This is the first year that Nathan has really embraced playing in the leaves.
I'm not sure if its because we never encouraged it last year, or he just wasn't interested.
Well, this year he was definitely interested. And Sarah jumped in and crawled around like it was nothing.
By the end of the night, Nathan was slogging through the mountainous pile of leaves on the road outside our house, and Sarah was having fun sitting up and then throwing herself backwards into the leaf pile (and repeat, and repeat...).
But I know Brian especially is glad this is the last fall at this house with our ridiculous trees. Next year we'll get to enjoy a beautiful New England autumn without having the responsibility to rake anything!
Because last night wasn't just about having fun playing in the leaves. It was also about work...
... hard work!

Nathan went to the dentist this morning for the first time and I was impressed with how well he did. I'll let him tell you in his own words, then add a little bit at the end. (Oh, and while you're listening to me and Nathan talk, keep your eyes on Sarah!)

First, Sarah. Yep, she's been standing up on her own a lot lately, looking so proud of herself. But she's still not confident enough to take a step unless Brian or I are right there in front of her. I seem to remember that Nathan didn't figure out how to stand up on his own until after he started walking, while Sarah's doing it the opposite!

So I've been prepping Nathan for a few days, since that's the best way to (hopefully) get him to cooperate with something new or uncomfortable for him. Trying to surprise him is the sure-fire way to have a screaming, thrashing, angry little boy to deal with. We had talked about sitting in a big, special chair and saying "ahhh" for the dentist while she looks in your mouth and taps your teeth. We talked about that she might brush his teeth (he actually didn't get a cleaning this time, which was probably a good thing). We looked up Dr. Gina's photo and talked a lot about her this morning. We talked about how LOTS of our friends (most of playgroup!) had already been to see Dr. Gina. We talked about being brave even if we were a little scared.  So that was all good. Unfortunately I didn't know the key detail that this dentist (and maybe all pediatriac dentists?) had tables for the kids to lay down on rather then chairs to sit in.

At the office, Nathan was definitely a bit hesitant when we got called back from the waiting room but didn't try to bolt (unlike preschool and Sunday school this past week, grrr).  Then he did fine as the dental assistant showed him all the tools Dr. Gina was going to use.  But when he found out that he needed to lay on the table for Dr. Gina to shine her "flashlight" into his mouth and count his teeth, he did freak out a little.  But I reminded him about being brave and he cooperated with the rest of the exam pretty well, but I know he was glad when it was over.  As I said, no cleaning today and also no x-rays until all his molars are in a touching.  Which, by the way, Dr. Gina said all 4 of his two year molars have (finally) broken through the gums and are on their way in.  Only a year or so late!  But the report was overall good, no cavities, but I need to be better about brushing at the gum line and we need to start flossing his teeth.  I've very recently handed over nighttime oral hygiene to Daddy, so that may become his specialty!

While I was downloading the dentist video from my Ipod, I found these other videos I had taken of the kids about a month ago at the mall.  Nathan LOVES going to the mall, so knowing our days are somewhat limited, I wanted to get some memories recorded.  The first is of the kids playing in the mall playground, and the second is of them playing in their favorite coin-operated car.  (For the record, I NEVER put money in those things.  But once a co-resident of Brian's was at the mall with her two children and she paid for a ride for her daughter and Nathan.  He reminds me of that momentus occasion EVERY TIME.)



In this next video, don't be alarmed, I caught Sarah both times as she fell out of the car.  Then I decided it was wiser to put away my Ipod and just monitor the safety of my daughter!

Nana and Granddad came for a visit a few weekends ago and had a wonderful time with the family. The weather was beautiful during their stay so we spent lots of time outside, including two park outings in a single day!


Nathan was thrilled because he ALWAYS wants to go to a park, and Sarah discovered how much fun it is to slide down the slide. She is fearless! She loves to slide sitting up (with a little support) or on her belly, which she can do all by herself! She has since learned how to scoot her bottom forward so she can decide when to start down the slide, as well as turn herself around and back up to slide on her belly!


We also got the treat to see Gary and Bernadette, Nana's cousins, who stopped by our house on their way to the beach. They came through Saturday night and joined us for an evening of dinner and catching up. I'm never sure how Nathan's going to react around new people, since he likes to make friends on his timetable, but he immediately took to Gary and Bernadette. Unfortunately, no pictures of their brief visit.

This is an example of the dramatic gesture that Sarah was making all weekend!

The next day brought ANOTHER special house guest, our wonderful friend Alison!! Although Nathan didn't want to meet Alison at church, once she got to our house, he was super excited about talking to her and showing her stuff in his room. Alison was in town for our other friend Anne's wedding, where she and I also met up with Jennie and fiance Adam. It was so great chatting with these ladies, it makes me so thankful for all the great times we had together during med school! Then Brian and I stayed up late having a great conversation with Alison. I love having friends that (4.5 years later) you can just pick up where you left off!

