Sprayground

I didn't actually know that this word, sprayground, existed until about 2 months ago. I have since learned that it's basically a play area with fountains, spraying toys, etc. We've been once with Leslie & Gabriel, and of course I forgot the camera, so yesterday when we went with Isabel & Heather, I made sure I was armed.











Afterwards, we're in the locker room getting ready to go. The kids are both standing there naked, and Charlie squats down and looks up at Isabel - as if to say, "And what do we have here?" After I got him dressed, Heather was changing Isabel's diaper, he says, "I want to touch Isabel." Based on his prior ogling, I felt it wise to investigate further, and asked him where he wanted to touch her. He said, "Her tummy." Here is what followed:

Big-boy Bed for a Day

For the past few months, Charlie's been wanting to sleep in the twin bed in his room, so we've been toying with the idea of converting his crib to a toddler bed. In late May (playing a little catch-up here), I put Charlie down for his nap, and when I came in his room to get him, he was straddling the front rail of his crib. So we had two options: 1) convert his crib to a toddler bed; or, 2) turn his crib around (the back rail is about 8" higher than the front). Evan felt the aesthetics of choice #2 left something to be desired, so I came home from work to find the crib transformed. Charlie loved it, and wanted me to get in bed with him and arm myself with the necessary accoutrements.







The switch seemed to be going well, until nap time. We put him down, closed the door, and immediately heard the pitter-patter of feet, books being pulled from shelves, toys being flung around, etc. Over the next hour and a half, we tried to settle him down a few times, and finally, with a sigh of resignation, Evan pulled the attic door open, retrieved the crib rail, re-attached it, and switched to option #2. Charlie feel immediately asleep. The moral of the story: Keep your children caged as long as you possibly can.

Sixty Years, Still Going Strong

For the past few years, we've been making a habit of heading to Ohio for 4th of July, as the Miracle family convenes at Tim's house for the better part of the day. This year was especially memorable, as Evan's grandparents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary that weekend. So we headed off to America's heartland (can you tell I've been listening to way too much election coverage?), with a stopover in Columbus. We somehow convinced Ben & Kirsten that the best way to celebrate our nation's independence was to increase their carbon footprint by driving to Willoughby and back . . . but not before we bought 3 scoops, 4 pints, and 1 ice cream cake at two Columbus ice cream institutions, Jeni's and Graeter's. YUM.

In Uncle Tim's pool with Grandpa


Snacking on Uncle Tim's famous jambalaya (which, in Ohio, is cringe-worthily pronounced JAM-ba-ly-uh)


Loading up the pecan dump truck


Grandma & Grandpa's neighborhood was built in 1954, and the scrawny saplings that were planted on each lot have now become these amazing trees. The boy headed off with Evan and his grandparents to a neighborhood playground, complete with school bus - who could ask for more?







Saturday was the anniversary shin-dig, held at a Willoughby brew pub. They have a model train that runs on a track suspended from the ceiling, and Charlie was completely mesmerized by this. At least until Ryan got there. Ryan is actually Evan's cousin, the youngest of the bunch at 3 1/2. He is in all ways Charlie's idol, and due to Ryan's broken leg, he could actually keep up with him this trip!





Apparently, there's nothing funnier than near-sightedness


We usually take photos with the four generations of Miracle men, and for some reason, this always ends in shirtlessness. Thankfully we had a private room, so as not to disturb the general and unassuming public.





Now only 1/3 shirtless


The Dean Miracle branch of the tree (sadly, minus Lauren & Russell)


This is my absolute favorite picture of Grandpa & Grandma, from their wedding day


And here they are, 60 years later, doing a lip-synch routine to "Ain't She Sweet" - is wrong to idolize these folks? I think not.


Happy Anniversary!

Back from the Beach

We spend the first week in June at Topsail (which if you're not from around here, is pronounced TOPsul) Island with the Marbaise clan (my mom's two sisters and their associates). It was a much needed week of doing nothing in particular. Charlie slept in Omi and Opu's room, which meant this actually felt like a vacation for us! Nothing like sleeping past 7 to make you feel young again. Every morning we cam down to stories of Charlie's early morning goofing off, much of which involved the karaoke machine microphone.

