Sanibel Vacation, Volume Four: The Cousin Crush & Other Fun Stories

OK, I lied. This volume will be about James' first cousin crush AND an anecdote about one of our early morning adventures.

First, the crush. James' second cousin Sophie (mom Karen is Brian's cousin) is THE prettiest, sweetest, most quiet girl we have ever known and she has been that way since birth. Now, 7 years old with two younger (and louder) brothers, she knows how to handle 2-year old James and his stalker-like nature. She was SO sweet with James all week - playing with him in the pool, sharing her toys, reading to him (!), and protecting him from her annoying (her words, not mine) brothers.

Looking at Aunt Katie's ocean animals:

James going in for the hug:

and then pretending like it never happened:

Now, allow me to set the scene: Sanibel is one big game-fest. Every night is a board game of some kind - usually involving charades or fast-paced drawing. The gaming goes well into the evening and we are not ever in bed before midnight. James, not quite of age for these festivities, still wakes up around 6:30am. So, we are tired.... EVERY morning. In addition, Brian, James and I are sleeping in the 2nd bedroom, Brian's parents in the first and Brian's sister Katie on the pullout couch in the living room. So, as we "wake" with James at 6:30, we are in an all-hands-on-deck mission to keep him quiet and entertained in our room until we can sneak out the front door in the pursuit of coffee and doughnuts. We are usually blurry-eyed and stumbling around in whatever we put on in the dark and James is in his pajamas.

One fine morning, we stopped in at the Island Bakery & Coffeehouse. The entire store is only 10' square and we walked in BEFORE 8am to the LOUDEST accordian I have ever heard. Seriously. White and gold sparkly and the hippest nicest woman belting out an accordian tune. Crazy. It turns out her name is Queenie (of course) and she makes the homemade (and delicious) ice cream they sell at the store. We shout out our coffee order to Queenie's brother (aka, the coffee guy) while James shouts "CAN I TOUCH IT?" over and over and over. Of course, Queenie lets him touch it and then she plays kiddie accordian songs (?) while we wait for coffee. James is mesmorized. He is dancing all over the store and grinning from ear to ear at Queenie.

Keep in mind, at this point, it is still not even 8:30am and while we are adding the necessary sweeteners to our coffee, the coffee guy hands James an ICE CREAM CONE full of Queenie's ice cream. Now James is beside himself with glee. I am sure he was thinking that this was the best morning of his life. But wait - the fun does not stop there.

The coffee guy says, "Queenie play that one again" and he puts a piece of tissue paper on the floor and then STANDS ON HIS HEAD. For an entire song. I cannot get my camera out fast enough while simultaneously thinking, are we even awake or is this some weird dream? James is laughing a funny laugh that we have not heard again nor do I think we ever will since we could not possibly duplicate this morning. Ever.

And here's a little ditty with some family history. Uncle Ernie (really Brian's cousin) has been trying to get kids to say "Was Uuuuuuup?" for about five years now. None of Karen's kids will do it. They obviously have a much keener sense of "being duped" than young James. He couldn't say it enough.

And that completes Sanibel Stories 2008.

Sanibel Vacation, Volume Three: The Pool

James has always loved the water. Loves the bath, no problem rinsing his hair out right down his face, would stay in there for hours if we let him. He has also spent his entire life on the beach back in Florida. So, it was no surprise that he loved being in the pool at Sanibel, but the 100+ jumps / belly flops off the side, into the water only to come up for air saying "again? again?" - well that we just weren't prepared for. Had we thought that might even be a remote possibility, we might have started lifting weights for months prior. 30 pound, dripping wet, squirmy weights with swim diapers attached.

Here he is jumping to mommy:

and some pics of jumping to daddy:

This was a little "water hose" game that Aunt Katie showed him. For days, he thought he was making it work all on his own. Here's Oma letting him in on the secret, but he is delighted just the same.

See you here tomorrow for Volume 4: the Cousin Crush.

Sanibel Vacation, Volume Two: The Beach

So Sanibel is known for its shells. Bazillions of them - as far as the eye can see. Bending over to pick one up is called the Sanibel Stoop. You can walk the sandbars at low tide and find all kinds of unique shells. They print the most sought-after finds in the newspaper. It's a serious business.

James couldn't care less. That boy would pick up any half broken, ugly, barnacle-ridden shells he could find and use them... to make roads. That's all we heard about all week. "You make a road, mommy?" He even found a way to make a road with his tush.

Mostly he was at peace in the ocean, walking the sandbars, and catching the "waves." Of course, I am joking - there are no waves at Sanibel, BUT occasionally a boat would go by and the wake would make its way to us.

The Sanibel Stoop:

Running with Aunt Cathy:

Join us tomorrow for Volume Three: The Pool and our son, the fish, that LIVED in it.

