Camping Trip

Last weekend we went camping at Highlands Hammock State Park with some friends and had a great time. It would have been better if we had a larger tent and if the drive home had been approximately one hour shorter, but otherwise the trip was great.  Eleanor definitely enjoyed it!  And we will get a bigger tent before the next trip!

Hanging out in their camping chairs - I love how Eleanor is sitting just like her dad

Quite the animated conversation going on here

I wonder how long before he starts crawling...

He was rather fascinated by this water bottle

The girls LOVED playing in our tent!  At one point I think they were pretending they were in the "jungle."

Eleanor loved roasting marshmallows

She was trying to blow our tent down (like the big bad wolf)

Building a house out of sticks together

Beginners' book club
"What did you think was the satirical significance of the Lilliputians?"

Going on a hike on one of the many trails

Love the swampiness

Checking out the swamp

Beware of alligators!
(And snakes and armadillos, which we also saw.  Armadillos can carry leprosy, you know.)

Eleanor kept talking about the "camp website."  I think she has heard the words "website" and "campsite" and just put the two together.  :)  At the end of the trip I asked her what her favorite thing about camping was.  She said, "Marshmallows.  And camping tents."  "Yes, but which was your FAVORITE?"  "I don't like favorites.  I just like marshmallows and camping tents."  Smart girl.  :) 

Strawberries and Stories

I guess I really should have gotten this on video, but the pictures are fun too.  :)  Arthur LOVES his strawberries!  He ate a whole one (in pieces) and then I tried to feed him his oatmeal.  He saw a strawberry sitting on my plate and just stared at it and made noises and refused to eat the oatmeal.  I cut up my strawberry and gave it to him and he was suddenly happy again!

Aha!  Another tasty red berry!

Must grab it!

Hmm, this is slippery.  Let me slide it around while I try to grasp it.

Since I'm having a hard time picking it up with my hand, I'll just try to put it directly into my mouth!

Hmm, that didn't work.  What now?

Yes!  I finally got it!

Must inspect berry first.

Mmmm, so delicious!

Nom nom.

Success!

I feel like Eleanor has been left out of a lot of blog posts lately because she's in that stage where she refuses to look at the camera.  So instead, let me share what she woke up saying the other day. It was just after 7:00 AM when I heard her stir a little over the monitor and then...  "Once upon a time Eleanor was swinging in her swing and the big bad wolf was hiding behind her bougainvilleas.  [We really do have bougainvilleas right next to her swing.]  He scooped Eleanor up, carried her home, and put her on his plate.  He said, 'You will be pizza' and Eleanor said, 'No I will not be pizza.'"  And on, and on, and on.  She tells stories and asks for stories literally from the minute she wakes up until the minute she goes to sleep!

Arthur's 6 Month Pictures

Sanibel Island

We survived enjoyed our first vacation as a family of four!  We went to Sanibel Island, on the southern Gulf coast of Florida, and spent a few days enjoying the beach and the pool and just spending some relaxing time together.  Here are some of the highlights: 

We stayed at Sanibel Moorings, which we LOVED!  They have 1, 2, and 3 bedroom condos, 2 pools, complimentary canoes and kayaks (we didn't try that with a baby), and best of all the landscaping was beautiful.

Right on the Gulf of Mexico...or as Eleanor called it, "The Mexican Beach"

There were all kinds of flowers everywhere!

They loved playing in the sand.  And eating it.

Look who's really sitting up now!

She loved building sandcastles

Eleanor REALLY enjoyed the pool more than she has in the past.

Arthur's first time in the pool!  I think he liked it.

We rented bikes for a couple of hours.  Eleanor LOVED her "Weehoo" bike!  She even had her own pedals.

Arthur got to ride in his own little trailer.

All that bike riding made her hungry!

Just hanging out back at the condo

Eleanor LOVED the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum.  We only went because it was raining and we couldn't think of anything else to do, but we're so glad we did!  She especially enjoyed the live snails and mollusks still in their shells.  There was a whole room just for kids with two teenage volunteers who were so great with her.

Cool but slightly creepy people made out of shells at the shell museum.  Somebody spent a lot of time on this!

Finally, on our way out of town we visited the J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge.  It was pretty, but we like the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge better.

Also, for anybody going to Sanibel and for my own future reference, here are other recommendations:

Timbers Restaurant and Fish Market - Delicious seafood!!  This is where we had our one dinner out and it was sooooo good.

