Blogust Rush

I wish there was a way i could have blogged on vacation. 1. because there were so many wonderful moments of watching my baby discover the sweetness of Indian Lake. 2. because i had so much time in between those moments to sit around and wait for him to finish napping.
I guess I can't capture everything for posterity-- I just wish i could go back and note a little something from each day in August-- instead of trying to capture it all with less than a week left of this month... which has been a whirlwind, starting with a friend's wedding, the arrival of Maddy, the fender bender, the fiasco of having to rent a car and fit everything in it, packing, leaving at 10pm on friday night and arriving at the lake at 4am! ... preceeded by a wonderful week with Maddy by the pool (or as Christian calls her, Manny...they had such fun together... he adores her more every time he meets her :) ), and a great 2 weeks in our favorite spot.

all in all it has been a fabulous month!
as far as the lake: the weather was fantastic most of the time, and we were able to be on the beach, in the water, and out in the boat almost every day. Christian loved the sand, the water, learning to walk into it, the rocks, the hummingbirds, and all of his new adoring fans... whose names he learned to say by the end of our stay! about 13 in all!
it was really amazing to watch him grow in his vocab, social skills, and even in stature -- i guess 15 months is a milestone of some sort. he definitely seemed bigger and older by the end. maybe the Lake is just a rite of passage or something. he started comprehending more and more, and mimicking our words by the second week. everything we say, he hears, and either responds to or repeats. he became fascinated with onomonopoetic words like "buzz" , "crunch", and "whoopty-doodle" (Joe's response whenever C would trip and fall). he'd laugh and laugh and try to repeat the funny sounds. it was quite amusing.
some of his new ones:
hummy= hummingbird (he also will say "zzzzt zzzooom" if you ask him what one 'says')
hawk = hawk (and will screech exactly like one when asked what one says)
chippy= chipmunk
pah = paddle
dock = dock
beats = beach
hock = rock (and walk) -- which were already in his repertoir, just moreso every time we walked out the door
Joe...Joe = Joe or Joseph
Pay-dee = Peggy
Nanny = Kenny
Ain-ah = Wayne
Sizzy = Susie
Hudsy = Hudson
Emmy = Emerson
Taw-Tuh = Carter
oohk = Luke
Nee-Nee = Neal
Pat = Pat (that one he already knew from patting his head)

....and the long awaited "Gramsy"... which is actually pronounced "Momsey"... and is the cutest thing ya ever heard :)

another funny thing he started doing right before we left for the Lake, was picking up anything the size of a stick or shovel that reached from his hand to the ground, and running it along the ground as if it were a vaccum, going , "vroom, vroom". he must have vaccumed every inch of Twin Coves by the end of our stay! When he met Marge, he pointed to her cane and said, "vroom, vroom!"
eventually i'll post some pictures---for now, i'm just trying to catch up on housework. it's amazing how much more work it is to unpack than to pack!