Beach Vacay!

At the beginning of May, the Meadors and the Jameses took a trip to Corpus Christi for a long weekend. We were so excited about this trip. We were determined to be as thrifty as possible. We rented a condo directly across the street from the beach and cooked all our meals except for one. We didn't do anything particularly exciting, other than hang out at the beach and watch Hayden and Anna discover the ocean. It was so much fun!

Driving down to Corpus was kind of a nightmare as we drove through some pretty severe storms. As you know, I am no fan of severe weather. Neither is Kassidy. I felt on edge during the entire drive. I wasted our entire data plan on the iPad, constantly reloading the radar on the Weather Channel app. We safely made it to New Braunfels, where we spent the night. Kass and Jason started about an hour behind us and got hung up in the weather in Waco. They stayed the night in Waco (Sic Em!) and met up with us the next morning. The weather didn't improve the next day as the Corpus area was experiencing some intense rainfall. After getting soaked at the grocery store, the sun came out and we took the kids to the beach. Hayden discovered he loves to "CHASE BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRDS!"

I was glad we went down to the beach the night before to give Hayden and Anna a chance to see what the beach was like before thrusting them into it the next day. It gave them the opportunity to be a little freaked out -- and then get totally over it!

Anna initially said, "no thanks ocean! Not interested." She quickly changed her tune...

Hayden was a real gentleman the next morning and let the cute girl test drive his beach chair first. And then it was on to building sand castles!

After the initial beach introduction, there was no stopping these two. They were ALL OVER THE PLACE. There is no lounging around on the beach with a toddler. We were constantly up and down and chasing them all around. For the first time ever I didn't read a single book while on vacation. I was 100% okay with it though, because watching those two have so much fun was definitely the highlight of the trip!

We enjoyed the condo so much -- we may make it a yearly thing (hopefully, maybe)!

Mother's Day

One of the best gifts in my life is being Hayden's mother. He is such an amazing, loving little boy and I'm always humbled by him. Sometimes I'm humbled when he's throwing tantrums and taking swings at me (happens more often that I would like). Most often, I'm humbled when he smiles at me, says, "night, night Momma," gives me kisses or hugs me. I always find myself looking at him and thinking, "I helped make you!"

This Mother's Day weekend I got to spend a lot quality time just Hayden and me while Daddy works ER shifts. On Saturday we met up with Hayden's friend from school, Everett, and his mom Allison. I'm so excited to get the know the kids (and their parents) in Hayden's class. They all live close by, so I'm looking forward to lots of play dates! Hayden and Everett rode together in the wagon and were the picture of good behavior. I was shocked. I was even more surprised when Hayden announced he wanted to "pet snake!" Um, okay!

What you can't see in this picture is the look of horror on my face. Hayden was so brave! I couldn't believe he wanted to do it. After a nap, we headed to Hayden's favorite place -- Barnes and Noble. We played with the trains and looked at a lot of books. Hayden even left the store without throwing a major temper tantrum. I was so proud (it's the little things, sometimes).

Next week, we head to the beach with our good friends, the James family. Hayden loves him some Anna James. We had to head to Target to load up on some beach essentials (and a few things to impress Anna).

For $1 you too can have this amazing Shark visor. I'm sure Anna is going to love this look. When I tried to take the visor off Hayden yelled, "Shark bite Mommy!" at the top of his lungs. Since today was such a beautiful day we tested out Hayden's water table.

In other news, I'm constantly in awe of Hayden's ever expanding vocabulary. It is so cool to watch him put phrases together and start to truly understand what's going on around him. We hear a lot of "Mommy! Come here!" or "Daddy sit down!" in our house. There's a lot of what he says that is jibberish, but more and more is making sense. I think there's at least 3 moments a day where Clark and I look at each other and say, "where did he learn that?!" I'm most proud of how interested he is in books. He's started "reading" books out loud. He reads Good Night Gorilla, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Panda Bear Panda Bear. I know he's just associating what he's heard a thousand times with pictures, but I just LOVE it. I happened to catch him reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear on video this afternoon. If this is bragging, sue me, because right now I think Hayden is a child prodigy.

Finally Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. She is so wonderful. She's always willing to talk me me through a storm (whether figurative or literal) and gives the best parenting advice. Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law, Kathy. She raised and an amazing man who is now an amazing Dad!