Wrightsville Beach 2013

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since our annual family beach trip.  This year's trip was great, I think the kids enjoyed the beach much more this time around...at least they seemed to play in the sand longer without the immediate "let's go to the pool".  Teddy took a few diggers in the waves but that's to be expected, right?  In fact, on our second morning Katherine asked if we could stay an extra day.  Unfortunately we had to head home right after breakfast to get ready to get back into the grind.  Ted and I are contemplating a day trip, we're lucky that Wrightsville is only a couple of hours from home.

So what did we do?  Besides digging in the sand we took the kids to explore the Battleship North Carolina, a World War II era battleship. I was a bit nervous about this with Teddy because of all of the climbing.  He thought it was great and happily declared "I do it myself!" at each ladder, which led to one parent hovering in front of him and one hovering behind as he climbed up or down.  Katherine didn't care for the tour around the lower decks but she loved seeing how high up we could go.  All I gotta say is that I could never serve on a Navy ship, those are some tight quarters!  I can't imagine the amount of space has gotten any better in the last 70 years.

I think the highlight of the trip for the kids was the pirate tour. Yup! After a quick boat ride over to Masonboro Island, Captain Don Juan Cortez took the kids on a treasure hunt.  If you have young kids and are planning a trip to the Wilmington, NC area, I HIGHLY recommend this.  Wrightsville Beach Scenic Tours offers it.

Full album of pictures are up on the photo site (link on the sidebar).  This one may have to be on this year's Christmas Card:

I even got in a great run early Monday morning along the beach while everyone else was still tucked up in bed.  The bunny pictures you see on the album are from that run...a beach bunny!

The kids have started their summer travels, their up at Papa and Gram Coberly's for a long weekend.  After that it will be up to Massachusetts at the end of next week.  Ted and I are basking in some kid free time!

Playing in the rain

The kids had a ball last Thursday playing the rain and jumping in puddles.



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Gold Medal Day

I'm a week behind in posting this but better late than never. Katherine attended Gold Medal Day last week at gymnastics. It was a chance for the kids to show off the skills they had learned over the year. Initially I wasn't going to sign her up for it (horrible mom that I am) because Katherine seemed to be lukewarm about gymnastics, this was an extra session that you had to pay for (of course) and it was mid morning on a Saturday and I knew that meant she wouldn't want to leave the neighborhood kids to go. She caught wind of it during her last class and wasn't going to miss out on a chance to get a medal. I gave her the ultimatum that by signing her up she was going no matter what, to which she eagerly agreed, and filled out the registration form.

True to form on Saturday morning she shyly said that she didn't want to go. I told her that wasn't an option. I wanted to reinforce the point that when you say you're going to do something, you do it. It's been that way off and on all year. Plus once she's there she has a good time, which was definitely true this time.

They divided the kids up into teams and they rotated around each of the events, similar to a real gymnastics meet. Check out her floor routine:

And vault, the best one I've ever seen her do:

At the end they let the each of the kids stand on the podium for their medal:



Then they cut them loose to do what they want so that the parents could get close up pictures. I got her to do a quick pose on the bar:



Before she headed straight for her favorite thing, the rope and the pit. Check this out:

Will she continue in the fall? I don't know. She wants to attend some of the open gyms this summer and has mentioned that she'd like an earlier class time in the fall. But who knows what her answer will be in August when it's fall registration time. I'm trying not to be pushy.

North Carolina Beach Songs

All of a sudden, it seems like summer is ready to arrive.  This is the first year in a while that the cooler weather lingered a bit longer and we had an actual Spring.  Honestly, it felt wonderful even with the two weeks of constant gray skies that happened last month.  It has made us all look forward to the hot summer weather, which is not here yet but definitely on it's way.  We haven't even put the pool up yet, as only in the last week has it been anywhere near swimming weather.  Off and on rain prevented it this weekend and temps may only be in the upper 70s next weekend.  It's going up next weekend either way because it's about time and I'm concerned that if I don't get it up it will be 90 the very next weekend and I'll be drenched in sweat trying to put it together.

I'm already looking forward to our travels this summer.  We're taking the kids to the beach again for a long weekend in June.  I think this beach weekend is become a family tradition.  I've posted before about "Cape Cod Songs" from annual family camping trips "on the Cape" growing up.  I've managed to download the ones that I can remember.  I'm thinking of putting together a playlist of songs from our annual North Carolina beach trips.  Last year it was Gotye and Carly Rae Jepsen that played constantly on the radio (oh yes, we go old school and listen to the radio).  I have fond memories of Katherine belting out "Somebody that I used to know" at the top of her lungs in the car. We'll see what it is this year.

