Staying Cool

Since we haven't joined a pool yet, we have been coming up with creative ways to stay cool this summer.  The wading pool in our backyard in the current favorite outdoor activity.  There is seriously nothing easier and more fun with 2 little ones.  I just wish it was a bit bigger so I could stay cool too. :)

Charlie's favorite part of the pool is the slide.  He catapults down it, jumps off it, rolls down it, and finds over interesting ways to hurl himself in the pool from it.  As a result, Evie's least favorite part of the pool is the slide. :)  (She is, however, a remarkably good sport about it.  Evie is one tough little cookie!)

Evie enjoyed exploring the water snake until she realized it was too small for her to pull up on.  The girl has a one-track mind these days!

Preparing for the jump...

...SPLASH!

Enjoying a very brief moment of quiet play together. :)

Evie is obsessed with pulling up.  Every time I turned around she was standing on the edge of the pool (or tumbling down...learning is hard work!).

Evie took quite a few spills into the water.  Luckily, this girl doesn't mind taking a little dip.  She comes up coughing, but stays happy as ever!

Somewhere along the way, we appear to have lost our pants...

We've also been exploring splash parks and neighborhood pools.  Verdict = crowded, but Charlie loves it!

Evie was pretty happy to be out and about too.  Such a good sport!

Looking forward to a wet and wild summer!

Evie: 7 Months Old!

Sweet Evie is 7 months old and this girl is just getting more and more fun.  And the little mouse is finally sleeping through the night (7-7, hooray!), so that makes her more fun all by itself. :)  She is just as smiley and giggly as can be, and is completely irresistible (I must squeeze her and kiss her about 200 times every day, which I'm sure is wonderful for her sensitive skin :).  Evie is still going through some separation anxiety and is a bit shy (she coyly dips her head and smiles when someone new catches her eye), but is getting more and more social.  She loves being out and about and seeing new people.  She gets very animated and excited about our little outings and adventures.  She was hilariously excited about a trip to the pediatric dermatologist earlier this week...you'd think I never got this girl out of the house!

Although she smiles for just about anyone, Charlie is her absolute favorite person [this is a switch from a few months ago, when she watched him ever so warily].  He can make her laugh so easily--by jumping around wildly, kissing her tummy, playing peek-a-poo, or, unfortunately, shouting "poo-poo."  And her throaty little belly laugh is so contagious that it gets us all laughing, which in turn gets Charlie all the more stirred up (that boy loves to entertain!).

In addition to her sweet coos and giggles, Evie is talking more and more.  She does lots of excited shrieks, and is now saying "dada" and "baba."  "Dadadadada" is her favorite sound right now and we hear it all the time.

At 7 months, Evie is an eating machine.  She has discovered solids this past month and loves them.  She eats all kinds of different foods (including finger foods--we love puffs, yogurt melts, and blueberries)--with abandon--and is turning into the cutest little chunk.

Evie continues to hate being on her tummy, but is very interested in getting up and around.  As a result, the girl has figured out how to pull up, even though she's not crawling yet.  Wouldn't be surprised if she walks before she crawls!

Evie started a music class this month.  Charlie attends with us, but so far has been appropriately reserved--he knows that it is "Evie's class."  She loves the music and the other babies and it's been fun having an activity that is just for her!

Here's the sweet mouse on her 7-month birthday:

Looking up at her Dada.

Here are some other random shots of Evie I took in the last few days.  Notice the beach ball in the pic below--this is her absolute favorite toy and she gets SO excited by it.  Every time she sees it, she waves her arms up and down wildly and screams. :)

I LOVE this girl!

Our First Beach Trip

Clint was working over Memorial Day weekend, so the kids and I decided to make the most of our holiday weekend and headed down to the beach to meet my parents, my Aunt Dede and Uncle Robie, and the Reed clan.  From the car trip on, the whole weekend was just wonderful.  The kids were so much fun on the car trip down.  Charlie kept telling me he was "sooo excited."  It was the first time he'd really gotten excited about a trip and it made the whole experience so much more fun.

We started off our vacation with a ferry ride to Port Aransas.  Hard to beat a giant vehicle-carrying boat for Charlie--he was thrilled!

Completely in awe.

We made it!

Ahhh..the beach!  I know it's not the prettiest beach ever, but there's something about Port A that seems so perfectly summery to me (maybe it's the fact that we went there every summer when I was growing up? :).  

We got to the beach just in time to catch the end of Jack and Julia's surfing lesson.  These two little fish were incredible on their surf boards.  They looked so little on their boards!  [Charlie was very impressed.  Since the trip, everything long and flat in our house has turned into a surf board (see below).]

Jackson:

Julia:

Charlie wanted to get down there immediately, so I could not get him dressed and sunscreened fast enough.  When he was finally ready, he was not happy that I made him stop for a few photos to memorialize the occasion...

Almost there!

I had so much fun playing with Charlie down at the beach.  He loved the sand, but the water was definitely his favorite and it was hard to keep him out.  He was pretty fearless, which was fun but also meant that I had to watch him really closely.  He went charging out in the waves several times all by himself.  He loved jumping over the waves, but also wanted to be down in them (he told me that he wanted the water "over his head" one time when I was lifting him out :).  It is always so amazing seeing him have so much fun.  While we were out playing in the waves, he looked up at me, smiled, and told me "I love it."  Makes the trip sooooo worth it. :)

Close-up of the surfers...

Look who else joined us at the beach!  Evie didn't spend too much time down there (her sensitive skin just does not do well with sand and salt), but she loved it.  She loved digging her little feet into the wet sand and splashing in the water.  Only thing she hated was her hat...

Look who's getting some chubs on her legs!  :)

Charlie also loved swimming in the pool.  Thanks to Jackson, he started putting his face under water all by himself.  He will do anything that his older cousins encourage him to do...which has its good and its bad sides (good: face under water, easier haircuts; bad: poopoo :).

While we were playing on the beach one afternoon, the ice cream truck came by.  This was Charlie's first ice cream truck experience and it sure did open his eyes to the unexpected wonders of the world. :)

We buried Jack and Julia in the sand, making a merman and a mermaid.  The little kids got SO into this!

Evie didn't get a ton of time out at the beach, but she loved her time in the condo and on the balcony.  Sweet girl was so fun all weekend and played by herself so well.  There is nothing sweeter than hearing her high-pitched squeals while she is playing on the floor.  She started saying "dada" this weekend and is pretty proud of herself!

Charlie got to stay up late and watch the Spurs with Papa and Ahh on Saturday night.  He told me, "I love basketball." :)

I bought Charlie a boogie board for the pool when we got home.  As soon as he saw it, he jumped on and said, "I surfing!  Just like Jackson, Julia, and Katie!"   [Katie was too little to surf, but that doesn't stop Charlie from giving her full credit. :)]