So Here's My Question. . .

Do any of my blog readers have blogs of their own? I'm just curious if anyone reads my blog who does a bit of their own blogging. I know a few of you do (Eden, Missy and Lee) so play along and list it below on MckMama's new linky thingy. If you don't know what a linky is, check out MckMama's Not Me! Mondays (that I used to participate in until I got really, really blog-lazy!).

So go for it. List your blog if you have one. Maybe you will get a new reader!



Thanks for playing!

Water Monday

Doesn't have a nice ring to it like Water Wednesday but, I mean, it was Monday. And we played in the water all day. Give me a break! Some things I just can't help.

Yesterday morning Kingston had his 18 month check-up. We went to see Nurse Karen and the doctor and discovered that Kingston is 32 inches tall and weighs 22.8 lbs. I thought for sure he would weigh a lot more than that but I think his running and busy-body activities have kept the weight off! He met all of the important 18 month milestones and was deemed a very healthy and happy big boy! Nurse Karen gave him 2 shots (not as traumatic as it could be) and we were on our way.

And our way lead us to the sound beach behind Jockey's Ridge. We played there for about 2 hours. Since the water had a bit of a chop to it and it wasn't as clear as it was last time we were there, Kingston had more fun digging holes and filling them with water in the shoreline than walking out in the water.

When the eye rubbing and other tired signs started to show we headed home. Kingston had a 2 hour nap and when he woke up he was good as new. So we headed off to Southern Shores to swim at my friend Sherry's parent's pool. We played with Will, Sherry, Helen and G and Ninna and had a great time! Sherry took some pictures of Helen and Kingston kicking on the stairs.

There were a few battles over who could play with what toy and Helen really wanted to "help" Kingston into the pool with a small shove but all of that is to be expected! They had fun and by the time we left, Kingston was blowing bubbles in the water, kicking his legs and wanting to swim in the deep end!

Back to the real world today. If I can just get Kingston to finish his breakfast. . .

all Right!

all right, already. Before we take care of business, let me share a little story about Kingston taking care of business.

Picture it. Sicily, 1942. Just kidding. Ever watch the Golden Girls? Anywho. . .

Picture it. Kingston in the tub. In the "shallow end". Legs spread wide. Looking down. He starts to pee. It arcs out of the water. Kingston looks at me with his big baby blues. He grins. He looks back down, still grinning. He stops peeing. Looks at me again. Says, "Mo-mo-mo", meaning more, more, more, of course. His first life lesson. Some things, son, Mama just can't help you with.

-----

Now for the business at hand. I'd like to thank the 2 people who participated in my little guessing game contest. Did you think I was kidding when I said I had a prize to give? Did you just really not have a clue as to where we were and didn't even want to come up with an impossible suggestion such as Tavern on the Green and some private Island in Fiji? I would never kid about a prize. Someone will get the prize.

What's the prize? Well here it is:

Free laundry detergent!!! And not just any free laundry. The best out there, in my book. all small & mighty is super concentrated and my favorite version is the Free Clear, which has no dyes or perfumes. I refuse to ever buy the special baby detergent, and have always just used this for 1/4 of the price with the same or better results. Another reason I love all small & mighty? I don't have to lug a gigantic bottle of liquid detergent out of the grocery store along with my 5 gallon bottle of water, a soft drink or 2, gallon of milk and gallon of orange juice. I simply hate to unload lots of big, heavy liquids!

Kingston likes it too. Mostly he likes to carry the small bottle around the room and drop it repeatedly on the floor. But he sure looks cute doing it!




The winners? My only 2 participants, of course. Missy. Thanks for playing, Missy! And Mom. Thanks for playing, too. My 2 participants! They will both get 2 coupons for all small and mighty 3x concentrate! Missy, email me your address. I think I have it, but just in case. Mom, I know where you live.

And since no one got the 2 locations correct, I will go ahead and tell you that we were at the Marina in Wanchese for lunch (Still don't really know the official name of that joint. Anyone?) and the sound beach behind Jockey's Ridge. Close guesses, but no one got them both right. You are all winners in my book! Get it? all? Anywho. . .

Where Are We? That's all I Want to Know!

Where are we in this picture?

This is what the rest of the room looks like. Where are we?

And where are we here?

Specifically.

Not that it really matters. We were having fun at all of the above. That's what matters, right? A good time? Of course!

