Folly Beach 2009

Did you know you can't cut and paste from Notepad to Blogspot? It has taken me a week to get a post for our Folly Beach trip written (because of countless interruptions and pesky computer issues). I finally wrote something out and copied it to a notepad document when my computer wouldn't let me post, but now I can't copy it in to this post! Oh well. I guess I'll start over.

We spent an extended Labor Day weekend at Folly Beach with some friends for some fun in the sunshine. I'll admit, with two under two, "vacation" isn't exactly the relaxing recharge time it once was, but this was about as good as it gets.

This year the decision was made to rent a house on the beach rather than the usual condo. I didn't think it was going to make that much of a difference, but I was wrong. It was the ideal setup with the muchkins. We were staying in a 4 bedroom house with a total of 4 families. There was a bedroom and bathroom for each family. As expected, the Fuller family didn't get much sleep the first night. The girls always have trouble the first night we are sleeping somewhere new. After the first night, Lizzy was great. She adjusted quickly to her spot in the closet and wore herself out each day in the sea and sand.

Staying at the house on the beach was the perfect setup. We gated off the stairs at the back deck so Lizzy could run around and be as loud as she wanted each morning without disturbing anyone. We could head on down to the beach whenever we pleased and didn't have to pack up everything we owned each time. If someone got hungry or tired, we just walked back up the stairs to the house! Each night, we'd walk the 7 blocks to the restaurants and by the time we made the walk home, it was time to put Lizzy down for the night and enjoy a little adult time. Lizzy loved the beach and playing in the surf with Daddy and her big-kid friend, Meghan. Annabelle tolerated the beach but preferred playing on the floor of the air conditioned, shady house. The only real bummer was that Annabelle never adjusted to sleeping in the room with us. She woke up 3 or 4 times each night which left Mommy a little on the tired side. Even with the lousy sleep, it was nice to get away from the normal routine and spend a little time in the sun with some friends!

Growing Girls

Our girls are learning and growing more each day! Annabelle is now sitting up and has moved into the highchair. She looks so little in the big chair! Lizzy seems to understand everything you say, but we are working on using her words. We're trying to build our vocabulary beyond dadda and animal noises.

The girls are at the point where they are interacting more with eachother. Now that Annabelle is sitting and playing with toys, Lizzy is learning about "sharing" and "taking turns." All of a sudden, she is interested in toys she hasn't played with in months because her sister is playing with them. She does enjoy helping mom by "wiping up" whenever she spills some of her milk or her sister spits up.

We had our regular check-ups today. Unfortunately, Annabelle woke up early this morning with a slight fever. The doctor checked her out and nothing was wrong (other than the fever and being fussy) but we decided to put off her shots for a few weeks. Here are our new stats.

Annabelle-

Weight: 16.6 pounds (46th percentile)

Lenght: 26 inches (45th percentile)

Head: 16 1/2 inches (24th percentile)

Lizzy-

Weight: 21.6 pounds (21st percentile)

Lenght: 31 1/4 inches (65th percentile)

Head: 17 1/2 inches (10th percentile)

California Visit

We were happy to be able to make the trip out to California for Ryan and Amy's wedding. It was a beautiful evening at a vineyard in San Martin. Jason was only able to stay for the weekend before heading back to South Carolina to get back to work, but the girls and I were able to stay for a while to enjoy a longer visit with friends and family.

Lizzy enjoyed getting to know her California relatives during her visit. She demonstrated to everyone her incredible energy and was always excited to have a new hand to guide around the house. She really enjoyed swimming at Auntie Vickie's house and going to the San Francisco zoo to see the baby giraffe. She also had a few play dates with her BFF, Mia. Lizzy was a little overly affectionate with her friend Mia with her headlock hugs. Mia will have to get used to it with many years of hugs from Lizzy ahead of her. :)

While in California, we received some tragic news about my dear friend Tori's mother. She became very ill and died suddenly within the span of our 2 week visit. I was grateful that I was in town to be with my friend during this difficult time. I was able to move my flight back 2 days in order to stay for the funeral with Annabelle while Grandma Sue flew as scheduled with Lizzy.

Despite the rough news, we had a very nice visit with everyone and are excited to see everyone again at Christmas time.

4th of July

For the 4th of July we took a long weekend trip up to Chicago to see our friends, Andrew and Shenade. In an attempt to minimize stops, we decided to drive through the night, leaving after Annabelle's last feeding at around 11pm. The strategy worked pretty well and we arrived the next day by around 2pm. We had a great visit and took a day to go to the Brookfield Zoo. Lizzy sure does love seeing the animals!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day!!! It was a HOT weekend here in South Carolina. We beat the heat by hitting the water. Friday night the Waugh's invited us over to the Neely Farm pool (our first ever nearly 2 years after we moved out of the neighborhood!) Lizzy LOVES swimming in the pool and Annabelle was happy to sit and watch from the shade. On Saturday we went to Toys R Us and bought a kiddie pool for the back yard. Lizzy had a great time splashing around and we got some great pictures to show her 1st boyfriend! All in all, a relaxing Father's Day weekend.

4 months old!

Annabelle had her 4 month doctor visit yesterday so it's time for some updated stats:

Weight: 13 lbs, 13 oz (52nd percentile)

Length: 24.75 inches (57th percentile)

Head: 15 inches (8th percentile)

Our little pin-head checked out healthy as can be and was cleared to start trying rice cereal this week! She has been sleeping through the night for a while now, but I'm hoping introducing cereal might help us get on a little more regular feeding schedule during the day. We'll see!

In Lizzy news, we're not sure if she is super active, accident prone, or just a normal toddler, but it feels like we've got a new scrape or bruise every week. Most recently, we gradulated Lizzy from her high-chair to a booster seat so she would eat off the table. It was going fine (except for the frequent tossing of her plate) until last night. She managed to kick off the table and knock her chair completely backwards. We ended up with a bit of a bump on the head but probably scared her (and me) more than anyone was really hurt. We're sticking with the booster seat but we are back to using the tray with it so she isn't pushed up to the table. She sure does keep us on our toes!

The "new" kitchen

I know I'm overdue for a post, but things are pretty busy here as you might imagine.

We did manage to get our spring project finished. We replaced our tile countertops and backsplash with granite and stone tile. We're really pleased with the final results. Check it out!

Lizzy is definitely demonstrating that she is now a 'toddler' instead of a baby by getting into everything she possibly can. Thankfully, Annabelle is still content to cuddle and sleep most of her day (and night - thank goodness)!