Mad-Time in Maine with the Madsens

Well, another summer expedition has come and gone, an expedition that is fast becoming a summer-time tradition and one that I quite frankly adore: mad-time in Maine with the Madsens. If you recall this post from last summer, you will see that not too much has changed from our Maine adventures:

1. Beth still likes to pose in front of the LL Bean boot..2. And we still love to pose at the LL Bean boot....after a great day of shopping at the best outlets in the world and eating some yummy Ben & Jerry's ice cream. What a dream! (No, we don't have a four-year-old daughter--it's just Beth. Of course, she had to be in our family photo).
And here's our real family picture, sans Beth.

3. We still had a marvelous time at the beach. Beautiful beach and perfect beach weather. Not too hot, not too cold and the water was just right!

Will, Josh and Beth. (What, Beth wanted to be in the picture? I can hardly believe that!)
Will loved the sand, but the water, not so much. He would cry, cry, cry when we tried to dunk his toes in the water. He DID love to snuggle and fall asleep the second we went near the waves and he NEVER just falls asleep like that. I guess we had him good and tired out.
Trying to crawl in the sand.
Will's first time at the ocean.
Too bad Willy didn't want to pose for this family photo.

5. Our motel was awesome. Picture the worst place you've stayed in and multiply by ten. I woke up nightly to scary men swearing in the streets, to loud cannons going off right outside our door and to a train that we could literally reach out and touch. And let's not forget the neighbors smoking marijuana. Yes, a quality establishment for a not-so-quality price.

4. Most of all, we just had mad-fun in Maine with the Madsens, even if we missed most of the Madsens. Hopefully, this will become a long-standing summer tradition. Can't wait

'til next year!

I'm 6 Months Now......

.......and I can:

sit up all by myself and play with my toys (I'm also very close to being able to get into a sitting position all by myself),
drink from a sippy cup myself (don't I look so big?),
eat a graham cracker all by myself (though it makes a BIG mess that Mama doesn't LOVE to clean up, but since I love them Mama obliges once in a while),
play with my "best friend" for hours (it's really just me in the mirror, but I don't know that yet),
and smile real big at Dada when he gets home from work, even if I am eating my favorite veggie: sweet potatoes. I must really like my Dada because all day today I was chattering: dadadadadadadadadadada over and over.

I also like to:

• crawl EVERYWHERE though it's half-scoot/half-crawl
• make lots of "raspberries"
• scream, scream, scream, just like I'm having a grand ol' time
• eat mashed bananas: YUM! In fact, I'll pretty much eat ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I am getting so much fatter: 16.7 lbs. at my last appointment (25%).
• sleep through the night for the last two months (yeah for mama! I sleep 11 hours in a row, nurse and then go back to sleep for another hour or so! YIPEE! If only I didn't have to go to bed at 6:30, then I might sleep in a little..)
• have LOTS of messy diapers (for some reason this seems to really upset Mama; she keeps muttering something about not being able to afford the mortgage the way I go through diapers).
• giggle lots, especially for my Dada (it's not the same when Mama does it--I think Dada's whiskers tickle me).

Happy 6-months, Will! Here's to hoping for another happy 6!

The Futility of Laundry...

Some of you may know I'm a tad particular about my cleaning--I like things done a certain way, but most of all, I like things to stay clean. With a husband and a baby, this is near impossible, but I like to try. Mondays are designated as "upstairs chores" day: the laundry, the bathrooms, the vacuuming, and the dusting. After the cleaning of the upstairs, I always hope that for at least ONE day everything can stay clean. Mostly, though, I want the dirty-clothes bins to STAY EMPTY. I don't know why this is so important to me, but for one day, one whole day, all I ask is to have empty bins--is that too much to hope for? It seems, inevitably, after all the laundry is washed, folded and put away, Josh will come home from work and decide that all his pants need laundering (though previously they had been happily folded in his closet). So suddenly, my beautiful, precious, EMPTY BINS are full of all his pants that he has now, for some strange reason, deemed dirty. Argh. Now, to avoid this, I call him at work and specifically ask if there are any pants, sitting folded in his closet, that he feels need to be washed. This has helped to alleviate the problem as well as keep my precious bins empty. However, this past Monday, Will and I returned home from running errands to find Josh already home, eating a snack. After our greeting, I noticed he had spilled on his shirt and pants. Immediately, I demanded he take off his clothes. Josh looked at me and asked, "You want me to take off my clothes right now?" Then he shrugged, took off his clothes, handed them to me and wandered around for the rest of the evening in his underwear. I didn't even need to explain that I wanted to throw his clothes in with the last load of laundry--I guess he's just used to my neuroses. So, thankfully, I do want to report that for one day, one lovely day, my laundry bins stayed empty. Not for long, though.....ah, the futility of laundry. Can't it just stay done?

