Don't give a 2 year old a protein bar in the car . . .

It was even worse than it looks here . . . his shorts were covered and parts of the car seat . . . gross. . . and he's still got half the bar in his mouth . . .

But then he made it up to me by taking a nap on the beach . . .

It was a perfect beach day . . . holding on to ever bit of summer we can

Indoor Swimming on a Rainy Day

All of these rain days are starting to get to us. Liam and I cannot be in the house for more than a day without getting on each other's nerves. (Can I say that as a Mom, oh well). I was thinking of taking him to his first movie in the theater, but there are no G rated movies out this week.

So then I remembered that Liam's Great Grandmom and Great Aunt Helen have an indoor pool - we decided to take advantage . . .

My Grandmom and Liam after his swim . . .

Aunt Helen and the little man who is ready for a nap

Rainy Day Fun

The past few days have not been beach days, so Liam and I get a little stir crazy being in the house all day. There was a break in the rain, so we went on a "nature exploration" - inspired by Dora the Explorer and Diego :) . . . it started drizzling so we came prepared . . .

I made Liam a "field journal" with pictures of things he had to find on our nature walk and we collected our items in little bags . . . we even found a birds egg that had fallen out of it's nest . . .
Nothing like a watermelon lollipop to make the walk even more fun

it was a very successful trip around the neighborhood. Liam got a little tired at one point and laid down in the wagon, so Mommy looked like a crazy old lady pulling around a wagon. Oh well.

Hopefully this rain stops soon - our tans are fading!

Another Wonderful Day on the Beach

It was a beautiful beach day and since it was low tide, Aunt Jaclyn thought it was about time Liam learn to boogie board. Could you imagine him being three next summer and not being able to catch some gnarly waves? What would the 4 year olds think? He'd have no street cred.

Enjoying the waves with both feet on the ground . . . or maybe feeling if his tummy is empty and it's time to refuel . . .

A rare moment of Liam letting me hold his hand . . .

Music and Baseball make for a great day!

This is from the beach the other day . . .

After the gym this morning, Nana took Liam to the Beachwood Library for a music program.

Liam danced his butt off and got to see Sparks . . .

and play with a parachute . . .

after his nap we decided to go to the BlueClaws baseball game since Ryan Howard from the Phillies was playing first base to rehab his ankle. It was really fun and Liam had fun running around some more . . .

He told us his favorite player is the umpire - possible career?
And Mommy's boys at the ballpark

It was a great summer night!

A Glimpse 14 years into the Future

He is already a pro at blowing the whistle

Road Trip

We woke up early enough this morning to make pancakes for Daddy before he left for the beach. Liam wanted to help, so I had him go downstairs and get his chef hat. He made some great banana pancakes . . .

After the gym we hit the road with Nana to Cape May. We went to visit our cousins and Liam napped the whole way down . . . I think he was dreaming of pancakes . . .
Liam and his cousins Ryan and Karly
(3rd cousins I think, not sure how that works, Liam's PopPop and their Grandma are 1st cousins)

So cute . . . the brown one is mine - I swear I use sunscreen on him . . .

We had tons of fun catching up and the kids had a great time playing together!

Missing Baby

Help!

I lost my baby.

I woke up this morning to this kid sleeping in my baby's bed . . .

I miss all the chubbiness he used to have.

(He's wearing a visor backwards - I don't know why he insists on wearing hats backwards - it drives Casey nuts)

What I Heart Most About the Beach . . .

2 glorious hours

*side note - Daddy's team won the last tournament of the season tonight at IBSP!!! And two more nights of swimming and then Mommy is done for a little while - we can actually have dinner together during the week!

Liam Swimming without his bubble

Liam fights with us now about wearing his bubble to swim. He thinks he doesn't need it, but what he considers swimming is really trying not to drown. So after swimming around for awhile, we let him go without it for a few minutes and he is thrilled. . .

Water Park

Friday afternoon we went to Breakwater Beach with Liam's cousins . . . I haven't been there since I was in high school and didn't know what to expect with Liam and the slides.

At first he was happy playing in the toddler area and going

down the small slides they had there . . .

He was not happy at first with the lazy river . . . he wanted to swim and not be in a tube, but eventually he settled down enough to smile with Mommy . . .Then he wanted to be a big kid. He went down this blue slide ALONE 3 times. I wasn't allowed to take him on my lap and he kept saying he wanted to go down it, so I let him go and I would go before or after him.

Here he is at the end . . .
This one we went down next to each other. . . Liam is the giant splash on the left and for some reason, I am on the right with the smaller splash ( I swear)

We are going to miss Liam's cousins . . . They are on their way back to Zimbabwe tonight

Monkey

Besides being potty-trained (hence all the pictures of him in his underwear) Liam turned from a little boy to a little monkey in the past few months. I haven't caught all his crazy stunts on camera, but here are a few from this week. . .

Brushing his teeth by himself ( I also found him sitting on the counter washing his feet the other day, and standing on the counter using the toothbrushes as drumsticks against the mirror)
Brushing his hair while sitting on his changing table

And cleaning out the nose while he's up there

and climbing up the slide which is a big no-no here

It's amazing that our first trip to the ER with him was NOT for a fall-related injury

The joys of having a boy

Crabbing

Yesterday Liam took a late nap so we didn't get to the beach, instead we went over to Aunt Jaclyn's and catch ourselves some dinner . . .

Pop Pop and Nana were there too and we ended up catching over 30 crabs
The swans came up close to see what was going on . . .

Aunt Jaclyn's house is the one to the right of the steps

Our dinner - we ate them all