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.

Massive Update Part 1

It's a little embarrassing.  My father in law reminded me yesterday that we hadn't posted anything in almost 2 months.  Ooops.  Life has been just a little busy.  Nick and I finished up school this past week on Thursday and Friday, and then we took off for an Iowa trip on Sunday, returned yesterday, and are figuring out what it means to be a summertime parent- how to divy up baby care and house care and each other care.  If you've seen us lately, you know our baby is thriving by his gigantism and giggles, and for those that haven't seen us, I'm going to do a photo dump to catch everyone up to speed.

Julia and Arnie are making eyes at each other.

Julia was here, she got on famously with Arnie (after a few playful nips she put him in his place, and they bonded.  She made the mistake of letting him on her bed, and the bed was never the same.


We visited Iowa, this was back over Mothers Day weekend.  We were able to see a lot of family, Nicks' sister and fiance, and Grandma and Aunt, and Mom and Dad all made visits.  It was all very nice!

Nolan finds the camera in the room. 

And hangs out with great-grandma. 

And examines Papa Danny's teeth. 

Arnie perfected the puppy dog stretch sleep position. 

We took Nolan on his first plane ride, and he was a champ.  Such a good traveler, no big fits, and he smiled for all the people behind us on the plane. Towards the end of the plane trip he got fussy and Nick just lifted him up so he could look back at the rows of people.  They provided entertainment.

Nolan made flying arms...

And we read books. 

We visited one of my favorite places in the world, The National Cathedral.  My grandmother lives close by and it is one of the things we always do whenever we visit.  I kind of feel like it belongs partially to me since it was such a part of growing up and visiting family in DC. 

Nolan laid in the grass.  He wasn't sure about it at first. 

It seemed okay. 

And then he had to taste it.  It was pretty good. 

I love these boys and this place so much. 

While we were in DC, we got to spend special time with Nana, but also Nolan got to meet his great Aunts and Uncles!  Unfortunately, the only pictures I have are with Uncle Jim, but we also got to see Uncle Mike, Aunt Babe and Uncle Chuck, and Uncle Rich and Aunt Maggie.  It was really great. Nolan was particularly interested in Uncle Jim's amazing animation.

He was even trying to make the same silly face. 

Nolan loves reading books, of any sort.  Yesterday we read about North American birds for 15 minutes. 

 We had a wonderful visit with Nana, (great- grandma) and Nolan was a super sleeper while we were there, making life nice for us.

Yawn for the camera!

And this brings us up to Memorial Day Weekend, I will post the rest tomorrow!