Here's some pictures of Will on laundry day. Yes, he, too, is naked so that I could wash his dirty outfit. He LOVED playing in the buff, though. He's too cute!

It was so very hard to snap a picture b/c he is ALWAYS on the move these days.
Look at that bum-crack.
There he is--fully dressed and happy!

The First Fruits of Our Labor

Here are the first fruits of our labor, people (literally): Will and this ginormous cucumber. Both are extra yummy.

Some more of our little Will.

Will with his mama, who, surprisingly enough did not do her hair that day. Oh wait, she never does her hair any more. Oh wait, she's lucky if she showers and puts on makeup...She's DYING for a hair cut! Any ideas for a new do?

We Meet Baby Sam!

Josh's brother and his wife had a baby at the end of June and we could hardly wait to meet him. So, a week and a half ago we traveled north to visit our favorite Vermonters and got to meet cute Baby Sam. Of course, we had fun with Beth, too! Lucky for us, Granny (Josh's mom) was there, so we got to see her as well. It was a fun weekend, though I am sure Amy was ready to be free of us (thanks for letting us invade your house, Amy!)

Beth loooooooooves Will (she loves babies in general, but especially her cousins). Look at Will's face. Gotta love it.
The three babes. A little blurry b/c of my expert photographing ability.
How do you get three kids to look at the camera at once?
Ahhh...all three kiddos looking at the camera! Finally.

My favorite Bethisms over the weekend:

• When she was playing with the two babies, Will and Sam, at once, she was in HEAVEN. She was dancing around and singing: "I have a baby family! I have a baby family!"

• Beth's mom, Amy, has a pee-pee tee-pee for Baby Sam so he won't pee all over when she is changing his diaper. So, one night we had a fire and Beth's dad stacked the kindling in a tee-pee formation in the fire pit. When Beth came out and saw the kindling she shouted: "It's a pee-pee tee-pee! It's a pee-pee tee-pee" And, sure enough, it did look just like a pee-pee tee-pee. That girl! We love her. I always want to take her home with us--she is such a joy and loves Will so very much!
  

Because I couldn't resist....

I couldn't resist snapping this photo one night when he was in dream land. He is so cute when he sleeps, bum all up in the air. Plus, he usually crawls to the corner of the crib and snuggles in. Since he gets his arm caught sometimes between the crib and the mattress, I try to move him away from the corner before I go to bed. However, he always finds his way back there. Sometimes he even wakes up with crazy hair because of how he sleeps, just like his dad!

Mobile!

So this kid is a crack-up. He is so very close to crawling. He gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth, and sometimes just hops forward like a frog. For some CRAZY reason, he finds it so much easier to crawl while on our bed. I think the softness helps him. Who knows? He also can really book it in his crib because that mattress is a little more firm and he doesn't get so stuck. However, the crib is a much more confined space and he ends up banging his head against the side of it once he's crawled to the other end. Don't you worry, though, for that does not deter him--he just keeps on trying to crawl even whilst banging his head. I have to hurry and get him from his naps so he doesn't injure himself. The best, though, is in the bath tub--he tries to crawl and slips and falls, yet he tries and tries again, all the while falling and slipping and splashing. Sometimes he gets so very frustrated from his lack of mobility. He just sits on his tummy, and waves his arms and legs and whines. We call this his swimming move. Ahhh...I LOVE this boy.

Pictures of his attempts at crawling on our bed:

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