Summertime fun

It has been a little while since our last update, so we have some ground to cover…

Kristi, the kids and I went back to Indiana to celebrate Aunt Emily’s graduation and visit with friend and family.  We had a great time, but for some reason didn’t take any pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that our children were adorable the entire time.

When we got back, we had a visit from Grandpa and Mimi.  We had a little belated birthday celebration for Corin’s second birthday.  He got a play tent and tube (which he loves to hide and play in) and a little plastic airplane held together by plastic bolts.  The plane came with a toy power drill and Corin LOVES taking the plane apart and putting it back together.  Abby loves to turn the drill on and feel the plastic screwdriver bit spin on her gums (which still have no teeth in them).  She turns into a slobbery mess, but she is smiling the entire time.

There was a little traveling carnival that came through town a couple weeks ago (similar to the Fun Frolic for my Indiana peeps), so Kristi and I took the kids.  Corin got to ride the train and the planes, and then we all rode on the merry-go-round together.  Abby was smiling and pumping her legs the entire time…she was so excited.  Corin was rather reserved while he was on the rides, but was unhappy every time we had to take him off, so he was obviously enjoying himself.

As mentioned above, Abby still doesn’t have any teeth poking through, but she has started eating some softer grown up food.  She has little dissolvable poofs and enjoys mandarin oranges.  As long as she is hanging onto the couch or wall or walker, she can get anywhere she wants to go now.  She climbs the steps quickly and loves to do it so we have to keep a close eye on her.

Corin is definitely turning into a little boy.  He is saying more words and it is nice that he can ask for things and answer “yes” or “no” to simple questions.  You still need a familiar ear to understand a lot of what he is saying, but we are moving in the right direction.

We went to a friend’s house yesterday and had a little cookout and pool party.  Corin and Abby both love the water and they had a blast swimming.  Corin loved jumping into the water and having someone catch him.  He does a fairly good job kicking in the water and doesn’t have too much trouble with his face going in the water.  This was Abby’s first time in a pool and her adorableness didn’t disappoint.  She was kicking and squealing in her tiny swimsuit.

Today we went to the National Aquarium in downtown DC.  They were having a Tots and Tales program that we thought Corin would enjoy.  The program was a bit of a joke (quick book read, putting trash in a fish tank to see if it would float / sink, and then coloring), and the aquarium was very small.  But Corin had fun running around the displays and looking at a few of the fish.  The one smart thing they did was have a tank that has the two main fish from Finding Nemo in it, and Corin honed right in on that.  At least he enjoyed that and had fun running around the National Mall on the way back to the car.  Unfortunately, he had so much fun during the day that when we got home we were sitting on the couch together and he vomited all over.  He seemed fine after it was over and he calmed down.

Kristi and I had tacos tonight for dinner and there was one extra taco shell on the table when we were done.  Corin climbed up and grabbed it and was running around the house eating the taco shell.  Then we went out on the front porch to watch the sprinkler in the front yard.  Corin ran out into the yard and got soaking wet in the sprinkler.  He was running around, giggling and eating his soaking wet taco shell.  You just can’t beat the look of pure joy he has on his face when he is doing something like that.

Corin Turns Two!! Happy Easter!!

Corin turned two this week and was ready to party!  Grandma came out for the week and helped us celebrate.  Kristi got Corin a lovely 'Cars' cake, and as you can see from the pictures, Corin couldn't wait to get his hands on (and in) it.  As it turns out, all he wanted were the cars on top of the cake, not the cake itself.  Once he was able to play with the cars he lost all interest in the cake...he wouldn't even take a taste of it.  Luckily it was a nice day outside so he and Abby could play outside with his new water table.  They both had a blast splashing in the water.
Grandma and the parents probably had more fun with Easter than the kids did.  We did a little egg hunt outside and it did hold Corin's attention for about half a dozen eggs and then he was ready to move on to other outdoor activities.  But they were dressed up in their Sunday best and we did score a great picture of them both smiling at the same time.
The past few days have been rough in our household.  We thought that Abby was teething, since she was fussy and had a fever.  But yesterday she was very lethargic and slept for about 80% of the day.  Her fever when went up to 102 and she went into the doctor today.  Turns out it was a little less teething and a little more ear infection than we thought.  So she is on some antibiotics now and we hope that will knock out the problem and bring out little giggling girl back.

A Brave New World

We have made our big move to the east coast.  We left home with Pop and Lola...24 hours later we arrived at our new home.  With the grandparents on childcare duty, Kristi was amazing unpacking and organizing the house.  We've been in for a couple weeks and we are settling into the house well.  We are obviously going to have to live off of our GPS systems for awhile to figure out where everything is, but we've got the gym and the grocery store scouted out, so the basics are covered.
We had a nice trip into the city to see the Cherry Blossom Festival with Lola and the kids.
Abby decided to celebrate the move by starting to crawl and can now move around pretty much wherever she wants to go.  She is also cruising around the furniture; she's pulling herself up and walking around which holding onto the couch, chairs or whatever else she can get her hands on.  As a result of never wanting to sit down, she has a new bruise just about every other day.  Right now she is sporting a couple on her head where it looks like she is about to grow horns, and a slight black eye.  But she is a happy little baby and just wants to play with her brother as much as she can.
Corin just wishes that it would stop raining every other day so he could go outside and play on his new playground.  He has got a couple swings and a fort with a ladder and climbing wall leading up to the top of his slide.  He is taking his spills learning to get up to the top on his own, but just like any little boy he just wants to climb and run around his fort.  On the downside, he has created an unfortunate contraction of "Fork" and "Truck" and enjoys yelling it quite loudly.  We're working on that one.
I started work this week and the new job is very enjoyable so far.
So to sum up:
Abby loves crawling and standing up.
Corin loves running.
Mommy and Daddy love their babies.