Beach Bum!

Last Monday we took a real trip to the beach, with swimsuits, beach chairs, sunscreen and everything! We've gone lots of times just to walk around a little bit and dip our toes in but I wanted to go and let James crawl around and explore. He loved it!! He started to crawl right into the waves and was so fearless I almost didn't know what child I was looking at! He is usually so apprehensive and cautious with new things.

He loved walking in the waves holding on to our hands, and of course he had to sample the dirt. We would pick up seashells to show him and he would take ahold and carry them around everywhere after that. He even managed to get one entirely in his mouth when we weren't looking!

James is doing so much better with his walking, he still can't get from sitting to standing without holding on to something, but he has started letting go of things and just walking away towards something. It is so strange to watch!! He looks like such a big boy when he does that! I tried to get some video of it last night, but he was melting down and just crying the entire time :(  He is also getting his one year molars so it has been a little crazy in our house with the crying, clingyness, tantrums, endless snot, and waking up at night :( Hopefully those little suckers finish coming through soon because I miss my laid back baby!

Life is a Garden...Dig it!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Oh, to be a good gardener... I would even settle for being an okay gardener that can only grow a few things that our family really uses, like tomatoes or squash. My mom has always told me that my grandmother Virginia who I am named after had a green thumb and I remember thinking as a little girl that it must mean that I do too, right? Wrong. I am really bad at growing things! Remember my attempt at square foot gardening a few years ago? Stuff grew and grew and grew, but never produced anything edible. I might as well have had a garden of weeds. Blagh.

I think one of my problems is that I want a zero maintenance garden, as in I don't have to check on it, water it often or fertilize it. I just want to plant it and forget it (until I harvest it of course!). Luckily, there is a new product that might just help me out with that! It is called Miracle Gro Expand ‘n Gro™ concentrated planting mix. It expands up to 3x the size when you add water to it and feeds your plants for up to 6 months! That means you could literally fertilize only twice a year! That is my kind of gardening right there :) It has these natural fibers that hold in 50% more water than regular potting soil, so it helps out in the watering department too. Plus, since it is concentrated it is much lighter than regular potting soil, which is a big bonus for me because I usually undergo gardening endeavors while Anthony is at work so it is all me when it comes to the heavy lifting.

So there you go fellow gardening warriors! Another weapon in our arsenal in the fight to grow something. Anything. :)

Walking!

James is walking! (sort of) We can convince him to walk to me or Anthony as a game, but he isn't a fan of doing it any other time. He is much more comfortable cruising when he can hold on to something for security or crawling. But it is so exciting to see that he is capable of it!

Grass isn't for everyone

Monday we took James outside with us while we were planting some tomatoes and noticed that he really doesn't like for his bare feet to touch the grass! It could be because the ground is a little cold, or it could be the texture of the grass, but it is so funny to watch. Yesterday we went out to the backyard to watch the dogs play and look at the birds and James refused to crawl off of the sheet. When we tried to stand him up in the grass or put him on it, this was the result:

 

He was trying to look at an airplane and keep as much off the grass as possible!

What a funny boy!

Fun Visit with Family

This past weekend my mom and my brother came for a visit and we had so much fun! I hadn't talked to my mom in awhile, so I didn't realize they were coming (we had talked about it before but I misunderstood the dates) until I was feeding James a bottle in the living room and I heard my front door open!! My heart was racing, I couldn't think of who would be walking into my house! Luckily, it was a great surprise and not a robber :) I was so excited that they came, before they walked in my big plan for the day was to go to walmart so this was way better.

James loved having his Uncle and Grandma there to play with him. He insisted on being the center of attention at all times and we were happy to oblige. He kept us laughing with all of his antics, like playing chase with anyone who walks by and having to investigate EVERYTHING that is happening around him.
Here he is crawling away while I was trying to get his socks and shoes on. He loves trying to put his own socks and shoes on, but after a few tries, he will hand them to me to do. So cute!

Saturday afternoon we decided to stop by the beach since it is only a few minutes away. I have vowed that we will go to the beach more often since we live so close. I don't want to have to move away someday and think "Why didn't I go when I was so close?"

James loved the waves and the birds and towards the end really wanted to get down in the sand and investigate. After the beach, it was getting close to nap time so I took him home to rest before going out to dinner with everyone. We had a belated birthday dinner that night for me at an awesome Asian restaurant and James, of course, had to flirt with everyone in the restaurant. We had a man from the booth next to us come up after about an hour and tell us how amazing James was and how good he was being. I love it when people do that, but at the same time it really is no reflection on us as parents. Truly, it is all him and his personality! There was some kind of mixup in the kitchen with my meal, so I got it a little later than everyone else (which I didn't mind at all) and they were so apologetic about it that we got a free dessert. Isn't that great? I wish all restaurants did stuff like that!

The entire weekend, my family and I kept talking about how fun our vacation to North Carolina is going to be in May. It was like our weekend was a little taste of it. I can't wait until we can do stuff like that with all of our family. Only a few more months away!!