Isle of Palms

We spent the week of June 16-23 at the beach in Isle of Palms, SC with Pop & Chaz, Bebe, Lacy & Max, Chaz's kids, Katie & Conner, and their two friends.  It was a wonderful week--perfect weather, a great house with a pool, the beautiful beach, and family to share it with. 

Since this was our first real trip with all the boys, I really wasn't sure how the week was going to go.  I was especially worried about Baylor since he hadn't liked the splash pad, kiddie pool, big pool, or sandbox so far.  I definitely didn't want to spend the whole week carrying him around.  But much to my surprise and relief, the beach and water quickly grew on him.  I did give him a towel to sit on the first day, but by the end of the day he was crawling around and digging in the sand.  Hudson loved it from the very beginning.  He would just get up and start walking down the beach or crawling out into the water only to have a wave come in and splash him in the face.  Trying to keep up with all three boys-who were often going in three different directions--was a challenge, but luckily we had plenty of extra hands around to help!

Griffin enjoyed digging in the sand, splashing in the ocean, and even riding the waves on the boogie board, but his first choice was the pool.  We could hardly drag him out of it at the end of each day.  He was already swimming well when we left home, but he was a little fish by the end of the week.  He had also been in a lot of water fights!

I could go on and on if I wrote about all the things we did over the week, but I decided I'd just make a slideshow and fight the urge to tell every detail.  So here it is...

It's Fun to be Five!

First of all, I must say that I can't believe my baby is five years old!  It frustrates Griffin when I call him my baby--he always tells me that he's not a baby, but I tell him that he will always be my baby!

We started Griffin's birthday celebration a little early with pizza and presents at home with Pop, Chaz and Lacy on Friday night. 

On Saturday, his real birthday, Griffin started his day with a birthday wish with a doughnut. 

His party was at Putt-Putt Golf & Games in Farragut, and he had 11 little friends from school join him to celebrate the big day.

After a round of putt-putt, we moved inside for cake and ice cream...and the official birthday wish. 

Then we gave each party-goer tokens to play games (even Hudson got in on the action with a little help from Mimi).  The big kids had fun using their tokens to win tickets and then cashing in their winnings for prizes.

When we got home, Griffin opened the presents from his friends. 

Later that evening, we went to Moe's with Mimi, Papaw Al, Aunt Holly, Uncle Jason, Harper and Hollins for his birthday dinner.  Then we moved the celebration back to our house for the rest of his presents.  His big present from Mimi and Papaw Al was an inflatable Lightning McQueen that he can sit in while he plays his driving games on the Wii.

My, How You've Grown!

We went to the doctor on April 17th for the babies' 1-year check-up.  Baylor weighed in at 21 lbs 12 oz (35%) and measured 28.5 inches (10%).  Hudson weighed in at 21 lbs 8 oz (30%) and measured 28.75 inches (15%).  Baylor has more than quadrupled his birth weight of 4 lbs 15 oz.  These boys obviously like to eat! 

Here is a picture of Baylor the day he was born...

and one taken on June 15th. 

Be sure to look at the skinny legs in the first picture and the very chunky legs in this one!

Here is a picture of Hudson when he was 4 days old...

and one of him on May 28.

Look how little his head was in my hand in the baby picture. 

Not any more!  This toddler head is in the 90th percentile!

Since I'm behind in getting this posted, I'll add some milestones from the past two months.  On Friday, April 27th, Hudson took his first steps.  My mom and Matt were both here to see the first few.  When I got home from work that afternoon, the boys had just woken up from their naps. Matt got  Hudson out of his crib and stood him up and he took about 5-6 steps to me.

On Monday, May 14th, Baylor took his first steps.  Baylor actually has the better balance of the two.  He will stand himself up in the middle of the room (without pulling up on anything) and will just stay there for the longest time.  Baylor has reached all of the physical milestones first--rolling over, sitting up, pulling up--but Hudson is definitely ahead of him in the walking department.

Hudson continued to take a few steps here and there, usually from me to Matt and back when we would prompt him and help get him steady before turning him loose.  But on Monday, May 21st, Hudson decided he just wanted to walk.  I was in the floor playing with all 3 boys after work, and Hudson just kept going back and forth from our couch to the ottoman on the other side of the room.

Baylor still wasn't doing more than a few wobbly steps at a time until Friday, June 8th.  Pop, Chaz, and Lacy were over and Baylor walked across the room to get to Pop.  Over the weekend, he did it a lot more and has almost caught up to Hudson in a matter of a few days.

Here is a picture of the boys in their new Elmo jammies.  As much as I dislike Walmart, I occasionally have to go there for something...and these were an unexpected find on my last visit. The boys both really like to watch Sesame Street, read How Big is Elmo? and Guess Who, Elmo, and play with the Elmo Live toy so I was so excited to find these!