you know you've mastered the mom voice when...

...complete (adult) strangers respond to you, when in fact you are speaking to your 2 year old.

During our visit to the Texas State Aquarium, I thought L had put his finger in the tank pictured below.


So I said, "L, did you just put your finger in that water?!"

And much to my surprise an adult male turned to me and said (like he was in trouble), "Uh, no I didn't."

I guess I've mastered my mom voice....although, I'm pretty sure L didn't ever answer me.

Texas State Aquarium

The day after our beach outing we went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. The boys had a great time observing (and even touching) all things sea related.





C reached in and picked up this sea urchin all on his own!








A tank where you can 'pet' sting rays. Pretty cool!




Looks likes Baby P is oohing and aaahing at the dolphin show.

summer 2009 beach trip

We went on a much needed getaway to the coast for a couple of days and had a great time! The water was a nice temperature, clean and a pretty green color. And there were hardly any other people there. Nice!

Thursday, we spent most of the day at the beach. The boys loved it, and we enjoyed just playing with them all day. When we first got there, I realized I had left my camera at the hotel. ARRRR!!! After fighting back tears listening to my husband's suggestion not to drive all the way back to the hotel and to use my cell phone camera instead, I realized the cell phone pics would be better than nothing. At least I had the cell phone to document some of our fun and Baby P's first time to the coast.

Baby P had fun with the sand and water. He enjoyed digging his hands and feet into the sand. At first, the sand went right to his mouth. But after a little while, he stopped trying to put the sand in his mouth so much and just played with it. He was a little unsure of the water (as were his brothers) to begin with, but warmed up to it and even enjoyed being carried in the water and spending time in his float. After a short nap in his stroller, he continued playing, sitting and even crawling in the water.














The older boys had a blast as well. Like I mentioned above, they were hesitant to go in the water at first. After a while, C was in to about his waist jumping the waves (it was pretty calm, but still)! He even donned his goggles and put his face in to try and see fish. Our C man also got a kick out of holding live sand dollars and small hermit crabs and slugs.



Here are a couple of sand dollars and a crab the boys enjoyed watching in this bucket for a while. (We did let them go alive.)



It took L a little longer to fancy the idea of going into the water, even with us holding him. But eventually he did. Once he was used to the water, he had so much fun jumping, running, stomping and laying in the water (where it was about ankle deep). He thoroughly loved the sand...playing in it, throwing it and building a sand castle with his Daddy and older brother. As he was 'building' his own sand castle, he would fill up his bucket about 1/10 of the way, dump it out and say, "Did it, did it! Daddy, look!" Too cute.








Something else that made me and my husband laugh was watching the older boys yell at and run after the seagulls to shoo them away. What a sight!


It was truly great being able to take a break from the norm and just spend time together! The next day we went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Another post on that will be coming soon.

play time...

...outside...
















...and inside...











I love watching our boys play! It's so neat to see 3 different developmental stages of play. Fun times!