Little Beach Bum

Last week we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with Erin before she had to go back to Kentucky. Erin is a fantastic photographer and she snapped about a thousand pictures of Maddox at the beach and going on a boat ride.

Home Videos

Alicia Kercheville recently had all of their old home videos put on DVDs, and we have been enjoying videos of Tim, Erin and Renee when they were little (and Mark when he had a mustache). My personal favorite is the video of Renee's third birthday when my dad teased her. Three year old Renee glared at him, and then accusingly tattled to Alicia, "Mom, Uncle Dean talked to me." Love it!

Anyway, we have had so much fun seeing those videos that it inspired me to take more video of Maddox just being Maddox. So, yesterday, I just carried the camera around with me in the afternoon, and recorded him just being.

This first video is Maddox playing baseball. He has the basic idea down, but he gets a little mixed up on the steps. First he hits the ball, then gets a new ball, puts his bat away, and then finally gets around to running the bases...

This next video is him figuring out how to work a toy saw. I just love watching those wheels turn as he learns something new...

I have a few more videos, and I will post them soon. I'm his dorky mom, so I could watch these videos all day. But for more normal people, you can only watch so much of a toddler doing nothing!

Memories of Lauren

Mandy and Ted were recently digging through old files on their computer and ran across a video of Lauren taking her one and only step. I think I played back the beginning of this video about 500 times. The way Lauren's face beams after she steps is one of the most precious things I have ever seen! I loved it ... and I know you will too. Check out this link of Lauren's video.

Official Big Boy

Well, ladies and gentlemen ... Little Man is officially a big boy! It's been in the works for a while now, and it took some encouragement from Mommy, but he is finished nursing. He hasn't nursed since Saturday (and today is Tuesday) and when he asked for it this morning, he was okay with a cup of chocolate milk instead. I guess this marks the end of his baby days.

I just can't believe how old he is getting. I guess I should start looking for colleges for him.

What We've Been Up To

I know I haven't posted to the blog much lately, but it's because we just don't have that much spectacular stuff going on. It's pretty much the daily grind over here. We did get to enjoy a visit from Janelle this last week while her parents were out of town at the National Softball Tournament with Kailyn. (Kailyn's team placed fourth, by the way!!!) We had a lot of fun with Janelle, as you can see in some of the photos.

We play in the water just about every day around here. I keep Maddox slathered with sunscreen, but you can see just how dark he's getting. He sure is lucky to have Daddy's skin color.

*** NOTE: I just looked at this post again and realized that my child is not fully clothed in any of the pictures! I promise my kid does wear clothes ... sometimes.

We went to the Rancho Santa Margarita Beach Club with some friends this week. In true mommy form, I forgot my camera, so these are the only pictures I have from a friend. My friend Nancy took a lot more photos and I will be getting those soon ... so more pics to come ...
Below is the scene at my house after we went to the Beach Club all morning. Two very tired puppies ...

Maddox is getting to be such a big helper. This weekend, he washed the car with us ...


And he got a little bored and washed the street.

We also love to go to the Irvine Spectrum to play in the fountains ...

Maddox put on Janelle's headphones at lunch today and rocked out to Hannah Montana. Jeff put the camera on the table to catch a secret video of Maddox dancing ...