Nothing's happened in Presleigh's life since March. She's just been sitting in her room, taking up space...
Alright, that's a total
lie.
The truth is, Presleigh has passed the 2 and a half year mark, grown greatly in her vocabulary, grammar, and wit, and ridden over 4,000 miles. No joke! Thanks, to the grace of God and a plot to conspire for Papa's birthday, the whole family packed up the van and drove wayyy up north to Cape Cod for a week! It was a daunting undertaking and had God not provided in many ways we'd have needed a daunting undertaker for Papa!!!
Presleigh had no problem making friends with her cousins from Boston and Cape Cod (can you believe it?) Though she's too young for Facebook, she certainly "friended" a whole lot of people at Papa's birthday party. Though she can't (nor can I) tell you the difference between a second cousin and a first cousin twice removed, she knows the word "family" has a very wide scope. Legos and crayons may not be her favorite things to play with (or may they...), but they sure were familiar and welcome. In this photo, Presleigh, the twins, and a bunch of cousins are playing with the legos. Here, you'll see Presleigh building her favorite lego construct: "a beautiful tower".
The Favorite Uncle award has to go to Uncle Jeremy after his "throw Presleigh in the air" routine. She likes this routine a lot at home, too. In this photo, we have evidence that even though Papa left it off the packing list, Presleigh remembered to bring a large belly full of raucous laughter. We always knew she could giggle with the best of them, but after mere seconds playing with Uncle Jay, it was clear she was ready to take cross country chuckling to an Olympic level. U-S-A, U-S-A!!!
Cake, salad, more cake, juice, some cake that Papa gave her because he didn't know Mommy had said "no more cake for Presleigh", were her favorite fare when it came to party time. "Daddy's birthday?" Not according to who got the most cakes and had the most fun. A big shoutout to cousin Michael, who may or may not have out run Presleigh in the "run around the room until you fall down" contest. They hit it off really well and we hope to have cousin Michael shipped to Georgia for some babysitting someday!
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Squatting in the Sand, Collecting
"Shiny Shells" |
About 20 hours worth of driving was divided up over two days to cover the 1,100 mile journey to Massachusetts with a brief stopover in northern Virginia. We saw trees, cows, cars, trucks, people, gas stations, hours upon hours of VeggieTales (portable DVD player - blessing
or curse?), what seemed like bushels of cheerios and goldfish, and a whole lot of the interior of our minivan!!!
Day 1 on Cape Cod didn't provide us with very good beach weather. Nor did day 2. But, Mommy made the most of it, taking Presleigh for a walk to the shore less than a minute away from where we were staying. (Huge thanks go out to the Edwards family, who graciously allowed us to use their beach rental for the week for nuthin. Wow, God is so good!)
Presleigh hadn't seen the ocean up close and personal since she was about 9 months old. So, this was quite a treat for her. On day 3 of our trip, the clouds finally gave us a great break and our only "beach day" of the week. While the week before Memorial Day isn't exactly swimming weather, Mommy did take a "dip" in Nantucket Sound while Papa and Presleigh played on the shore.
The highlight of the beach from Presleigh's perspective had to be "Shiny shells". "Shiny?" You ask? Well, "Dinosaur Train" is one of Presleigh's favorite PBSKids programs. It's about a family of pteranodons who time travel through pre-history on the Dinosaur Train visiting other dinosaurs in different eras. The main characters include three pteranodon children (chicks?) named "Tiny", "Shiny", and "Don". Are you following? Needless to say, it took us a while, too, to figure out what Shiny shells were, until we remembered that Shiny Pteranodon has a collection of shells from a variety of time periods that the family has visited. Amazing what kids use for points of reference, right? "All aboard!"
Presleigh really enjoyed her beach day with Mommy, Papa, Bri-bri, and the twins. It was a great time for the two oldest sisters to bond. It was also a great time for Presleigh to learn about ocean wildlife. She got to see seagulls (yucky trash-birds), horseshoe crabs (mostly washed up shells), barnacles on the jetty, and seaweed. Of all of the above, the only one she didn't develop a love for was the seaweed. Papa tried as hard as he could to get her befriend it, but she just never took to it. Well, there's something nice left for next time, right?
In part 2 of "Miles and Miles" we'll see some of the sights Presleigh got to see, including sights that Papa hadn't seen even having lived on Cape Cod for 20 odd years. Today's Photoshop collage includes some great fun at the beach, highlighting Papa's horrible tendency to try to get Presleigh over her fear of seaweed by force. Note to self: this only results in tears and greater fear of seaweed... Bummer.
Yes, lots of posts need to be published. Lots of photos to come... But, today, we received a note from Presleigh's teacher at Mother's Morning Out. Actually, it was her behavior report - she got a straight face - not a smile or a frown, but a straight face. (Alright, it looks more like the number "11" with a straight line underneath, but we get the point, and so do you, right?) But, the straight face, followed by the comment was all Presleigh, all day long.
