The DuMontiers took their first family vacation to Seaside, FL this past week. And our last as a family of three!
We picked Alden up from Mother's Day Out on Thursday afternoon and headed straight for the coast. Alden did great on the almost five hour trip. He occupied his time by watching for moo-moo's and "Lucy's," a.k.a dogs, along the way, and taking off the mysterious socks his mother had put on him this morning. He obviously did not remember wearing them last fall. 
Mid-trip snooze. This only lasted for about thirty minutes. His Dad had planned on this lasting for about two hours. This is the law of averages: you don't want him to sleep, he sleeps. You want him to sleep, he refuses. Here is another law everyone should pay attention to: A mid-trip diaper change. We were standing in the parking lot of All Saint's when one of our friends told us about the trip she and her husband took with their daughter when she was Alden's age. She said they thought they could make it without stopping and just refilled her juice cup in the car. When they arrived, the seat was soaking wet. You would think we would listen, we laughed at this story, but as usual, thought these things would not happen to us. Alden snacked on graham cracker bunnies and apple juice (a rare treat that was a last resort due to the lack of soy milk options at the local CVS) the entire way down. 
Needless to say, this is how happy Alden was to pull up in Quincy Circle at our destination. Yep, wet pants, wet car seat, wet shirt, wet diaper. Huge mess! We listened on the way home to the advice.
Another lesson this first time mom learned is not to just throw the child who is scared to take a bath in the "big" bathtub at home without his baby tub onto a seemingly gargantuan beach in front of an endless tub of water and say,"Here's the beach!" This is the reaction you get followed by said toddler crawling up your legs with fear.
A much better approach.
Getting his sea legs on the sand.
Checking it out from all angles. 
And off we go! After about five minutes, or less, we could not keep a hold on him. He could have cared less if we were there or not. He picked up all kinds of sticks and trash, chased birds, and in general ran as fast as he could all over the beach.
We could not get him to smile for pictures! He would smile and laugh and say "happy, happy" as much as you wanted until you pointed the camera. It took another lady deciding to say hello for us to finally capture the shot. Notice, he is not looking at his parents behind the camera!
Here is Alden running over on one of his random trips to visit people. These ladies made the mistake of winking at him playing in the water and saying hello. With Alden, this is an open invitation for complete attention. No matter how many times we directed him back to the water, he kept wanting to take these ladies his toy fish. Finally, we just let him. 
On Friday, our friends Elizabeth, Matt, and Ben joined us in our house. Alden was beside himself with excitement. He and Ben dug into the Busy Bee book which became a hit of the weekend. Everybody wanted to read it all time, especially when the other one was reading it. 
Now, we do have one problem with our son. Alden is not a fighter or a bully or a hiter or even a biter. Nope, Alden is a hugger. We kept having to intervene because he loved Ben so much. He literally had him in the hug death grip at times. He completely did not understand that Ben was not standing up at good as he was yet, and after a few innocent hug tackles which Ben did not care for, we learned to watch out for the hugger. 
Our pale, blond, blue eyed babies could only take the beach for short periods of time, but we all had a blast. We all put on the swim suits and hats our first official day, or hour, at the beach. I was very jealous of Matt and Elizabeth's mimosas from Modica Market. Ahh, if this were only Mad Men and 1960, I could have joined them. I have been watching pregnant Betty Draper drink red wine for weeks on that show!
Alden, actually sitting still, and Ben digging in the sand. 
I could not believe that Alden actually wore his hat on the beach! This child never wears a hat, but was such a good sport.
Alden's newest trick is that he has learned to climb. He climbs on the sofa and chairs, the table in the beach house we were staying, and is especially fond of locating baskets or boxes to climb on to reach higher surfaces. The beach is a great place for an active toddler. Alden even found a way to put his climbing techniques to good use. I think it will be years before Mommy gets to sit like this and enjoy the view. Another lesson: vacationing with children is a very different thing. I am not sure it is an actual vaction, just different scenery.
Alden had his first time in the ocean. This is not the best picture of Alden and Mom, but it shows how amazingly calm the ocean was on Friday. Yes, this is the ocean! It looked like a swimming pool. In fact, while Ben was practicing his swim lesson skills, Alden pretty much curled up on Mom's shoulder and fell asleep! Daddy made us get out of the water then because he was scared that we would miss a nap opportunity.
I am glad we took advantage of the day. The next day or so was not so pretty.
Our next little beach bum is getting bigger. The count down to finding out whether we are buying swimsuits or swim trunks for our next Seaside adventure is really close! Every time I go to Seaside I am pregnant. I guess I crave pickles, ice cream, and Seaside.
