7 Quick Takes Friday

—1—

Today my sister had the day off and we decided to hop in the car and see where the road took us. We found ourselves in Marshfield at Rexhame Beach.

We had packed a lunch but didn’t have blankets or towels and only an odd assortment of spare clothes in the diaper bag. Nevertheless, we went for it. The girls had a grand time frolicking on the sand, splashing in the waves, throwing rocks and chasing gulls. We were there less than 2 hours but it was totally worth the $10 parking.

I apologize for the huge volume of photos in this slideshow. I’m still learning how to export from iPhoto and the finer points of photo selection were lost.

—2—

Ben is now smiling so much. And often it seems to be responsive to my smiles and prompts. Also, I swear he’s made an “Oooo” noise a couple of times in the past couple of days.

He sleeps beautifully, too. Now that I’ve started swaddling him and putting him down in the carseat he’s even better. I do think he’s got a bit of reflux. Whenever I lay him flat on his back, even for a diaper change, he spits. He’s always so much happier being held upright than flat on his back.

—3—

Sophie seems to have gotten so much older just in the past couple of weeks. She’s got poise and confidence.

This week she’s learned how to climb up on the one of the dining room chairs that has a lower rung. I found her standnig at the table eating the remains of Bella’s yogurt cup and soggy rice crispies that I hadn’t got around to clearing off from breakfast.

Her hair is down to her shoulders in the back and now stays quite nicely in a little topknot sprout. I think she’s gained even more fat around her middle and perhaps a little height. She’s definitely a chubbier model than Bella ever was. I look forward to her 18 month checkup next month to see how big she is now.

—4—

Bella is in full-swing “why?” mode. Sometimes, much of the time I must admit, I get tired of all the questions and even snap: “Why do you ask so many questions?” But sometimes I get all pedantic on her and answer in excruciating detail with big vocabulary words. I think that’s my better self, which is rather a scary thought.

Another favorite question is, “What are we going to do today?” An excruciating question to my laid-back, go with the flow, no planning self. My usual answer drives her nuts, “The same thing we do every day, Brain, try to take over the world.” Though this morning she asked me, “Are we going to take over the world today?” She’s learning!

—6—

The town is replacing the water mains and has recently got to our street. Lots of big machinery going back and forth. Bella is fascinated; but scared by the loud noises.

—7—

Another day, another playground. Yesterday I decided to try something new so we tracked down a playground I’d seen last fall when we first moved to the area.

It has the absolute coolest wooden playscape I’ve ever seen. The thing was huge! A maze, even. Bella was in heaven; me, not so much. It was so big and convoluted that half the time I couldn’t see her. And as confident as I am in Bella’s ability to climb and explore, I am not comfortable with her being out of my line of sight. It would have been perfect when she was my only child; but now I have to manage Sophie and Ben too.

So while I loved this playground, it’s going to be one we can only visit if Dom’s home or there’s another adult around.

For more quick takes, visit the lovely Jen at Comversion Diary.