Summer in Virginia & Update

Oh, how I love summer! Even with the humidity and crazy heat, I still love it. And summers here are just a-buzz with life. Literally! Critters everywhere. I was walking with a friend the other night and we walked past a pond and I heard the strangest sound - sort of equal parts groan/yell/belch - turned out to be a male bullfrog looking for his Mrs. Hey - whatever turns you on...

One of the biggest reasons I am loving the summer is, as you could have guessed, the beach! We have been having so much fun going there lately. I have always loved the beach, but I am usually stuck on the shore, barely getting my feet wet. When my nieces, Caitlin and Marissa, were in town with my sister, Tammy, they helped me to reawaken my inner child and remember just what a total blast it is to actually swim in the water and play in the waves (and it didn't hurt to have someone there to help watch the boys). Dead jellyfish aside (they were everywhere), I couldn't have had more fun. Now, whenever we go, I make it a point to go all the way in, even if I get clobbered and a bathingsuit full of sand (both of which, usually happen) and I have been having a lot more fun. The key is to learn just the right time to jump so you go up with the wave rather than get smacked in the face by it. There is a learning curve to mastering this skill, though, and have gotten more than my share of sandblasting because of it! Who needs to go to a salon to get exfoliated, right?! Anyway, since my family left I have made it a point to go at least once or twice a week and it has been wonderful! Gabe is such a water baby anyway, so he is in heaven. Dylan has taken some more convincing and as evidenced by the attached picture (note the pile of sand on his ear), he was more of a sand baby at first! He is starting to get over it and enjoys the water now, but has just as much fun wandering around and beach combing.


When I got on to write this I saw a draft I had written in April and never published. The boys have changed alot since then, but I still though it was worth putting out there. Gabe is now done with soccer for the season and about to start swimming lessons at the YMCA. He can count to 100 and sometimes higher, but that quickly turns into "111, 2,064, 3,898, etc." And even though he can count so well, he is still learning the actual meaning of the numbers - "14-11" and "64-8" are common around house. Dylan is a little walking dynamo! He started walking the end of May and hasn't slowed down since. He is into EVERYTHING! There is usually a trail of random items spread throughout the house, so you can always tell where he's been. He is very focused, though and does what he does deliberately. He'll walk over to my dresser, pull out a shirt and then walk right over to the trash and put it in; next, over to my nightstand to grab my chapstick and put it under his blankets on the changing table; then into the bathroom to pull out what he can reach through the child locks on the cabinet and drop it all into the tub. It goes on and on like that and he never seems to hesitate - he is on a mission and knows what needs to be done! It is exhausting to try and keep up with him, but lots of fun to sit and watch.