July Events

July turned out to be a very busy month for us. Cathy's dad has a fourth of July barbecue each year. This year was no different. That is to say...other than the lightening and thunderstorm that we experienced. We were waiting for dark so that we could watch the fireworks. Thanks to God, we had our own natural fireworks show. The lightening and thunder stole the show. The lights went out around 11:00 PM. We headed home shortly after. So...we had to shoot our fireworks off the next day. Christopher didn't know whether to stick around or run away from the loud booms. All in all, we enjoyed our Independence day(s) with our family. Mary Catherine dressed for the Fourth of July. Her shirt says "Forever Daddy's Girl".

Christopher watching TV. His shirt says "Mr. Independent".

Christopher's favorite movie is Transformers. His favorite character is Bumblebee. Although, he can name all of the Autobots and all of the Deceptacons (the bad guys). We recently bought him new PJs...Bumblebee of course. He also got some new T-shirts with the Transformers on them. He loves this movie. He watches the cartoon every weekday morning at 6:00 AM. He wakes up around 5:30 AM so he can get dressed and go in the livingroom and watch his favorite cartoon...while everyone else is running around getting ready for work.

This autobot's name is Ratchet.

Mary Catherine had her very first dentist appointment on July 8th. We expected her to cry since this was something new. She surprised us all. Although she still had to sit on mom's lap, her crying was at a bare minimum. As long as she was able to look into the mirror, she didn't have a problem with the dentist "counting" her teeth. She has 8 teeth and she is starting to cut her 2 year molars. She constantly chews on her finger or anything else she can fit into her mouth.

Mary Catherine with Dr. French.
Christopher and Dad. He had a great check-up. No cavaties!

When Christopher was about 18 months old, his favorite "hideout" was a cabinet in our entertainment center in our livingroom. He played in that cabinet up until about a year ago. He got too tall to stand up in it. So, he would just resort to sitting in it sometimes. He would hide some of his favorite toys in there...or just hide from mom and dad in there. When Mary Catherine began walking...her natural instinct was to explore this favorite hiding space. Now, she occupies this spot regularly. She walks into the cabinet and waves bye bye. She opens the doors and waves hi. She really enjoys this new hiding spot. She and Christopher like their new clubhouse too...that would be sitting under the dining room table. They take there toys under there and play.

Christopher (April 2005).

Mary Catherine (July 2008)

Christopher (age 4) & Mary Catherine (1 year 2 months) July 2008.

On July 26th, we took a mini vacation...We took the kids for a day trip to Sullivans Island. Both kids fell asleep on the way to the beach.

This was Christopher's 2nd time going to the beach. He is an old pro. Mary Catherine, however, was not to thrilled with the sand or the water. It took her a while to catch her balance on the uneven sand. Not to mention the sand was very, very hot. She refused to sit on the blanket with mom. She insisted on sitting down in the sand. Although mom and dad slathered both kids with suntan lotion, Mary Catherine still got burned. Christopher has his dad's skin tone. He just tanned a little more. Mary Catherine has mom's skin tone and is forever destined to burn...no matter how much suntan lotion she wears. Dad and Christopher built a castle fort. Mary Catherine played in the sand and decided to give herself a dry facial with the sand.

Beach sand is much different than the sand found in backyard sandboxes. Beach sand gets in every crease and crevace. We thought it would be a good idea to let her walk in the surf to rinse some of the sand off of her. Obviously, she didn't think our idea was the best. She cried and insisted on being held. When she caught the eye of another little girl (only a couple months older than her), she insisted on being put down. She played in the water. She thought it was fun to run down into the water and then fall down to her knees. She did this repeatedly...playing Russian Roulet with the surf. At times the water was deeper than the time before and her face would splash in the water. After quickly standing her back up, she would just wipe her eyes and then do it again.

Chris helped Christopher get onto a sandbar so he could get a closer look at a bird. He thought it was so cool to be so far out in the water. Christopher was tasked with finding seashells. He found a lot to put in mom's pocket. (Mom realized the seashells were still in her pocket the next morning when she was getting ready to put her shorts in the washer...oops.) After a few hours at the beach, we headed home. Much to the dismay of the kids...they wanted to stick around at the beach a bit longer. But, the clouds looming overhead made our minds up to head home. We were on the way home only about 15 minutes before it started raining. We left at the right time. Mary Catherine slept most of the way home. Christopher ate snacks and talked most of the way home. He kept saying he wanted to go to the beach. We kept telling him he was just at the beach. All in all, we had a great time on our mini vacation.