Summer Break: Week 3 and 4

We put our toes in the sand and enjoyed two family beach trips!!

We went with the Bakewells for a week and finished off our time away from work with a few days hanging out with the Cantrells!  In all, we were gone from our house 9 days and enjoyed every moment together.  We spent most mornings at the beach (before it got hot and before Zander's nap).  We would come back to the house to eat lunch and then relax for the afternoon (while Z was sleeping).  Most dinners were fixed at the houses we stayed at.  We went out to eat a few nights..... enjoying Dockside, the Flying Fish, and TBonz.  Zander was intimidated by the waves the first two days.  Then after watching a slightly older boy (a month older to be exact) walk toward the water, he got up the confidence to do the same thing!  From that point on it was hard to keep him in the little pools where we had played in the water and sand the first couple days.  Now our little adventurer wanted to walk into the waves and laughed at each one that came close to knocking him over!  It is so fun to see what a difference a year makes when it comes to Zander's exposure to the ocean.  He could barely hold his head up and definitely was not able to sit up, crawl or walk.  Now, he is almost running toward the water!  Our little man also celebrated his 15 month milestone while on vacation.  He is able to wave and is starting to distinguish "hi" and "bye".  He will pick up my cell phone and say "hi" like he is talking to someone on the phone.  He is getting pretty fast at climbing stairs and is getting better at sitting down appropriately to get back down the stairs.  He is still a picky eater but he loves being able to feed himself and is getting more accurate at actually having the bites land in his mouth!  He is starting to recognize body parts such as his tongue, nose, ears, head, and belly.... sometimes he is more consistent than others with pointing to the correct body part!  He loves pointing at everything and saying what sounds like "this?" (as if to ask the question "what is this?")  Here are some pictures from our adventures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(in honor of our Alexander.... we might have had a few of these days already.... like the long drive to the beach where Zander cried most of the way!.... we saw this movie advertisement when we walked out of the theater from seeing "Hercules" with Linds and Boom)

Sadie, Emma Claire and Jacob got to spend some quality time with Zander..... they are so good with him and he was entertained the entire time!  I don't know what I am going to do without them this week!

 

The girls decided to fix Zander's hair... these pictures are just too adorable.  I think he still looks like a boy regardless! haha!

 

A few comparison pictures from last year to this year.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were "wasting" time before we could check in at the Cantrell house.... we took Zander to a zoo where he could feed the animals and be wheeled around in a wagon.  He had a blast and I am including a few pictures for your enjoyment!  You will notice that daddy might have had more fun (and more feeding time) than lil' Z!  Zack acts like a kid at places like this!