Easter Weekend

John and I both took Friday off and had these great plans of having an "adult" day filled with appliance shopping, furniture shopping and maybe even a movie - but alas, come to find out on Thursday that James' new daycare was closed on Friday... so James would also be staying home. We scratched those plans super fast. James was not in the best of moods (his 2 year old molars are coming in) so we tried to lay low knowing we had a big Saturday planned. Charleston!! We had no idea what to expect with James and going to the beach - he is constantly surprising us. What we think he will love, he hates and what we think is a terrible idea, he usually ends up loving... so this was a crap shoot. We picked up John's brother Stephen when we got into town and then headed on to the beach.

James started out a little rough and needed some coaxing to go near the water...

After a few baby steps and tentative scoops with his shovel, he was ready to try and follow John and Stephen...

Wet sand is much better for digging!

By the end of the day James was a beach bum - he was digging in the sand like a pro and was sprinting towards the water. We will definitely be back for a longer stay soon.

Easter was low key - we were all tired from our day of sun. Plus John had the big duty of cleaning all the sand out of my car :) We did however have a little Easter Egg hunt for James. At first he was way more interested in his chalk but once John "found" an egg and showed him what was inside, the hunt was on!

Happy Easter!

Yesterday we had plans to go to the zoo for James' birthday - the nearest one is in Columbia, SC so we got up at 615, had a big breakfast, packed up the wagon and everything we would need and then stepped outside ... where it was pouring. When we looked at the weather on Friday, the forecast was 85 and sunny all day. When we let the dogs out at 615, there were no rain clouds in sight. Apparently everything took a turn for the worse. So we called it our rehearsal run, pushed the zoo to today and went outlet shopping instead. James was not amused but we got milkshakes at lunch so all in all it was a good day for him too. Today we repeated yesterday morning but this time we headed down to Columbia, SC  - the weather man was still saying it was going to be 85 and sunny, and he was right - it was perfect all day long. Coming from Columbus, we were a little skeptical about how it would be. We know how spoiled we are with our home zoo so we weren't expecting too much - but we also know that with James, he wouldn't be able to last a whole day that you really need at the Columbus Zoo and we had no idea if he would even be interested in any of the animals. The Columbia Zoo is considered a family and kids zoo and it really was. It was MUCH smaller than Columbus, but everything was geared towards children. You could feed almost every animal, there were activities scattered everywhere that encouraged kids to participate and everything was close together (no long walks to get anywhere). We walked the whole zoo in less than an hour but we able to make several laps around so we could see James' favorites multiple times. Having a child to experience the zoo with is so much better than when we used to go before, everything is so much more exciting and thrilling. Especially the goats and carousel. I hate goats, so John got to deal with them - but I did end up laughing along... but really, goats are just freaking weird. And who knew that the 5th time riding the carousel would be just as fun as the first?

Photo Dump

John and I always take a ton of random pictures on our phones - here are just a few from the past month!

 

The Big Two

It is so hard to believe that our little man is already two years old. The past 10 months have been a complete whirlwind with so much changing that it feels like we are just getting over his first birthday and marveling at how fast that first year went… and now it’s been two. I can’t even begin to talk about how much of a joy James has been to us. A definite challenge some days but every night when we sneak up to check on him, we just chuckle and shake our heads – even on the worst of days, it is impossible to be frustrated with him. I know that we let him get away with too much, but I dare anyone to sit with him for an hour and not be completely charmed by him. He has us totally wrapped around his little finger – and he knows it.

The past few weeks John and I have been talking about all the changes that are going to happen in the next few months. On Monday, James is switching daycares (finally!!), in the next few months, we are going to be moving into a new home and a few months after that we will be bringing a baby home. We have tried to talk about all of these changes with James and although he hears us talking, I know he really has no idea what is about to happen. The daycare and new home will take some adjustment but will not be a big deal. However, the new baby will take more than just a few weeks to get used to. I’m so worried that he will feel left out when the baby comes and I know at some point or another there will be jealousy – but no matter how exciting the new addition is, he will always hold this special place in our heats because he was the first. He is special because he made me a Mama and John a Daddy… he made us a family.

We did not do too much for his birthday, just spent some family time together with present and cupcakes - but how much better can that get?