She made it to the top!

Taken at gymnastics last night.



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Responsibility

A couple of Christmases ago, Katherine received the Melissa & Doug Responsibility Chart from Santa.  I happily hung it up on the wall...and...that's where it stayed.  We've had a few false starts but honestly, we've been terrible at it.  I think the kids have spent more time playing with the magnets than we have actually spent tracking tasks and good deeds.

This week we decided to give it another go.  I lined up a bunch of responsibilities for Katherine (with the hope that Teddy would do some of them too).  Today Miss K specifically mentioned it during the car ride home.  In fact, she was eager to get going on it right away and earn her smilies.  I think she feels it's a direct path the an allowance, something that we also need to start but so far have failed at keeping up with.  I have never seen the kid run upstairs to "clean your room".  She easily completed that and "make your bed", "put away your toys", "brush your teeth", and lucky for her there was no homework tonight so "do your homework" was a breeze.  The next to the last thing on the list was "stop whining".  I think I've documented either here or on Facebook plenty the nonstop whining that seems to ensue around our house, especially when both of the kids are playing together.  Her reaction?

"Oooohhhhhhh, that's going to be so haaarrrdddddd!!!!"

Yup, whining over a task to stop whining.  Clearly we're starting from ground zero here.  Interest may not be that intense tomorrow.

And as a place to record it for all time, here's a few other cute things that came out of the kid's mouths over the past week:

K:  "I've got a lot of energy Mommy, I ate four french toast sticks this morning."

K, upon waking up this morning and realizing with was Field Day at school: "Thank you God and life!"

K, during a tea party she was having with Teddy last night.  They were slurping their "tea".  I said that that is not the proper way to drink tea.  "We're not having a proper tea party, we're having a slurpy one!"

And finally, Mr. T., who, well, farted while playing T ball outside, declared:  "That came from where I poop!"  Can't argue with that, kid knows his anatomy.

Back to Normal

It’s happened again.  One minute we’re sailing along, going through the usual day to day.  The next minute, I look at my kids and realize they've grown.  I’m not talking the big leaps, those growth spurts that happen or when you measure them up against last year’s mark on the wall.  I’m talking those minute little differences that probably only a parent notices.  I probably pick it up more on Teddy than Katherine just because I still pick him up here and there.  In the last month I've noticed a wider torso, another pound or two when I lift him.  I realize the days of having him on my hip are numbered.  Not totally a bad thing but I do pause when I realize that little baby is gone.  We took down the infant/toddler swing on the swing set  it’s sitting over at the dump (because it’s attached to the big swing that is supposed to be on the swing set but instead the two became attached together in a minor redneck moment Ted and had I last weekend involving the ride on mower and a tree stump.  Another time.).  Brand new big kid swing went up and this morning I caught a glimpsed out of the kitchen window of the two of them swinging side by side.  Sigh.

The kids spent a week up at Papa and Gram Coberly's after Easter.  I was worried that Teddy wouldn't make it, since he still is a bit clingy.  Turns out we all underestimated him.  When it came time for Ted and I to head home, the kids hardly gave us some much as a wave.  Teddy turned and was like “Go!” They were too busy inspecting their loot from the Easter Egg Hunt.  The report from the week was that he didn't miss us one bit.  Napped every day.  Went to bed without someone laying with him.  Slept through the night.  In other words, some kid other than our son spent the week up there.  He’ll been joining Katherine for the next trip up to my parents in Massachusetts this summer.

It’s been a weird nine months around here for me when it comes to the job front (we’ll skip the pregnancy analogies, please).  I’d call it a growing experience and yes, although I didn't want to believe it at the time, things did turn out for the best in the end.  I said goodbye to VR and started my new job on April 1^st.  Right now I’m still on the learning curve, going from knowing a whole lot about one division to needing to learn so much more about the entire department.  But I can tell ever day when I sit down at my desk that I’m in the right place, that this was the right next step for me.  I’m feeling centered again.  And I can tell this has made a difference for me on the home front too. I know you’re supposed to not take home into work and work into home but who really can do that? It all blurs together. I’m calmer, less tense, less on edge. I can leave the office on a Friday and happily not think about it until Monday.  And when I wake up Monday morning, I actually look forward to the week ahead.  It’s good to feel this way again.