Beach Day!

So we ended up at the beach! It was such a great time, I really needed it and Delaney had a blast. My mom came over to our house, we packed up and were on our way. The drive left something to be desired -- back in H.S. the beach was 20 - 30 minutes away, today it took almost 1hr, 30min. We were almost there, and I had to really pee and didn't want to go in the little beach porta potties so we stopped at BK and went in. Delaney had been getting restless in her carseat so she needed a break, even though the beach was only 10 more minutes away. It was about 10am, and we walked out of the bathroom and my daughter starts up with "Fries?" I was cracking up. Of course then my mom feels bad and we get hash browns & milk (cokes for us) and sit for 20 minutes while Delaney scarfs down some hash browns. To be fair, she probably was hungry, she doesn't like to eat breakfast as soon as she gets up, and I gave her a waffle straight out of bed.

Anyway -- on to the beach, we drove down to 27th Ave. and drove on the beach, no way were we trying to carry stuff on with a toddler. Went about a mile north and parked. Low tide was at 2pm, so we were in good shape, since we knew we wouldn't stay much past lunch time. Delaney got so excited when she saw the water...since she'd never been to the beach, she kept saying "POOL!" and giggling. Once we got out of the car and got her suit on her, etc. we walked to the water. It was a little cold, but she walked right in -- no fear at all. We put our stuff up and dug a mini hole for her, she sat there and played 95% of the time we were at the beach! We played with her, then my mom and I would take turns going out into the water to cool off. We had filled Delaney's hole with water, so she was doing good. Sprinkled about 20 minutes after we got there, but we stayed put and it cleared up...the day was so gorgeous! Headed out around 12pm, stopped at the same BK's and had lunch (unless we went to McD's or a local place we would have had to go out of the way, and it had been a while since I went to a local place) then got home around 3:30pm I think. All in all it was a great day -- we took loads of pics!

Went straight into the water...she loved it! Gorgeous Atlantic Ocean, as always!
Cutie, playing in her "sandhole"

Mommy & Delaney

Hopefully we'll be planning more beach ventures in the near future!

We-ah-you?

Yet another cute "Delaney-ism". Whenever she loses her pacifier, we cup our hands around our mouth and call "Binkie! Binkie! Where are you?" She followed suit, because a lost binkie is a serious problem. It's become routine, if we don't know where her binkie is, she wanders the house calling "Binkie! Binkie!" This morning, she was sitting in her booster chair having breakfast (on a side note, this kid would eat fruit all day, every day if I let her...she had bananas and blueberries for breakfast today & yesterday) and out of nowhere started saying "Binkie! Weahyou." I had to think on that one for a second, because we were up at 4am with a soaken through diaper and it was only 6:30am when we sat down to eat and well, I don't function much before at least 7am. So I asked her, "What?" She responded, "Binkie! Weahyou." Lightbulb! Where Are You. Now to turn that into three words. She also has "I got it" and "here you go" down pretty good.

Delaney is finally back down for a nap...now off to do some house cleaning, even though my bed looks so inviting.

Time for a big girl bed?

My dad made my daughter's crib. He read tons of articles, magazines, etc. before doing it, and he is an amazing woodworker. This is a picture of the crib

Today Delaney figured out how to open it. On each side is a slide lock that you just push in place to lock it. After changing a dirty diaper, I locked it quickly so I could go throw the diaper out and wash my hands. By the time I got back in the room (from the bathroom across the hall) she had one side unlocked and was working on the second side. I think we might have to remove the front railings (my dad also made it so we could use it as a toddler bed) and go get a bedrail. I don't know if I'm ready for a kid that can climb out of bed when she pleases!

new words

I just can't seem to figure out a solid place to put/post all of my important dates and memories for when my daughter grows up, so hopefully this journal will be the winner. Maybe I'll add more backstory/pictures, and tales from everyday life, but for now it will just serve as a memory storage.

My daughter is 20 months old. How she got to be that big I have no idea. She is so much fun (except when those terrible 2's kick in...I dread next year) and learns new things every day. She has always called my dad "Poppy" but she took forever to call my mom by name. I think that was partly because my mom was wishy-washy about what she wanted to be called, so we changed it around a few times, probably only confusing my daughter in the process. So one day we were naming people. We pointed at my husband. "Daddy." Me - "Mommy." Grandpa - "Poppy." Grandma - "House...?" Um, what? We had to ask her a few times, at the risk of my mother being forever known as "House" to make sure we heard correctly. We did. No idea where that came from, except whenever we would go to visit (we live 10 minutes away, so often) as we pulled in the driveway I would say "Whose house are we at? Is this Grammy's house?" Drop the Grammy, and you've got yourself a House. Now the house bit only lasted for a week or so, and that turned into MeeMaw. My mom was ok with that, she had only insisted on not being "Nanny" because when we were younger, something yucky was 'nanny-ca-ca'. Can't say I blame her. Now MeeMaw has turned into "WeeMaw" and seems to be sticking. My mom thinks it's so cute, and encourages it. I have to say it's not too bad myself.

Other cute words --

Banana - Bee-a. When I first taught her this one, I would sit close and let her watch how I made the "na" sound with my tongue. That turned into 'ba-la-la-la-la-la-ee-a'

Blueberries - Rappies. No IDEA where this came from. We had blueberry pancakes at my parents last weekend. Delaney wasn't real fond of the pancake part, she was more interested in the bowl of bee-a's in the middle of the table. So, sitting in Poppy's lap, she had banana slices for breakfast. We threw some plain blueberries in there and she grabbed one which was amazing in itself since this kid passes up bananas for nothing. Then she grabbed the other one. Pretty soon she had eaten a dozen blueberries. Every time we gave her a few more, it was sheer excitement and a squeal of "Rappies!!"

I'll have to come up with a general list of all of her words at 20 months, I'll start that in a new post so I can edit and add when I remember/hear more.