To Da BEACH!

Yesterday we went to the beach with some fantastic friends. Luckily, Teresa is so at ease with my circus we were able to manage not only the beach but an impromptu stop at Five Guys! 

Jack, making sand angels.

Deacon really enjoyed playing in the sand! He only tried to
put in his mouth once, but went to town just running his hands through it.

I had to ask for a second opinion, but I think it's true: Deacon's first "real"
word is CHEESE! I had the camera out and he kept saying "teeze."
Seriously!

Eli didn't bother much with the ocean, he just enjoyed digging.

I have more pictures and a video of Deacon crawling (finally!) but my Mac won't let me move the video from iPhotos. 

The boys still fought like crazy all day and were so tired from playing in the ocean and sand that they were slurring their speech on the way home! Again, I got zero sleep but I think I've FINALLY figured out two things going on:

1.) LOW milk supply! Apparently, it's common during your period. I never had one until 

either got pregnant and/or Eli self weaned so I had NO clue why Deacon wasn't feeling full. 

So, I made an emergent call to an IBCLC to get some Mother Love "More Milk Plus" 

since she's the only person around that sells it! I've been drinking tea and downing 

herbs like a nut. 

and

2.) I think this is the time in the year where the older boys are closest in age and their 

emotional and social needs are almost the same. So, they're driving each other (and me) bonkers! 

We spent today talking about using kind words and gentle touches but they even got in a fight at church. Of all places. Sheesh...

Despite the incredibly tiring week, we lived. We learned a few things, too. I think. I can't remember...

Fall In Florida

Today we had the pleasure of attending a birthday party at the beach. It was the absolute most perfect "fall" day here on the First Coast. 

Running on the dunes.

Turner just hanging with Lynn.

Eli had a great time digging with a "shubble." 

Gotta love beach towns! No table? No problem! 

84 degrees and sunny at the end of September. Man, are we going to miss this! 

Thank God for VISITORS!

There's nothing worse than a holiday weekend alone, at home, with toddlers. Oh, wait, there is: A holiday weekend alone, at home, with sick and cranky toddlers! Yes, you read correctly, my kids were cranky. *GASP* Yeah, I know, I'm over it too. We've had a cold since the flight back from New Jersey and the boys seemed to have developed pink eye from the 2 1/2 week old cold.

Thankfully, Uncle Chad and Aunt Kate came to save the weekend! They hopped a flight from VA just to come down and check on us. I'm so happy to not only have them in our life but to be able to trust that they love us enough to come down and deal with our beautiful mess!

Kate found these super awesome Marine Corps uniforms and Chad decked them out with 1st LT bars for Turner and 2nd LT bars for Eli. Though, they could have come from Kate since she served as a Marine, too!

Turner even got a Navy Achievement Medal (NAM)!

He loves to dress up in things like this.

Coincidentally, Eli had this "Mom's Major Cutie" shirt on. I thought it went well with the desert camis. You can see his eyes are watery from the conjunctivitis.

On Saturday, we played around the house. Kate and Chad helped me dump out the dead garden: I'm not sure what I was thinking, trying to keep one more thing alive! The tomatoes (a heat tolerant variety from Hawaii) have survived and are now producing fruit so we saved those. The boys seemed to enjoy dumping the dirt so, I guess, no harm no foul. Turner wore his uniform for the second day in a row and could not be bothered to remove it even though it was 90 degrees.

After naps Saturday, we hit the beach at Mayport. The kids were still not up to par so they weren't their usual selves running from the dunes to the water and back. Eli is fairly attached to a truck from the movie Wall-E (though he's never seen it) so he spent the entire hour fighting the waves and screaming at the water for taking his beloved truck.

Uncle Chad, dutifully wiping Turner's face.

The newlyweds!

Kate helping Eli pile mud on his truck so it didn't get washed away.

8 1/2 month belly. Chad seemed a little proud of his, huh?

After the beach the boys and I were treated to one of our favorite places, Tacolu!

This kid would never turn down beans and rice!

Not only did Chad and Kate come down for a visit, the tackled Eli's birthday gift (a train table), and let me take as many showers as possible in two days but they even took the boys out Sunday morning so I could get a few things done and enjoy the Sunday Morning Show on CBS. Now that was a treat!