Today and every day, but especially right now, I am so aware of the fleeting baby hood before me.  

Nolan is 7 months old and I am seeing him turn into a little boy.  Today he swung in a swing for the first time. Held on to the chains while I pushed him, it was like he knew where to put his hands.  While he was swinging, I noticed the remnants of lunch on his cheek, yellow squash and orangey mango puree.  I saw him sucking in his lips and kicking his legs with glee and self determination. I saw his uncut toe nails peeking up at me, reminding me that now it takes a song and dance and two people to cut his nails.  I think about how he rolls away from me when we are napping, as if to say, “I’ve got this sleeping thing down.”  Or how he chooses sometimes not to nurse, turning his head to more important things in his world.  Today I caught myself saying out loud, “Do you need me now?” after some independent play time in the jumperoo, and thinking, there will be a day really soon, when he says, “No.”  For now the answer is yes, and, now please. He gives me flirty looks that will always get me to say yes, pick him up, kiss his nose, tickle his tummy, and smile back at those blue eyes and gummy grin. 

Sand slipping through fingers

This is the only time of year when finding grains of sand under my nails and in the creases of Nolan's toes does it elicit a smile and some nostalgia.  The visceral memories of little waves on my feet and sloppy wet sand piled on my legs and Nolan sitting in my lap in the tide pools are still lingering recent in my head.  We are just home from a week at the beach with my parents and Nana! I know I've missed a few weeks of our lives in this online forum, so this is going to be a reverse chronological post.

But first, remember last year at the beach....

Last year, at this time, we'd just announced that the belly I was growing indeed had a baby in it.  

And this year, the baby is here, and swimming!

We played in the water a lot.  And Nolan took off my sunglasses and hat, a lot.  We learned that he only tolerates the fancy SPF hat I got for him if it was wet- a useful revelation for the duration of the week!

And we all lounged and napped under the umbrellas.  We managed to stay relatively unscathed from the super hot North Carolina sun.  Nolan had fancy SPF suits, and the rest of us were lathered/ sprayed up with plenty.

Nolan played a lot with Gramma, who brought him special toys from Cincinnati.  They were a huge hit.

We drank morning coffee and sat in rockers on the porch with Nana.

We sat in the surf.

And I wore a long sleeve shirt because my pale skin was getting cooked.

Nolan was thrilled to eat toy boats and bury his toes in the sand.

We took afternoon breaks from the beach to read with Nana.

And we had afternoon hugs.

Nolan and I took an early evening walk on the last day.  Felt the ocean breeze,  and the salt spray one more time.

Freckly self portrait for the two of us.

Everybody sat around and marveled at the little one.

This was pretty much the scene, Nolan getting tons of attention from the grams and greats.

Till next year!

And now I hear him calling from the other room.  Mama, come save me (don't worry, Arnie is watching :).

Tomorrow I will keep going back in time and update on our trip to Iowa, and Nick's dad's birthday party, which was right before the beach.