Saturday morning we were happy to see that Ryan, Aimee, Addie, and Will had made it during the night. Granna and I made breakfast for the kids and kept them entertained so Ryan and Aimee could get some sleep since they had driven all night to get there. Evie was so excited to see Addie and Will, Addie in particular. Evie gave Addie a big hug and the three kids all had a great breakfast together around the kids' table in the condo. Soon everyone in the house was up and we headed to the beach. The Gulf was really nice, calm, and warm, and we took all the kids in with their water wings and life vests. They enjoyed going out in the water and then being taken back in to the shore on the little waves. The kids also enjoyed getting a bath together after a long day at the beach.
Sunday and Monday we spent time on the beach. Sunday Evie gave us all a scare. Most of the adults were sitting on the shore with Evie, Addie and Will making sand castles. I was standing, but I had looked away to tell something to Granna who was farther up the beach, and the next thing I knew, Evie had taken off running straight into the water. She hit the water before I could get to her and landed face first into the next wave that came along. She was wearing a life vest but that didn't make it any less scary to me. I got to her within seconds, but she definitely got a belly full of water and plenty of salt water in her eyes. She recovered much sooner than the rest of us who were all surprised at her tenacity. In fact, she made another break for the water within minutes of the first attempt. We knew we had to keep a closer eye on her after that - she's a quick one! Grannadaddy drove in Monday morning so it was nice to have him along for our morning beach excursion. They all enjoyed building some more sandcastles (well, a sand stadium, since Grannadaddy loves all things baseball), and Evie didn't do any sprinting into the water.
When the kids weren't at the beach, they were all entertained by their iPads - each of the kids has one but they were very good about sharing them with each other, Addie's piano (which Evie learned to work very quickly), a copy of "Peter Pan", and mostly the bag of tricks Granna brought with her. She brought all kinds of arts and crafts for the kids to do and they loved making pictures, magnets, and sticker montages together and individually.
Tuesday we drove back home but stopped in Biloxi to meet up with Aunt Jill. We weren't able to spend a lot of time with her because we had to get back that day to relieve our dog sitters from duty, but it was great to get lunch with her. Evie took a little while to warm up because she was sleepy, but once Jill started playing with her and tossing her into the air, Evie knew she was in fun hands. Evie loves to climb, jump, be flung about, etc., so she had a blast. We spent about an hour and a half visiting with Jill and then headed back.
We got home at 12:30am and Evie did not want to go to bed in her own room after spending so much time sleeping in the room with us. In fact, she has spent every nap time and bedtime on the floor of her door, occasionally crying out for Mama and Dada since we got home, which breaks my heart. I know it'll just be a matter of time and patience, just like any other stage of getting her adjusted to a new place or routine, but I hate thinking of her sleeping on the floor at the door pining for us.
Anyway, on to happier things. Our friends Cristaldawn and Matthew had their baby boy, Nathaniel, on Wednesday so on Thursday Evie and Seth and I went up to see him. Evie was actually shy looking at the baby and hid her face in my shoulder at first, but then she got over it and started staring at him. She calls him "Nat-neel" and asks about "baby" a lot.
Someone asked me what Evie learned from her cousins during her trip and I would say the two that stand out to me are: in the bathtub, Evie grabbed the cup I use to pour water on her and she filled it up, looked at me, and said, "Catch!" while hurling it in my direction. Fortunately I was prepared. I'm not certain that this was a product of Addie or Will, but that's my guess. Maybe Granna can chime in to confirm since she was there for the joint-kid bathtimes. Another thing that I think Evie picked up from Addie is the use of "ummmm". Yesterday she asked me to put on "Cindywewa" and when I did she said, "Not Cindywewa." I said, "What then?" She said, "Ummmmmmm...." but never provided an answer. She's never done that before, so I'm guessing that was an Addie-ism.
It's been a wild and crazy summer full of family and travel and fun, but we have to buckle down this upcoming week. Evie starts daycare on Monday and Seth starts law school on Wednesday. Hopefully this weekend we will get more of the house unpacked and I can finally make good on my promise to upload more pictures and video.
Edit to Add: Pictures!
On our one day home in between trips, Evie and Herbie got to bond
Cousins! First morning together in the Florida condo
Sharing the iPad
Playing with the water balloon filling bottles
Zonked at The Jellyfish after a day at the beach
Aquatic baby-ups with aunt Aimee
Working at the "Arts and Crafts table" as Addie pronounced it
Granna was in popular demand
Evie and Will worked on a puzzle together
Climbing up out of the waves, a baby sea turtle in reverse
Cousins in water
I turned her into a mermaid
Asking and making the sign for "more!" More sand!
Two little mermaids
Gymnastics with Aunt Jill
Walking ChuuChu out of the vet's office after we got the good news that Chuu would not be losing her eye (she had gotten an eye ulcer which we noticed on the one day we were home between trips)
Meeting baby Nathaniel
It was a full week!
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