A few hints. This morning was spent with Eden and Little Miss. The pictures were taken after we visited Eden's new horse, Storm. (And just in case you were wondering, Kingston still isn't a horse's biggest fan.) This afternoon (after only a 30 minute nap) was spent mostly just with Kingston-and about 50-60 strangers-and later with my VERY pregnant friend Michelle and her little boy Riley.

A special prize to the first person who can guess both locations correctly. For real. A special prize. I'm not kidding. Guess both locations exactly and I will send you something for free. free and clear. No strings attached. all 2 of the locations. all of them. Give it a good, clean shot.

And then I will blog about it. Because that's what I do. Sometimes. When I'm motivated. But mostly when I should be doing something a lot more productive.

That's all for now. Sufficiently confused? I thought so. Me, too.

Sleep-eating Doritos

This was the scene after a long, hot morning at the beach. You know, after I put the cooler of snacks in the back of the truck before the 30 minute ride home. At lunchtime. Good planning ahead. All I could find were a few Dorito crumbs in a bag leftover from one of Nigel's lunches this week.



Extremely sleepy AND hungry, wouldn't you say?

Oh. And just a few disclaimers. 1. We were driving down the road at about 55 mph. Sorry for the bumps. 2. I don't often feed my 1 1/2 year old (exact age as of today!) Doritos. Just so you know.

Lucky Duck

Kingston is a lucky duck. He got to spend last night and all day today with his Nana and Grandpa. Why, you might ask? Well, pretty much just because he could. Nana is home for a few days between her many teaching/coordinating/vacationing engagements so she wanted to spend some time with Kingston. And Nigel is out of town until late tonight and I wanted to spend some time without Kingston. Did I say that out loud? Oops.


Nana just sent me some pictures of their time together. Let's see if we can put together the pieces of exactly what went on.



First off, I think they must have watched the Thomas the Tank Engine DVD that I put in his overnight bag. If I had to guess, I'd say they watched it multiple times.







Then they must have played with the storage containers in the kitchen. Grandpa would build the pyramid and Kingston would knock it down. Am I right? (Oh, and Nana, it might be time to recycle some of those yogurt containers. You seem to have quite a few!)





Next was the viewing of Girls Gone Wild! What in the world were you watching? I thought your TV was permanently tuned to Sprout? Luckily Kingston didn't seem to be paying much attention to it and instead was eating the Tinker Toys.

Playing with the storage containers while holding the Thomas DVD case. Multi-tasking, if you will. And I might.

Then Kingston either A) was put in the washer in lieu of taking a bath, or 2) was forced to do laundry. Either one is fine. (If he's doing laundry, thanks for teaching him! I've got some he can work on in the morning.)









Kingston may or may not have been roaming the halls of the local high school. I cannot be totally sure. Word on the street is he visited Aunt Freda and took her out to lunch at Wendy's. That's just what I'm hearing. And good thing he still has his Thomas DVD case with him. You never know when you will need to watch a good movie.








Seems as if there might have been some time spent at the park. If I had to guess, I'd say Nana encouraged more playing in the fossil pit more than climbing and sliding down the slide.

Kingston came home a happy camper. He loves to play with Nana and Grandpa, as you can see. Now I just have to figure out how to convince him that he can breathe, eat, sleep and play all on his own without my help. I don't think he had to do any of those things alone for the past day! But that's what grandparents are for, right? And my day and a half alone was much needed and well worth it.

Don't Walk, Run!

We have a runner! Up until now, Kingston has pretty much mastered walking fast, but hadn't yet tackled running. I said, until now.

After playing at the park for about an hour this morning, Kingston and I stopped by Grandpa's favorite place, Winks, also known as the Office, for a quick visit. After hanging out in Grandpa's arms for a few minutes while he took it all in, we let Kingston down to explore the greatest little market/convenience store on the planet. He went for the book aisle and then found some toys. Somehow we managed to keep him away from the real toy aisle. . . at least for now! I would hate for Grandpa to spend his retirement on crappy, touristy beach toys just because Kingston showed interest in them! As he started to really realize that he was actually down and allowed to explore in a store (instead of being held, in a cart, or in a stroller) Kingston began running up and down the aisles. Running. Not walking fast. Definitely running. Grandpa and I had to track him down a reign him in once the screaming in glee started! Be careful what you wish for. . . you just might get it. We have a runner.