Just a few more pictures (and a video!) to finish out the beach trip memories.

We spent every afternoon playing in the sand, where a great time was had by most.  The first afternoon we realized that we were woefully under-prepared for serious building projects, but Brian was able to construct a sea-wall that stood up (for a few minutes) to the incoming tide.  The next morning we were able to secure additional shovels and buckets at the grocery store, which were put straight to good use.


After about one minute of being on the beach with Sarah, I gave up on trying to keep sand out of her mouth.  Everyday she would give herself a "sand beard"...

...mainly because she would stick handfuls of sand into her mouth like it was candy, as well as antics like this:
Yum, sandy!

But her antics could not interrupt the boys' intense concentration.  Men at work!



And to end the afternoons at the beach, riding the waves.

And, hooray! Brian told me that we did salvage a short clip of Sarah jumping into the pool. Enjoy!

 Two pearly whites on the bottom...

And there are all four!  (The other three that have come in are still too small to be really seen, but I knew I didn't have any pictures of her with her "rabbit teeth" as Daddy affectionately calls them!)

Here's what Sarah's doing now that she's eleven months old.  Its been quite a while since I've blogged about the things she's doing, so it will be a long one!

• You are taking a few steps every day and will stand by yourself, but you are still working on the confidence and coordination for real walking.
• Though you are consistently taking two naps, the lengths are all over the place.  Earlier in the week we were looking at two 45 minute naps, while a few weeks before, both were solidly 90 minutes long.  Mommy especially loves when you take a long morning nap on preschool days, but other days we usually are waiting on you to get up because we have somewhere to go.
• Teething has been such an ordeal for you!  We are blowing through Tylenol in this house and it doesn't seem to hardly touch your pain.  On the beach trip we were resorting to overlapping doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofin and you were STILL in a terrible mood!  But the worst part is that your teething pain makes you cry whenever Nathan tries to play with you.  I am always so happy on the days you feel good and laugh at your brother instead!
• You like to grab a cup and crawl around the house with it in your hand.  You make a very distinctive slide-slap sound that announces your coming.
• You love to sign "all done", both when you actually mean it and when you just want attention.  And waving "good-bye" is usually a two-handed wave. 
• The only other sign you consistently make is one you've made up.  You rub your hands together, mimicking Mommy when I use hand sanitizer after I change your diaper.  I guess it has become our sign for diaper change because you always do it when I set you down on your changing table.  Then we laugh together when diaper change is over and we both are rubbing our hands together.
• You have had an appetite explosion for real food within the last two weeks.  You almost ate a whole hot dog the other night, in addition to the fruits and veggies I was also giving you.  You finally have decided you LOVE avacado after five months of spitting it out of your mouth.  Bananas are now acceptable to you as well.  However this increased interest in real food has come at the expense of nursing.  During the day you only want to nurse ten seconds to one minute for a "full" feeding, when you want to nurse at all.  You are up in the night once or sometimes twice (boo!), but thankfully you take good feedings then and during your dream feed.
• You LOVE bath time.  When we start the water running in the tub, you scream with excitement.  
• Oh yes, you are a screamer, just like your brother.  And he loves to join in whenever you start screaming, usually going louder, longer and higher pitched then you do.  This may drive your momma nuts!
• You love the pink bear you sleep with!  And you love to give him kisses!  I need to come up with a name for him because I always refer to him just as "Bear" and with the male pronouns.  But I really think "Bear" deserves a girl's name!

Our little girl's first steps were today, one day before she turns 11 months old AND a repeat performance was caught on video thanks to Daddy!

Nathan and I were sweeping the sunporch during Sarah's nap and Nathan spotted a dead earwig among the trash I had in my pile.  He decided this bug was his new friend and asked me if he could pick it up.  Ignoring my squeamishness about the whole matter, and reminding myself he's a boy and I need to let him do little boy things, I agreed.  He proceeded to carry it around with him for about an hour before I decided to take a picture. 

Then, as we were about to leave the house to run errands, he told me, "Mommy, I like the bug.  It am keeping him.  I want to take him to Aldi.  Mommy, if I lose him (in the store) I will get him!"  I asked, "How will you get him?"  " In case I drop him on the floor I will run and find it!  He's a pretty nice bug!"  I did draw the line at the bug coming with us to the store and also at letting Nathan take him to bed at naptime.  I think this bug is going to be a one-day-only friend and may disappear tonight.

Here are a few videos from our time at the beach.  The first video is from our first night at the beach when we went for a "walk" that turned into a swim for Nathan and Daddy. This is while Sarah and I were still joining in on the fun and before Nathan got truly soaked in the ocean.


The next day Nathan and Daddy played more in the waves. This also lets you hear the soundtrack of the vacation called "Sarah Constantly Fussing".

Nathan and Daddy had tons of fun in the pool. This is the first morning, when the tricks were the tamest!

