Sun and sand in Destin

Well, July seems to have become travel month for the Cowan family! After our journey to the Pacific Northwest, we made a short stop back in Tennessee before heading south to Destin, Florida. Jane was at such a great age for the beach this year. (Click here to see the change from last year!)

She loved the sand and the water, which was a relief because otherwise it would have been a long week. The first evening we arrived, we headed down to the beach to stretch our legs and get our feet wet (another great opportunity to use the word "literally"... see previous post). As soon as we got to the fluffy sand, Jane started falling backwards and rolling around in it, as if it were a giant air mattress. Still in her clothes, we took her to the edge of the water to dip her toes in, but after a few minutes Jane somehow managed to get completely soaked.  Here's a little compilation from our first evening on the beach:

The rest of the week was equally fun with plenty of sun and a nice breeze to cool us off.

Why are we learning about shapes on vacation?
Because your parents are teachers. Now, which one is the circle?

First koozie experience

See the yellow plane? That was a HUGE hit with Jane.
"Lello bane!" she exclaimed every time it flew by (about every half hour).

All clean and dressed for the evening... legs getting a little sandy...

... and now for the hair.
(That made for a total of three baths this day.)

Here's Daddy on the same beach at the same age as Jane!

Check out the pictures at the end of this old post to see Richard and Jane at the same age last year.

As much as Jane liked the beach, the pool was definitely her favorite. The activity she enjoyed most was sitting on the edge of the baby pool and then leaning forward until she plopped into the water. Then she would plow forward across the baby pool and belly flop back under water. She learned pretty quickly how to tilt her chin up and get her head out of the water, which made it much less stressful for us! She was having a ball and was so much fun to watch. Here's a little clip of her graceful entry into the water:

This slightly cheesy walking-away-footprints-in-the-sand shot seems like a good one to end on:

Mukilteo

That's right... Muck-il-TEE-o. It's a little town on the coast of Washington state, about thirty miles north of Seattle. Last month Richard and I braved our first cross-country flight with Jane to visit my dad and stepmom, Juli. It was a long time being cooped up on a plane, but definitely worth a great visit! (Also, we lucked into a bulkhead row on our two longest flights... highly recommended! We just put a blanket on the floor and made a little play area for Jane. She had to be in our laps during take off and landing, of course, which a flight attendant rudely reminded us when she said "Y'all need to hold onto yo baby!")

Anyway, it was so refreshing being out on the cool and breezy Pacific Coast. I definitely sympathize with the locals who are a bit tired of the clouds and rain, but I think the sunny days with bright blue skies and a high of 78 might almost be worth it! It was kind of nice having to break out the fleece jacket when we're used to sweating through tank tops.

Ok, I'm getting to the pictures... Of course I forgot, as usual, to take pictures of anyone besides Jane, but we had a wonderful time visiting with my dad and Juli. Also not pictured below are Juli's incredible dinners. She is somewhat of a gourmet cook and amazed us every time we sat down to eat. She even figured out a way to make French toast fancy! Yum...

Ooo, I did find one non-Jane picture! These are miniature little succulent ground covers in Juli's gravel driveway. You can walk and drive on them, and that actually helps spread them. Aren't they amazing?

Here is a picture of Jane holding a picture of me that my dad had... Do we pass the look-alike test?

One of the best parts about Muliteo is Lighthouse Park, which is a beautiful community recreation space down by the water. Here we are on the beach in our sweaters... weird for us Southerners, eh? Jane was unphased by the rocky shore and freezing cold water. What a tough little girl!

Can you see the ferry coming in to dock on the right? The ferries are a quintessential part of Puget Sound, since a lot of people live on islands and work on the mainland.

Here is Jane on her first ferry ride. One of our favorite things to do when we visit my dad is take a ferry across the sound to get ice cream. (Of course I would pay to cross a large body of water just to get ice cream!)

Windy sunset (see hair). 

Another awesome part of our time out west was taking a side trip to visit our dear friends, the McDonald's. They were our neighbors in Nashville for several years before moving back to their home state of Washington. Here are some highlights from that visit:

Jane's first photograph (entertaining herself with the digital camera on our drive to the McD's).

Trying to take a nap in the car. Usually Lovie and Paci are all it takes, but not this time. Is that a look of defiance?

Jane and three-year-old Sam were so sweet playing together. It was fun watching Jane "live" and play with another kid for a few days.

Ok, this is AMAZING... Check out the size of these bubbles! Our friends have this giant bubble wand that is super cool. Don't you want one?!

(Awesome pictures courtesy of Hannah)

We also went cherry picking. The trees were amazingly fruitful, literally! (I love getting to use that word in a legit way.) Seriously though, the trees were only about five feet tall and covered with cherries. De-lish!

Our last view of one of our favorite Washington landmarks, Mount Rainier.

This one's for you, Dad!

