boy was it fluffy and gorgeous. 

 

I was finishing the last few minutes, to get it to a nice gloss, when all of a sudden it went totally flat. I mean like liquid. What in the world?! I tried chilling it to see if it would thicken, no luck. So I whipped cream and added some of the flat meringue into the whipped cream, which actually tasted pretty good. Not as good as the meringue, but it saved the cake.

Duke, following in the steps of Madeleine and Caleb, CRIED when we sang "Happy Birthday" and gave him his cake, and really could have cared less about the cake. He picked at it a little and that was it.

Thank goodness for Maisie! At least we've had one fun first birthday experience with no tears. :)

Bleh...enough of this stuff.

Swimming refreshed us all on a hot July day! 

 

Duke's second 1st birthday party

Once we arrived home from Ohio, we celebrated Duke's birthday for a second time, this time with Nonna & FaFa and Uncle J & Auntie La. I'm not even going to write about that party yet, because when I was going through the photos I realized I needed to do one post on just us trying to get Duke's birthday crown on him and him trying to get it off.  Of course, he won. :)