Young Party of Four

Okay, so Kokomo isn't even a real place... but we are still so excited!! This year we spent a lot of time debating a vacation. Vacations with toddlers aren't always easy or relaxing (especially because we like to "travel" rather than "vacation") and throwing an infant into the mix makes it even more interesting. Initially we had a few days planned in Palm Beach but unfortunately we couldn't make that happen due to scheduling issues so we had to re-evaluate. Enter the idea that we should take a trip down to the Keys for a week. Beaches, sun, ocean, swimming, picnics by the water? Sold! So, a couple of months ago we started planning for an easy Keys trip for the family. Now, our family of four has traveled before. We took road trips to both Mississippi and Georgia for family related functions and the drive is no issue for us. Unlike his sister was at his age, Will is a champion road tripper. He can sleep anywhere (the benefit of being a second child pr...

This weekend Steven decided to take an extended weekend. He was already given Monday off since it was the Memorial Day holiday, but he had enough hours already logged to allow him to take Friday off, as well. (One of the benefits to working this job with billable hours... I love this setup. We get more time with him it seems so I am definitely a fan.) Anyway, because Steven was able to take off the additional day, we elected to move up our Animal Kingdom trip from Saturday. We figured that going on a weekday would be better and then we were also not going on the actual holiday weekend. We got up early and headed out for the park. Kenzie was super excited about the Tree of Life. She had no idea what it was, but we told her there was a big tree and she kept asking about it the entire way there. I don't know that she was as impressed as she thought she would be, but she still oohed and aahed over it once she saw it. We had scheduled a couple of fast passes for the day ju...

Well, it has been exactly one week since we took possession of Will's new "hat" aka his Starband helmet. Last Tuesday we went in to the office to have Will's fitting done. His helmet was ordered using the scans they took at the prior appointment but the helmet needed to be fitted once it was received to make sure it is a perfect fit and ready to start rounding out his little head. As it turns out, Will must have experienced a growth spurt over the prior two weeks because his head was larger than when it was initially measured... significantly larger, actually. It wasn't a huge deal though, and the helmet was able to be cut and shaved down as necessary. I was shown how to put it on and take it off then given a chance to practice before we left. I was also given all the instructions on cleaning and how he should wear it. Then... we were on our own. For the first day he was supposed to wear it for 1 hour on, 1 hour off until about 1pm then we switched to 2 ...

Dear William, Happy 7 month birthday, Little Man! You are such an amazing little boy and I am thankful for every day that we have to spend with you. So much happened with you this month. It has been quite an exciting and trying month for you (and the rest of us, as well.) Let's see... where to start? Let's start with the requisite height and weight. Again, I am doing this on my own because your next doctor's appointment isn't until your 9 month birthday. I was off last month (and the month before) like I figured I would be. I figured I would be overestimating everything, and I was slightly. So, again, take these with a grain of salt... Daddy and I measured you and you were right around 28 inches. You weight 19 pounds. Big boy! You are almost entirely in 12 month clothing. I am still squeezing your chunky and ridiculously tall self into 9 month periodically, but I have phased out a lot of your 9 month clothing. As of right now, you still have no teeth! Seriou...