One sunny morning

Bryce is doing an internship in summer school. One of the programs he did through the county this year is for employees who are aspiring to be assistant principals. It was amazing when he got accepted into the program, not so amazing when I realized that program would also take him away from us for the summer. This has left Charlotte and I with lots of time together, but also lots of time to fill. One sunny morning I decided we should go on a walk. It was 95` by the time I got back to my car and I was drenched with sweat from pushing her stroller, but the duckies we saw on our walk sure did make her day.

Gymboree

We are back at Gymboree. We did classes here when Charlotte was still crawling, and I knew I wanted to give her some type of opportunity for socialization over the summer. I went back and forth about what type of class to do, but ultimately decided that we have YEARS ahead of us for lessons like dance so why not just do some good old fashioned play? I think it was a good idea, Charlotte has made leaps and bounds from her first class. She swears she remembers being there "when I was a baby" but she stayed stuck to my side during the first class. By class two I was the one hurrying to catch up to her. I also think Gymboree was a good idea because they have story time and puppet time mixed into their activities and working on listening "to the teacher" has been great for her. Here are some picks from class #2:


Look how far back she is standing compared to the other kids. This was the beginning of the class.


Starting to branch out a little. She's pretending to drive a bus.


I had to use my zoom lense to get this one. She kept taking off!


Climbing up the ladder.


Finally feeling comfortable enough to be in the mix of things.


When it was time for parachute time, she wouldn't even sit with me! She sat opposite of me and clapped and sang all by herself!

Florida, Beach and Pool Pics

Gorgeous!




She really was a little beach babe!


She wanted to build a sand castle so bad!


The girl who is afraid of almost everything LOVED the big waves!


Can't you tell?!


We had such a good time on the beach.


Now to the pool. She crawled under the ladder EVERY time. I have no idea why!

A lesson learned from swim class: we make her count before she jumps in. She has added a little more and a little more to each jump. By the end of our trip, she would say "1, 2, 3, Cowabunga Dude, Woohoo, Weehee, Wipeout!" before she jumped in! It was hilarious!

LOTS of jumps in!

Beach day two. Much calmer waters.


Learning how to float on her back. ALMOST there.


The beach can wear you out!


In her ring she is unstoppable! She goes everywhere as fast as her little legs will take her!


The best beach companion ever!

7th Anniversary

The 7th anniversary gets lost somewhere between the 5th and 10th, however I still think it is an important one. I think 7 years of marriage is when you start to do some deep reflecting over what your relationship has become, and I'm proud to say that I could not be happier with the decision I made all those years ago.

To celebrate, my Mom watched Charlotte so we could head downtown for an adult dinner. We ended up going to One. Midtown Kitchen and totally splurging because we couldn't decide what we wanted to eat. We ended up with two appetizers, two entrees, and two desserts. The fried green tomatoes and calamari were delicious, so I was glad we ordered them both! And of course, dessert. Mine was a warm chocolate truffle served with pear sorbet that absolutely melted in your mouth. Bryce got a pecan praline with salted caramel ice cream that was seriously sinful. YUM. A lovely ending to another lovely year of marriage!

Florida

We are back from our first family vacation, though I can now say that "vacations" are no longer relaxing! I was really worried about the car ride down to Florida with a two year old but preparedness helped save the day. I honestly have NO idea how parents took any kind of trip without a DVD player to keep the peace! Two movies, two mobigo games (bought especially for our trip), lunch, a 30 minute nap (a miracle! Charlotte hasn't slept in the car since last summer!), followed by a 20 minute crying jag when she was woken up by the bumpy roads, a ring pop, a whole book of stickers, and whew we finally made it. I think we literally all let out a sigh of relief when we opened the car doors and could smell the ocean breeze. We chose to stay at a two bedroom condo in Destin so that Charlotte could have her own room and we could make breakfast and lunch rather than eat out for every meal.

Of course the first thing that Charlotte did was jump on the bed:





THEN, she finally wanted to see the ocean from our room:



We went down the the beach for about an hour, but it started raining so we headed in and got ready for dinner. Even though we were at this place by 5:00, it was still a 45 minute wait. After traveling all day, we were starving!


This restaurant had a store, playground, and alligator feeding tank. Bryce and I are convinced that you wait 45 minutes no matter what time you get there.


When we finally got a seat, the balloon man saved the day. We were seconds away from a melt down from a hungry baby until he whipped up this orange lizard!

Some other pictures from our trip:











Look for the little squirt under the hard rock sign!




When we walked back in our door, literally the first thing Charlotte did was go to the freezer and say "Can I have a popsicle NOW?!". Like the whole trip we were depriving her!

New Art Station

I found this easel for a steal at a consignment shop. Charlotte is now creating individualized pictures for everyone in the house and insisting that we stop what we are doing to come look at her "art".

Poor Bax

Some how, I managed to get a look at Baxter's teeth and was shocked when I saw his two front teeth practically rotted away. I tried to clean them but was extremely unsuccessful, so away to the vet he went. They ended up pulling three of his front teeth and two on the bottom. They said it was his age and that he would heal quickly, but he is not even seven yet! Poor Bax!