More Lowcountry Fun

On our last day in Charleston (Thursday), we checked out of the hotel (James quite enjoyed "helping" Daddy with the luggage cart at each check-in and check-out during our trip) then hit the Market and Waterfront Park in the morning. James found the fountains to be quite inviting.

If there was one lesson we had learned the day before, it was to pack extra clothes. Thus, after James's morning exploration of the fountains, we changed him to a dry shirt before walking to King Street for a yummy and fun lunch with some of our college pals. After lunch we headed back to Waterfront to let James run off any remaining energy. Despite the rather cool temperatures, James was thrilled to see the fountain again and all too happy to take off his shoes and socks to play. We thought we should put his still damp shirt back on him rather then ending up with two wet shirts. However, when we took off his shirt, James ran into the spray shirtless!

So there we were with our scantily clad toddler playing in the fountain as though it were 9o degrees! Ha! He sure did have lots of fun; he did NOT want to stop. He'd run in, run out, down the steps, out onto the warm sidewalk, and repeat.

We finally got him out of the water and put on not only his dry shirt (and hoodie!), but some dry long pants as well. And his socks and shoes of course.

At this point we were planning to head on to McClellanville, but then we were "buzzed" by the Blue Angels. They were practicing for an upcoming show by flying over the Market area. We got ourselves some ice cream and enjoyed the show!

Then it was over The Bridge and on to McClellanville for some good shrimp and good fun with family. James got a great nap en route and was OVERJOYED to be with all the cousins' kids-- Jake, Katie, Gray, Emma, Jenna, Eli, Nate and Baby Carter. When everyone went home that night, James was SO SAD! Upon waking Friday morning he said, "You go downstairs and see Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bill." Of course, they were already at the fish house! We stopped there for a visit before going up to Pawley's to spend the day with Karen and her family.

James was thrilled to spend Friday with Nate, Eli and Carter. We went to Brookgreen Gardens where I think the boys had just as much fun pushing the strollers as they did seeing the sights.

James talked about it for days! "You went around and around the tree with Nate and Eli!"

That night we went back to McClellanville for a laid back and super fun evening at Kim's. James enjoyed seeing Jake's skateboard tricks, watching the fish in the tank, playing with Katie, and befriending the small doggie. We again had tears at day's end.

On Saturday we hit the diner with the fam for our last serving of grits then stopped by the Pawley's yard sales to get in a little more family time. James was sooooo happy to see Jenna! He'd been talking about her all morning. They were so sweet-- holding hands and hugging goodbye when we left.

Then it was back on the road. We made it to southern Virginia before stopping for the night. We were sure to find a hotel with an indoor pool and continental breakfast again. This time we had an Applebee's right next door which we visited for dinner after our swim. On Sunday, we had our last "pick-mick" at Maryland House-- the location of our first stop on the way down-- and were home by 4:30.

James was SUCH a GREAT traveller!! We're looking forward to our next adventure!

Off to the Fort! (More Vacation Recap)

On Wednesday of last week, Auntie Peg had to go back to work, so we were on our own in Charleston. After another lovely breakfast on the porch we headed out to Fort Sumter. Now, James had been having a runny nose so we let him have a juicebox instead of milk for breakfast. We then handed him the remaining half a juicebox as we walked to the ferry boat terminal. We got there with a bit of time to spare, so Dan and I were checking out the exhibits in the terminal museum while James chilled in his stroller. Then we heard an odd, wet sound...

We looked down to see that James had squeezed his juice box ALL OVER HIMSELF. "It came out the straw," he plainly stated. Dan took him to the men's room to try to dry him off. I took the stroller to the ladies' room. As I was cleaning, I heard someone saying, "Are you Jen? Your husband's hollering for you." Sure enough, at the restroom door stood a slightly stressed looking Dan holding James. James was wearing nothing but a flesh colored diaper, socks, shoes, and a HUGE smile.

Dan had come looking for me because I had the backpack with the extra diapers (James's diaper was also apple juicy) etc. What I did NOT have was an extra set of clothes. So we put James's hoodie on and headed to the ferry boat. James really liked the boat ride, as we'd expected. I used Dan's extra long-sleeved t-shirt as a blanket for James's legs.


When we got to the island, James's clothes had unfortunately not dried yet. We then put Dan's shirt on James; it was a floor length gown whose sleeves we had to really, really roll up. We then put the hoodie back on over it. It was quite a look.

James was happy to run all over the fort pushing his stroller.

We did really enjoy our visit, but will definitely need to go back so that we can listen to the history, etc. without the distraction of drying clothes, etc. It was funny because Dan and I kept making loud comments like, "James, it's too bad you squeezed your drink all over yourself." It was our way of getting the disclaimer out about his funny appearance. So silly.



