Big Beach Weekend

Besides this being Nathan's first time to the beach, he also had a big first while we were there.  Thanks to Gigi having a tennis tournament at the Beach Club, we were able to visit for a long weekend.  We headed down Thursday afternoon.  Nathan did really well - sleeping for the first 3 hours of the trip.  When he woke up, it was time for him and the rest of us to have dinner so we stopped for about 30 minutes in Atmore.  The next leg of the trip wasn't quite as quiet.  Nathan fussed for about 45 minutes or so, but finally gave up and slept for the remainder of the drive.  Nicholas of course was good watching movies the whole time, but towards the end kept asking the ever popular "are we there yet?"  

The weather was gorgeous and Nicholas had a blast.  Every night he crashed and burned.  Friday evening while we were all eating dinner, Nathan was happy just playing on the floor.  Every now and then we would peek over the couch to make sure he was ok.  One time Gabe looked over and discovered that he was on his stomach (originally he was on his back).  Over the next few days, he rolled over a few more times.  He is pretty quick too, so you have to keep an eye on him.  Every time he rolled over his left side on to his stomach.

What are you guys looking at??

Nicholas loved the indoor pool and was very social with anyone else that came in - including three cheerleaders visiting for a competition.  Daddy thinks he could be trouble later on...

 It was a bit windy for Nathan but he still enjoyed the beach!

Nicholas would have stayed out there all day if we would have let him.  (And we probably would have except our pale boy would get burnt to a crisp)

 

This was also our first attempt to give Nathan a bath in a sink.  God bless baby bath tubs!  This did not look very comfortable for him. 

Thank you PawPaw and Gigi for a wonderful beach weekend!

Beach Trip 2010

This past week was spent at the Beach Club in Gulf Shores (Fort Morgan Road technically).  This is our fourth year in a row to go with my parents and brother and his family.  It was a lot of fun and the weather (although hot and steamy) was really perfect for the beach.

Wearing my old Gulf Shores tee - It definitely is better at Gulf Shores!

 

He could not stop giggling at Pawpaw and his crazy noises!

After all the reports about the oil spill, I was curious to see for myself what the beach looked like.  So we went down Saturday after we arrived.  The beaches mainly looked the same, but felt WAY different.  We figured that it was much softer/cushy because BP had to constantly dig through the sand to get all the tar balls.  There were tar balls on the beach, but nothing too bad.  The water looked the same as it always has.  With the drop in tourism, it was much easier to get an elevator and the pools were pretty scarce, which was nice.  

This looks worse than it really was... 

Here are the tar balls.  We actually got pictures of BP's crew cleaning it up.

Nicholas spent practically the whole time chasing after Lilly (8) and Elizabeth (2).  He was particularly interested in pulling out just about every flip-flop they brought to the living room.  We had a great time playing bunco, uno and pool games.  We also had some pretty intense games of foosball.  I also brought our baby name book and tried to assist Ryan and Nancy on picking a name for baby #3. 

How cute are they!

He really seemed to like the beach

It took Nicholas a day or so to get used to sleeping in the pack-n-play.  It was also rather difficult because he was sleeping in our bedroom and is a rather light sleeper, so he woke up a few times when we went to bed or when I woke up coughing.  All-in-all he did pretty well considering his nap/bedtime schedule was completely off.  We also did something that I had sworn I wouldn't do - Nicholas slept in the bed with us for a few hours one morning.  I didn't want him to wake up the rest of the family and it was around 4am, so we let him get the rest of the mornings sleep in the bed with us and surprisingly we were able to get some sleep as well.  Another issue that screwed up his sleep habits is he cut several molars this past week.  Of course I didn't have any Orajel with me, but we did give him some Tylenol (again the non-Tylenol brand).   

Dad's birthday was Friday, so we celebrated that with some brownies and family pics.     

Gigi and Pawpaw's favorite time of the year...  Grandbabies week!

The wind was blowing hard and the sun was in their eyes, but they were troopers.

Pawpaw reading a bedtime story

Playing with Lilly

This float is the coolest thing!  Nicholas just chilled out - watching his cousins and other kids play.

THANKS GIGI AND PAWPAW FOR OUR BEACH VACATION! 

Beach Bum

On Saturday morning August 8, we loaded down the Corolla with just about everything we could think of we would need and headed to Mobile. Nicholas was awake for the first hour and then slept for the next two hours. We were only about 20 miles outside of Mobile and I heard the little stinker create a very dirty diaper. Right as this happens we are stopped on the Dolly Parton bridge due to a wreck. After a few minutes of debating, I decided I would change him while we were stopped. Well as soon as I get him unfastened, the traffic started to move. We stopped off on the side of the road at the next exit and changed him and then hit up McDonalds for lunch. All in all the ride down was a very quiet and peaceful one.

Later that day we visited Mamaw at the nursing home, which she thoroughly enjoyed. My best friend from high school Aimee stopped by the house later that night with her daughter and boyfriend. Ryan, Nancy and the girls arrived about that time as well and we were so glad to finally introduce them to their one and only nephew/boy cousin.





Sunday Brian, Cindy and Drew brought us muffins and bagels for breakfast and then we left Mobile around lunchtime and headed over to Loxley to visit Catherine and Tommy on the way to the beach. It was nice to visit with them and also helped to break the trip up in half.



A few hours later and we were at the Beach Club in Fort Morgan. The condo was awesome - very spacious for the growing Thompson clan.

Nicholas experienced his first time in a pool. Because swimmy diapers don't come in his size, we put him in a regular diaper, covered by a swimmy diaper and then his bathing suit (thanks to Gigi). He enjoyed sitting in this amazing floaty that Ryan and Nancy bought for us. I know we will get lots of use out of it in the future as well. Nicholas also was introduced to the beach, but I don't think he was very impressed.

Our week at the beach can be summed up very easily - lots of pool time, delicious food, Sudoku puzzles, long and mostly ethical Uno games, and endless hugs and kisses from Gigi and Pawpaw to their adoring grandkids.

The trip back home was even better than the visit down. We stopped only once (just before getting on the interstate to change a diaper. I fed Nicholas a bottle on the ride home and other than that, he again slept the whole time.

Thank you Gigi and Pawpaw for our wonderful week-long beach getaway. I hope the withdrawls aren't too bad!

Fingers are good!

So the new thing for Nicholas that just started this week is to chew on his fingers. At first I thought he was just hungry all the time as I have read that is an early sign of hunger. The fact that he was doing this so often I attributed to a growth spurt of some sort. Well apparently mama was wrong about this one. Either he is starting the teething process (which I believe is rather early for his age) or he just likes the taste of his fingers. My guess is the former of the two. He hasn't been fussy at all, but we will have to see how this progresses.



Another first just around the corner is his first trip to the beach! Saturday we head to Mobile (which will be our longest road trip with the little guy - so keep your fingers crossed) and then Sunday we will head over to the Beach Club on Fort Morgan. We are so excited to see how he does in the water and to finally introduce him to his cousins and aunt and uncle on my side of the family!