words this week

arm: "awmm" (soooooo cute!!! he grabs my arm and says it, then dave's arm and says it, then his own arm and says it. repeat.... over and over.)

mower: has now morphed into "mum-bah" (he begs to go to the garage to see it every day. and ever since dave mowed the lawn on saturday, he points outside and says, "dadda. mum-bah. vroom." ...over and over...)

plane: "meen" (and "zoom!!" (with a lisp!), with a finger pointed to the sky whenever he hears one)

bug: "bug" (we showed him one of the many stink bugs crawling up our wall, and he found it utterly fascinating! till he saw one crawling on the floor by his feet the next day-- suddenly he shrieked "mommy!"-- and backed away from it :) -- what a baby!)

the talking farm toy: "Me" (since every time you turn it on, a voice says, "Hello! Push the little bear button and play with me." )

knee: "knee" (he pulls up his pant leg to point to it!) sooo cute!

the busy day

having fun around the house today. first we went outside and played in the grass and driveway, and learned again that the street, while rather appealing, is off limits. then we played in the water table (or mud table) making sure the water turned a nice shade of brown before we were finished with it. then we beeped the horn in mommy's car for a while (all wet and muddy). then All-Boy Brown insisted upon going into the garage so he could pretend to ride the mower ('moh-muh'). he even climbed up on the mower all by himself (similarly to how i found him climbing down the basement stairs this morning!). after lots of beeping, vrooming, and steering all over the garage, we downed some lunch, changed dirty wet clothes and proceeded to undo every ounce of cleaning up that mommy attempted to do. the feat of the day: walking backwards. he started trying to do it just to be funny the other day, so i got out his pull toy train and told him how to do it. he is starting to catch on...
as naptime neared, he grabbed his big stuffed horse, carried it into the hallway with his jingle bells, and had a little snuggle. it was the cutest!

*in the last photo, he's blowing a kiss (i guess b/c i said, "aw, you love the horsey!")

First Beach Experience

We had a beautiful weekend, celebrating with Kim and Rick as they married on the beach in Sea Isle City, NJ. Christian absolutely loved the sand and the water, and had no qualms about diving into either! the pictures aren't in order, but you get the idea. the first day we were there was cloudy and cool, and he just threw himself onto the sand and dug his fingers and toes in with great delight! once he realized the ocean was within reach, he took off, and wouldn't have stopped unless i grabbed him between photos. saturday was the perfect day for a wedding and we spent the morning on the beach enjoying the sunshine beforehand. the ceremony was beautiful and the bride and groom were glowing. the reception had some of the best food ever and it was fun catching up with old friends! the only sadness was knowing that Christian was back at the house having a tough time with separation anxiety. and that is an understatement. apparently he was miserable...cried the whole evening... even with the Poppy shirt :(. he eventually fell asleep in Kristina's arms. i felt so horrible for him (and for her!). but he woke up the next morning happy and not seeming to hold it against any of us. he did wake up 2x in the night that night and last night though, crying for mommy. so sad!
hopefully this is one of those stages that doesn't last very long!
here are the best moments in pictures...