Vacation 2008

Greetings from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina!

Steve, DJ and I are here with my family - my parents, my brother's family and my sister's family - enjoying the company and the change of scenary. It's been nice to be some place other than home, even though the vacation is not exactly restful. Chasing a very active toddler around in a house that is not exactly baby-proofed can be draining! DJ's had his share of bumps, bruises, and scratches this week despite our best efforts, and he is challenging his limits every moment that he can!!

We drove down Friday morning, and we got here in 8 hours, which was fantastic timing considering we're dealing with a 16 month old toddler and an 8 month preggo. And we didn't even break speed limits much - 10 over the limit, max. DJ did great; he took 2 hour and a half naps which helped our timing a lot. We took a couple of breaks to get him out of the car seat so he could walk around and get some energy out. Those were well timed with potty breaks and leg circulation stretches for Preggo.

Despite DJ being very active throughout vacation (and boy does it take effort to keep up with him), he has been an angel of a boy. He is obedient and despite the fact that he's teething (canines), he is a really happy boy. We've only had a couple of instances where sleep periods have been interrupted by poopy diapers, the construction guys next door, or teething and despite his lack of sleep, he's still generally not a huge fuss. In fact, he's a perfectly tolerable fuss. :-) He's adjusted to the new house with no issues, he sleeps in the pack-n-play great, and he eats really well. What more could we ask for? NOTHING!

DJ has had his first official beach and ocean experience, too. The first time , I took him out to the beach by myself. His aunts, uncles, godparents, and cousins were all out there, too, so it wasn't like I was being a daredevil or anything. DJ didn't fuss, not once, while we were out there. His cautious self came though, as he hung on to me very tightly for the vast majority of the time. He had no issues with the feeling of the sand under his feet and between his toes. In fact, he didn't even blink at that. But the ocean, now that was another issue. Again, he didn't fuss, but he wouldn't let go of me. He was tightly attached to my shirt as the waves would come up over his feet. He never left my side, in fact, but took in all the sights, sounds, and smells in stride. I picked up some wet sand and he pulled it out of my hand and played with it. He also got his first taste of salt water as a couple of the waves hit us pretty hard and splashed him in the face. He was smacking his lips tasting the salt.

I knew he was done with it all when he asked me to pick him up and he didn't "fish flop" or "surfboard" to get down. So we walked all the way back to the house with DJ holding my hand the whole way. He handled the non-steady surface of the sand with nary a thought, and was completely exhausted by the effort. He really did do fantastically.

Otherwise, DJ has been happily entertained by his cousins, and all of his attending and adoring aunts/uncles/godparents/grandparents. We've had to train the cousins that DJ is not a toy, and I think we're getting through to them... slowly. It's really neat to see DJ light up when he sees them, though, and that's really cool. He's warming up to my brother and his family since he's not seen them since December, and that makes me happy.

Steve and I aren't getting that much rest, but oh well. Dj is getting us up at 6am. Yikes. And I'm not sleeping because I'm 8 months pregnant (and boy did the belly grow in the last few days... ). It's nice to be here with family. We really missed it last year. I never would have been granted the time off with this week being so close to my return from maternity leave.... should remain a non-issue next year. But next year... how are we going to deal with 2???

Heck, we're not even sure how we're going to deal with 2 in 8 weeks..... ;-)