Weekend fun

Last weekend we went to see the Dock Dogs competition in Virginia Beach.  We stayed at Grandpa Barney and Grammie Deb's house on Saturday night so we could spend some time with them.  Randy and I also got to go on a date to an excellent Italian restaurant.  We decided to treat that as our five year anniversary date since we had a babysitter and Randy works on our actual anniversary weekend.

Thomas was snacking on a mum mum and very focused on the competition

Had a nice lunch outside on the patio

Sunday morning Thomas woke up at 4:45am so we decided to go for a walk to the beach.
So glad we did, look at the beautiful sunrise!

Picture of the day, week, month, year?

Makeshift play yard

Tuesday morning Randy decided to make Thomas a makeshift play yard so I could get some stuff done around the house.  As you mothers know, chasing a newly crawling baby can be exhausting.  :-)  I say makeshift because grandpa Barney is going to make us a little gate to put in this area.

It worked really well..................

FOR 24 HOURS!!!

I saw him try to pick his legs up onto the tub and within 15 minutes, he climbed over onto his head!  I was a bad mommy, I was trying to get the camera and he toppled right onto his face.  Luckily he didn't get hurt.  I did manage to get a picture the second time before he fell over.  This time I caught him.  ha ha  Little booger!

Almost standing

Thomas is able to stand with little support now.  He holds on with one hand and does very well.  I think he will be standing on his own very soon.  I can't believe how quickly he learns.  It only took him a few days of pulling himself up on his knees to standing in his crib.  A couple days later, standing outside of the crib!

Jamestown Ferry

Spent some time over at Karen and Brodie's house last Friday and decided to take the Jamestown ferry to Surry and back.  Hey, it's a free boat ride!  :-)  It was pretty windy that day, but absolutely beautiful!

I was able to feed Thomas outside while Karen and I had lunch too.  Brodie was napping.

This is Karen's backyard.  Isn't it amazing!  I love her garden and all the green grass.  Thomas loved it too.  He was crawling around, off the blanket, pulling out all the grass.  ha ha

Argh, where are you taking me now?

This was on the way to the ferry.  He does this often and I am so grateful that I have a few pictures of it.  :-)

Reading

Standing in crib

Thomas is now standing in his crib.  He started out pulling up on his knees and then 2 days later....standing!  We have even caught him standing holding on with one hand or for a split second letting go and standing by himself.  This has been very exciting for all of us, including Thomas.  He is so excited that he doesn't want to put himself to sleep anymore.  :-)  One of us has to stay in the room for about 30-45 minutes coaxing him to lay down until he falls asleep.  Otherwise, he will stand up crying.  Yes, we tried the wait 5-10 minutes, go in an sooth him and then wait again.  He can also get down from the standing position on his own.  Sometimes he may bonk his head, but he can do it.  From what we have heard and read, this phase will pass.  

But isn't he cute standing?  We think so, but then again he is cute doing anything!

Date night at the races

Last weekend Sonia came over and babysat Thomas while Randy and I went to the races.  I had never been to this type of car race before and really enjoyed it.

My favorite race was the grand stock race.  That is the same type of car that my Uncle Art races, but he races on a dirt track.  One of the cars broke down during the race so the female driver got out, they put the car in neutral and left it towards the top of the track (you can see in the above picture).  We were surprised that they left it on the track, but apparently that is in the rules.  Luckily it wasn't hit.

You can take a cooler and food into the race.  Randy and I being the big drinkers that we are, took in Gatorades and coffee.  :-)  We had a blast and are looking forward to going to more.

Fairview Place - Better Block Project

Last weekend Randy, Thomas, Deb, Mike and I went to Ashley's pop up store for the Better Block Project in Norfolk.  You can read more about it in this article and follow the entire process for Fairview Place (Ashley's blog) here.  I will try to sum it up and hopefully make sense.  Ashley was asked to do a pop up store (temporary) of her business Fairview Place, for the weekend.  There were a bunch of different types of pop-ups including a coffee shop, art galleries, retail stores and a flower shop (of course, Ashley's was the best!).  She had a partner, John, that shared the shop and owns Glass Gardens.  He creates amazing creations using air plants, terrariums, succulents, aloe, cactus and all different kinds of glass containers.  His wife also sells beautiful jewelry.  The weekend was an attempt to draw interest and hopefully financial support from investors, the city and community so that they can rebuild that area into a thriving, busy, happening place that people would like to visit.

See below for pictures of their store pre-crowds.  Can you tell that I am a proud sister-n-law?

Ashley reupolstered that chair on her own!  See here 

Beautiful couple Mike and Ashley

Grammie Deb was able to get lots of time with Thomas

Anticipation (kind of)

Saw this Saturday in Norfolk.  Made me look forward to the future (just for a second though, he is growing way too fast!).

Yorktown Beach

Click on picture to enlarge

Yesterday Thomas and I decided to go to Yorktown Beach for a little walk.  We parked at the Yorktown Victory Monument and walked to the beach.  I put Thomas in the sand and he loved trying to pick it up and eat it (of course).  :-)

Taking walks

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to take long walks.  Some of the many great things about living where we live is that there are plenty of beautiful and safe places to walk.  We just turn down a street and walk until it ends (usually by the water).  We look at the neighborhoods, beautiful houses and lawns and dream away.  Thomas loves to look around at the trees, cars and people.  As for Precious, well she may not like the walks as much as we do, but they are good for her.  :-)

Pulling up

This is what I saw when I peeked in on Thomas during his nap this past week.  :-)

A day at the museum

Wednesday, Thomas and I met Karen and Brodie at the VA Living Museum (and so did every elementary kid from the Hampton Roads area).  :-)  Apparently since the museum was flooded in the fall, the schools had to reschedule their field trips for this spring.  In fact, we pretty much got stampeded by a bunch of kids while we were eating at the picnic tables.  I never thought that I would be afraid of kids, but when there are about 50 running towards you.....you would be very afraid too.  LOL  Karen and I had quite the laugh afterwards.

The day was absolutely gorgeous.  So much so, that we didn't even walk around inside the museum.  We just spent about 1-1/2 hours walking outside, chatting, and enjoying the weather and our boys.

Just exploring

We moved up to the pots and pans from the tupperware.  He loved how loud they were.

He absolutely LOVES this toy.  He will play with it for longer than 5 minutes (unlike all his other toys).

Not sure why he needed to crawl over it instead of going around.  LOL  He ended up getting stuck so I had to help him through it.  It was cute.

Beautiful day for a walk

Thomas and I took a walk to the post office, Taylor's, Tropical Smoothie, dry cleaners and played in the grass for a bit.  We did this all within a mile of our place, how lucky are we?  :-)  Thomas loved the walk and didn't fuss one bit. How could he though, it was the most beautiful day of the year so far!

Thursdays with Bela

On Thursdays Sonia, a.k.a. Bela, comes over to spend time with Thomas and gives me time to run errands and go to appointments.  I am lucky to have Barney and Sonia come over during the week to give me a 'mommy time out' and to spend quality time with their cute little grandson.  :-)  This past week was nice because Sonia had spring break so she came over on Monday too and gave me time to clean the house.

Isn't he supposed to go into the stroller?  LOL

There is a lot of singing and dancing while Bela is over.  Thomas loves it!