Isaac and Ian vs The Crazy Daisy

Earlier in the week my brother came over to clean out some things from the garage. It was fun to see all the stuff I still have stuffed down there, and haven't thought about in ages. I came across one of those Crazy Daisy sprinklers, does anyone remember those? I bought it for my nephew when he was a toddler, and it was still in perfect shape!

We had a string of super hot days, up into the 90s! We needed a fun way to cool off, so I gave it a shot. A little bit of a rough introduction, but they ended up having a ton of fun with it!

I am so proud

The other day, Michael and Isaac surprised me by singing the alphabet! Apparently they've been practicing. I realize that it looks like I bribed him with food to get him to sing for me. Not the case, he just happened to be eating his graham cracker with peanut butter.

A Visit from Baba!

We have been so lucky to have Baba (Michael's mother) visiting for the past few weeks! She needed a bit of a break from New York life, and needed to breath in some clean ocean air, and take in some serious grand kid time!

I don't think a day had passed since she and Gigi (Michael's dad) left after their last visit, that Isaac didn't say "Baba boat? Gigi Boat?" Meaning, are they coming on the boat?

We've been really blessed with some fantastic weather, clear skies, soft breeze, warm sun, it's hard to ask for much more than that. We've managed to sneak in a couple beach days, although one of them wasn't so successful. We were pushed off the beach by a swarm of nasty bugs, I had never seen so many in one place at one time.

She'll be heading home soon, and I know we're sure going to miss her!

More farm fun

My sister, her friend and I all went on a fun adventure to a small, local farm here on the Vineyard called the Native Earth Teaching Farm. I've driven past it many times, and never realized that it was an actual functioning farm! I always thought it was just a vegetable stand on the side of the road.

When we got there, Isaac was sound asleep. We each took turns carrying him while we explored the different areas. We saw tons of different kinds of geese, ducks, chickens, guinea hens, and other birds. Then we saw lots of different kinds of goats, some much more adorable than others! My favorite were the baby pigmy goats!! Their horns were only about as big as my pinky fingers (and those of you who know me well, know how small THAT is). They were so playful and cute, they would jump around their little pen, and stand on top of one another, then race around again and butt heads.

We saw the largest pig in the universe, or at least I'm convinced of that. He was, all joking aside, the size of a small car. We quickly moved on to another area, when I noticed that that one particular beast was only contained with a tiny rope fence, and NON electric rope fence.

Down a path a tiny bit, there was a much nicer looking mama pig, with four itty, bitty, wee piglets. We found some grain pellets and tossed them a few handfuls, but then hand to flee the scene when the birds got wind of that!

As we were heading back to the car, Caitlin stopped off at the cooler to pick out some fresh duck eggs, and Isaac finally woke up. We back-tracked and let him explore the whole place.

We had a ton of fun! Love this little island and it's little family run farms.

The First of Many Beach Days

Last Monday, my sister and I took advantage of the glorious weather by bringing Isaac and Pyker, or as he calls her Woo-Woo, to the beach! It was so nice to finally be able to feel the warm sun on my pale skin, the soft sand on my bare feet, and smell that familiar, comforting smell of baby sunscreen! It was a perfect day!

Caitlin tried showing Isaac how to build a sandcastle. . . she didn't have too much luck with that. Maybe in a few more months, he'll get the hang of it. He was more interested in collecting beach treasures.

Summer is quickly approaching, and I can't wait for many more days at the beach!

Spring Portraits

I have said this before, but I'll say it again. I am SO lucky to have such a talented BFF!! I'm talking about the one and only, uber-talented Ariel Thomas, Ariel Thomas Photography. She took some simply amazing shots of Isaac the other day in one of the State Forest's access paths near our house.

He was pretty hilarious through the whole session, collecting pine cones, and sticks, and pulling the wagon that we brought along with us to schlep all the props along. He would wiggle his toes in the sand along the path and say "Mama, piggies beach", so cute.

Fun with a few fish

Yesterday we took the boys to the New England Aquarium for the very first time. I had never been there myself, and was really glad that we made the trip.

We were going to be in Boston anyway, for a follow up visit with my neurologist, so we thought we'd make a day trip out of it.

As we walked up to the building, there was an outdoor seal exhibit, which was such a great introduction to the aquarium experience! Sadly, I think I've only ever seen one or two seals around here. I know that we have many many more, I have just never been lucky enough to see them!

Isaac and Ian got a really big kick out of watching them swim upside down past the glass. I couldn't get over how fat some of them were! I'm not sure how I would feel if one swam up to me at the beach, but I liked watching them in their tank.

When we walked inside, I was surprised at the size of the place. Michael and I both thought that it would be larger. As it turned out, it was the perfect size for us after all! In the core of the building, is a gigantic, round tank, which has a coral reef habitat inside.

We saw an enormous shark, ( I kept my distance, even with the thick glass enclosure, you can never be TOO sure) a wicked big sea turtle, who Isaac named Mama Tootle, and who he thought was her baby, thus Baby Tootle. A few tarpon, some parrot fish, a moray eel, a large sand shark, two huge rays, and a whole bunch of other fish that I would never be able to name, even if I tried!

Then on each floor surrounding that large tank, were smaller exhibits, we were lucky to see most of them getting fed. We saw their new penguin exhibit, which was fascinating! Ian liked the ones with yellow feathers coming out of their ears. Very cute.

We saw sea dragons, mesmerizing jelly fish, of many different varieties, star fish, clown fish, octopus, lots of familiar fish, and a whole bunch of new ones.

There was a petting tank, with baby sting rays, and baby sharks. We saved that for the very end. I wasn't sure how Isaac would react to the whole thing, but I let him have a go. Ian went right up to the tank and started exploring them. Isaac watched all the kids for a minute or so, then pushed his way through the crowd like a little bull dog, crawled up onto the ledge, and with the help of a very eager 4 year old next to him, got to pet his very first sting ray. He wasn't 100% sure that he liked it, until the eager helper told him to pat the ray like you would pat a kitty. Well, that sealed the deal! We had to practically pull him away!

I think that he must have bonded with one of them, because as we were stepping down to leave, a ray came up to the glass, almost as if to say goodbye. It was very sweet, a fantastic end to a remarkable experience!