Interruption 2

In case you didn't catch this on tv, thought i'd share.

Justin

(photo by John Kim)

Justin is going home to California today. It's the earliest he's ever left us because his new school starts classes at the beginning of August - it's one of those crazy year round California schedules, but the good news is that we''l have longer Xmas and Spring breaks.

I can't say enough about what a great big brother Justin has been. He has gotten up early with Sawyer almost every morning, dressed him, fed him, played cars with him, chased him around the yard and watched his favorite movies. He's also helped with Arden, feeding her a bottle, putting her down for a nap, picking her up when she's fussy. The babies really couldn't have landed themselves a better big brother.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for him as he starts his first year in middle school, going from being the biggest kids in the school to the littlest, it's always a tough transition. We can't wait to see him again at Christmas.

Splash!

Okay - so Sawyer can walk barefoot on the gravel in our driveway but he refuses to walk on the sand without his shoes. He's been a pretty tentative beach goer this week. More on that later. Today is our last day. Gotta go enjoy more surf and sand.

Water Baby

No doubt about it, this one is her father's daughter. She loves the surf and sand.

Nobel Prize?

We've decided that whoever invented this skim boarding should win some sort of award. It keeps the kids entertained all day but safe from drowning, rip tides and sharks, and it is a fairly low maintenance sport on the parental level. Plus the learning curve is pretty fast. Justin is loving the thing and he's really good at it too.

Sawyer Turns 2

I'd been working all week with Sawyer on telling people his age. It's so cute. I say, "How old are you Sawyer?" and he puts up his index finger on each hand and says "TWOOO!" Only, I never could get him to perform for other people on demand.

Welcome to Hilton Head Island

We left the house at 3 am and arrived in Hilton Head around 1 pm (waylayed at Cracker Barrel in Waltersboro SC for nearly two hours). We were psyched to find this 10 paces out the back door of our place in Sea Pines.

Interruption.

I saw this on a friend's website and thought for a minute that I want to be this guy, and then I thought: I am this guy - on a much more localized scale. It's just me and Sawyer and Justin in the living room watching Mary Poppins for the fourth time, but it's just as joyous.

Arden 6 months

Three months raced by and four months blended into five and suddenly, two weeks shy of Arden's six month birthday, we were sitting on the couch, watching our sweet daughter practice rolling over, and she started crawling. Just like that. You had to scrape us up off the floor, that's how unprepared we were. It was the sort of one arm one leg stomach maneuver that a Vietnam soldier might use to sneak up on the enemy, but it constituted forward motion nonetheless. I hadn't really thought about what it would be like having TWO mobile children, at least not this soon. She hasn't looked back since and now she's up on her knees trying to coordinate all the moving parts, and I see that longing in her eyes went she reaches the couch and looks up trying to decide how she can pull herself up there.

If Sawyer is going to be our politician, (or maybe a car salesman), then Arden is going to be our book nerd. I've never seen a child get so spastic over a book. She starts to hyperventilate when we sit down to read at night and her whole body quivers with excitement as I turn the pages. She even has a pocket protector laugh.

But she'll be a beautiful book nerd, whiling away the hours in the back of the Harvard library. She has a fuzzy head of soft hair (no mohawk thank goodness) that could be a dark brown color, green almost hazel eyes with long lashes and a double chin that she can blame both of us for later on down the road. A lot of people say she looks like Sawyer, but I think she looks like Scott. And, I think Sawyer looks like me. One of these days I'll post my toddler photo.

Arden's been sleeping through the night - 12 hours - since she was four months old. Here's how it happened:
She was still waking up twice a night. I couldn't deal one more day. I announced that we were going to start sleep training - we subscribe to the cold-turkey-cry-it-out method. Scott moved upstairs into Justin's room (he can't handle the crying).

Night 1: Arden wakes up a 1 am and cries for 10 minutes. Falls back to sleep and doesn't wake up until 7 am.
Night 2: Arden sleeps 12 hours.
Night 3: Arden sleeps 12 hours. Scott sleeps upstairs
Night 4: Arden sleeps 12 hours. Scott sleeps upstairs
Night 5: Arden sleeps 12 hours. Scott sleeps upstairs
Night 6: Arden sleeps 12 hours. Scott sleeps upstairs
Night 7: Arden sleeps 12 hours. Scott sleeps upstairs

After a week I was convinced enough to let Scott come back to our room. People who have toddlers who still wake up at night probably want to kill me. All I can say is that I've been blessed with two wonderful babies.

By way of comparison

Sawyer at Six Months

Happy Freedom