Turtle Baby

Diane and Scott's updates on the little turtle.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

First Day of School

Turtle has started Elementary School. He is in the 3 year old Spanish program at Maury Elementary School. He was very excited as you can see, and proud with his backpack and lunch box - Thank you Aunt Donna - Diego is so perfect since he is doing the Spanish Immersion class.
We are just 3 blocks from the school, so we plan on walking to pick him up/drop him off.

He has to wear a uniform - navy bottom, and white shirt.

He has an enthusiastic teacher, who does lots of singing, which Turtle loves.

We hope it will be a fun year for our growing guy!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Meeting our new Cousin


Beta is no longer the baby in the family! He got to meet his 12 week old cousin this weekend. Turtle was thrilled to have new playmates in the adults - his Aunt, Uncle, and Su. Beta loved the baby! He was so sweet with his new cousin - he kept coming over to give him hugs and see what he was doing. He even let his Mama hold the baby without too much jealousy. No this does not mean we are having a 3rd! It was super fun to see my sister thrive in her role as a mama and to meet my new nephew! Glad we get to see them again soon.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Talking away


Beta is really using his words now. He wakes up in the morning and does not cry anymore he calls out “mommy…mommy…mommy”! It is such sweet music to my ears that I forgive the 5:45 rising. He will also ask for milk and bubbles by name - clearly some favorite items. I also love to hear him call out his brother’s name, which he will do on command, but not yet spontaneously. He sure loves his older brother. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning and from nap is run to his brother’s room. One early morning I tried to get Beta to snuggle in the bed with me to get a few more minutes of rest, but he was having none of it and slid off the bed. I took a couple seconds to follow him in my drowsy before 6 am state. I looked in the bathroom – no Beta, looked in his bedroom – no Beta, went down to Turtle’s room and not only was he in there, but he had already climbed into Turtle’s Bed. As you can see from the picture he loves climbing.

Turtle is a nonstop talker and fun to listen to. He is a very enthusiastic learner, and wants to share all of the “tricks” from daycare now. When you tell him to pick a book to read before bed he will pull out 4 or 5 and say “Einy Meiny Miny Mo” to select his choice. He also has his own version of high five, on the side, down low, too slow. He constantly amazes me with his ability to apply and recall events. For example, as we are listening to weather forecast on the radio, he will say “Mama she said thunderstorms”. He was talking about 2 of something and 2 of something else and he blurted out “That’s 4!” without any prompting for adding them up from me. While we play games he is just thrilled with taking his turn and says "I am so lucky" when he gets a break of any kind. Unfortunately with all this talking, some talking back has arrived. When I told him it was time to do something after making a block tower he replied “No I not because I want to keep an eye on that.” He was afraid Beta would come and knock it over – which is of course what happened!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Beach Blog 2008


The highlight of my summer is typically a week at the beach with Dada's entire family. This year we had a new location - Corolla, Outer Banks NC. It was a huge adventure getting to the house as the paved road ended and you had to drive on the beach 6 miles to get there. Beta was way tired of being in the car after a 5 hour drive, but as soon as we turned onto the beach, he was enthralled by the bumpy sand ride and ocean view! The trip was worth it for sure. The boys both loved having daily access to a hot tub and a pool, not to mention tons of sand to dig in. Turtle could not get enough of jumping the waves and luckily had many family members to help him do it.

The boys got some special Nana and PaPa time while the cousins and siblings took hang gliding lessons at Jockey's Ridge - super fun to fly!

The beach has a sanctuary for wild horses and they came right up to the house. It was especially neat to see the foals.

Turtle could not get enough of his cousins and family members. They were a great help in caring for the boys as well as entertaining them.

I am already looking forward to next year!

Saturday, July 05, 2008

A Family 4th

We started our day with a 4th of July Parade headed up by the Marine Corp Marching Band. It is so exciting to hear the drums and horns at a distance and know they are heading your way. Here they come

and there they go.

Next, we got to listen to some other live bands and eat hotdogs at a street festival of sorts. After nap we rode the bikes to a friend's house in the neighborhood for some water play and amazing ribs.

The kids are still too young and scared to attend the real fireworks show, but we watched a bit on TV. We had a fantastic family 4th!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Gym Gymboree

We have been attending fantastic birthday parties for Turtle's classmates at various "Little Gym" type locations over the past weekends. They are a blast for both kiddos and parents. These places have the art of birthday parties down to a science. The boys absolutely love the climbing, bouncing, and swinging opportunities. Dada and I both wish we would have had our videocamera available to record Beta on his first trampoline experience. It was absolutely hilarious watching him try to keep up with how fast he had to move his feet to keep his balance since he does not yet have the coordination to jump with 2 feet in the air. Our guys love to be physical and these gym experiences are inevitebly getting carried over into our home. I jsut keep praying that Beta will not fly off the couch and bonk his head. I certainly can avoid the gym myself if I keep pulling them around in the rocket ship/box - well not really, but.....

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Saturday Lunch

It's been a busy Saturday so far. We got the whole family to hang in the backyard most of the morning tidying up after the fence build. The boys amused themselves with digging with shovels and hauling the dirt in the big Tonka truck. After a quick bike ride with TurtleMama we broke for lunch.

Since they have a birthday party this afternoon, we wanted to get them an early lunch. This means, TurtleDad gets to make and eat his lunch later away from prying eyes and hungry cries. For those of you who know me well, you're aware that TurtleDad knows his way around a kitchen. With the room to myself, I ask you: what could be better lunch on a busy Saturday?

Why a toasted Elvis with honey, of course!

If you're not familiar with this particular sandwich, let me fill you in. Take two slices of bread, some peanut butter, a very ripe banana, and some high-quality honey. (I used Buckwheat Honey--it has a marvelous malty flavor.) While the bread is toasting, slice the banana into thirds (longways). Smear the peanut butter on the bread and layer the banana slices. Give it a liberal application of honey and you're all done.

Let me tell you, this is one tasty sandwich!




What's that drink beside the Toasted Elvis? Why it's America's favorite...Tang!

It is a Saturday after all!