2000 miles

We drove 2000 miles with our little boy last week! And he was really great....up until the last day when he kind of had a cow....but I was pretty impatient to be home by then, too. :)

Brian and I decided to drive to Nags Head, NC this year. Were we crazy? Possibly - crazy and cheap. But it went really really well. We had lots of little toys to give the little boy on the trip, and purchased a portable DVD player for those moments when we could really use them. And he was great! The drive took two days, and Ethan adjusted fantastically well.

The view from our condo - not bad, huh?

For those of you work friends who are anticipating a radiant, tan Alexis, you'll be sorely disappointed when I get back to work tomorrow. I'm still the same pasty white. :) Brian, Ethan, and I turned out to be beach wimps and only stayed out for a few hours each morning. Ethan seemed to really love rushing down the beach to the water, but not so much when the waves crashed around him. I understand completely!

Super-cool beach boy!

The less sunbathing we did, the more we could do other beach things, though! We took a jog with the boy in his little rented jogging stroller....you can see how much he enjoyed it. (Actually, this was the best thing for him - he woke up at 5 EST and couldn't go back to sleep, so he really needed the little cat nap that morning....)
We visited Kitty Hawk Kites, this great store with kites (of course), jewelry, toys, clothing, and a small climbing wall. This picture is not posed. Ethan went rushing up to the wall more than once. I sense many, many gray hairs in my and Brian's futures!
And best of all, we were able to spend great quality time with Ethan's Grammy Barbara and Aunt Kim. He found them both delightful! Ethan spent a lot of time giggling, running all over the condo, and giving hugs and kisses (a fantastic new development!). Awwww....:)He also became about 100 times more vocal in this last week. He has found his tongue, so a lot of the babbling we hear from him sounds like "dee diddle dee daddle da" which I'm sure means something incredibly profound, but I can't translate yet. My favorite latest new vocalization is his version of "Uh oh," which I've kind of been waiting for! (It's not like he doesn't hear it several times a day....) It sounds more like "Ah-Ho", and is so darn cute. I am drafting a complaint to Blogger right now demanding an explanation why my adorable video won't upload tonight - stay tuned!

Our Happy, Happy Jumbo Shrimp

As with just about everything we've done with him, Ethan has amazed and impressed us with his ability to almost instantly love something new. (The new daycare was a notable exception, but he's loving it now - he actually fussed when I picked him up one day last week!) We tossed around summer activity ideas and settled on swim lessons at the Urbana Aquatic Center. We're heading to the beach soon, and knew that we should get Ethan ready for the water. How do you think he likes it?