The Island Cow - great breakfast (they also serve lunch and dinner), great kids' menu, a parrot out back to keep kids occupied while you wait for your food

Cip's Place - Beautiful garden setting if you sit outdoors, tasty grouper tacos

Schnapper's Hots - Really good burgers.  We got these to go for lunch one day since they don't really have seating.  They were a bit on the pricey side, but very good.  They also have hot dogs and pizza.

Island Pizza - "The Islander" pizza comes with everything on it and is really good.  This was great for our first night there when we were just trying to get settled in.  They have one location for dine in and a separate one for take out.

Pinnocchio's Ice Cream - best ice cream ever, made right there on the premises.

Billy's Bike Rentals - where we rented our bikes.  Huge selection, very friendly and helpful.  We showed up at 3:45 for a 2 hour rental and they were closing at 5, but they said we could just take the bikes and lock them up whenever we came back.

Dinner out...with kids

It's the last night of our vacation here on Sanibel Island, and we decided that we wanted to go out to eat somewhere nice for dinner.  Every day since we got here we've gone out to lunch and then had sandwiches back at the condo for dinner, so we were excited about a nice seafood dinner.  For those of you who don't have kids, or who don't remember those days, here's a little window into what a fancy dinner is like...with small children.

• We get seated and settled with a diaper bag, a purse, a high chair, and a booster seat.
• We realize the light over our table is burned out and we can barely read our menus.
• Waitress moves us over one table.  We move the diaper bag, purse, high chair, booster seat, and babies.
• Baby is squealing incessantly this whole time.  He just nursed before leaving the house, but the boy is starving.  And it's 5:20.  Yup, we go out to dinner at 5:20.
• Dig food out of diaper bag for baby.  He quiets down.  Try to read menu and realize there are lots of good choices.  Two-year-old begs for bread, and then gets to work tearing it into tiny pieces.
• In between feeding baby and making sure toddler doesn't fall out of booster seat, I decide what to order.  I go with the bronzed Chilean Sea Bass in a mango sauce...mmm.
• Toddler asks for butter on her bread.  Remember that she has torn her bread into at least 20 tiny pieces.
• Sympathetic waitress takes our order and brings us two little tiny cups of goldfish to keep toddler occupied.  We're not really fans of goldfish crackers, but they keep her happy and occupied so oh well.
• Baby is still eating and doing a pretty good job at not making a mess except for on his bib.
• Toddler spills goldfish cup #1 on the floor.  We hand her cup #2.
• Baby somehow gets his food - some tomato based concoction - all down the white sleeve of his onesie.  Oh well.
• We laugh about how we're ordering rather fancy food as we look back and forth from one kid to the other.
• Toddler spills goldfish cup #2 on the floor.
• Baby continues to eat, squealing if I neglect him for a second when he's ready for his next bite.  Literally, one second.
• The food comes quickly and I take a second to savor what is probably the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my life.
• Toddler spills her water cup on the floor.  Booster seat + booth = toddler way too far from the table.  We finally have the sense to scoot her up closer.
• Baby has now finished an entire packet of food.  I occupy him with Baby Mum-Mums, flavorless baby crackers that have very little nutritional value, dissolve in your mouth, and keep baby mercifully occupied feeding himself just long enough to eat a meal.  (Side note: at home I try to fix him food that he can feed himself like sweet potato fries, but this just doesn't work well when traveling.)
• We eat our food and take turns handing the baby pieces of his crackers (tip: they last longer when you break them into pieces) and coaxing the two-year-old to eat some of our healthy food now that she is full on bread and goldfish.  She prefers the carrots to my sea bass.
• I feed the baby, who is still acting like he's starving, some of my baked sweet potato.  He eats everything I give him and finally acts like he might be done.
• Two-year-old is now done with her food and is playing with her little stuffed dog.  She starts yelling, "Black dog!  Black dog!"  This is a character in Treasure Island, but I doubt many of the other restaurant patrons get this reference.
• We laugh again about how crazy this dinner has been and how the toddler will probably vomit or something on our way out.  Turns out she doesn't, but she does pee on the beach later that night.
• I take a sip of water and for one second forget about the No Man's Zone around the baby.  I set the cup down in front of him and he immediately spills it on the floor.
• We leave a big tip.

Random stuff

These are just a few of the little things my children have been doing lately, and I wanted to write them down before I forget!