Sanibel Vacation: Volume One

Where do I begin? We've just returned from 8 days and 7 nights on Sanibel Island. Brian's family has been going there every year for almost 30 years now. We are up to 13 adults and 4 kids. Sanibel is very "natural Florida" and the island works hard to protect it's small island family-friendliness - rarely a chain store or restaurant and no large signs or billboards. There's biking, nature trails, pool time, and of course, the beach.

We took James there when he was four weeks old (eek!) and again last year at 13 months (not walking yet), but this year was his best year so far. He spent HOURS in the pool jumping from the side, countless walks on the beach and many sandbars in the ocean, he developed his first cousin-crush, and ate his weight in ice cream.

In this volume, I will share some general photos of our time there. In the next couple of posts I will share some fun little ditties and bizarre adventures.

Here we are minus one family (Brian's cousin Karen came the next day). L to R top: Opa (Brian's dad), Aunt Cathy, Oma (Brian's mom), Uncle Kevin, Aunt Katie, Aunt Lisa (really a cousin), Uncle Ernie (cousin). Bottom row: Brian, yours truly, Uncle Ernie (really Great Uncle Ernie), (Great) Aunt Judy. So James really has two Uncle Ernies (and two Uncle Kevins but that is a blog post for another time). To separate them in his own mind (I guess), James took to calling the younger, "Uncle Ernie" and the older, "Uncle Bernie."

Aunt Katie is a Wildlife Ecology major at UF. She dug up all sorts of great animals out of the ocean. She even set up an aquarium so the kids could see them close up. Here she is showing James something gross and slimy.

These are James' second cousins (I looked it up): Crawford (age 3), Walton (age 2), and Sophie (age 7). Walton is four months older than James.

One of our MANY trips to the ice cream store:

The Coyne contingent:

Stay tuned for Volumes 2-4: the pool, the beach, and the cousin crush...

CHEEEEEEESE!

This kid NEVER says "cheese" when we are actually taking his picture.

The Dogs Are Barkin'

DC memorials and monuments: Checking them off one by one, mile by mile. James is checking them off step by step as he INSISTS on scooting down the steps on his tush. He's so proud of himself while he's doing it that you can't do anything but take pictures and applaud at the end. FYI (courtesy of nephew Devon), the Lincoln Memorial has 59 steps.

Iwo Jima:


Jefferson Memorial:

FDR Memorial:

Devon ponders the idea that something MIGHT be taller than him at the Museum of Natural History:

James is such a local now. He knows he can come back to this museum anytime so he checks out:

Korean War Memorial:

World War II Memorial:

View from the Lincoln Memorial:

Steps 20-28?

Advanced?

People are always telling us that James is "advanced." He's our only kid so we have no frame of reference for that kind of thing, but whenever somebody says that, I think of moments like these.

Here is James out for a walk with us on a nice 90 degree Saturday. He chose up to his knees -no air circulation - better for a rainy day frog boots and then proceeded to SIT on every boot scraper we passed in Old Town. He called them his "little chairs." He would wedge himself into them and sit like he was the king of Old Town.

THEN he walked to the curb like a crab for ten minutes.

Yeah, we're not calling MENSA anytime soon.

Ya Think?

It cracks me up that James felt compelled to tell us "all done" after eating everything but the plastic surrounding his chocolate pudding.

Mr. Devon Goes to Washington

My 14-year old nephew Devon is here and we are squeezing in all the big city sights in between toddler nap times and the parents of said toddler's bedtimes. Luckily, he is also happy as a clam in front of our television without little brothers or parents around so he passes the downtime well. Yesterday was "the Mall" and as I explained to Devon, "no, not the kind where you go shopping."

Here are the answers to the questions you will ask yourself while looking at these pics:
#1 Yes, he is only 14
#2 Yes, he is as big as he looks.
#3 Yes, Brian was disappointed that his own son - his own flesh and blood (!) SLEPT through the National Air & Space Museum.

The National Aquarium:

The Treasury Department:

Some big house we passed - lots of people were gathered outside so we took a picture...

National Air & Space Museum:

Thanks Grandma Honey!

James LOVES his new "big boy bike" - a birthday gift from Great-Grandma Honey. It's a Thomas bike and the boy loves trains. Also, there is a train in the Thomas empire named "James" so his name is actually on the side by the tire. We pointed this out to him thinking he would love that and then we remembered that he can't read...

Mini BFFs

Last weekend was a visit from NC friends - the Bruces. Little Virginia is exactly six months (to the day!) younger than James and they are finally at the point where they acknowledge each other's presence. James, the older man, takes it a step further and is usually either mowing her down during play, playing hide n seek or embracing her in big giant bear hugs like this one.

Virginia spent the entire weekend saying "James? Where's James?"

They also spent a good amount of time "cooking" although the best recipe they came up with was "garlic soup."