The Beach

Week before last we went on our first vacation to the beach! We went to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Which also constituted our last trip in our Subaru. No, we did not get in an accident, rather, we were able to sell the Suby. Now we're hip-deep in trying to figure out what to get for our next car. But, before too much time gets away, here are a bunch of pictures and movies. And, yes, we had a lovely time!

We found a rather large female horseshoe crab!


Although they are called crabs, they are apparently more closely related to spiders!


Richie finally got to drive a car!


And a Fire Engine! He really loved these rides. And, they were only 30 or 60 cents each ride!


So much like his daddy! He had to ride in every color boat.


Richie and Momma in the Ferris Wheel. I thought I'd be too heavy, so I didn't go, but the father of the next couple proved me incorrect.


We were really surprised that he wanted to ride in the "space ships" but he liked them, too.


The Motor. It's all about the motor. Or, maybe the steering wheel.



Hurry to the fire!


Back in the boat...


This is actually from our first day on the beach. It was gorgeous every day until the last 1/2 day. Then it was chilly.


He was a little afraid of the water at first, but he warmed to it. Too bad the water didn't warm to him. It was 55F. He loved getting his feet wet. We told him the water was "licking" his toes.



ML dug "bunny holes" that Richie enjoyed standing in. We made a few moats, too, because the tide kept coming in when we'd be out and we needed a little extra time to move. Unfortunately, Richie was standing in the moat when it filled with water on the first day. He did not like that.








Last Sunday, we went with the Baltimore Family Alliance to see the O's!



Strike!



His smile really looks like his cousin Sammy's on occasion!


The view from our seats. Normally, we would have moved to closer seats, but these were protected from the rain!


I'll be keeping this video close-at-hand when he becomes a teen!


Playing in the sand.


Shooing waves.


Driving in the Fire Engine

Squeek

A movie is worth a thousand words.
(GG, these are both movies! Get them to play by pressing the right arrowhead at the bottom left of the video window.) (No, she has not figured it out yet.)

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Press the arrowhead that my "text" arrow is pointing to!


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Press the arrowhead that my "text" arrow is pointing to!

What a punim!

Shabbat Shalom

I think I forgot to post this movie earlier. Richie has started singing on his own and in response to songs, too. Lately he and I have been doing the ABC's where I sing one letter and he sings the next. It all started a few weeks ago when he start mumbling some words and intermittently shouting. After a few refrains, ML finally figured out he was singing one of his songs from Tot-Shabbat:
(GG: This is a movie with sound! Do I need to keep putting this instruction here when it's a movie or do you have it figured out?)

Catching up

Richie has become quite compassionate (read demanding) about sitting in the driver's seat of our car! And it doesn't matter how long he sits there, he never gets tired of it, and crys out every time you take him away. I have NO idea where he gets this from!


Just a cute pic of Richie running around in one of the local parks.


Can you say, "Super Star!" Richie, can.


Actually, I have no idea if he can say super star, but he probably can. He's started naming some of his toys. The alligator got named a couple of weeks ago. The triceratops was named when Mom bought him this week.
(GG, this is a movie!)


Yes, the alligator is Garellow. Much to our surprise, Richie named the triceratops XYZ!

Finally!

Yeah, yeah. I know, I'm behind. And this is only going to help a little!
Richie continues to talk-up a storm. Today he said his ABC's up to P in the right order! He's also counting and saying 3-4 word sentences with good frequency. "Please," is still the word he keeps forgetting. I'm sure I deserve that, somehow.

Toward the end of last month we trekked into DC for the Cherry Blossom festival. We took the metro into town, which worked better than what we tried last year, however, when I told the metro employee we wanted to go to the Jefferson memorial, she confused it for the Lincoln memorial. So, we stopped to him, too. But it made for a LOT of walking!

I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory. And, since I am sleepy, you'll have to make up your own captions, as needed. :-)














This is the first time Richie sat in a tree!




(GG, the following is a Movie!)


(GG, this is a movie, too. But it does not contain a Richie.)

Pink-ink

I think I forgot to tell this most important story and post accompanying movie...GASP!

We'll start with one of my favorite new words! Richie has known many of the colors for quite some time, but has just started to verbalize them. (Actually, he's verbalizing virtually everything he hears even if we don't try to directly teach it to him. Like today after dinner he said, "Bib!" and tugged at his bib because he wanted it off.)

I think I've already mentioned Lellow, which was my fav for several weeks. Momma was teaching him other colors, too. Richie has a tendency to drop the last syllable, so when she taught him pink, she put particular emphasis on the hard 'k' at the end. This resulted in Richie saying, "Pink-ink!" In an effort to emulate the emphasis. That, is my new favorite Richie word! I make him say it over and over again! I have to because soon he's going to drop the -ink part. I really should take a movie of him saying it. I digress.

Richie and I went to the Science Center on the 12th to join in the egg drop contest! They provide you with a handful of materials and an egg in a plastic bag. We had to construct a device that would protect the egg as it fell three stories in the science center. As usually, we were late leaving the house and by the time we arrived, we (I) had a total of 10 minutes to construct such a device. I had access to: empty bottles, plastic bags, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, tape, yarn and packing peanuts. I remembered from Boy Scouts that you want to distribute the force along one of the ends of the egg and not the side. I immediately went for a paper towel roll, but it was not wide enough, so I cut a slit down the side and slid the egg in. Put take along the bottom and filled the tube with packing peanuts and taped the partially split tube up. Unlike most bags used as parachutes, I used the four corners of the bag with the yarn to attach the chute to the tube. Most people were just using the bag handles. Then, some tape around the top of the tube just to make sure the yarn stayed in the little holes I had made along the top of the tube. All of this in 10 minutes! Oh, and where was Richie you ask? (Especially since it was just the two of us?) Well, I did the only thing I could. I gave him a pair of scissors to play with so he'd stay next to me. He's not allowed to have them at home, so I know it would occupy him for a good amount of time and they were kid's scissors, so we was not likely to permanently injury himself. Thankfully, he did not cut his pants, which is what I was expecting him to do.

When we went to turn in our egg-protecting-contraption (which was far less of a contraption than many of the other contestants), we were asked to name it. I looked at Richie and said, "Should we name it Pink-ink?" The name was greeted with a big smile and a nod of the head. So, without further adieu, here is the maiden voyage of Pink-Ink!!!!!