He's baaack. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 9

Guess who flew back down to the beach yesterday?

Yep… Dad's back. And we are all pretty excited to have him here to enjoy our final days in paradise.

The sun rising over the beach. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 8

Going through all 500 or so pictures I've taken thus far during our beach adventure, each new day starts with a picture of me snapping the beautiful sunrise at 6.30 in the morning. And these two are my favorite so far:

So I guess sharing a room with the vampire baby does hold it advantages.

My little man and the sea. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 7

Within 24 hours of pulling into the parking lot at The Breakers, Luke was diagnosed with a double ear infection and it was determined that he also loathed sand and saltwater. Yes, he was still in the early stages of his antibiotics, but even after three days here whenever he would get near the beach he would scream and cling to my body like I was trying to throw him into a river of hot lava. And being the eternal optimist I am, I would turn around and stomp back to the condo, muttering things like, OH GREAT! and Wow. Aren't we going to have an awesome trip. and Way to ruin my vacation, Luke.

But then this past Monday, while enjoying an absolutely beautiful morning on the white sugar sand and my healing son was sulking on his towel underneath the umbrella, something shifted. And I don't know if it was that the meds kicked in, or if he just realized how much fun everyone else was having, but all of the sudden Luke lunged forward and crawled out of his happy, safe place into the sand. And we all held our breath and waited for him to scream and whine. But he didn't. He had a beach breakthrough.

And the rest is history.

In fact, today he ate about three heaping handfuls of the grainy goodness and then tried crawling right into the surf. He's a reformed beach-bum. And as I stripped him naked on the porch to keep the beach outside, I smiled as I shook the sand out of all his doughy crevices. Way to make my vacation, Luke.

Taylor makes a new friend. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 6

So while me and the kids are having lots of fun maxing and relaxing in Orange Beach for spring break, it's Chris's parents who are really partying. Three other couples that they have been super close with since their days living in Cedar Falls are also here, so Greg and Sue have been splitting their time between spoiling their grandbabies and sampling homemade limoncello. Oh yes, we are getting wild here at the beach, y'all. Spring Break! Woot-woot!

And one other couple invited their daughter, her husband and their kids to join them for some beach-fun also. Which means Taylor got a new little friend, Helen, to join her for the second week of our paradise-vacation. And I didn't think about how much this would mean to my little miss until I saw her expression when she met Helen… It was like, OH MY! You're my size! I LOVE you! And her new friend agreed.

Beeba comes to the beach. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 5

So after Chris left us on Wednesday to fly back to Asheville and work for a week, the weather actually turned a bit dreary and the wind picked up. Nothing as extreme as that one summer my family vacationed down the beach when I was in grade school and a hurricane passed through, causing us to evacuate our condo for 24 hours and live at my Great Aunt Pat's house, which was an hour inland. Fun times. Anyways, the skies were cloudy and the waves were rough, and since we all got a bit too much sun on the last day Chris was here, we took a few days off from the beach and shopped and played and found ourselves busy with some non-surf related fun. It's not that hard to do. We do it roughly 351 other days every year.

But then on Friday afternoon the skies cleared up and the wind died down, just in time for my sister to arrive from Birmingham. You see, since we were an Amys down, Greg and Sue were kind enough to open up their condo to include my sister for a weekend. And I was beyond excited to have her down here to share in some sandy, saltwater fun. And so were Taylor and Luke. In fact, my son was so thrilled to have his old bunkmate back that he reverted back to his vampire-ways and repeatedly howled out his joy throughout the night. Ah. Sharing a room with your non-sleeping baby is always a challenge. But less so when you get to wake up and realize you're at the beach.

And even though Lib was only with us for less than 48 hours, we packed in more relaxing, reminiscing and cheese curl consumption than most people do in a week. You Blackwell family members would have been impressed. We Young sisters do the beach pretty well.

We even took a drive over to our old summer stomping grounds and checked out the condo we used to vacation at, The Searfarere, and then had an interesting dinner at The Original Point, a restaurant we would dine at each time were were in the area. And I say Interesting because it truly was, and I don't know if I could even come close to the Twilight Zone experience we encountered… I'll just leave that between Libba and I. What can I say, you had to be there. But I will leave you with the advice one oversharing diner gave us: Don't let that baby swim in the water after dark. That's when the sharks feed.

