Bethany Beach

Today we made a trip to Bethany Beach in Delaware. How is the beach ever not worth a 6 hour round trip? It was a little over crowded for my taste, but the boys all raved about how much better the waves were, and there was a Sonic on the way home which provided me a very tasty strawberry vanilla Dr Pepper, so this beach has earned the number one spot on our list of best beaches around. 

It is always so relaxing to get out of the house, and lay around in the sun all day making sand castles, and splashing. 

I am pleased, and a bit surprised, to report that Syphr did not eat one hand full of sand the entire day. Maybe he learned the first 5 times? What he did do, however, was steal the neighbors sand toys, which displeased the two year old and 4 year old owners of said sand toys. He also spent a large chunk of the day splashing in the waves with no fear of how deep, or how cold the water was. Love this beach baby!

Talan was not a water fan today. Instead he filled countless buckets with sand only to dump them out and fill them back up again.

Ashton spent the day in the water, somewhere in the midst of people, attempting to fight the waves off with a giant crab leg he found that much resembled a Harry Potter wand. When he was not in the water, he was rolling his soaking wet body in the sand to warm up. No towels needed for this kid. 

This is his attempts at making a sand angel. 

We also had a family 'bury Ashton and recreate The Awakening' moment when he came ashore for his sand rolling warm up minute.

Pretty close to the real deal!

We sure do love the beach, and as much fun as it is for the whole family, Brad and I were a tiny bit jealous of the people that were able to sit in their chairs under the shade of an umbrella and enjoy the breeze and sound of the waves crashing while reading a book. There was no sand or sea water all over their towels, they didn't have to look constantly for the whereabouts of their children. Relaxation at its finest. Maybe someday that will be us. (hint hint Brad Coates)

Big boys all around

I absolutely love having a good sleeper. Syphr was the last one to sleep through the night, almost to the point I thought he would NEVER sleep all night, but boy is he a good sleeper. 

He still takes a morning nap for a couple hours most days, then an afternoon nap lasting another 3 hours or so, and just like clockwork, the clock hits 7pm and he is letting us know he would like to go to bed. I think it is the sweetest when he comes whining at me, and I ask him if he wants to go night-night and he answers with a very quick, "yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAH." He makes a quick wave to the rest of the family (if he's not too irritated he's not in his bed at this point) and runs to the stairs. 

Once in his room he lays down with his pile of binkas (one in each hand, one in his mouth, and one on his eyes as if he is at the spa), and we don't hear another peep.  Tonight, since he is such a great night time kid, we decided to try and see how he would react to a big boy bed. He didn't make a peep. That is the exact position he was when we closed the door. 

So excited to shove the pack n play in the closet, and so excited for an excuse to visit Ikea again! (for the  second time this week, and it is only Tuesday)

On another note, look at the massive curlpalooza happening on top of Sy's head when lathered with mousse. I'm trying to figure out, as his hair grows longer, how to define his curls. Unfortunately, the top is still defined straight. 

Ashton declares his manliness

"If I wanted a girlfriend I could get one anytime I want. It wouldn't be hard at all! It would be REALLY easy! Especially at Farley!"

Talan turns 4!!

This year I decided to interview Talan about turning the big 4. Here's how it went:

What is your favorite color?  red

What is your favorite thing to do? I like to play with my kitchen with daddy

What do you want to be when you grow up?  My job is going to be blow the fires away. I will be a          firefighter when I am big.

What is your favorite song?  Ring around the Rosie

What is your favorite movie?  Monsters vs Aliens

What is something that you are really really good at? I am good at....I am good at.....OH!  I am good at making food...........I think

What is your favorite thing to look at? Parks, or doggies, or alligators, or doggies. Like those things.

What is your favorite thing to do with Ashton? I like to ride bikes with him

What is your favorite thing to do with Syphr? Let him go down the Syphr slide

What is your favorite thing to do with dad? Play with my bubbles

What is your favorite thing to do with mom? Slide at the park

How is being 4 different that being 3?  from here, to here, to up, to the planet, to down to the planet, to the side at the rest. Then the cars all run into each other and crash.

What do you get to do when you are 4 that you didn't get to do when you were 3?  I did not get to blow bubbles. I did not get to ride a horsey. I did not get to ride bikes. I did even not get to ride with funner wheels. Like on Dora there is a tiger that is out of the circus on Dora and he gots a pedal bike and he gots it with no more wheels, just one, and he doesn't even have the whole bike. The tiger doesn't even have the whole bike. he has lots of things.

What is the best thing about being 4?  Bowing bubbles, I mean blowing bubbles are my favorite thing of being 3, this kind of 3 that I like. When I'm riding on my horsey outside and riding bikes. 

What can I say about this kid. We seriously love having Talan in our family. He is so sweet always telling us "you're the best (mommy, daddy, Ashton, or Syphr) ever!", and fun when he draws daily treasure maps for a daily treasure hunt, and hilarious with all the random things that come out of his mouth. He also knows what he wants, will blast out his spectacular negotiating skills to get it, and is not afraid to back down to anyone.....ever. I hope that as he gets older, he keeps his strong determination, no matter how grey it might make my hair in the meantime. But, for now, he is my favorite 4 year old on the planet and we love him very much!

Once again....just how is his mouth too small??

I would vote for someone on American Idol, or even watch it for that matter, if that someone wore a tiger visor while singing.