Popsicle

Best thing about summer so far: POPSICLES!  Especially the creamy strawberry banana from Las Paletas. Yum! Check out this video to see the frozen goodness and hear Jane's version of the word popsicle.

The funniest thing about her made up words is that she never forgets them. She says "bobido" every time she sees/wants a popsicle. Raisins are always "noo noo's"; a bed is always a "b dub a duh"; and for grape she always makes an explosion sound....? It's pretty awesome except when she tries to communicate with anyone besides me and Richard.

Look-a-likes

Fancy's comment on the last post has inspired me to add this comparison. Can you tell Jane is her daddy's daughter? I think she needs a few months to catch up on the tan, though.

Pool and pets

Although Jane is wearing socks and a sweatshirt today, last week was warm and sunny, so I decided to break out her swimsuit and baby pool. It was pretty fun sitting and splashing in the cool water, but I didn't expect the pool to be such a popular watering hole. Apparently everyone was really thirsty...

Jane's relationship with Maggie has been really interesting now that Jane is walking. She still loves to be around Maggie, but now there is peril. With Jane's balance still a little quaky, even the slightest bump tends to knock her over. Poor Maggie is just so big and her favorite thing to do is walk around in circles, especially around Jane while she is trying to walk. So, whether it is a wagging tail or a swaying stomach or a bobbing head, Jane gets knocked down a lot. Sometimes she gets this look on her face like, "Hey, what was that for?" and has been known to cry a little. But when she is able to brace herself, she has quite a good time getting a lick or two from ole Maggie. I think it is character building.

And now it's time to strike a pose.

Click here to see how much Jane has changed from her first time in the baby pool last summer!

Bunnies and Eggs

Happy Easter! To kick off our long weekend, we got to visit some real little bunnies at Phllips Toy Mart here in Nashville.

Aren't they cute?!

I basically grew up right around the corner and never even knew about this annual tradition. You can even hold the bunnies! I think I was more excited than Jane.

My favorite part was when Jane looked at the bunnies and did her "hug" sign. Precious.

From there we headed west to Memphis. On Saturday we went to the botanical gardens where Jane got to participate in her first Easter egg "hunt." You will see that the eggs are actually just scattered on the ground, so it was more of an Easter egg gathering race.

You may also observe that all the other kids are quite a bit older (and faster) than Jane. That is because we missed the "two and under" hunt so we had to sneak in the "six to nine year old" hunt; I mean race.

But Jane was quite happy with her single egg, so I don't think anyone minded.

When Jane finished opening and closing her egg a few dozen times, we wandered over to a pond to see the ducks. There were even five little ducklings! It was pretty cute to watch them plop in the water and line up behind the mom as they paddled away.

On Sunday Jane participated in her second ever Easter egg hunt at Fancy and Papoo's house. This time she got three eggs set aside in a patch of grass just for her. The other children (cousins and neighbors) were surprisingly respectful of her eggs. No one attempted to swipe them, even though they were tantalizingly sitting in plain sight.

Token family photo.

Finally, the singing bunny. You can always count on Fancy to have a holiday character who plays music, sings, and/or dances. In this case, the bunny's ears flop around while it plays a bunny themed version of "Rockin' Robin." Jane thought it was so funny and just wanted to hug him while he was playing.

Do you remember the dancing penguins from Christmas? If not, click here and scroll down to the second video. Jane still does a little wiggle dance every time she sees a penguin. Ha!

Walk of Life

Jane is walking! For real this time... not in a walker, or holding our hands, or pushing a toy lion (which did eventually work, once she became more stable). Now she is so confident and proud of her new ability, that she chooses walking over crawling, even when she is sitting on the floor and wants an object that is also on the floor about ten feet away. Instead of quickly crawling over to it, she takes the time to stand up (quite a balancing feat at this point) and walk over to it, then sit down again (also a bit of an effort if she wants to land softly). It's pretty cute.
So, here she is on two legs!

One of my favorite things about Jane's new independence is the way she can choose her own activities instead of me saying, "Hey, here's a ball. Can you roll the ball?" Now I can just open a cabinet and see what happens... Well, I just had to take a picture of this discovery I made after Jane had been unpacking the lazy suzan.

It may not look like much, but it just struck me as so cool and funny and cute that Jane decided to turn the big bowl upside down, set a funnel on it, then top it off with a little cup. I don't know... it was just cute.

Ok, last tid bit for today: The Evolution of "Mommy." When Jane first started referring to me it was "ma ma ma ma ma" times infinity. Then it became "mam mam" then "Mama" and finally the most common "Mommy." Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled. Although, after about five hundred times a day it can get a little tiresome. To get an idea of what it is like to be Jane's mommy, watch this:

Last Sunday, after all those progressions and finally landing on the word we all say when referring to me (Mommy), Jane decided to take it one more step. So for some unknown reason, I am now "Mommy-o."  Go figure.