Washington Coast Vacation

On the recommendation of a friend, we booked a cottage in the town of Seabrook for a few days of vacation.  Seabrook is this adorable "planned" community on the Washington coast.  We rented this little cottage, called "The Roosevelt":

This cabin was in a circle of identical cabins all built around a central fire pit.  We loved the idea of parking the car & being able to walk to everything, including the beach.

The cabin was about 600 sq feet, so it was cozy, but it was big enough for a few days vacation.  The only tricky part of it was the upstairs loft.  I knew it had a loft, but I assumed that Parker would be frightened enough of the ladder that we could carry him up there every night & he'd stay-put.  ...I was wrong.

He LOVED the ladder, which meant that I spent much of the week telling him to get off the ladder and stay away from the opening.  I hate to spoil his fun, but I had constant visions of him falling 12 feet to his death (including a dream the first night that he did a belly-flop from the top of the ladder).

Since we couldn't trust him to stay off the ladder, we ended up with all four of us sleeping in the downstairs bedroom.  Cecily in the pack & play in the closet, and the three of us crammed in the (queen sized) bed.  It was cozy.  Cecily, our horrible sleeper, did a great job with this arrangement.  Parker, our super-duper sleeper, not so much.  It usually took four or five times of putting him back to bed before he finally settled.  

But, scary ladder aside, the cabin was great!

We spent most of the week just relaxing & playing with the kiddos.

We especially enjoyed the beach.  Parker loved being able to run as far & as fast as he wanted.  He brought his pail & shovel; he would walk two steps, put one shovel full of sand in the bucket, run five steps, one shovel-full, etc for hours, it was great.

He & Keith also chased the ball down a little "river" in the sand for a long time.

The weather was fantastic the entire time we were there.  It started raining the day we left, otherwise it was beautiful.

Parker learned the word "vacation" this week, he was often running around saying, "We on vacation? We go on vacation?"

The community also had an indoor pool that Parker loved.  He has officially lost his fear of the water, I think he would have happily spent the entire week in the pool.

 We would highly recommend Seabrook for vacation to anyone.  We're already planning a trip back, only next time we'll get an actual 2-bedroom with actual stairs & a door on the bedroom.

On our way home, we stopped at the Olympia Children's Museum.  Parker had a great time.

The fire truck was Parker's favorite, he kept running back to climb back up and put the helmet back on.

Our boy is going to be a Doctor when he grows up.  He loves when Cecily gets a shot at the Doctor (I didn't say he was sympathetic, just that he'll be a Dr.).  We've been playing getting shots at home, he wipes the spot with his alcohol wipe, then gives you a shot with the other hand, then pats you on the tummy & says "it's okay" if you cry.  Here, he's practicing his skills on one of the babies at the museum.

What a great trip! 

Working

Parker, what does Daddy do at work?

"He work on-a computer

He talk on-a phone

and He colors."

Pretty accurate assessment.

Bath time!

Now that Cecily is sitting better, she's starting to take her baths with Parker.  They LOVE it, lots of giggles and splashing is involved.

8 Months

Cecily is 8 months!

Our little girl is growing up!  She's learning new things every day.  She's become a pro at sitting, as well as rolling from one side of the room to the other.  She's not yet close to crawling, but you can see her frustration when something she wants is just out of her reach, so I think it's just a matter of time.  I don't think she'll be an early crawler, but I think she might be earlier than Parker (which could be partially thanks to the daily crawling lessons Parker's giving her)

Cecily will eat just about anything you put in-front of her.  Provided it's in the proper form.  She'll eat fruit purees out of the pouches, but veggies must be cut-up so she can eat them as finger food.  And absolutely nothing from the spoon, although she's quite happy to chew on the spoon.  It's funny how things change with the 2nd kid (especially when the 2nd kid is so particular).  When Parker was this age, he was eating (all-organic) single-food purees: Organic Pear puree, Organic Broccoli Puree, Organic Sweet Potato puree, etc.  Last night Cecily had chicken stir-fried in white wine & soy sauce.  She really just wants table food, and it's too much work to fight that.

 

This girl takes her eating seriously, she will scream & scream until you put something on her tray, at which point she starts shoving it in her mouth two hands at a time.  My kids might not walk until they are 1 1/2, but their fine motor skills are top notch, if only to more efficiently get the food up to their mouths.

She's cute, but she's not always cooperative!

Cecily has the funniest gurgle/giggle, if she ever becomes a singer, she'll be expert at trilling her "r's" since she's pretty much purring now.

For the past few weeks, Cecily has been waking up only once or twice a night.  It's not quite frequent enough to be a pattern, but we are certainly getting closer.  I'm still working on re-setting my body-clock so I also can sleep more than two hours at a time.

Cecily LOVES her big brother & her Daddy, she laughs & shakes whenever they come around.

What she hates is being ignored.  Her definition of ignored involves pretty much anything outside of holding her & talking directly to her.  She's okay playing on the floor for a little bit by herself, as long as I don't turn my back on her for a second.  Which means that to make dinner, I often have to walk backwards from where I put her down to the other side of the counter so I don't turn my back on her.

 

Except for the middle of the night, Cecily is usually very happy when she wakes up.  Once I come in the room, she starts dancing with her hands & feet flying in the air for me to pick her up.

 

She will put absolutely anything in her mouth.  We bought the Roomba both to save my sanity, and to keep her from ingesting an entire tree's worth of pine needles.

Such a fun little girl!

Visit with Cousin Fiona

After their Spring Break was sidelined by the stomach bug, Doug & Kelly needed a morning free to paint Fiona's room, so she came over to play with Parker Saturday morning.  Judging by the photos, it seems like the entire day revolved around food (real or otherwise), but the two of them spent nearly the entire morning playing outside & riding their bikes.

Oatmeal

Fishing

We're getting ready to go on vacation, so Keith pulled out his Dad's old fishing pole.  Parker helped him practice off the back deck.

I'm not sure they caught anything.