Vacation!

We just got back from vacation at the beach - every day we did the beach and a pool - it was so fun - and exhausting! Somehow I kept them from getting sunburned... you can see Jo enjoyed being a mermaid...

Sam is saying new words every day - cracker, water, stroller, run...

Josephine is talkative and imaginative as always. She is quite the performer. She entertains the babysitter with comic opera, and today at the post office she belted out some numbers to the long line of disgruntled people waiting for stamps. And "why" is the thing to ask, of course, because she is three and that's what you do when you're three. Today we were looking at My Little Ponies and she was asking which ones were "dappled" and "what's dappled?" And I had to wonder to myself, well, heck, how do I describe dappled??

Wandering Sam

Sam's definitely a toddler now. The upsides are many, but I like that he can now walk to me when he wakes up in the night wanting to be held. But, he's changing, as this image snapped from my new phone depicts. I didn't even hear him wake up, but he walked down the hall to my office, looked and saw me working, and then plopped himself down on the floor in the hallway outside to go back to sleep, comfortable in the knowledge I was around. He was there for a couple of minutes before apparently realizing a rug on the floor is not as comfortable as it should be.

Next from me: A photo-spread called "Window Shopping in Charlottesville"

Fun

smiles

Sam is walking and Josephine's vocabulary expands... and the two of them play together and do crazy things like try to fit themselves in the kitchen cabinets... I just can't get over what beautiful kids they are... So happy. And I feel like I'm becoming a better person by being their mother.

Playing

Sam!

S

Back in the wood house

The kids are currently living with their mother at what Josephine calls the "Butter Cup" house, but they'll soon be living here for half the week. Their first night back here at what I'll call the "Wood House" was the other night, and they seemed really happy to be back.

Josephine continues to be a pleasure to be around. We spent a lot of time on Memorial Day playing with this weird modeling clay from Crayola. We were supposed to be coloring Ariel's Castle, but we gave up on that and just made little people.

Sam is a treat to see walking around. He struts around the house in search of things to push around the floor. Yesterday he pushed this one chair back and forth across the hardwood floor. It's a little trickier now that there are rugs upstairs. We also played airplane a lot, wherein he climbs up on my legs and goes flying around the world. Great work-out for my abs, too!

Josephine got some new books upon returning back here. Sam got some new balls. I got him his first baseball mitt as well as a new red sponge-ball. He loves to throw the ball, and loves to go and get it. I don't think he entirely gets the concept, as sometimes he begins to cry as soon as the ball rolls away from him.

Next time: Pictures from one of our many trips downtown.