Here he is helping Opu get plugged in...


...and wearing Aunt Ulli's hat.


Once on the beach, though, we did a lot of running after Charlie, who was alternately fearless and perturbed that the water didn't listen when he asked it to stop moving. But he was outnumbered 8 to 1, and I highly recommend this ratio when at the beach with a 2-year-old.







He loves the sandbox at home, so we did lots of sandcastles and crab hunting. We saw a few pretty good-sized specimens, and "pincers" has now entered his vocabulary after a long discussion about why we don't pick up crabs.







The garage of the house we stayed in was full of sand toys, and we found a few kites as well. I haven't flown a kite in probably 20+ years, and we all had a good time keeping it going and watching Charlie try to figure out the physics of flight.





We took off to Wilmington for 1 day as a little break from the beach, and had a great time. The highlight, for Charlie anyhow, was a trip to the Railroad Museum. They have a great children's room with train tables and toys, as well as a huge model train with push-button automation. He's been talking about the museum ever since we got back!







We also took a nice boat ride on the Cape Fear River (yep, it's that Cape Fear), which passes by the USS North Carolina. We decided not to stop because of the heat, but it was fun to ride around the river with no particular purpose.





The next day, we visited a turtle rescue hospital in Topsail Beach. The NC State vet students do surgeries on the turtles and help determine treatment plans, and then the turtles recuperate until they're ready to head back into the ocean. We got to see 6 turtles, some of which were 100+ pounds, and they were just amazing. Sadly, we couldn't take any photos, but you can check out the turtle-cam at their website.

On our last day, the water was calm enough that we took Charlie out in the ocean for some wave-jumping. Earlier in the week, my mom got bowled over getting out of the ocean, and it was little touch-and-go getting her back to a standing position. We were laughing because I'd convinced her to tie up her halter top before we got in, and thank goodness she did! So when I made my exit with Charlie, I figured no problem, and then had my bikini bottom yanked down by a wave. The sting rays and half of my family got a nice free show that day! Evan was watching from the shore, and neither of us could stop laughing...





A little post-swim rest and snack break


The Marbaise girls...


...and their toes!


One last family shot before we took off....


A few interesting discoveries of note:
-One 2-year old can easily occupy/amuse a group of adults for several hours, given that these adults are not the child's parents.
-Poop that stays in a swim diaper for too long turns grey.
-If you put carbonated beverages in a sippy cup, the pressure will cause a six foot stream of liquid to shoot out. This is my punishment for assuming that Sprite was really water.

Catching Up

Hard to believe May has come and gone! We finished up the month with a few more birthday parties and a nice new milestone - we've kicked the bottle habit! (OK, Evan and I, not so much.) We finally got tired of dealing with nipples (OK, Evan not so much) and decided to force the issue. There were a few tears on day one, but relative calm since then. In memoriam, here's the last shot of Charlie with a bottle:



But, to be fair, he's picked up a new bad habit:


Since his birthday, we've been spending lots of time with the new loot. He's a big fan of the Shrek doll from Aunt Niki, and has warmed up to Donkey after an initial freak-out. He (Donkey) just recently came out of the closet.


Tandem lawn mowing with the bubble mower. Charlie calls this his lawn-lawn-lawn-lawn-lawn (which really sounds more like "yawn"), and the more he repeats it, the more emphatic he is about playing with it.




Sitting at his new table, and making a most disturbing face (maybe he could sense the bottle weaning was coming?)


His buddies Isabel and Zayveon have the same birthday, so we had a busy weekend of parties. Isabel loves Pooh, and her parents asked a neighbor to dress up for the party. We were fairly certain Charlie was going to be freaked out, but he ended up liking Pooh pretty well (though not enough to sit in his lap).



The "more cupcakes please" pout


Playing in the sandbox at Isable's


Zayveon's party was the next day, and I love their table for three dinner date!