Speaking of sleep, we were shocked and amazed and you have no idea how happy that Alden slept through the night in his pack and play! When we have gone out of town before, nighttime has been from bad to dreadful. But, I guess we wore him out with fun in the sun. Every night, we would swing on the front porch swing to go to sleep. It stormed on Sunday night and you could even hear the ocean behind the rain. Alden also became obsessed with a stuffed animal dog that he has named, what else?, "Lucy." He absolutely had to have Lucy to go to sleep which is a very new thing. The first thing he would say when you went to get him in the morning was "Lucy" and remind you of his toy. Of course, the second thing was "Mamma" which was great. Even if Daddy goes to get him, he would point to our bedroom and call out "Mamma." Will someone please remind him when he is 16 that I was his favorite and he actually wanted to be with me?!
Alden was not so good at meals. He pitched and pitched a fit on a regular basis at dinner which is highly uncommon. He would suck the batter off of the calamari and then throw the rings, he would stick his hands in the soup, he would refuse to eat, you name it. He was particularly good on Monday when we took him to eat at Wild Olives in Rosemary beach. He had an entire cheese pizza all by himself and even got to taste sugar cookie (hey, it's vacation). Loved it!
Our little water baby. After the storm, the waves got bigger. Alden loved to get in the water with Daddy. Daddy would give him seaweed to throw. I have always thought it was diguesting myself, but this provided Alden and Daddy hours of entertainment. He would constantly pillage through the beach bag to find his toys. Our new favorite word is "truck" and our first two word combo came from our beach toys, "dump truck." I never called it this, but I am thinking it comes from a book on trucks he likes to read. He also surprised us by pointing to the Seaside church, which was right beside the house, and saying "church." We also passed a statue of a dragon fly which Alden proceeded, without prompting, to call a "firefly." I have no idea where he picked up these two words because they haven't specifically been taught. Kids are amazing.
Alden loves the word "giraffe" although he pronounces it "giratte." He knows exactly what they are...almost. An art gallery on the way back to the house had a painting of giraffes that he pointed and announced every time we passed. Even at night when the painting had been taken back inside. They also had one that was "quack, quack." I assume that one needs no explanation. However, one day, we were passing Great Southern restaurant when a patron had his great Dane outside. Now, usually dogs are Lucy, but the dog might have been a little bit bigger than Alden was used to seeing. He pointed and told us it was a giratte! Clearly, he needs a little more study on giraffe habitat. Although, he did point out every "kitty," his absolute favorite word, that we saw around Seaside.
You have got to give Alden good timing. On the morning we were supposed to leave, Alden woke up sick. Croup and runny nose. We called the doctor and got an appointment. Okay, so we also were semi-bad/semi-helpful parents and went to the beach one last time after that. On the one hand, do you take the child with the croup to the beach? On the other hand, the salty air did seem to clear him up, he was already sick anyway, and he did have to be still for a long car ride. He was wonderful on the way back and we drove straight to the doctor. Even with the diaper change stop in Prattville, he was soakin again. Good thing Mom had done a lot of shopping because Alden got a new outfit to visit the doctor. A hour and half later, after turning the light switch on and off about forty times for entertainment in the room, we got medicine for a double ear infection and the croup. Way to come home!
Only Alden would be having too much fun to let you know he had a double ear infection! What a wonderful trip for all of us! Can't wait to go back...okay, really, none of us wanted to leave.
I have been helping our around the house lately. I have done a lot of mowing. There is not much to do in our yard because it is really small. I have also learned how to turn the washer and dryer on and off and help to stir dinner pots and pans with my spatula.
Here I am eating my favorite food, Mexican. I love it and can't get enough of it! You just have to dig in and make a mess. Mommy didn't really like Mexican food, but I have talked her into it. Now, we have it all the time!
Speaking of Mommy, her is the month 3 bump of my little brother or sister. We are starting to be able to see it better, and Mommy is wearing different clothes now. At our last doctor appointment, the hearbeat was 165 bpm which Dr. McKee said sounded like a girl. Daddy asked what percentage of the time the heartbeat indication was correct. Dr. McKee said 50/50. That one took me a minute, but he is really funny! We were supposed to get to see pictures of the baby, but they decided to wait and do the big ultrasound in November. Then, we get to decorate the nursery and my big brother room!
