Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures of Roo at the beach at Westomoreland State Park last weekend.

He had a blast filling his bucket with water and pouring it into a hole daddy dug.

He also didn't mind when daddy would dump bucket after bucket of water on him.

Time to buy a season pass to the park. Good fun for the whole family!

The Beach

The last two Sundays we've taken little drives around the area and checked out a couple of beaches. Last Sunday we went to Colonial Beach and took Roo into the water. He loved it! You'd never know that he's actually afraid of the swimming pool.

Though the beach at Colonial Beach is kind of a rocky sand, the water was warm and shallow. Roo and daddy played and played and you'd think Roo had been going to the beach forever. This Sunday we took a drive into Westmoreland County and went to Westmoreland State Park. The park is beautiful and we found our way down to the water. This beach was even better than Colonial Beach. The sand was much softer under foot which made it much more fun for all of us. The water was nice and warm, though a bit deeper, but Roo didn't seem to care. Daddy and Roo played in the water for a while and Roo was just as happy as could be.

We're going to find out if they allow dogs at the state park and pack a beach bag and start going on weekend afternoons after Roo naps. Baxter loves the water too so going with the two of them should be fun for the whole family! Oh, and next time mommy promises to bring her camera and get some pictures of the fun.

Hurricane Fun!

Yesterday, tropical storm Hanna blew through town. Well, not really, we got some rain and a little wind, but she could have been much worse. But, we planned to hunker down in the house all day and thought of fun ways to keep The Roo from getting bored. As you're aware, the house is torn apart a bit right now as we undergo construction so we took the opportunity to give the blue couches a much needed vacuum. These couches normally reside in the living room and Baxter lays on the big couch and longingly looks out the window all day waiting for us to come home. Well, the result of this is that it's covered in dog hair....ick. So, we all, include Roo helped vacuum them clean. The Roo had so much fun with the upholstry attachment that he decided to nap with it, what, wouldn't you?!

After naptime, the first thing Roo said was, outside. And we explained to him that it was raining and we couldn't go out. We told him that if he sat at the table we could make a cake. He definitely had a blast baking. He's a good little helper too. Though he gets a bit messy, he is really good at stirring the ingredients together and making sure it tastes ok. The best part about this recipe is that it doesn't have any egg.

The best thing Roo said while baking was when daddy came to help him stir...."No Nate!" Yes, Roo has learned dada's first name and will sometimes call him by it. Mommy thinks it's funny. Daddy not so much :) The cupcakes were yummy and we all enjoyed them, Roo a bit more than the rest of us!

That's right, The Roo is finally saying no. I was wondering when he would. We try not to say no too much and give him a reason why he should stop doing whatever it is he's doing that he shouldn't be doing. But, the time has come and he enjoys saying no, especially around bedtime. It's a very cute yet somewhat defiant no, much better than how we imagined it would be. Here are some fun examples of Roo's 'no':

Mama: Roo, would you like to take a bath?
Roo: mmm....No
Mama: Roo, lets change your diaper.
Roo: mmm....No
Mama to Roo who is sitting in the bath: Roo, would you like to stay in the bath?
Roo: mmm...No (he gets mad if we actually take him out of the bath at this point)
Mama to Roo after bathtime: Do you want to read a book?
Roo: mm.m..No (he normally asks for a book a few minutes later as we're putting him to bed if we weren't already reading one)

So, you see, a lot of times he appears to be thinking about his answer and really means no, but it seems that as the day goes on and we get closer to actually putting him in his crib, no becomes his word of choice no matter what we ask him. Now we're trying to teach him yes.

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On a different note, the construction for the addition began yesterday and they made good progress. Now that I can see some of the work I can easily see how the work will be done and I'm getting pretty excited about it. Our only concern is that the hurricanes don't slow the progress down too much. In fact, they would be taking the roof off this week, but with Hanna scheduled to arrive this weekend, they're going to wait until Monday. We'll have to take some pics as the work progresses. For now, the only noticable difference on the outside of the house is that the siding is missing from the garage.

No Dogs Allowed

Since daddy had to spend some time this weekend clearing out the family room and building The Wall, mommy and The Roo went to visit grandma and grandpa. On the way there we stopped at Ikea in College Park to get some ideas for the new playroom. Ikea actually has a pretty good selection of little kid toys at great prices. Mommy decided that since The Roo likes to build his little fort every night that he'd probably like one of those little kiddie tents.

Score one for mom because The Roo loves it. He and daddy had a lot of fun playing in it today.

And, The Roo even enjoyed having his afternoon snack in it...yes, there's nothing better than cherry tomatoes! The Roo does his best to keep Baxter out but once Roo leaves, Baxter has to make sure there aren't any crumbs left behind....there's a surprise!

We had a great long weekend and daddy finished everything in preparation for the construction to begin tomorrow. We'll keep everyone updated on the progress and we'll even take bets on whether or not you think the construction will be complete before the baby arrives. 10 weeks or less until baby comes, 6 weeks is the estimate for the construction timeline. Add hurricane season in as a factor and, well, mommy just ignores the fact that this is all happening. Ignorance is bliss right!?!

Happy Birthday Dada!

Happy birthday dada! Hope you had a wonderful day. The wall looks great and The Roo seems to like the new setup. We love you! :)

Happy Birthday B!

Today is Baxter's 5th birthday! He had a great day helping daddy with some preparation for the addition that starts on Tuesday. I'm sure daddy gave him some extra treats today. Now that he's 5 he's also the most senior member of the household. We're hoping this means he'll take on a little more responsibility around the house ;)

Big Brother

No, this isn't about The Roo becoming a big brother. This is about the nice video camera mommy and daddy installed in his room. You see, The Roo has entered the terrible two's and one night last week when we put him to bed after a long battle, he decided that he was just so mad that he would climb out of his crib and sleep elsewhere in his room. We're not exactly sure where he slept that night but he was lounged comfortably in his recliner in the morning when we went in to get him.

The Roo is an excellent climber so before everyone gets upset about his climbing antics, we've actually watched him climb out and he does it very safely. That said, he doesn't normally climb out but that night definitely got us thinking that we'd really like to see what he does in his room when he's going to bed and waking in the morning. So, we installed the camera and mommy's viewing pleasure for the evening is a cute little sleeping Roo in a little Roo ball with his cover on him.

It's a good thing he's got the cover on him. As some of you are aware, as a part of being 2 now, Roo has decided that he doesn't like to wear pjs to bed anymore. We make him wear a diaper, that's a battle he won't win, but we decided not to worry about wearing pjs. So his new bedtime attire is either a diaper, shorts and socks or just a diaper and socks. Goofy huh?!

Mommy's excited for the 5am version of this spying fun. The Roo has been waking in the 5 o'clock hour and falling back to sleep; this happens sometimes when he's teething. It'll be fun to watch what he's doing during this time!

Outdoor Fun

The past few weekends we've been preparing the house and garage for construction to begin. If you're not aware, we're planning on adding two rooms totaling 600 sq ft to the house, one over the garage and one over the family room. This will add a lot of play space for The Roo and his new little brother. So daddy's been cleaning out the house and garage to prepare, and Baxter and The Roo have been playing in the backyard with mommy.

Roo prefers to run around naked and climb in and out of his water table and pool. He also likes to spray Baxter with the house.

We're pretty happy that Roo's not afraid of the pool this year. Even better is that Roo is exhausted after being outside and is super cuddly for the rest of the evening.