Beach bums!

Nate had his first beach trip, to Litchfield, SC last week. The whole Gibbs clan was there. We were lucky enough to stay at the Berly's house, which is a special place since it holds so many good memories from growing up. Now, it's Nate's turn to make memories there!! For sure, it was a week of firsts.....first time in the ocean, first time trying LOTS of new table foods (his favorites were pizza crust & ice cream), and first time grinding his teeth. Yes, this is an especially annoying one because it's SO loud! And I don't know how it doesn't hurt him. But, he loves to do it. Oh, and he has four teeth now!! :) I finally got a picture of his bottom two; see picture on the left.

Here are some highlights & pictures from our week:

Friday (June 13th) - the three of us had an early morning flight (9 am) so we woke up Nate and headed to the airport. He was eyeing our biscuits on the plane, so we gave him a bite and he loved it! New food #1. He was great on the plane, climbing/moving/kicking of course, but at least no crying. Lora picked us up at the airport and we headed to ARMADILLO (yum!) for lunch before heading to the beach. It was a 4 hr drive and Nate slept for....oh...45 minutes of it. Yeah, it was not the most fun. He hates being constrained for that long in his carseat, so he was not a happy camper. Poor Greg was in the backseat with him, trying endlessly to entertain him. We finally arrived at the beach house around 5 pm, and were the last ones of course. Immediately, Nana grabbed Nate - no hugs or kisses for the rest of us - and they were off to the neighbor's house to see the chickens. Yes, I said chickens. We had pizza that night and Nate loved gnawing on the pizza crust. And he also picked out his favorite spot for the week - the front porch swing. It was great to see everybody and catch up, and we made plans for the next day and Nate's first beach adventure!

Saturday - We took Nate to the beach during both his morning & afternoon playtime and he did great! Loved playing in the water with Daddy & Aunt B and crawling on the sand. He also got to sip water from a bottlecap for the first time. It was too cute - he looked like a little bird. (And speaking of birds, the boy was obsessed! Loved both a bird clock at the house, and also the birds outside. When we were on the porch or taking a walk, he would constantly "talk" to them!) Lora, Bec, and I headed to Myrtle Beach that night to partake in our friend Erin Valenti's bachelorette festivities. So, that left Nate, Dad, Pops, and Nana to go out to dinner. Nate tried a french fry, but that was a no go. Much preferred the hush puppies. And drinking little sips of water from a straw.

Sunday - Happy Father's Day to Pops & Greg! Greg got his presents from Nate before we came - an "I love Daddy" frame for his office, a shirt, and a pair of shorts - but we brought a special card to give to his Dad at the beach. It was one of those recordable ones, and I managed to get one of his giggles recorded. Dad loved it! And Nate liked hearing himself too :) Nate showed off his skills pulling up a lot in the sunroom....on the couch, chair, entertainment center, and coffee table. This boy is ready to walk! This was also the day that we noticed his fourth tooth coming in. Like the others, it is as sharp as a razor! Again, we took Nate to the beach during the morning and he had some good playtime. Greg said it was the most fun he'd had in years at the beach. Guess all it took was a munchkin to play with and an ePod (yes, that's what he called Bec's iPod)! Pops & Greg both saw a family of "skates" (similar to stingrays but without the stinger) in the water, so Greg ran like a girl when that happened. (He says it's because he was holding Nate and didn't want him to get hurt, but I'm not sure I believe that. Truth be told though, I was scared to death myself!!) Anyways, it rained in the afternoon so our beach time was cut short.

