Meet my beautiful, sweet, precious, soft, miracle of a nephew, Xander Raven. I spent the weekend up in Jupiter with my sister and family and finally met my nephew, who is now 10 days old. He is AMAZING. I am in complete love with him. He smells soooooo good.....he is so beautiful. I got to hold him and cuddle him a bunch, and I have to tell you that I am smitten. :) I am so proud of my baby sister. She is an incredible mother. She is juggling a 20 month old and a newborn at the same time, and that is no easy task. But, she is doing an amazing job. She is determined to make sure that her eldest knows and feels that he is still #1 while attending to every whim for the baby. I have so much respect for her. She was born for this....what an amazing mom. And.....let's face it - she and her husband create such GORGEOUS babies.
Today, while walking around the neighborhood with my son in the stroller, we saw these beautiful society garlic flowers. The violet flowers grow up on a stalk from a grassy clump of leaves that look like chives. The plant is native to S. Africa, not here, but it is gorgeous. The leaves actually smell like garlic - really crazy! I've read that the bulbs and leaves are edible, like garlic or chives. I guess the Key deer don't eat it, though, because it was thriving right there on the side of the road! I know what I'll be planting in our unfenced part of the yard next time I do some gardening!
While I was folding laundry today in my bedroom, my son created a hideout behind the glider in his room. He surrounded himself with stuffed animals on all sides. When I walked in and found him in his nook, he was sitting quietly "reading" his Little Critter books.
It is "Curious George Week" in my son's first grade class. Today he was allowed to take a stuffed monkey to school. :) He decided that this Curious George monkey was perfect since "there was no way" he was taking his lovey, Monkey, because he said he couldn't even trust himself not to lose him! ha ha! I made him stand by the tree for a photo before getting in the car this morning because I just couldn't stand how darn handsome and grown up he looked. SIGH.............
Today, my silly little boy was having a blast throwing rocks up in the air and watching them go over the picnic table or through the netting in the batting cage at baseball practice... Yep. He was easily amused, which was good, because I was busily trying to take pictures of the Cubs practicing on the field while watching over him at the same time. This is a shot of him looking amazed before he yelled "Mommy, look what I did!"
We went to the Blue Hole again today to check out the alligators. Both the male and female were there together again! This time they were lying in the water right next to each other! There was a big crowd there. One "genius" lady dropped her sunglasses into the water....you should have seen the female alligator's reaction! I have NEVER seen an alligator move that fast in my life to attack! It was CRAZY! When she spit the sunglasses out and realized they weren't food, she looked like she got MAD! She made this hissing, growling, bellowing noise that actually made me JUMP in surprise/fright, and then she made all these bubbles near her head like the water was boiling. SO INSANE. Luckily someone fished out the glasses with his tripod. Not the most intelligent people there today....but they were good for entertainment!
I am fascinated by these creatures. I took a picture of the male alligator's eye up close. So beautiful, right?
Somebody got a new bike today! My hubby bought our little man a 12" bike with training wheels today. He is a pro at riding his tricycle, so we thought he was ready to try out the big boy bike. It is going to take a little while for him to get the hang of it, but with Daddy's help, he sure did great tonight! Look at his happy little face! :) Watching our babies grow up so fast is very hard on me. I just want to hang on, squeeze them, and tell them to slow down. It is bittersweet.... it both breaks my heart and fills me with such pride at the same time. It amazes me that I can CLEARLY remember the day our oldest son rode his bicycle for the first time when I was pregnant...it feels like yesterday.
