Islesboro Cottage 3.0

This was our third year out at the cottage on Islesboro.  Thanks to the generosity of Ben's parents we got to live on the water for 2 weeks.  It was great spending time with Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends at different times during those weeks.

 

It is such a lovely place. I have such a soft spot for the Maine coast and having a view of it out every window is so amazing.

 We had a little trouble getting on to the island since it is only accessible by ferry.  We packed all of our stuff for two weeks in the truck and U-Haul trailer and we were so proud of ourselves for getting there just in time to make our reservation on the last ferry only to find out the ferry was not working!  We had to hustle to take the water taxi for passengers only.  We had to decide what we would need to survive for the night and hope that no one would get into the rest of our belongings during the night.  We did just fine (minus the 3 year old screaming "I don't want to go on the boat" all the way down the ramp to the boat and the fact that we left all our cash in the truck and couldn't pay for the taxi ride! until the next day). 

Oh, Maggie (the ferry's nickname)...we've been "ferried" again!  (That was Ben's new phrase creation!)

Ben had to work most of the time we were there, but if you have to work this is the office view you want.

 

This was our backyard for the week...(at least at low tide.)

 

We did a lot of beach combing and digging.

Ryan and Sarah and the kids came up for a couple days...

 Here are the ladies in the "princess palace". 

 And how about a little kayaking?

We took a trip off island one day.

Here is Tobi getting a special ride around Camden.

 We took lots of beach walks...collecting treasures and such.

 

It was so nice to be able to be with family everyday.

 

 

 And talk about a sink view.  I didn't even mind doing the dishes ( I think I have written about this every year so far.)

 We spent lots of time on the sun porch...doing puzzles, playing games, enjoying the beauty.

 Everyday the sky was different, and so the view was always new.

 We had some of the freshest seafood you can get...lobsters from the one of the local lobstermen and mussles from the beach in our front yard!

 Oh sooo good! 

 I had my personal lobster preparer (aka my neat freak husband) present me with a fully cleaned lobster.  Yummmmm!

 These two both had a great time...

 ...living at the shore...

....crawling in jammies on the porch...

 

 ....playing at playgrounds...

`

  ...listening to Grandpa stories...

...playing games at the fall festival....

....snuggling with Grandma...

 ....relaxing in rockers...

 ...petting animals at the island farm...

 ...riding bikes...

 

 ...celebrating Jon's 10th birthday...

...watching beautiful sunsets...

 ...riding the ferry...

 ...and dancing on the ferry...

 After two weeks we had to make our way back to the mainland...

but we are so blessed to have so many great memories...once again!

Seven

 This guy....

has been busy. 

Since my last post he turned 7 months old and has mastered a whole bunch of new tricks.

Crawling? Check!


Sitting up and feeding himself? Check and check!

Standing (with some help)? Check!

 

Pulling up, standing and playing a little ditty on the piano? Check, check and check!

                         

Next month?  

Stair climbing??? 

oh boy...

NOT YET!!!

Well, if that's how you feel about it...maybe we can work up to it...slowly!

Right...who am I kidding...this kid is not slowing down for anybody.

But he still looks little in this stroller...

and he still has finger dimples...

So, he's still a baby....as long as I say he is!   Right? 

6 months (and 3 weeks!)

 

Oops!  I better get this 6 month post for Axel up before he turns 7 months.  It's kind of a big mile stone ...half a year ...and I have been negligent in posting any thing about it.

(The following post contains a number of details that probably only a mother would care about, but I like to look back and see how things were then...so bear with this mama!)

So far I am really loving 6 months!  Finally, Axel is sleeping through the night.  He was still sleeping in our room since he had been waking up for a very early morning feeding.  Then it seemed I would stay up late to feed him and he was still waking up at least twice and would only settle down if he was fed.  NO!  This was not the direction I thought we should be going.  I decided I would put him in another room to sleep in hopes that he would sleep better and maybe only wake up once.  He obviously needed his own space because now I put him down at 8 or 9 and he wakes up around 8 am!!!!!  This is so great... if only I had made the move earlier I think we all would have been sleeping better much earlier!  I'm sure adding some solid food helped as well.
He is taking a short morning nap (45 min - 1 hour) and then a good nap in the afternoon (2-3 hours).  Tobi is still napping, so recently there have been a string of days where both kids have been napping at the same time.  SO NICE!

Axel sits up now if positioned that way.  He has some control but usually ends up falling back or to the side...so soft surfaces works best!  He is so close to crawling... he is up an all fours now, rocks, launches himself forward, pivots, rolls scooches, and spins ...everything but actual crawling.  Once he figures it out I'm sure he will be on the move so I am not pushing him at all :)  He's been stuck (literally) at this stage for a few weeks now.



He has turned into a super eater...rice cereal, sweet potatoes and bananas were all he ate the first few weeks and this had some troubling effects on his poor little digestive tract...but after some prunes and pear juice and a switch to oatmeal cereal things have been moving along quite nicely :) 



So far he has loved everything he has eaten...carrots, peas, green beans, apples.  He treats banana in the mesh self-feeder like his sole life source...I have to limit his banana intake but he start panting and grabbing when he sees the feeder coming out.   I tried to put in an ice cube in it once....let's just stay it was not met with great delight!

Banana and bluberry - yum!

He is so goofy and smiley...I just love his little toothy grin (and frown).  Ben calls him "Chompers" and it fits him quite well right now.  He chews and chomps on anything and everything...he really loves a good shoe if he can find one. 

A few comparisons. 

Tobi still did not have any teeth at 6 months, her first teeth popped up around 7 months.  Axel is days away from his top teeth popping through.  His bottom teeth showed up just before he turned 5 months old.  We had to reschedule Axel's 6 month check up so I don't know how much he weighs or how long he is right now...but he was over 16 lbs at his 4 month appt. and Tobi was 17 lbs at her 6 month appointment.  So I think Axel probably has his sister beat.  Tobi was not interested in moving at all at 6 month...she loved sitting.  She wasn't so big on food yet...but she was in love with her bottles of milk.  Thankfully Axel is good with feeding now...no more pumping.  It is quite freeing to not have to lug around the black bag (breast pump)... unless I want to!  It's pretty much 5 feedings a day about every 3 hours...and 2-3 meals of cereal and pureed food...and of course a little banana!!!

Need a good laugh?

Untitled a video by dalebengtson on Flickr.

My Dad took this video of Axel laughing at his Uncle Ryan. If you need a pick-me-up you should watch this. It's guaranteed to make you smile!