As you can see, I am a very busy toddler. I have to play, go to Mother' s Day Out, snack, help with chores, and lots of other things. I no longer have time to sit down and do this blog. So, I am handing it over to Mommy. She really doesn't have half as much to do with her time as I do, so I think that this will be good to keep her busy. She will be able to tell you a little more about this little brother or sister, too. I have enjoyed getting to let you know about my first 15 months, but next time you see me I will just tell you about it. I am really getting to be a good talker!
Since I already have special milk, and special detergent, and special dairy-free cheese, I guess it only makes sense that I have speical diapers, too. It has been something that Mommy has thought about for a long time because I am such a sensitive guy. She said they were too hard. But now, I have given her no choice. Mommy has tried all of the brands. Pamper and Huggies give me eczema and Seventh Generation make the eczema go away, but gives me diaper rash. I hate diaper changes. It doesn't feel good, and the only way to let them know is to throw the bulletin board above my changing table on the floor. When they don't get that, I try to just make a leap off of the table and run, but they are too quick. We were at our new baby store the other day, and the really nice lady finally talked Mommy into these new nappies! They aren't too bad because it has an insert that flushed down the toilet. I told her that this was even better than stinky old disposable diapers laying around, but since she has still not bothered to learn my special baby language, it took her a few days and asking a few people's opinion to finally decide to try it. I only get this because they say my little brother or sister can also use this and we can save money for Daddy. So, here we are. We have flushed two, already had have piles in the new Nappy bucket, and we have done two loads of laundry. I even had a big, nasty diaper at Whole Foods to give her the real test, and she passed it. I am a little scared though because laundry tends to pile up at our house. I hope she gets in the mood before I run out of clean nappies!
Helen and my first date to the Vestavia Library. There were lots of fun things to do. We even got to have lunch together afterwards.
We loved the toy area. Especially, the giant panda bear. 
The book table was great for climbing. I couldn't decide what to read, so I just go a whole bunch of books off of the shelf and put them on this table. Helen took them off for me and put them on the floor.
She liked the puzzles best. 
I liked the fish. Mainly, because that is one of the four words that I can say.
Mommy took the test and then went to lie down. She said it took a few minutes to work. I think she forgot about it, but Daddy and I went in to check on it. Daddy came out and told Mommy and me that I was going to be a big brother. I thought that this had to be wrong, so I went back to read the directions and make sure they did it right. 
When I thought I had it down, I went back to check those tests myself. 
Yep, no doubt about it. I think I am going to be a big brother! We went to CVS to get some more tests. They all said the same thing. 
We had to wait a couple of weeks to go and see the doctor. Mommy did not feel very well and my dirty diapers did not help! She took a lot of naps with me. I thought that the doctor's test would be just as fast as the test we took at home, but it took forever! I was so bored. Daddy and I went running through the halls for a while, I dirtied some diapers, we read some books, had some Cheerios, and then I got a special apple juice treat while we watched this movie on T.V. This is my little brother or sister at 6 weeks in the belly. I didn't think it looked like the smaller babies in my Kindermusik class. It didn't even have arms. This does not seem very fun. Especially if it stays in the belly all the time.
Two weeks later, we went back for more pictures of my brother or sister. It is looking a little bigger. I asked the lady and she said that it did have arms now. That was such a relief. The heartbeat was 179. It was really fast!
I find that the best way to play with any new toy is to see how it tastes first. I always like to do this especially at Kindermusik class where I enjoy tasting all of the balls, and bells, and clackers until I find just the right one. I have two big, new molars that have just come in and hurt! The other day, Mommy took me to Whole Foods and I grabbed up a bag of frozen vegetables to chew on. They tried to take them away from me to scan them, but I said, "No!" very loudly. The check-out lady just came over and used the big scan gun so I could still hold them. That brings my total up to ten teeth! I can eat anything now. 
I liked this ball for a few minutes, but it does not compare to the toys inside of the house. My favorite toys are still kitchen utensils, living room candles, and the fireplace. They are all really fun. I can grab kitchen spoons, and spatulas, and tongs, and even whisks and carry them all over the house. Our electrician was so funny trying to put up the light in the family room stepping over the spoon and whisk traps I had left him. I laughed very hard at him.
We had dinner at Zoe's with Granna and Pops. There was a great big carnival in downtown Homewood. Most of the rides were too big for me, but Daddy took me to see this horse. I had never seen a horse in real life, just the blue one in my Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. The nice lady let me pet her. .jpg)
Pops and I took a walk down 18th Street to see what else we could find. There were moonwalks, and rides, and hula hoop contests. Nothing was as good as the horse though.