Like I said, it didn't bother him. When we talked about the day, James would say, "You went on the ferry boat." We'd ask him, "Did you wear pants?" "No," he'd say, "James wore a skirt."


Ha! (Here is a photo of Dan keeping James from diving off the ferry boat.)

His shorts and shirt were dry enough after the ride back to Charleston that he could put them on for lunch.

That night we went to dinner at Jestine's with Auntie Peg. That is where I had a moment of motherhood genius: the deep windowsills in the restaurant were full of all kinds of nick-knacks that James wanted ("needed") to hold. I told him, "You can't hold that, it's stuck." I even "demonstrated" how everything was stuck and could not be picked up. Maggie and Dan were very impressed (and glad).

Underpants Update

James slept almost 2 hours yesterday afternoon and woke up DRY!!! He said he had to go to the potty, but then he wouldn't take off his pants & underpants or sit on the potty. AFter just a little while, he had a little accident and again wouldn't sit on the potty. He did want a new pair of underpants. A little while later, he had another small accident, got upset, and asked for a diaper (which was SUPER wet when I later changed it). I think if we did the three day potty training event right now, he'd do great. Unfortunately, we don't have the three days right now. Oh well. Soon!

Breaking News!

I know I have a LOT more vacation posting to do.
However, we have a major development to report: James is wearing underpants right now.
We spent the morning at a few playgrounds, simultaneously enjoying the gorgeous weather and wearing James out. We came home for lunch (of which he did not eat much) and nap.
Well, when I was changing his diaper before his nap, he said he wanted to wear underpants!
I fully understand it makes little sense to put a 2 year old in underpants for the first time in his life right before he takes a nap (he's been asleep almost half an hour right now), but the boy said he did not want to wear a diaper; he wanted underpants.
We'll see what happens...

Fun with Auntie Peg!

On Tuesday, our first full day in Charleston, we enjoyed our rooftop breakfast then met Auntie Peg at the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry. It was LOTS of fun. We played with golf balls (to see physics at work) for a while, then headed into the water room.

There James donned a smock (or not) and had fun moving boats and trucks throughout a Charleston-esque model. Mag and I had fun operating the lock to make boats travel up and down. Making it rain was also great fun.

The next room was a shrimp boat turned pirate ship that James quite enjoyed captaining. The boots certainly added to his delight.

Then it was off to the "grocery store" and then the infant and toddler fun space where James sent the dump truck down the slide several times. He also still talks about getting buried in blocks by Daddy and Auntie Peg.

We went outside for a snack (and saw some neat exhibits like giant chimes) then headed in for toddler yoga. James started off hanging back from the group, sitting in a folding chair (where he did do the poses).

After a bit he got down and joined Auntie Peg on her mat. He was super cute doing the poses and has been talking about yoga a lot since we've been home. He was even doing poses in his crib yesterday morning when Dan went in to get him up for the day!

After yoga, we headed into the very cool Medieval castle, then headed off to Auntie Peg's cool house. Unfortunately, James wouldn't eat anything we were offering for lunch and turned into a complete pumpkin before passing out in Mommy's arms and sleeping on Carolan's bed for an hour or so. Upon his waking, we presented him with a beautiful plate of food which Daddy told him not to eat. This reverse psychology method has now become Daddy's new favorite way of dealing with a willful two year old ("Whatever you do, James, do NOT eat that broccoli.").

That night we headed out to see the River Dogs with Auntie Peg. James was thrilled to be at "The Old! Ball! Game!" and wanted to go right out onto the field. He became enamored with Charlie and especially liked getting "licked" by him. He also found the (person dressed as a) bunny and the "big fat green truck" entertaining. I don't remember exactly what either of these two between the innings events were, but he's been talking about them practically every day since!

When he started to get squirmy, I took him to the Kids' Zone where he played in the "bouncy thing." He wanted to go up the slide, but was too small. Or so we thought! A really, really nice "big boy" (who has later been referred to as "that big green boy" and "that big fat boy") helped James get up the "mountain" once, and James was THRILLED.

After that, the big boy went off to other activities, but James kept trying to climb the mountain. I have to tell you, he didn't give up! After many a fall, he made it back to the top! I was so amazed!

Meanwhile back in the stands, Dan caught a fly ball and was hit by another! We had a wonderful time at the old ball game!

Road Trip!

So, as I said in the last post, we decided to head down to the Lowcountry for my spring break. After tossing around a few ideas about how to attack the drive, we decided on what turned out to be a winning strategy. (Oh-- I should mention that before leaving we turned James's carseat around to front-facing now that he's reached the height limit for rear-facing.)