While in Winks, we ran (literally) into our friends Will and Helen and they invited us to lunch. We had a fun time dining with them. Thanks for lunch, Will! Good thing I see him at work because we didn't really get to talk about anything at lunch between telling Kingston to stop throwing his toys on the floor and trying to keep Helen in her booster seat!

After naps, yes, that is naps, plural, since I took one, too, Kingston and I went for a walk/wagon ride around the block. We went to the gazebo at the end of the road to look around and check out the water. Boy did Kingston check it out. He headed right out into it like we had been going there and swimming for years. In fact, it was the first time we had gone there and gotten out to play. He had a blast playing in the shallow water. Next time we will take a towel and wear bathing suits! And next time I will get him to ride in the wagon all the way home without having multiple temper tantrums. Multiple. Severe ones. He would not sit in the wagon and the only option for him was for me to carry him. Wet, soggy diaper, loudly bumping wagon, pissy mama. I would bet we were a pretty funny sight to see walking home. Picture it. On second thought, don't.

So after an early bath to wash the funky sound water off, and an early dinner in hopes that the attitude was due to being hungry, Kingston and I headed to Harris Teeter to return a movie and cruise the aisles. While I was putting him back in his car seat to head home, I noticed that he has somehow chipped a tooth at some point in the day! I think it might have been during one of the fits in the wagon, but I can't be sure. Perhaps it was the cause of one of the fits in the wagon, but I can't be sure. It is very small and barely noticeable, but it is surely there. Lucky for us it is just a baby tooth and it is quite small. I tried to get a picture but it just really didn't do it justice.


Kingston is now sleeping soundly. Tomorrow he heads to Ms. Cindy's for the day and then is going to spend the night with Nana and Grandpa! I am going to have my very first solo beach day in about 2 years on Wednesday! I can't wait. Totally solo (except for some girlfriends) since Nigel left today for work in South Carolina until Thursday. I plan to keep us as busy as possible until he comes home just to pass the time. We sure do miss him when he's gone!

Temper tantrums are a lot more fun when you have someone to share them with.

Forgive Me

Forgive me fellow bloggers and blog followers. I am not a good summertime blogger. I've been slacking. For no other reason that I just haven't felt like doing it. But I've still been taking pictures. Maybe these will ease the pain.

We spent the day at the beach yesterday. Kingston took his first semi-major wipeout on a surfboard while hanging out with Nigel in the water. No blood, no foul and all Kingston had to say about it was "Uh-oh!" over and over again. If it hadn't been an hour and a half past his naptime, he probably would have signed and said "mo. . . mo. . .mo", meaning more, more, more! He had a blast out there. Crazy kid.

Perhaps next time he should be wearing a life jacket and should be riding this foam board instead.

Maggie and Anna Ryan liked it, as long as it wasn't actually in the water!

Ahhhh. The beach. Love it.

Kingston doesn't just love the beach. He loves water. Any kind, anywhere. Including water in his wagon. We played in the driveway for a bit this morning after I went bathing suit shopping and wanted to shoot myself bought a new tankini.

Kingston took a moment to check out the flowers that I planted last weekend. Most of them are still alive. Most of them.

Before we headed inside for lunch we took a moment to cheese for the camera.

And then we went inside and had some cheese for lunch.

Oh, and one last thing. How will the ladies be able to resist these eyes? Moms and dads, lock up your daughters!

Check it Out!

Nigel is famous. . . sort of! Good friend, Matt Pruett, editor of Eastern Surf Magazine, helped the boys put together some stories about their recent trip to Nicaragua. Today ESM's new website was launched and Nigel's story was included. Congrats on the new site, Pruett! It looks awesome. Job well done.

The story is under the Traveller's Notebook section and is appropriately named Blackout. (Read the end of the article on the first page to find out why. Let's just say I'm glad I wasn't there to see it.) Click on the little ear buds at the bottom of each picture to hear the commentary that the boys gave for each photo. Pretty cool, I think. But don't worry-I can't even pick out Nigel's voice in most of the blurbs!

I'm so proud of Nigel.

And judging by the amount of time Kingston spent in the water at the beach today and the longing gazes he gave every raft, surfboard and skimboard he laid his little eyes on, he will follow in his dad's flat-footed footsteps. I do love a surfer boy. I do. Especially ones that belong to me!