• Yesterday for the first time ever I had to ask Eleanor to stop running and to slow down and wait for me.  It was a proud moment.
• Eleanor has a pair of flip flops with a strap that go around the back to keep them on her feet.  Pro: she can take them off AND PUT THEM ON by herself!  Con: the strap sometimes falls off the back while she's walking.  When it does, she says, "My shoe has a flat tire!"  Not sure how she came up with that, but it's funny!
• Arthur has just started saying "da da da da" all the time.  Hunter loves this, of course!  ;)  We still don't think there's any meaning to it, but he has done it a couple of times right when Hunter either left or entered the room.  Of course, that's probably just a coincidence.  Now if only I could get him to say the "ma" sound...
• I went to MOPS last week (Mothers of Preschoolers) and I had Arthur in with me instead of in the nursery for a little bit.  A friend of mine held him while I stepped out for a minute, and when I came back she was sitting at her table with about 5 other moms and every single one of them was looking at him and laughing.  He loves being the center of attention!
• Eleanor is completely obsessed with storytelling.  ALL DAY LONG she says things like, "Mama, please tell a story about a fox feeding a little tiny kitten and put 'once upon a time' to it."  (That means start the story with "Once upon a time", if you didn't figure that out.)  If I tell her a story, no matter how long and elaborate it is, the second I say "The end" she requests another one.  She just wants to hear stories all. day. long.  It's very cute and fun, but also incredibly exhausting.  Sometimes she tells the stories though, and that's always pretty fun.
• Speaking of Eleanor's stories, she has several favorite characters.  Most of them are from books she has read - Pooh, Tigger, the Big Bad Wolf, etc. - but there are a few that we don't know where they came from.  Like Misery Mouse.  "Mama, can you please tell a story about Misery Mouse?"  Where do you even begin with that one??
• Lately her favorite thing to do when you ask her to do something is to say, "No!  No, no, not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!"  It's hard not to laugh even though she's telling you no.

Unexpected trip

My family is napping now (or at least trying to) but I just can't.  So for those of you who are interested, here is an update on the last 24 hours.

Last night I was fixing dinner and waiting on Hunter to get home from work when my sister called me.  A nurse at a hospital in Columbia, SC called her to say that my dad was there in the ER and had gone into cardiac arrest twice.  The nurse said that we all needed to come.  Now.

I spent the next hour or two packing clothes for all 4 of us, cleaning up some basic stuff around the house (probably not a good idea to leave a washer full of clean wet clothes sitting there for an undetermined amount of time), and making plans on the phone with various family members.  I was in a daze through most of this.  Hunter got home at some point and took over with the kids, which was good because I really couldn't focus on them.  I was just trying to figure out things like whether or not I should pack dress clothes for a funeral.  These are the things you never expect to think about.

We got on the road around 7:30 and the trip went pretty smoothly.  Hunter drove for the majority of the trip and we got to our hotel around 2 AM.  Thankfully the kids both slept in until 8 AM so we did actually get some rest.

Soon after we left on our trip we got an update on my dad and it seems to be positive, relatively speaking.  He had gone into cardiac arrest 3 times but they found the blockage (100% in one artery) and put in a stint.  The stint was helping the blood flow and the rest of his heart seemed to be okay.  He has to stay in the ICU for at least 48 hours and then if all goes well he'll be released to another floor of the hospital and go home as early as Tuesday.  He'll have an EKG on Monday so that will tell us more.

My brother, sister, and their families all met me at the hospital this morning.  (Hunter stayed at the hotel with the kids since Eleanor needed breakfast and they weren't allowed in the ICU anyway.)  Japheth also drove from Florida overnight; my sister was here last night since she just lives an hour away.  I got to see my dad a couple of times, and I think he finally understood what had happened to him.  He was playing golf when he started to feel sick, and somebody at the golf course called 911.  (THANK YOU to this stranger!  He helped save my dad's life.)  He ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance with the sirens on and everything; he told us about it and said "that was exciting" in a dry tone, so he obviously still has his sense of humor.  :)  After he got to the hospital he doesn't remember much, but that is when he started going into cardiac arrest.  He seemed to be doing well earlier this morning when he told us about all of this, but later before we left for lunch he was starting to feel pretty sick again.  We all left to get some lunch and rest and to let him rest too, but we'll go back over soon and find out more.

Thank you so much to everybody for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers.  They really do mean a lot!  It has been a scary and stressful time and it's nice to know there are so many people here for us.