I would say Talan is a big Bruno Mars fan, but he only listens to 'Somewhere in Brooklyn' 75 times a day while not really caring the other songs exist, so I guess he is just a fan of this song that happens to be by Bruno Mars. 

Peanut allergy loophole

Despite being allergic to peanuts, despite the level of the allergy more than doubling in the past 2 years according to his recent RAST test, and even despite the sign 'we use peanut oil' we took our peanut allergic child to eat at Chick Fil A armed with an Epi Pen at the ready. 

Chick Fil-A has a special way of refining peanut oil and taking all of the peanut protein out of the oil making it safe for most peanut allergic kids. We've been curious to take him for a while because we both remember him eating there when he was smaller with no reaction, he is able to play in the play place without a problem, and last time we ate there I rubbed my chicken sandwich on his arm and saw no hives. 

It was a little scary watching him take the first few bites, but he downed his chicken nuggets, fries, played in the play place, and turned up with not even one hive. Success! Take that peanut allergy!

Beach bound

Our family left for a quick, sort of spur of the moment, 24 hour getaway before Brad's departure date next week. We headed to Ocean City to spend the night with plans to play at the beach right outside our hotel in the morning, and visit Assateague Island to see some wild horses, ride bikes, and play in the sand and waves in the afternoon. 

Chappie was loaded to the max, and we left the confinement of our 1 bedroom apartment not looking back.  Unfortunately, the brotherly tormenting dramatics came along for the ride:

Those dramatics didn't stay long when we woke up the next morning, threw on our swim suits, and headed for the waves. My prediction was Talan would not go in the water past his ankles and would complain of sand being on him, Ashton would think he was awesome if his shorts got wet, and Syphr would be hot and done after 10 minutes. I couldn't be more wrong. 

Ashton spent the entire time being thrashed around by waves, attempting to successfully body surf his way into shore, all while wearing his blue snorkeling goggles. 

I thought this was awesome because Ashton is inside this wave. You can barely see him in the middle.

Talan, while walking to the beach from our hotel said, "I don't want to get sand on me." I told him that he was going to have a big problem then and explained what a beach was. He was hesitant at first, but ended up having a blast running from the waves, building sand castles, and conquering the big waves with Ashton and Brad.

Syphr is definitely a beach fan. He giggled at the waves crashing into his feet, dug in the sand with his little shovel, and banged shells together. 

His most favorite, and by his face each time I'm guessing also least favorite part of the beach was sand consumption. There were at least 4 different occasions where I caught Syphr eating sand, and every time he made the same face, yet 10 minutes later he was doing it again.

As lunch time, and check out time, approached we headed for some lunch and more playing on Assateague Island. Assateague Island is home to about 300 wild ponies. I say wild, but what I mean is they are as wild as you can get. They roam the island and beaches free, and the last Wednesday in July about 150 of the pony population head for a swim across the channel as they are herded to an auction to reduce the numbers of pony inhabitants on Assateague Island. Sadly for us, that meant all the wild ponies were in a pen so they were ready to make their annual swim, making them look much less wild. Annoying, but made up for by the relaxing, and nearly private, beach we stumbled upon during our bike ride.

This was hands down the winner over Ocean City. Not only did the sand dip down into a little trench which waves would periodically refill to make a Syphr sized ocean, but there was no worry to watch out for incoming boogy boards, or other kids to stomp on our sand castles. 

Syphr found the sand unappetizing here as well, yet still shoved his mouth full a couple times.

 The only thing that lost this beach a few points was the tiny crab residents. Good thing we brought the Fivefingers to protect our toes from tiny crab pinches.

 So, I love a good succession picture. I saw this happening out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't realize I had gotten it on camera. I'm so glad my camera was set up to capture 3 pictures at a time. Watch Syphr on the left:

I think it is safe to say we will be back here when Brad returns home.

All was quiet...

Until Ashton shreiked, 

"NO, SYPHIE, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! OH MAN, SYPHRRRR!"

He has been eying Talan's lotion since he was mobile. After several months of waiting, plotting, and observing, his window was opened. I forgot to put the lid back on the lotion and Syphr had a party.

Phase 1

It is hard for me to imagine that Ashton's mouth is too small for all his teeth. Seriously, check out the size of this thing:

I'm also not an orthodontist, and apparently a jaw which is too small for the incoming teeth can cause massive problems if not corrected. So, a few weeks ago, I realized how junky orthodontic insurance really is, and practically signed my life away.

For the last few weeks, Ashton has had spacing rubber bands in his back top teeth. The rubber bands spaced his back teeth out ever so slightly so a metal spacer could become the new inhabitant of his mouth.

We are most excited that the new 'appliance' will be cemented in his mouth, and we will not have to make several trips back to the orthodontist to replace the broken rubber bands.

And here it is:

Basically, this could be compared to a torture device. At the roof of Ashton's mouth is a dial. Every day for the next week I will turn the dial one time with a special key which will slowly widen his top jaw. The hope is that his bottom jaw will follow since the top and bottom teeth want to fit together. So far, he said he is in no pain. The only annoyance of the day is all the excess spit his body is creating since it thinks he has food in his mouth and wants to digest this torture device. 

He is getting better at speaking, but I still can't understand everything that comes out of his mouth. Here he is trying to say,

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."