Bumming at the Beach

We had a great week hanging out at the beach in Ocean City, NJ with my family. We weren't sure before we left how Liam would do all week, but he did better than we expected so that was a blessing. He was a champion sleeper (even though we had to share a bedroom with him), he loved the sand and the water, he learned how to crawl up off his belly (no more army crawling!), he is pulling himself up on everything and best of all, he developed a cheeser smile that he would give to anyone during the week. It is so funny to watch him smile, even when no one was around to smile back at him.

My family vacations at the beach are very relaxing and even though things were different with a baby, we still had time to do the things we love to do at the beach. I even had time to read a few books and shop with my mom and future sister-in-laws and Rob golfed and hung out on the beach.

It was a long drive to and from the beach so we were glad to be home on Monday and spend a few days resting at home before our big wedding festivities this weekend for my brother Luke and his fiance Logan. Good news that the wedding is only in Fort Wayne so for once we are not the ones driving the furthest! We are very excited for them and are looking forward to seeing our family again so soon after being together.

I put a lot of photos up on Facebook, but here are a few from our week.

Rob, my dad, my cousin Kendall and my cousin Les rode their road bikes from Washington, DC to Ocean City in a two day, 160 mile bike trip. It was a fun trip for them, except for the crashes and flat tires.

Post crash scrapes for Rob. Good news - they look much, much better now.

Liam had lots of friends to love on him all week long and he loved them too.

He ate sand by the handful and didn't seem to mind. In this picture he was crawling into the bucket to get the good stuff at the bottom. Clearly he is annoyed that I interrupted him to take his picture.

Can you tell he really loved the beach? He did!

He even liked the cold Atlantic Ocean when he was jumping waves with papa.

My immediate family together. We were thankful Luke and Logan could be with us for a few days even though they had a lot to do before their wedding this coming weekend.

Hanging out in the sand.

This was just about the spot where Rob and I got engaged four years ago. How things have changed since then!

This is one of my favorites from the whole week.

Marco wanted a photo of just the boys in the lifeguard stand. Liam doesn't have very good muscles to show off yet!

This is another favorite. Rob was playing with the "toy camera" effect on our new camera.

The cheeser smile!

A windy, windy night. Bye, bye beach.

Ben and Heidi jumping off a dune

This beach is probably one of my favorite places on earth. I love it here and it is always so hard to say goodbye, but I'm thankful for the memories and photos we have.

Liam | 8 Months

I'm a few days late again, but here's Liam at eight months. I know I say this every month, but it is crazy to me how fast he is growing up. Rob mentioned this morning that he seems more like a toddler every day, even though he isn't quite there yet. He is starting to develop funny little habits and enjoy exploring his world a lot more.

He is still a champ at the army crawl, but he can go a few paces up on his hands and knees. I don't know if he will ever prefer to crawl that way since he knows he can get to what he wants much faster army crawling, but at least he is trying. He is also trying to pull himself up on things, but we're noticing he is not a risk taker and often gives up or gets frustrated. He hasn't learned how to use both hands to pull up on things, I think because he is scared to let go of the ground.

Much to his papa's delight he started saying "ba-ba" this week, which Rob quickly counted as the first time he has put a consonant and vowel sound together. (He is a linguist after all!) We don't really think he means anything by it, but he seems excited to try out new sounds. We are teaching him some basic sign language and he seems curious about that as well.

Like his mama he loves food. He is happy to try anything I put on his tray, most recently black beans and bits of hardboiled egg. He gets very excited when he sees food coming! I am still nursing him about five times a day, but he eats solid food about three times a day. We think he is close to 20 pounds, but he is so long and lean that he doesn't seem that heavy to us.

As has been his nature since he was born practically, he is a busy, busy little boy. He is into everything and never stops moving. He is very, very curious about the world and wants to touch everything and of course put it in his mouth. Lately he has been learning things in the house that are no touch, namely shoes, plants and cords because they would go right into his mouth. Like most babies he is not so interested in his toys as he is in things that are not toys. For Liam this includes plastic cups, any kind of paper, cell phones, boxes and anything with a tag.

This is such a fun season of life and we are really enjoying it and enjoying our summer. It has been wonderful having Rob around so much and spending time together as a family. We are learning new things to do together and teaching Liam new things. We leave on Wednesday to head east for our week at the beach in Ocean City, NJ with my family. We are so excited for this trip. I remember thinking last year at this time when I was pregnant with Liam how different this year's beach trip would be and now it is upon us. Our packing list is much longer and it will be a different week for me, but I hope it will still be good. I think Liam will enjoy the beach, or the sand at least. Maybe not the cold Atlantic, but we'll see! I'm sure we will have many photos and videos when we return.

But for now, here are some eight month photos of Liam. For the next baby we are definitely getting those stickers or onesies with the numbers printed on them! Holding up a sign is just not working anymore. :)

"I'm eight months old!"

After many failed attempts to get more photos we just let him have what he's wanted all along.

Yum! Destroyed in about 2 seconds.

He couldn't even hold still long enough for me to take his photo while he "helped" with the laundry.

Playing Settlers

Many of you know how much Rob and I like to play Settlers of Catan. Remember the time we competed in a tournament? Yea, that was awkward. But we won the tournament.

Anyways, apparently Liam inherited our love of the game. Or maybe we just store the boxes right at his level in the dining room. Either way we think we have a future Settlers player living in our house. How convenient that they do make a version of Settlers for kids too!

baby bum.

Liam gets flushed

Rob and his dad used to play this game where Rob would balance on his dad's knees and then when his dad would open his knees, Rob would get "flushed". Ok, I know, it's slightly weird to think of a kid getting flushed down the toilet, but we tried this game with Liam the other day and the resulting laughter made me forget that it was a strange game. Liam doesn't laugh very often, so when he does, it is video camera worthy. Enjoy!