Beachtime with Friends

And the fun continues...



Rock Climbing

On the big cannon at Ft. Moultrie

Looking for fish

 

the skim board fanatics



my little love

surfer girls



my goofballs



Kid Pyramid

Summer Part II

You may have guessed from my previous post but the first part of our summer was all about swim team.  With five practices (per child) and two meets each week, how could it not be all about swim team, right?  And it was great.  We spent lots of time with our friends (er... at least the ones on swim team) and everyone had a great season.  Now we are in Part II of our summer, which is all about travel.  From July 9th to August 8th, the kids and I will spend a total of 9 days at home (today included).  Here are some pictures from our trips thus far...

Good Morning Monkeys!

Sweet Alex

Sassy Girl

"Look Mom!"

Best Buds

Silly kids eating ice cream on the beach...

Rock star!!

The sign says it all...

Life really is good at the beach. 

Swim Season

The 2011 Summer swim season came to a close last night.  To say that I am sad about this would be a lie.  It was a great season, but swim team is very time intensive.  We practiced for a hour (thirty minutes per child) five days per week and attended two swim meets each week where the family would sweat it out poolside for a minimum of three hours and the boyswould swim for a total of under five minutes.  Swim team is fun though.  Swim meets are fun.  We see our friends in the neighborhood, the kids see their friends and they get some exercise too.  Alex had a great first year.  He improved his swim time by twelve seconds, won a couple ribbons and learned a passable back stroke and breast stroke (except when he cheats by swimming under water to win his heat).  Devin had a harder year because he was at the bottom of his age group and didn't get as many ribbons as last year.  He did well though. He learned butterfly and finally mastered a legal breast stroke kick!!  All told I am very proud of my swimmer boys and hope that they continue with swim team for many many more years.

Alex before his first race ever!

Alex's dive.

Alex's first ribbon ever!!



Alex hugging the lane line in back stroke



Devin catching his breath after his first race of the season

Devin's back stroke

Devin's awesome start!

My boys

This is what Izzy looked forward to at every swim meet.

the pants don't lie

All these months of fun trips and birthday cakes are starting to take a toll.  I have been aware of this and sort of half trying to get my sweet tooth (and wine/beer tooth?  do we have such things?  I think I do...) under control.  I started running again after about a month off (remember the back strain) and working out more.  But then I went in for a check up with my doctor.  According to their scale I weighed three pounds more than my scale at home.  So instead of 5-6 pounds over my preferred weight, I am actually looking at 8-9 pounds.  After I got over the "oh shit" moment, I realized that I need to find my motivation.  I have been running again, but not really loving it.  I have been back on the bike, and in the pool, but I am hesitant to commit to triathlon training because it is so hard to fit in all three sports multiple times per week with an active family with three kids and a husband who is also training. 
I got confirmation on my scale after Devin's eight-year-old check up last week.  Three pounds light.  Meaning I have ten pounds to lose.  I don't know why this surprised me.  Probably because I have been wearing all the summer skirts and dresses lately.  I tried to wear a pair of pants out the other day (emphasis on "tried"... but failed miserably), and realized that I need to wear pants more during the "beer and ice cream" season of the year.  Just to keep myself on track.  We all know that the jeans don't lie when the jeans don't fit.

Happy Birthday Devin!!

This has been quite a year for Devin.  He had huge accomplishments like losing his front teeth, First Communion and making a club soccer team  He had disappointments like breaking his arm and watching friends move away.  He has grown so much (and I'm not just talking about the 3.5 inches and 8 pounds since last June).  I am really enjoying the little man he is turning into, and he makes me so proud.

Happy 8th Birthday Devin!!

First Communion

Off the Blocks

The end of the "All Sports" birthday party.

Happy Birthday Devin!!

First and Last

This picture is from the morning before the first day of school.  The boys are all excited and happy; clean, shiny and new... and they were very eager to have their picture taken.

first day of school

This picture is from after the last day of school.  Both boys are tired from a late swim meet last night.  Devin is sweaty from a dodge ball tournament and Alex is literally dripping wet from a water fight with friends after school.  Both boys were annoyed at the idea of taking a picture, and finally cooperated when threatened with the prospect of taking pictures all afternoon until I could get one where they were both smiling. 

last day of school

 No doubt that they are excited that school is done.  We all are.

three-year-old logic

Andy to Isabel: "Why?"
Isabel: "Because."
Andy: "Because why?"
Isabel: "Because why."

And so it goes...

Viva la Roma

Six days
Five nights
One husband
Zero kids
One trip to Rome.  Is there a better way to celebrate Ten Years?



Statue on top of the Vatican

Meaghan's Cappucino



Stained Glass at St. Peter's Basilica



Hallway ceiling in Vatican



Ecclesiastical "Reservoir Dogs" Scene in St. Peter's Square




Mother and Child pictures were mounted on random street corners.



Flor - the best gelati in Roma.





Typical street in Roma



At Trevi Fountain



Pope Benedict XVI





At Spanish Steps



Fountain in Piazza Novena



At the Colosseum


I love you Andy Blake.

