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!