It's Gobbles Time!: More Babies, Vacations, and Natural Disasters

Last week was quite an eventful week for Gobbles and company. Continuing right where we left off in the final pictures of the last post, we spent the week prior making cookies in preparation for Gobbles' first baby shower, thrown for his Aunt and Uncle, getting ready for the arrival of his first cousin, Princess Girl. We gathered our baked goods, diaper cake, game props, and gifts and headed up to the Poconos last Saturday to celebrate with hubs' family. I spent so long worrying about how / when Gobbles would nap since the shower began at the exact time he typically goes down. Deciding there was no better solution than to wing it, we let him have a good nights' sleep the night before and headed up.

The event was beautiful and Gobbles did fabulously, entertaining himself by walking up and down the step in the room over and over again. He didn't really get cranky sans the nap, and ended up falling asleep in hubs' arms for about a half hour during present time. He managed to stay awake the entire ride home with the promise of french fries if he behaved.

Less than an hour after getting home, we were on the road again, headed to the Jersey shore to take part for a few days in my family's vacation. Hubs stayed behind, new job = no more vacation time, so this trip was just us. I'm still shocked at how my son's memory is always working. 45 minutes into the trip he changes the subject of our conversation (which was mostly - car, truck, bus, bridge), and states bye bye Daddy! I told him, "that's right, we said bye bye to Daddy. Who ELSE did we say bye bye too?" Caloli! Bye Bye Caloli. Bye Bye Hmph (spoons). I beamed. Absolutely right buddy, we said bye to the dogs as well!

By the time we made it down the shore my boy was finally in a peaceful slumber. As we pulled in, my family was waiting for me to help unload. Within seconds the car was unpacked and Gobbles was peacefully sleeping in his pack and play, dreaming of the beach time that awaited.

The next few days consisted of beach time, Grandparent time, Aunts & Uncle time, and lots of Mommy time. My family is the absolute best and helped me so much with carrying our gear, to setting up the beach umbrella, to entertaining Gobbles. I don't know how single parents manage, I really don't. I wouldn't have been able to handle my tired preggers self and a toddle on the beach by my lonesome.

My son is a fish. He'd be out to see if we didn't stop him. All he wanted to do was play in the ocean until his lips were blue and he was shivering. He jumped waves, ran from the waves, splashes water, and was thrown in and out of the water. A few waves knocked him down, and a few waves carried back the balls he tossed into the surf.

And the sand? A glorious substance that Gobbles rolled around in, threw in the air, buried people's toes, and got on everything he touched. Even my father, who makes an hour long appearance at the beach each year, and is a bit OCD about mess, could not resist the tiny sand monster begging Grapop, UP? His white tee covered in little sandy handprints was well worth the time with his grandson wandering around the beach looking at the sand, ocean, and birds.

Oh the birds. It's been a few months since I've been running, but I definitely had to take my turn at chasing my son chasing the seagulls (we all did). He screeched with delight as they would up and fly away when he pounded towards them. The last morning we were there, we were at the beach early enough that Gobbles was able to run from the lifeguard area to the jetty without interruption, breathing heavy to himself and saying Running, birdies, running, running!! as he trekked along. The joy on his face was worth heaving my 30 pounder back in my arms (he would have kept going if i let him).

On our last day there, after Gobbles was bathed and nestled in his nap, my Dad, Sister, Brother-in-Law, and I were eating lunch when the house began to shake. What the heck was that? We thought, my sister jumped up and grabbed the flat screen TV that looked like it was about to fall over. I looked at the baby monitor and Gobbles didn't move. Thankfully brother-in-law was a bit quicker than myself and hauled ass down the stairs to his sleeping godson, where he stood over the pack and play ready to catch any part of the sky that might be falling down. A few seconds later, the earthquake was over, and we turned on CNN to confirm that it was just that. Whew.

The good thing about ending a vacation midweek is that the return to work is short lived. Just a two day workweek and Friday was back with Gobbles / Mommy day in prep for the impending hurricane Irene. The grocery store was of course a madhouse but that didn't stop my boy from running up and down all the aisles. I think I've mentioned this before but he is getting so bad to take there - the belt to keep him in the seat doesn't fit him, so he stands up on the seat forcing me to carry him. Then in order to steer the cart with one hand I put him down and away he goes! Thankfully there was a lot of peer pressure from cute little girls sitting peacefully in their seats. Every time we saw one, Gobbles went up Hiiii!, and I told him, "look how nice she's being, sitting in the seat". Got him right in for about 2 minutes. Ahh well we survived.

During our Friday afternoon walk our neighbors, who I think are on the board of "don't let Gobbles family sell their house and leave the neighborhood" invited us to come down to the pool with them. We happily obliged and enjoyed the baby pool all to ourselves while the pool staff cleaned up the lounge chairs and umbrellas in preparation for the storm.

The storm itself was anticlimactic in our house. Hubs made a delicious mussel stew on Saturday and we sang Rain Rain go Away all day long. Our usually fragile electrical system flickered a few times but never went out. The next day, back to life as usual as we bade farewell to summer, did our chores, and got my maternity clothes out of the attic in preparation for an eventful fall & winter.