It's a girl thing

We have all heard the opinions about nature vs. nurture when it comes to raising children, and at one point I felt like my life was a test case for gender stereotypes.  When Isabel was about 18 months old she tired of "mommying" the boys stuffed animals, she found the one doll in the house (one from my childhood) and began carrying it around.  I realized that even though she was surrounded by trains and trucks and balls, this little girl needed some different toys.  We didn't have "girl" toys, but once we got a few dolls, a stroller and a kitchen, she was ecstatic.
Now our lives are filled with princesses and pink.  Isabel refuses to wear pants and prefers to go out in either her pink rain boots or her red patent Mary Jane's (which she calls her "tapping shoes") at all times.  By nap time most days she changes into a leotard and tutu and she insists that she doesn't like any boys (which Andy is thrilled about!).  She will happily play by herself with her dollhouse, feeding and bathing her babies and doggies. 
I didn't realize how extreme her "girlie" persuasion was until our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt.  Here are the Easter eggs that Izzy collected:

The only eggs in the bunch that are not pink are the ones with Dora on them.  I can guarantee that I do encourage colors other than pink in her life, even though I am more than happy to dress her in skirts and dresses.  I can also guarantee that she probably knocked over a few other little girls going for the Dora eggs, after all she has two big brothers. 

When the Easter Bunny came, Izzy did it again.

This time I know that her brothers were leaving the pink eggs for her or even finding pink eggs and giving them to her.  I'm not sure how long the pink and girlie phase of her life will last.  I don't have answers on the nature versus nurture, but I do know that my little girl has some very specific preferences about her toys and her clothes and she is not following in her brother's footsteps at all.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex!!  I cannot believe my little man is six.  Ever since he was a toddler, Alex's life was just one big party and that hasn't changed a bit.  Whether's he's rockin' out to Pearl Jam (or Kid Rock or Creed or his latest favorite "Second Chance" by Shinedown) or playing soccer or having a Nerf gun war in the back yard, Alex is all about having fun. 

Right of Passage

Devin took a spill while flying down a hill on his scooter.  I had my back to him when I heard the screaming and crying, and I expected blood; lots and lots of blood.  But alas, there was a little road rash on his leg, but otherwise no blood.  But there was lots of arm pain.  We put some ice on it and he certainly cried more than his usual injury, but it wasn't until his teeth started chattering that I decided an ER visit was in order.  At triage the doctor started talking about a broken wrist.  Then the x-ray, and you didn't need to be a radiologist to confirm it.  The verdict: hairline fracture of the ulna and fracture with angulation of the radius (think of when you try to break a stick and it half breaks and bends - that was his bone). Which meant that we needed to go to an orthopedic doctor to get the bone set (straightened) and casted. 

I think it's a right of passage for little boys to break a bone, especially little boys who love to play sports.  Now if I could keep him off the top of the monkey bars...

Cooper

Last weekend was the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston.  For those of you not in the know, Cooper is a very popular (40,000 people) 10k run over the very cool suspension bridge (the Ravenel Bridge) that links Mount Pleasant to Charleston .  For me, the Cooper weekend is a girls weekend away with my friends.  It is a time of bonding, drinking, shopping, oh and there is a race too. 
The Monday before Cooper I tweaked my back.  I'm not sure how this happened, but I think it had something to do with the double digit mile run I did on Sunday, plus my lack of stretching.  My body just doesn't bounce back like it used to (or I didn't challenge it as much when I was younger...).  So Monday afternoon I am walking like a geriatric person when I finally call a chiropractor.  I made three trips to the chiro and completely stopped working out, picking up Isabel, bending down for things (as much as I could) and iced my back three of four times per day, all in an effort to salvage my girls weekend. 
And it worked!  I ran the race without walking.  Granted, I ran it three and a half minutes slower than last year, but I ran it!  Plus I was able to fully partake in the other weekend activities and festivities... but we won't mention those here...

Boys will be Boys

The other night when I went in to kiss Alex goodnight he said to me, "I counted to 101 by skipping the fives."  I asked him how he did that and he said, "I went 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,21..." Pretty impressive for a Kindergartner, I thought.
Later as I was putting Devin to bed he told me he had a new trick, and said, "Mom, pull my finger."

Aaaw, my babies are growing up.

Suggestive

A note came home from school yesterday that Alex got in trouble at lunch time for getting out of his chair and dancing. I accept and understand that. You aren’t in the lunch room to dance, you are there to eat. But the note went on to say that his dancing was very “suggestive”. Really?!?! Suggestive of what? Suggestive of the fact that he could use a few dance lessons?

Alex is five years old. Clearly you don’t mean “suggestive” in a risqué, burlesque sort of way. After all, for a dance to be “suggestive”, doesn’t the dancer need to know something about what it is that they are in fact suggesting? I’m half tempted to go to school and ask the lunch monitor what she is suggesting about my five year old. I know that Alex is a ladies’ man and has been kissed by a few girls in kindergarten. Really, do we need to see everything that these kids do through our sanctimonious, politically correct lenses?

I know the dance that Alex did in the lunchroom. I have seen it. He holds his hands out a little bit to the sides and rocks his hips like he’s doing the hula hoop. Maybe it would be suggestive if he grabbed one of those little tarts who kissed him and pulled her in close while dancing, but he didn’t. Maybe he should save that for first grade. We don’t want them to grow up too fast.

I’m just glad he didn’t slap his ass while he was dancing so suggestively in the lunch room. See, he has also done the ass-slap at home and I told him to stop because it wasn’t nice. We have some standards, after all.

Happy Birthday Isabel!!

Happy third birthday to my sweet baby girl.  I love you!!

Someone loves the attention of her birthday!

Lost in thought

Paging Dr. Izzy

"Doctoring" her puppy