Spring break(through). Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 4

Okay, just to recap, we're days into our two-week beach vacation and I've got one child who's afraid of the ocean and another with a double ear-infection. But on Tuesday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and favorable forecast, and a gung-ho attitude from Chris and I: TODAY is going to be the best day ever. Come on, Universe! Through us a bone.

And not only did we want to get the spring break party started, but I was also weary in that Chris was leaving on Wednesday to fly back to Asheville to work and study for a week before flying back to beach-it with us for our final days of the vacation. And I really wanted Chris to be able to soak up as much surf and sun and fun before heading back to work. And the Universe must have wanted that too. Because Taylor got over her fear of the waves and Luke's meds started to kick in. So it really was an awesome day.

Oh, the water. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 3

Words cannot express how excited I was to dip my toes in that fabulous Gulf Coast, and feel the waves wash the saltwater over my feet until they are buried in the soft, sugar sand. It's one of the most freeing, soul lifting things in the world.

Welcome to my Happy Place:

Let's go fly a kite. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 2

Taylor had been pestering us to get a kite since her Mary Poppins phase this past fall, and since the beach is the best place ever to fly a kite, we held off any flying until we got here. And because we had built it up so much, even letting Chris take her to the toy store a few weeks ago to pick out the prettiest, sturdiest flying creation in all of Asheville, she was beyond excited to unwrap it and take it on it's maiden flight.

It was everything she had imagined. And it was pretty amazing for us too.

Orange Beach or bust. Our 2012 spring break adventure, Part 1

When Chris's mom asked us if we would be interested in joining them on their Spring Break vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama, this March, I jumped all over it. I mean, One, BEACH! and, Two, BEACH! And not just any beach, but a small location on the Gulf of Mexico panhandle that was just a few miles from the beach that I grew up going to with my family every summer for the first 25 years of my life. And the thought of me creating memories with Taylor and Luke in the same white, sugar sand that I hold so near-and-dear to my soul made me tremble with happiness. And March 17 couldn't get here fast enough.

And after packing half of our house into our ride, we made the long, LONG! ten hour drive south, arriving into The Breakers parking lot overjoyed to be out of the car and breathing in the saltwater air. And we immediately ran down into the sand and dipped our toes into the water. Well, Chris and I did. Taylor was scared to death of the water, staying a good fifty yards from the surf and claiming that it was, "Too loud!" And we were all, Um, Honey. THIS is the beach and we're here for two weeks. You will learn to love it and all of its loudness.

And after unpacking everything into our new digs and opening a bottle of wine with Greg and Sue, we noticed that the little big guy wasn't quite acting like his normal, happy self. And after another day of constant whining and ear tugging, we finally conceded to take him into the Urgent Care across the street so he could be diagnosed with a double ear infection. Ugh. But at least we brought him in and got him started on antibiotics, so he can get back to his charming, smiley self and start enjoying our vacation in paradise. And until then, we'll just bribe both kids with ice cream until they both get on the same level of beach-bliss as we are.

Eleven months old

Yep, you read that title right... ELEVEN MONTHS OLD. We are on the homestretch to turning the big-ONE, y’all, and I feel like I am an emotional vortex because of it. On one hand, WOW! I have almost completed – and survived - my first year being a mother of two. Hooray for me! And on the other hand, Seriously? Has the Universe started moving at warp-speed? If I close my eyes, I can clearly remember being in the hospital, giving birth to the biggest, cutest baby boy in the whole world. I’m afraid if I close my eyes again, when I come too he’ll be leaving for college. So maybe that’s one positive tick-mark for not sleeping, eh? I get to enjoy every second... Especially the ones between the hours of midnight and four in the morning.