We slept until James woke up Sunday morning, then had breakfast, and let James play while we packed the car. We hit the road at 9:30 and drove for about 2-2.5 hours. James was happily playing with his new Easter books (thanks, Nana & Pops!) and shape sorter. We had packed a picnic (or as James says, "Pick! Mick!") lunch, and enjoyed it at the Maryland House rest area. James quite enjoyed running hill repeats before and after dining.

Then it was back in the car for a few hours (James got a decent nap) before stopping at a hotel with an indoor pool and continental breakfast. After a fun swim with James we watched the end of the Masters (Yea, Phil!) and had Burger King (it was the ONLY restaurant around--oh well) dinner in our room.

The next day we stuck with the same plan-- breakfast, drive, picnic, drive, arrive in Charleston at 4:30 (unfortunately, James didn't catch his nap until we arrived on the peninsula, so it was all of 10 minutes long...). While we weren't able to get a room at Auntie Peg's hotel, we did get a hotel near the Market which had a rooftop balcony breakfast each day. It was so nice to look out over the harbor each morning. James was a big fan of "playing hopscotch" on the balcony's gridded floor.

Auntie Peg arrived at our hotel not long after we got there, and we headed out for dinner at Fleet. James really wanted to drink the tartar sauce that came with his dinner. It was ridiculous.

About this time, the lack of nap caught up with us, and James turned into a pumpkin. I took him outside to run around while Maggie and Dan finished dinner. Dan was gracious enough to try to put James to bed so the sisters could enjoy a coffee and walk about town.

Our spring break adventure was off to a wonderful start!

Spring Break!!!

James and I had different spring break weeks this year. His was the week after Easter; mine was the following week (last week).

Fortunately, Nana had the same break as James, so she and Pops came up for some fun. We had a wonderful Easter together, and James had a blast entertaining his grandparents all week. They went to the park, went to our little zoo, ate at the food court & rode the carousel at the mall, . . .

I even took a day off on Thursday, and we headed in to the Central Park Zoo.

James's favorite part of the zoo was the glockenspiel (he'd hear it and say, "The monkeys are hitting the bell with the hammer," which was true). He also really enjoyed the children's zoo. Watching him feed the sheep was SO fun and cute!

The "spider web" scared him off a bit at first, but once he climbed it, he was hooked and did NOT want to get out. Of course, at one point he got his foot stuck in the middle of the web immediately after losing the shoe from the other foot. At that point Mommy went bounding into the center of the web to "rescue" James.

The other Crazed Mom moment was at the end of our visit. James had just had a complete meltdown and was in his stroller leaving the children's zoo (much to his dismay) when we heard chimes begin for two o'clock. Knowing there were only two monkey strikes to see, I grabbed the stroller from Pops and tore down the hill toward the glockenspiel. It was like a kidnapping scene. But James got to see the monkeys wield the hammers followed by the dancing animals, so it was worth it.

We LOVED having Nana and Pops here, and it was sad to see them leave Saturday morning. That afternoon, however, we made our own impromptu plans to head down to the Lowcountry for my spring break! Stay tuned for more recaps and photos...

More Easter Pics (and a silly Mommy story)

Here's the gang after the Easter egg hunt at church.

Hunt in action--


After chruch, Bethany would not get close to James for a photo.

Here's the silly story: Today we had swim class, but got a late start getting out the door, and of course had Paramus traffic slowing us down along the way. Add to that the fact that Dan stayed home to do some errands, and we were cutting it close to get to class on time. I literally grabbed James & our bag in my arms and sprinted into the Y and up the stairs to the locker room with less than 5 minutes 'til class starts.
Stripped James down, peeled off my clothes to my swimsuit, pulled the towels out of the bag,.... and where's James's swimsuit? At home. Great.
I stood there wondering what to do for a few minutes, then put our clothes back on and headed down to the lobby. Crossing my fingers I explained our predicament to the ladies at the front desk and was delighted to find that they sell the reusable swim diapers there. The very nice lady handed me one in James's size and told me to get to class and pay afterwards.
More sprinting to the locker room and another fast strip down, then back downstairs to the pool.
Only 5 minutes late! And James swam well :-)

Happy Easter!

I need to download some more photos (some great ones from church, especially), but here are a few from our Easter festivities. We had a wonderful time with Nana and Pops this morning-- a yummy pancake breakfast (thanks, Daddy!) and finding goodies from "that bunny." Then off to church for a very fun Easter egg hunt and a lovely church service. We then headed over to Grandpa and Grandma's house for more goodies, egg hunting, and a yummy dinner. We headed home around 6 to give James a much needed bath and get him to bed (after three nap-less days he was quite the pill).