A final round-up of some of the highlights of vacation…
Julia finally ate the lobster she’s been waiting for since last year
There were many games of “steal the bunnies” played with Grandpa Herb
There were s’mores and ice cream
There was lots of swimming
And on the last day, there was all of the above plus canoeing, fishing, and hiking which had this result at about 6:00pm
I think that’s a sign of a good vacation!
Just a few cute phrases that we’ve heard from Julia recently:
* When she heard an on-going loud noise: “That makes my ears itch”
* At breakfast the other morning she looked up toward the light above her head and announced “I hope that spiderweb doesn’t fall on my head!” (I guess we should get on top of that dusting!)
* In the car this morning: “I don’t know all about cars; I only half know.”
Julia has been working hard all summer to learn how to swim. First, she conquered jumping in the pool, next we discovered the swim float ring and she swam all around using that, and then today she swam by herself for the first time!! She has had the kicking and arm strokes down for most of the summer but whenever she tried to do it on her own she immediately sank. The trick we found (thanks to Grandma Laurie!) was getting her to swim with her face in the water. As soon as we told her to do that she put her head down and paddled away!
While Benjamin was mostly a passive participant in the activities this trip there were two things he was very active at 1) crawling around trying to eat electrical wires, crumbs on the floor, Annabel’s toys, and anything else that was in his sight and 2) charming every single person he met! He is such a happy and content baby and he easily won everyone over. Here are a few shots that I got of his many expressions while Andrew was wearing him in the carrier.
One of the highlights of our trip for Julia was going fishing. She talked about it for weeks before hand and practiced with her rod before we left. I tied a magnet to the end of the fishing line and she “fished” for things that would stick to it! On our second day at the lake Grandpa Herb set her rod up with a hook and bobber and Julia and Grandma Su-Su set-up a worm house to keep the two dozen worms Uncle Jeff brought her and she was ready. She fished that day and every day after.
She ended up with quite a tally of fish too… mostly small perch but on the last day she caught two bass each about 6-8 inches long! She reeled in most of the fish (including the bass) pretty much on her own although she drew the line at touching the fish once it was out of the water. She had no problem with the worms though and was dubbed the wormgirl by her dad!
Here’s Julia and her catch checking each other out!
and casting with Dad
We spent the last week on Cobbossee Lake in Monmouth, Maine with Andrew’s parents. It was a time to relax and catch up with relatives. We were joined at various times by Andrew’s brother, sister-in-law and niece, and aunts, uncles and cousins. I would say that it was a time to rest but it was a very active vacation, thanks to two very active kids! We swam, we boated, we fished, we hiked, we ate and we did all of it all over again! It was so much fun to watch both Benjamin and Julia get comfortable with and play with new relatives, to see Julia swim and splash in the lake, and to just to laugh and have fun as a family!
Here is a first glimpse into our week. I’ll post some more pictures over the next week or so…
Julia had an appointment at the allergist today. The appointment was fine. She is still highly allergic to eggs; possibly less allergic to egg yolks but since it’s pretty difficult to have egg yolk with no egg white he suggests continuing to keep all eggs and everything containing eggs out of her diet. That’s fine with us as it’s the easiest thing to do at this point. He also wanted her to have some blood work done so he could test her allergy to a couple of specific proteins within the egg and also see if her allergy is continuing to increase or if it has leveled off. So after we saw the doctor we went to the lab so they could draw blood.
Julia sat on my lap for the draw and was completely calm, cool, and collected through the entire thing. She didn’t even flinch when she saw the needle or when they inserted it. She watched the whole thing and acted like an old pro. I was very impressed!
We’re off tomorrow for our summer vacation in Maine. We’re looking forward to swimming in the lake, jumping off the dock, eating lobster, and seeing Andrew’s family. I’m sure we’ll have lots of stories and pictures when we return!
Continuing the baseball theme… We went to a PawSox game this afternoon. Benjamin and Julia both had a great time. Benjamin was his usual squirmy, bouncy self amused by all that was going on and amusing all the people sitting around us. Julia did fabulous and made it all the way to the 8th inning and probably would have stayed til the end but we made a decision to leave. Julia loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa on their turf and went on a couple of walks with Grandpa. We’ll leave the caption of their photo below up to your own imaginations!