So. Luke is only a baby for one more month, and then we can technically start calling him a toddler, disregarding the fact he’s been wearing 2T clothes for a few weeks now. Oh yes, the big guy is a growing, and judging by his appetite, he’s gonna stay in the top of the growth-charts for a while longer. And while he’s been successfully chowing down on real-people food for a few months now, he and I are currently in the process of weaning. And, let me tell ya, it’s not easy. My weaning process with Taylor was sudden and traumatic, and I had wanted to avoid that shock to my system at all costs this go-round. And even though Luke and I have had some battles over the bottle in the past, I’m happy to announce that he’s starting to adapt to the bah-bah and sippy cups. And hopefully by the time I’m writing down my One year milestones post we are totally done and I can joyfully announce that I’ve got my body back to myself. Keep your fingers crossed... Because I am so OVER doubling up sports bras to go for a run.

Oh, my little man. I just hate seeing him upset at all, because it’s such a dramatic shift from his normal, jovial self. Other than showing brief vampire-like qualities, Luke really is the happiest baby in the whole world, and this past month he started getting really, really FUN! We’ve all known he’s got a knack for flirting and being charming, but the past few weeks he’s started showing his silly-side. He loves playing peek-a-boo and swinging his arms in the air when music comes on. And the kid loves BALLS! He’ll beeline across a room to grab one of his toy balls and spike it on the ground and then go and get it again. Almost like he’s playing catch with himself. Which is a good thing too, because Lord knows the Princess is too busy reenacting the entire Tangled movie to fit in a game of catch.

But even though she’s not throwing the ball to him, Taylor truly is the best, most tolerant, big sister I could imagine. Luke is totally mobile and all over everything and so into whatever she’s playing with. He’ll wipe out her tea parties and stick her puzzle pieces in his mouth, and then he’ll grab at her hair and throw things at her when she tries to protect her playthings. And she’ll just squeal, NO, YUKEY! and then continue on trying to live in her magical princess kingdom. Yeah... I don’t think Luke realizes how good he’s got it. But one thing is for certain, no one can make him laugh like his big sister does. And watching, from a distance, the two of them play together and erupting in big belly laughs is by far the most amazing, heart-warming thing ever. And to think, a year ago at this time I was worried that this would be too much for Taylor. I’m pretty sure it’s the best thing we could have ever done for her.

So in the past few months Luke has gone from barely moving to crawling at lightening speeds around the house and pulling himself up on whatever he can. He’s got that lethal combination of being pretty tall and extremely determined, so all of our table have been cleared of any sorts of choking hazzards or heavy objects. He’s totally cruising from furniture to furniture, and I expect him to be walking in the next few months. Which, just the thought of, makes my left arm and shoulder sigh in relief from carrying that hefty boy around all day.

One thing’s for sure, when he does start walking we’re definitely going to have to reassemble to baby gate to keep him off the stairs. Even now, he’ll sneakily crawl his way onto the landing and up two or three stairs before starting to squeal, MEEP! MEEP!, which Luke-speak for, Hey Mom! Look! I’m on the stairs again! I watched him from the bottom of the staircase the other day as he got halfway up, and then he turned around and tumbled into my arms. It wasn’t death-defying, but he did roll down about six or seven stairs. And when I scooped him into my arms and started soothing him, he stopped me and STARTED LAUGHING. And then he clapped a few times and tried to crawl up them again. Seriously. I guess this is what people mean when they say, He’s all boy.

But I guess this past month was just a warm-up in keeping this Mama on her toes. I watch friends of mine who have sons that are a bit older than mine, and they are constantly chasing them down on the playground and catching them as they jump off the highest point of the jungle gyms. I could keep baby-Taylor contained by just surrounding her in a circle of books and Princess dolls. I think Luke’s gonna keep my senses on high alert. Hopefully by the time his testosterone-inspired daredevil routine starts I’ll be a little more rested.

So one more month until we’re watching him bury his face in birthday cake, and feeding him peanut butter, and turning his carseat around. All very exciting things that bring me both utter joy and heartache at the same time. Oh, this year is going so, so fast. And with an upcoming beach trip with Chris’s parents, followed by a visit to Asheville from my parents, this final month before his big birthday will be the icing on the cake of our best year ever. It may be going fast, but we are enjoying every second of it.