Beach Baby

We discovered at the beginning of this summer that we have on our hands a Water Baby. Davis absolutely loves the beach (and swimming in my aunt and uncle's pool when we go up there). He likes playing in the sand and enjoys the tide pools when we take him there, but his favorite thing to do is play in the waves. He can be shivering from the cold of the water and he'll still dive right back in. These photos were taken on a recent trip to Revere Beach with two of my cousins.

C'mon Mom. Let's go play in that water.

Woo Hoo!! I love the water!!

Writer's Workshop Wednesday.....Fears

I came across a new blog in my cyber-wanderings this morning, Mama's Losin' It. I haven't had a chance to explore it too much but it seems like a great blog and she posts writing prompts on Wednesdays which is great for me since I was having trouble thinking of something to write.

The prompt I chose............"What are you afraid of?"

Well, let's see...I have quite a few fears. Of course there's the one fear shared by every parent, something bad happening to my sweet baby boy. Then there's little things....spiders and all other bugs, snakes, failure, etc.

My biggest fear at the moment though is that my fiance will lose his court case next month and end up going to jail for the next ten years. I just don't know how I'd manage without him. He provides the main income to the household but that's not really what I'm worried about. How would I tell my son that his Daddy's in jail because of lost paperwork.

Here's the basic outline of the story, because of a stupid mistake he made at the age of 17 (he's now 40) David has to register his place of residence and place of employment with the local police department any time it changes and on a yearly basis to confirm everything. About two years ago, we moved and he did as he was supposed to do and filed his paperwork and was told by the officer on duty that everything was fine. Several months later, the police came and arrested him at work saying that they had never gotten the information. This caused him to lose out on a great job offer as he was working through a temp agency at the time and was being offered a chance to work directly for the company but after this happened, of course that offer was recinded. We've been fighting this ever since....so much for a speedy trial, huh? Anyway, an actual trial date is set for September and I'm terrified. After all we've been through with this, I've lost all faith in the judicial system and all I can do is hope and pray with all my heart and soul that the people on the jury will see the truth of the situation and find in his favor.

As soon as this is all over, we plan to move down south to be near David's family and to get away from the people who seem so eager to continue punishing him for something he has already payed for. And hopefully do something to prevent things like this from happening to others in the future.

To check out other responses to the writing prompts of the day, swing by Mama's Losin' It and click on the links in her blog.

Books

Reading is a big thing for our family. Both David and I are avid readers. I'll read just about anything while David is a big science fiction and fantasy fan. Of course, we want to share this love of books with our son so Davis has a bookshelf full of books himself, some of which are for when he's a bit older. One of Davis' favorite things to do is to pull all the books off the shelves and pile them on the floor and then pick one or two to hand to me or David to read to him. This morning, he did this and amazingly, he pulled off two books that are actually a series.....in order. These two books are actually some of my favorites as they encourage environmentalism which is another thing I'm wanting to teach Davis about. Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel is about a superhero whose powers help him teach others about recycling.


Michael Recycle meets Litterbug Doug by Ellie Bethel is about the same green caped crusader helping the town litterbug clean up his act and turning him into the litter police.

Each book has a couple pages in the back with simple tips that kids and adults alike can use everyday to help the environment such as turning off the water when you brush your teeth and using rechargeable batteries.

I googled the author of these great books to see if she had a website I could link to and actually came across this blog reviewing Michael Recycle several months ago. The author of this blog goes into more detail describing the book than I did and the blog itself seems to have a lot of great green information so I'll be heading back there to search the more recent entries.

In other book news, I'm currently reading a great book about the link between the lack of nature in most children's lives and the rise in obesity, attention disorders and depression. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv does more than cite studies and give statistics on this issue, the book gives parents ideas on how to involve their children with nature more. I plan to use several of the ideas as Davis gets older. One of my favorites is the sunflower house he writes about on page 175. Plant sunflower seeds around an 8 by 8 foot square of white clover to create a natural enclosed space for kids to lay and enjoy some quiet time

Sunday Funnies

As today was Sunday, it was a day to spend time together as a family. We went to Revere Beach around lunch time even though it was really too cool for swimming in the cold New England water. Originally we had planned to head out earlier and with Jayna and her family but she wound up heading up to the hospital just to be sent home again with Braxton Hicks.....the craziness that is being 8 months pregnant, LOL.

After the beach, we mostly hung out around the house as it kept threatening rain. We still had fun though. Davis usually keeps us entertained. Today, he insisted on having David put his rainboots on him and walking around in just them and his diaper. Later on David was on the computer while I was doing the dishes and we both realized it was too quiet. So, David peeked around the open door into our bedroom and started laughing and ran for the camera. So I went to the doorway just in time to see that Davis had gotten into the laundry and put my bra on himself............the right way and everything.

Trip to Boston

Jayna, Martha, Davis, Crystal
Charlotte, Me, David


Weather and car rental fiascos aside, yesterday was fun. David's sister, Crystal is a flight attendant with American Airlines and was flying through Hartford, CT with a day long layover so she decided to rent a car and drive up to spend some time with us. Originally the plan was to go to Franklin Park Zoo if the weather was nice or the New England Aquarium if it was raining. Since she was arriving in CT Thursday night, Crystal was planning to pick up the car she had reserved early yesterday morning and drive up so we could spend the day together. The car rental place she used had other ideas however... First they told her the car wouldn't be available until 11 am. Okay, no big deal we'd still have the whole afternoon together. Then the shuttle couldn't pick her up and bring her to the rental place until noon. Still not so bad.....then 12:30....still no ride. She finally got up here around 3:30 with her friend/co-worker Martha. We took the train in with my friend Jayna and her daughter Charlotte. we knew we wouldn't really have time to do the zoo or aquarium so we changed plans to just walk around in Boston, check out the Commons and Public Garden........then it rained. So we get out the umbrellas and of course one breaks so we have to find a place to get a new one. Ugh....We did get a chance to walk around Fanieul Hall for a bit and see some interresting people...


The Silver Lady

After that we all went to dinner at Cheers which was awesome! The food was great, they had a decent selection of kids food, and the drinks were amazing. David and I are already planning a return trip there so we can order their signature drinks and get the collectable glasses and shot glasses. After dinner Crystal and Martha had to head back to CT as they had an early pickup this morning to fly out. So the five of us from around here got back on the train and headed back home. All in all a good night even if it did take us as long to get home on the train and bus as it took Crystal and Martha to drive back to CT since we missed the connecting bus by about 30 seconds and had to wait an hour for the next one.