Saturday, July 26, 2003

What a great vacation! We had a fabulous time.

One night Josh and I were out on the deck and through the window we could see Morgan lying in bed. The bed was higher than he's used to and he learned pretty quickly to stay in bed until someone came in to get him, though once Timothy tried to be that someone and both of them went tumbling to the floor. Anyway, he was lying in bed with his hands on his belly, pushing his belly out then sucking it in then pushing it out then sucking it in. Over and over. Pretty funny. I giggled and he heard someone through the window but couldn't quite make us out in the darkness.

Timothy had the time of his life at Peter's wedding, though he was so worn out by the end of it that he didn't know whether to cry or pass out. He cut a rug on the dance floor and played tag out on the lawn. All through the wedding he said he was going to marry Elisabeth and when Peter and Jeana came back down the aisle he asked if it was his turn next. He also thought it was very exciting when the bridal party and the bride and groom got announced at the reception, and asked if he was going to get a turn for that too. The hardest part for him was sitting down during dinner, but I thought he managed quite nicely.

Timothy doesn't take to water very naturally, but by the end of the two weeks he was climbing on me in the water and letting me throw him in the air (on the promise that I don't get his face or hair wet) and then on the last day, let me tip his head back and get it wet.

Morgan called the lake either pool or water and was always very anxious to go swimming. Morgan LOVED being thrown in the air, the higher the better, and also loved being splashed. Morgan I had to dunk a couple times because he put sand all over his face and hair and there was just no other way to do it, so I plugged his nose and back he went. He was a little pissed at me, but recovered easily enough. He also fell completely under twice, probably for about 20 seconds each time, but handled it relatively well. Actually, the biggest surprise from Morgan was that we went to an arcade that was pretty small, very crowded with loud equipment and other kids, and he had a great time. Walked right in and proceeded to walk in circles around the place for about an hour (which was all I could stand, could they turn it down?). At first I was following him but he was taking the same path each time, pausing to touch games once in a while, and one time a kid, so I just stood there and watched for his head to come bobbing around the corner. Every few laps I'd lift him onto a game and he'd sit there for a few minutes and give me a smile and then say, “all done”.

We celebrated Morgan's birthday with the other birthday girl, Grammie Whitten, while we were on vacation. Morgan got to blow out the candles, which he did a pretty good job of.

Besides the first few nights when the rest of the family was there, the kids managed to go to bed without TV. We parked Morgan in bed (with the towel trick to keep him from falling out of bed, thank you Mandy) with a book assortment and a cookie monster doll that I picked up at a consignment shop, and he'd stay there until he fell asleep. A couple days he had taken late naps and so this was several hours that he sat there reading books. We left the Red Sox on for him to listen to. Timothy got to stay up a bit longer with me, but was also good about going to bed (though he falls asleep faster than Morgan does, so it's not quite as impressive).

In the morning the boys would get up I guess around 7:30 and Timothy would go into the living room and play video games until we got up. Morgan would stay in bed and read books. We usually got up around 8:30 or 9. Now, you just can't beat that.

Oh yeah, and the bedtime routine, which has always consisted of the "it's time for bedtime" song, which I invented and Morgan now sings when he wants to go to bed instead of waiting for me to sing it - in fact he sang it on the car trip home and then was asleep in the following 5 minutes, now also involves a couple rounds of “good night" (where I say goodnight to Timothy and he repeats it, then to Morgan and he repeats it, which sounds like 'a nigh') and then a couple rounds of "I love you" (same drill, Morgan's sometimes sounds like 'a lou' or when you're very lucky 'a lou lou').