Tummy Time, A New 'Do, and A Winning Smile

Well, we are officially back into the swing of things around here, which means that Brian and I do not have a moment to breathe. One of my sisters told me last week that I needed to do a better job of keeping the blog updated, and I told her that the only thing I had to blog about lately was how hard I was working. That's not entirely true, though. There is a lot going on in the Sanders house. To begin with, Brian has just completed a total overhaul of the back storage area at work. He got pretty banged up during the process, but he is happy to have it done. My good news is that I have finally found a dissertation chair. This means that I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (although the actual completion of my degree is still at least a year and a half away).


Owen is almost five months old now, and he is still not rolling over very well. Olivia was starting to pull up at five and a half months, so I have been a little concerned. Everyone keeps reassuring me that boys are generally slower to move than girls. He has rolled from front-to-back three or four times, and has rolled back-to-front once. I believe that he could do it if he wanted to. I just don't think that he is motivated at all. We are trying to give him as much tummy time as possible so that he will have the opportunity to practice.

Remy's news is that he has been professionally groomed and is looking good (for the first time in years). We usually groom him ourselves- which is probably why he has always looked so terrible. Lately, though, he has been acting ugly when we've tried to trim him up. So, we decided to let a professional try. The first place we took him wouldn't groom him because he was acting ugly there, too. However, we finally found someone who could handle him, and we are very happy with the results. I think that the haircut has improved his self-esteem, too. He seems a lot happier. It's like he knows that he looks good.

Olivia continues to be as sweet as she can be. We are having a family portrait made next week, so Olivia and I have been practicing our picture-taking skills. Olivia is notorious for squirming during pictures, so I feel that the extra practice is needed. She has gotten much better about staying still and looking at the camera. The only thing that we need

to work on now is her smile. When she smiles, she squints her eyes closed and shows all of her teeth. That smile is so ugly, that it's cute. Maybe for this family picture we'll use the "just look, don't smile" approach.

Update 8/17: Okay, so can you guess what happened after I posted yesterday that I was worried about Owen not rolling? That's right, he started rolling all over the place and has been doing so for the past 24 hours. Go figure! Maybe I should post that I'm afraid that I'll never win the lottery. Hmm...

Growing Like Weeds

Last week was our annual visit from the Quarnaccio clan. I always look forward to seeing my aunt, uncle, and cousins and to catching up on what is going on in their lives. As always, I am astounded by how Pam's and David's kids have grown. Not only are the kids growing, but the family itself is growing (as you can probably tell by the large number of small children in the first picture). Of course my Granny Walker was thrilled to have both of her children, her seven grandchildren, and all nine of her great-grandchildren together.

Back to School (Boo)

Well, my four month maternity leave is over (boo). I went back to work last week, and the students came back today. This means that Owen and Olivia are in day-care full-time now. I'm glad that I took Olivia to day-care some during the summer. This made the transition much easier this morning. I felt so bad for all of the teachers who had not taken their kids at all during the summer. Those kids were screaming their heads off this morning. Not Olivia, though, she marched into her room like a pro. This is a picture that I took of Olivia this morning before leaving the house. I didn't get one of Owen because he was trying to go back to sleep, and I didn't want to wake him up. Hopefully, this will be a good and productive school year for all of us.

Beach Vacation Part 6- Family Time

Okay, so this is my final post on our beach vacation. It was definitely a great week. What always makes this vacation so much fun is just being able to be with family and relax. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week.

Photo 1: Seeing as how this was our first trip with Owen, I really wanted to get a nice family picture on the beach. Olivia, however, would not cooperate. In every picture that we took, she was either looking away or making a weird face. This was the best one.

Photo 2: While we were at the beach both Brian and Kelly had birthdays. We also went ahead and celebrated birthdays for Hannah and Cassie who will be turning another year older at the end of the month. Brian received money, clothes certificates, and supplies for the grill that he got for father's day. In this picture, the four birthday boys and girls are blowing out candles on their cake.

Photo 3: We didn't really put the kids in the pool this year because you are suppose to be potty trained to swim in it (although many other vacationers violated this rule). But, the adults enjoyed swimming in it throughout the week. Here is a picture of the 'single' girls- Cassie, Quincy, and Jessica having fun in the pool.


Photo 4: While at the beach, we always go out and eat one night as a group. For our dinner this year we (re)visited The Surf restaurant, which is conveniently located across the street from our condo complex. Rumor has it that they are going to tear the restaurant down and build condos. I hope that they don't because it is a unique restaurant. In this picture, Olivia is sitting with her Gigi and Papa waiting (not so patiently) for her food.

Well, this ends our beach vacation trip report. Hopefully there will be many beach vacations in the future.

Beach Vacation Part 5- Owen's Vacation

I know that I have not said much about what Owen did at the beach. For the most part, he sat around the condo in his bouncy chair. That may sound sad, but it was just too hot for him outside. He was more content inside than he would have been outside. There was one day that was particularly cloudy, so we took him down to the beach on that day. We dangled his feet in the water and walked him around for a bit. He did not really react one way or the other. He'll be old enough to enjoy it more next year.

Owen was not the only baby at the beach. Both Claire and Natalie were too young to be outside for very long, so Owen had plenty of company sitting around with him. Granny Buie, my aunt Libba, and my mom kept Owen (and the other babies) quite a bit so that both Brian and I could go and do things with Olivia. Owen liked all of the attention that he received and is a bit spoiled now.

Beach Vacation Part 4- Fishing

Brian always refers to our vacation week as "Fishing Week". His favorite thing to do at the beach is fish off of the pier. He had a lot of success this year. There was one night where he caught over 60 fish! My dad says that Brian has the magic touch- he can catch fish when no one else can.

There was also a lot of shark action going on this year. On our first night there, a guy caught a 5-foot shark off of the pier. I also saw two 3-foot sharks hauled in later in the week. Brian bought a new shark reel and some stronger line so that he could get in on the shark-fishing action. Sure enough, he caught a shark on his first night with the new equipment. It's always sobering to see someone pull a shark up out of the water. When people in the ocean see that, they tend to get out of the water.


Brian tried to get Olivia interested in fishing- and she was, but she was more interested in running around on the pier. I was nervous that she would run and get over the railing, so she wasn't allowed on the pier very often. Maybe in a few more years Brian can pass his fishing secrets down to her.

Beach Vacation Part 3- Fun in the Water

Halfway through the week Olivia began warming up to playing in the ocean. Part of the reason for this is that Ava had been playing in the ocean. Whatever Ava does, Olivia wants to do. They are monkey-see, monkey-do. Once Olivia got into the water, she loved it. Brian took her out into the waves a couple of times to body surf and she really liked that, too. Here are some of my favorite pictures of Olivia's ocean fun. In one of the pictures, Olivia is chasing a bird- she actually did this with every bird that she saw on the beach.