Dare Day and Sunday

Yesterday was Dare Day in Manteo. For those of you who are not familiar, Dare Day is a local festival celebrated on the first Saturday in June every year. There are arts, crafts and lot of crap (figuratively, not literally, of course) for sale, as well as dirty carnival food such as funnel cakes, gyros and hand cut fries. Oh, and homemade ice cream. Yum. Kingston isn't old enough for the blown up bouncy things, but they are there, as well as live entertainment and various Lost Colony characters wandering around.

Speaking of characters, if you are much of a people watcher, you would be in heaven at Dare Day. There are cute little families, not-so-cute, not-so-little families, really old people (with or without their teeth), babies that must have come straight from the hospital after being born, scantily clad women-and men, rednecks, priss-pots, well, you get the picture. This year I saw a ton of friends and a few people I hadn't seen in a long time. I saw some people from a distance and never got the chance to speak to them live and in person but I did get to speak to their mother and child. Eden. And I even saw someone that I had never actually seen live and in person before but know way more about their life than I really should. Nate. I could have sat in one spot and just watched people all day long. But I had a small child to look after.

Who am I kidding? I could have handed Kingston over to Nana and sat in one place all day and no one would have needed me at all! Instead we all played together all day and had a blast.

Kingston put on his own little show for some folks under the tent. He was dancing to the music and swinging around the tent pole.

Grandpa and Aunt Freda were trying to convince Kingston of something but he doesn't seem to be buying it. (And no, that isn't Nana, it is Nana's not-twin sister.)




And speaking of buying it, I was NOT buying Kingston the inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants that he couldn't keep his eyes off of.




What a waste of money. That guy must have made a killing at Dare Day. Every kid I saw had an inflatable something. Dora the Explorer, Spiderman, SpongeBob, Patrick the starfish. Crap. I refused. . .




But Grandpa didn't. When we got back to Nana and Grandpa's boat (docked right in the middle of the festivities-so fun!) Kingston discovered that Grandpa had made a big purchase. Silly Grandpa. But the kid really did love the inflatable SpongeBob. He has made his home on the boat permanently, since I refused to bring him home with us!

As Mr. Crawford said, what good is a toy if you can't climb on it?!

And speaking of Mr. Crawford, here he is with Grandpa and Aunt Freda as Kingston and I cheese it up for Nana.

Uh, Nana, I think the photo opportunity is over now. RIGHT NOW.

Good, clean fun at Dare Day. Thanks for the hospitality Nana and Grandpa. And thanks, Nana, for sending the pictures since I forgot my camera.

Now I must go rest. I had a big day in the yard. I will definitely be sore tomorrow since it's been a long time since I have gotten blisters on my hand from a shovel. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and see my freshly planted flower boxes and my freshly weeded, mulched and edged flower beds. Looks pretty spiffy, I must say. But I hurt. At least I probably burned a few of the calories from the chocolate donuts that I ate for breakfast this morning. Oops. . .

D-D-D-Dirty

When I picked Kingston up from Ms. Cindy's today, she had a story for me. She always starts her reports with, "Loooori. . . " and then proceeds to say things like, "he ate a lot of raisins today. I mean a LOT of raisins, so be ready for lots of diapers" or "He ate 7 chicken nuggets, a bowl of macaroni and cheese and still ate an afternoon snack" or "He at 2 WHOLE peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch today." Today it was, "Loooori. . . you won't believe what Kingston did today." Apparently Kingston got so dirty this morning that she had to hose him down before she would let him go inside for lunch and nap. He was SO dirty that Cindy's sister, brother-in-law and nephew stood and laughed at him for a good 5 minutes. She tried to take a picture with her cell phone but she said it didn't do it justice. I guess he was sweaty-it was REALLY hot today-and the dirt that he loves to play with was just sticking right to him. His face, his arms, his legs. When I picked him up this afternoon he was still (or maybe again) really dirty. Sweaty and dirty.

And so. . .

after mowing the grass,

and making the classic Kingston face,

it was sprinkler time!!

We broke out the new sprinkler toy-the Waterpillar! Kingston was not it's biggest fan! I don't think he like the unpredictability of the wiggly arms and subsequent random squirts of water!

He was even so over it he had to sit it out for a few.

He would play in it for about 5 seconds and then run away and start to cry.




I switched it to the good old trusty sprinkler and he fell back in love with the sprinkler in the yard! Especially when Dad came out to play!

Eventually the diaper got to be too much. Naked sprinkler fun in the back yard!

Tell me Kingston isn't going to love me when he gets to be a teenager and looks back on posts such as this!!! I think I am succeding as a mother!