September and early October have been a whirlwind, to put it lightly. We had the start of 5 day/week school for Jackson, the start of church events, my Women's Bible Study talk, PT meetings, a church course for JB, Rachel's 1st birthday and still trying to maintain the basic activities and responsibilities of daily life. We knew that September would be slammed so it was one of those, "take a deep breath and enjoy everything that is going on but know there will be a big rest when it's all over" kind of months.
I've enjoyed getting my camera out more to practice. Some shots are actually turning out really well and it's been great to have pictures of both of the kids. I actually may have completely reversed the typical stereotype for a second child to have virtually no photos. Up until now, Rachel has sat still better than Jackson and she has tons and tons of photos! Here is what we've been up to:
Jackson started Little Strikers soccer league. The first weeks were rough with lots of complaining on his part and coaxing on his. But then he really got into it and was enjoying it! And then the nor'easter and hurricane weather hit and we've been off for many weeks. He plays for a few minutes and then when they take water breaks he also expects to have several grapes waiting for him each time :)
Rach loves to flirt and make sweet faces for our neighbors.
I love the heads-down focus of the three boys during one of our ODU tailgates. This was great fun and then we had even more fun when it suddenly started to POUR and the kids splashed away.
J and R just adore Grandad!
We had a spontaneous compound crab boil to close out summer. It was my first time eating crabs and it proved to be so much fun, and delicious, to sit around picking crabs and drinking beer with friends.
JB and I had a date afternoon/night planned in early September. This was part of my motivation for weaning Rachel at the end of August. That went well and we arranged for the kids to stay with Beth and Matt for the afternoon and bedtime. We got to Water Country around 2 and rode all the tube rides (none of that water-slide-that-goes-straight-down business for us!). We dried off and made it to Busch Gardens around 3:15, rode a ride and then it started to rain. We grabbed some beer from the fest house, people watched and then jogged to our cars before it really started to pour. We hit the outlets for an hour and headed back to BG when the rain stopped. Several more rides later and too nauseous to go on, we left and went to dinner in Newport News. Although I was nauseated for the next few days (one of the downsides of getting older), it was a great, spontaneous date day!
I ran the Rock N Roll again this year, making it my 8th RNR with Team Hoyt. It was an incredibly hard race for me, but great to be out there pushing my athlete rider and running with a neighbor of ours. Plus, Rachel was waiting for me in this cute onesie: "Someday I'll run with mommy".
We had one final beach day with the McNabbs, Lyons and Kelly. Sweet summer coming to a close.
And one of the perks of J not starting school until Thursday following Labor Day was that we had the whole beach to ourselves to take Lincoln and have a family morning.
Virginia Aquarium.
We're in the 'independent eating' phase where she doesn't know how to use a spoon yet but she sure doesn't want to be fed by one. So, everything goes in via her hands. Oatmeal, casseroles. Also turns out that she was mildly anemic at her 1 year old check up (whoops, couldn't remember if the doc said vitamins WITH or WITHOUT iron so I erred on the side of caution and got without). So, we've made valiant attempt to get spinach into things and we have found the 1 food she does not like. I don't blame you baby...I mean, liquidly canned spinach. Gross. I welcome all ideas of how to get large doses of green leafy veggies into foods that a girl with only 8 teeth can eat.
By from our happy girl who loves peek-a-boo, laughing and is a great hide-and-seek seeker!
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