Monday - Dad got in one last playtime with Nate on the beach this morning, because he and Aunt L were to leave around 3 pm so Dad could catch his 8: 30 pm flight at RDU. (Poor guy though - it got delayed till almost midnight and he wound up getting back to Murfreesboro after 2 am. Thank goodness me and & Nate were not with him!!!!) The Berly family - from Mt. Pleasant, SC - dropped in for a visit right before Lora & Greg left. It was nice seeing all of them for a few hours, and we thanked them over & over for letting us use the house! Once they left, we headed to the outlets for some shopping. Pops pushed Nate in the stroller while me, Nana, and Aunt B did some speed shopping! We had the most fun at Carter's, where Nate got some new outfits, as did Klug's new little girl, Hadley. Girl stuff is SO cute! So, we headed home late and Nate was way overdue for his 7:30 pm bottle. He got it around 9 pm instead, and wow, that car ride home was NOT pleasant! Poor little guy was super tired and just wanted to go to bed. I knew I was in for a long night with him....

Tuesday - And oh was I right. I got up multiple times, trying to give him his last bottle because he'd hardly eaten all day. He would fall asleep on my shoulder, and then once I placed him back in the pack 'n' play, he woke up and began crying again. So, neither one of us got much sleep that night. Aunt B had to leave that morning to head back to Charlotte, so it was just us with Nana & Pops for the rest of the week. We bought both a new umbrella plus umbrella stroller for the beach, and both worked great! Nate had fun jumping the waves with me, and doing "drip castles" in the wet sand. This was my favorite day on the beach with him, because he finally seemed to really enjoy the water & sand! My little fish! Becca dropped in for an impromptu visit for a few hours that afternoon, so the two of us caught up on the beach with a beer, while Nate napped up at the house with Nana & Pops. She stayed long enough to see Nate play and pull up on the coffee table. His hair was super dirty from the beach, so he got a mohawk!

Wednesday - All of us took an early morning walk with Nate, and he loved swinging on the hammock with Nana when we got back. While he was playing with toys after his first nap, he started to do a new move - kinda a back arch/humping motion. New dance move I guess! This was the day we noticed the teeth-grinding thing. So weird! And, he is getting very good at telling us when he is done eating...he furiously shakes his head back & forth, as if he's saying "No!" We went to the beach in the afternoon but he was super lethargic and fussy. He cried throughout his 2nd nap - which is VERY unlike him - so we knew something was wrong. We discovered that he had a slight fever in addition to a runny nose. Greg had gotten sick from someone on the plane, so we figured Nate did too and had a cold. He was super pitiful and only wanted to be held by Mom all afternoon/night. He went to bed, hardly having eaten all day, but I didn't dare wake him up for another bottle because he was so exhausted.

Thursday - Thankfully, he slept through the night (12 hours straight) and woke up much happier in the morning. And as you might imagine, he ate like a little piggy that morning. Even tried some of my banana! Didn't want a tiny piece that I had broken off for him - instead, he wanted to eat it out of the peel like Mom was doing. Too funny! He just gummed on it for a bit and then lost interest. He loves to climb on and up everyone...especially Mom. We call it climbing "Mt. Momma." He is a rascal for sure. He was much better today and took his normal two 2-hour naps, thank goodness. It was Nana & Pops' 37th anniversary, so after dinner, we headed off for a wild night out. Kidding - we went to Eagles to look for a tshirt and then to get some ice cream. Nate tried a lick or two, and after he got the first one over with, he really liked it! Imagine that.

Friday - Today Nate turned 10 months old! We had to pack up and leave around 9 am in order to get to RDU for our 2 pm flight. The four of us were packed pretty tight in Pops' Buick, but we made it safely. And although Nate only napped for 30 minutes, he was pretty good and managed to eat on-the-go pretty well. Nana bought him a stuffed animal on the way home at the Flying J - a monkey, b/c that's what we call him since he climbs so much. We barely made it to the airport on time, but managed to get home safely and pretty uneventfully. Again, he was good on the plane, if you don't count climbing all over me and banging on the windows for an hour and a half. He kicked the guy next to us about 100 times and I just kept apologizing! Nate was trying to climb over top of me and see the people behind us. As I told them, he is "hard to contain." All in all though, he was well-behaved for most of the trip. And boy were we both glad to see Dad at the airport to pick us up! Home sweet home. Now if we could just get rid of Nate's cold!