Vivian's first tooth has finally cut through!

After some very fussy days this week, we finally have some progress! Vivi's first tooth (bottom right) has cut through her gums.
Hopefully now she'll feel a little bit of relief before the next one pops up!

Look who's practically crawling!

Here's the "viveo" proof... :)

By comparison, she's about a month ahead of her brother mobility-wise. Owen crawled at 9 months, Vivi probably will be by 8.

Hanging out

We spent the morning relaxing in the family room in our jammies and I caught Owen with his arm around Vivi while they watched an episode of Super Why.
Super Cute.

Nicknames

Owen

* "O" (as given by his teachers at Kindercare, our former daycare/preschool)

* Mister Owen

* Mister Man

* Stinkerpants

* Mr Love

* Mr Magoo (given by Miss Melissa)

Vivian

* Vivi

* Miss Vivi

* Vivers

* Viv (Kel and my mom call her this)

* Pretty girl

* Chunk-a-monk (Kel came up with this one)

* Love bug

* Sweetpea

* Baby sister

* and the one that she will probably never be able to shake, her big brother's loving nickname for her: LIVERS!

Ben had started calling her Vivers and Owen all of a sudden just began always referring to his sister as LIVERS. Now, I am positive that he knows that Livers is completely different than Vivers, but it has totally stuck and even though it is kindof annoying sometimes, I think it's pretty cute that he has a special nickname for his sister.

Love.

Eating together at the breakfast bar

is fun!

Kiddie picture

We of course had to sit all three kids on the couch for a group photo before the weekend was over. They actually cooperated fairly well and seemed to get a kick out of it. :)

Day Two on the beach

This morning we woke up and watched Vivi try to crawl (not quite there yet, but I can tell that it won't be long).
After a leisurely breakfast, it was off to the beach! Owen could have spent the entire day digging in the sand. I had taken a tip from one of my friends who bought a shovel for her daughter when they went to the beach and it was such a hit. He was definitely not a fan of the ocean (complete opposite of his sister who adored the waves crashing at her feet), but loved the sand.

Vivi took a nap in the sauna, but woke up after less than 15 minutes. She had the most fun sitting with me by the waves in the extra beach chair Molly and Tim brought.

That night we hit up an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet and ate until we were stuffed and afterwards we stopped into a Candy Kitchen to buy some salt water taffy for our families and our nanny Melissa who is finishing up with us this week when I stop working.

OC Boardwalk

We decided to head out to dinner early instead of going back out on the beach, since the kids are used to eating early. Dough Roller was the choice for tonight, so we got to enjoy pizza and beers while the kids had a slice and a milk. Then it was time to hit the boardwalk!

We stopped for Polish Water Ice - my favorite - and the babies just LOVED it. Vivi was like a baby bird opening her beak for food when I put the spoon close to her mouth. It was a nice treat for everyone to cool off with given the temperatures.

After that we walked down to the end of the boardwalk where the rides are so that Ben and Molly could take Owen and Nate on the extremely over-priced merry-go-round ($7 per person for a 3-min ride! and you could barely hear the music the thing put out.) The kids had fun though, and that's all that mattered.

Saturday on the beach

We learned that:

1. Babies can really only handle about an hour and 1/2 of the blazing July heat before they need to cool off inside some air conditioning.

and

2. Next year we're definitely going to bring one of those tailgating tents to set up because they let the air flow versus the baby tent I brought which was practically a petite sauna.

But we definitely had fun in the couple of hours we spent on the beach this morning.

First night in Ocean City

We checked in around 3pm and made it to our condo by 3:30, Molly, Tim and Nate were close behind. It was the perfect size for us, two bedrooms and two baths with a kitchen open to the dining room/living room area. We also had a nice balcony with table and chairs which had an ocean view.

After settling in and putting our suits on, we headed out to the beach to catch the last of the sun before heading out to dinner. After trying the Green Turtle and finding out there was a 45 minute wait which we knew the kids wouldn't be able to tolerate in the heat, we ended up at the "oceanfront restaurant" of a nearby hotel, which turned out to be an excellent choice (all Molly's idea). We enjoyed crab cakes while the kiddos had chicken nuggets and fries.

By the time we got back to the condo we were all ready to hit the hay to prepare for the 6am wake-up call we knew awaited us. Bedtime was a challenge, to say the least. I thought we would be fine setting up the PackN'Play in our room with Owen's toddler mattress on the floor. Boy was I wrong. He thought it was playtime and was just so hilarious to climb on Vivi's PackN'Play which in turn woke her up screaming, which lead to Owen screaming when I reprimanded him for waking her up. Luckily, Ben had a plan. His suggestion of moving Vivi's PackN'Play to the den was the perfect solution and worked like a charm. Thank goodness we had a den.