The one evening we went out to a restaurant we also stopped at an ice cream parlor on our way home. Sarah got her first taste of ice cream that night! It reminds me of the story my family tells of when I was a little girl and wanted a taste of Gran's ice cream, I would follow her spoon from bowl to her mouth with my mouth open and waiting like a little bird!

Unfortunately the memory card on our point-and-shoot camera experienced a fatal error and we lost two great movies of the kids at the pool. By the end of the week, Nathan and Daddy were doing some really dare-devil tricks, causing others at the pool (including Mommy!) some concern that Nathan would emerge crying. Daddy would send him flying and spinning, to crash into the water with a big belly flop. I guess the life jacket cushioned his entrance because he always came up laughing.

The second video was of Little Fish #2 who started her trick the last afternoon at the pool. I would set her on the edge of the pool and she would scoot forward until she toppled face first into the pool. I would catch her under water, bring her back up and set her back on the pool edge for a repeat performance. Nathan wanted to join in on the fun (of course), so we had the kids "jumping" into the pool together for quite a while. Here's a still shot Brian was able to recover of Sarah sitting on the edge about to scoot into the pool.

"Mommy, I want to go to school LOTS of times!"

(Today after I picked Nathan up from class.)

BOSTON!!!  Brian matched to the pediatric anesthesia program at Boston Children's Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

We are excited and nervous and thankful and scared and pumped for the journey ahead and concerned about the incredibly demanding program.  But we believe that God has a plan for us there, especially since it will be a challenging year (or two!) for our family!  The program starts summer of 2013 (July, August or September, we don't know which yet) and is a year long.  Brian may decide to stay for up to a year of additional training in pediatric hearts. 

So, some facts (as I'm busy burning up Google and Google Maps to find out about our new lives!):

• The hospital is in the Brookline neighborhood of Boston, near Fenway Park (where the Red Socks play).  The address is 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115.  We hope to live pretty near the hospital, but it may be prohibitively expensive. 
• Driving distance from Knoxville, TN: 17 hours, or 930 miles
• Driving distance from Bowie, MD: 8 hours or 430 miles
• Driving distance from Winston-Salem, NC: 14 hours, or 780 miles
• Distance from New York City: a little over 4 hours, by car or train
• The closest Wal-Mart is 20-30 minutes away (by car, no traffic).
• The closest Target is 10-15 minutes away (by car, no traffic).

I'm really pretty excited about the whole adventure, but I almost feel like we are moving to a foreign country since I anticipate the urban lifestyle will be so different from what I've always known.

Brian was on vacation last week, so we decided to take the kids to Myrtle Beach for our first ever family vacation!  Since Nathan was born, all our trips with one or both kids have been to visit family, so we decided it was about time to make some great memories with just the four of us. We had beautiful weather, a great three bedroom condo, wonderful pools at the resort and yummy food.  The only downside to the whole trip was the fussy, clingy, teething Sarah-bear.  (Deja vu for a teething baby at the beach!)

We got to the beach Wednesday afternoon (following a harrowing car ride with fussy Sarah).  After unpacking while Sarah took a nap, we changed right into our swimsuits and explored the multiple pools at our resort.  First up was the kids pool that had a submarine and lots of water sprayers.  Since it was shaded, it was slightly too chilly to be perfect.  Next we tried the heated pool under the hotel and there we hit the jackpot!  That ended up being our go-to pool for most of the rest of the trip.  After spending as long as possible in the pool, we headed back to the room for some dinner and then back out for a walk on the beach.  I had just envisioned a nice stroll so we didn't put on our suits, but Nathan was super excited about the ocean and quickly got his shorts soaked playing in the waves (video to come).  Sarah and I went back to the room to put her to bed, but Nathan wanted to stay and play some more - and the guys ended up getting drenched!


The three full days we spent at the beach all followed a similar pattern.  We got up every morning, quickly ate breakfast, and went straight out for a walk on the beach.


(Sarah likes to make funny faces and grind her teeth.  I'm not sure if its just a teething thing, or if she's getting used to the teeth she already has.  But this week she added three (one lower, two upper) to the four she cut during the family reunion at Myrtle.)


Our morning walks ended with Sarah and me going back to the room, where Sarah took a nap and Mommy got some quiet alone time.  Nathan and Daddy spent the mornings playing in the hot pool, or the bubbly pools (the hot tubs), the lazy river and/or the kids pool.


Then we spent some time hanging out in the room until lunch and nap time.  We all enjoyed some glorious naps during our stay!  After naps, it was time to go to the beach!  There was lots of playing in the sand, some playing in the ocean, always topped off with another dip in the hot pool.  After that came dinner, bedtime for the kids and some down-time for Mom and Dad before we hit the sack, ready to start all over in the morning.


More pictures, videos and details to come!  (And below is Sarah almost falling asleep in the carrier on our morning walk.)