16, Beach, Trains, and Such

Clark is officially a walker, finally @ exactly 16 months! We took him to the doctor for his 15 month check up a couple of weeks ago and he is the exact size Caroline was when she was 2 years old. 28lbs and 33”…he is tall and big, so this Mama’s back is thankful that he is now walking.

Josh had a to speak at a conference at Pensacola Beach/Gulf Breeze. We didn’t see much of him, but we sure had fun swimming and finding seashells. It was my first time to visit Pensacola Beach. It is such a beautiful beach. The beach is wide and flat, virtually no stairs down to the beach. It was jam packed with shells, which Caroline adored. She collected as many shells as she could find. When we got home we researched to find what kind of animals inhabit those types of shells. Fascinating! Love the curiosity of a 3 year old! The hotel had an amazing baby pool with water features and a LAZY LIVER (as Caroline called it). So fun! Traveling by myself to and fro with two kids who do not watch videos in the car, worried me a bit. They were pretty good, for the most part. We had considered taking them to Paris in October (Josh is speaking at an international energy conference), but after the trip to Pensacola, I think I’ll stick to 4-5 hour car rides at the most with these two being so young.

You may notice, he had a little haircut. What set out to be just a little trim while sucking a sucker and watching TV, turned into what we have been calling ‘Friar Clark.’ Luckily his hair grows fast and is looking better each day. It broke my heart and I have vowed never to cut it again.

Aunt Amanda, Carson, Ethan, and Aidan gave us their old train table. We are so very thankful for the hand me down. The kids are loving it! We had it in Clark’s room, moved it to Caroline’s, she needed more room for her thrice daily dances, so it’s back in Clark’s room. Clark doesn’t care where it is…he just wants to scoot those trains around. I hear a lot of ‘uh-t—ohhhhh’s’ from him, because he knows when he messes up the bridge, sister is going to be upset with him. I try to fix it quickly to calm sister.

Oh and at the beach Clark developed a new nickname, that just might stick. Caroline calls him brother and bud or buddy A LOT. She has combined them to ‘BRUD’ and there it is….Brud is his new nickname.